Top soil or manure?

[Duronal]

Hey guys,

I'm now in a position to start filling my raised beds i've done some basic soil transfer and managed to ge about 120 litres in one of the bed so it's useable. My biggest problem is that i think i'll need approx 0.7 of a cubic meter (another 700 litres) to finish it off. Does anyone here live near Woking in surrey and have access to any? I know it's cheeky to beg but i'm reluctant to spend �60 on getting some delivered as i may not live here for that long......1 year maybe 2.

Should anyonw know of anywhere i can source cheap top soil or to be honest 700 litres of growing medium from then please please let me know.

Would growing in well rotted horse manure work i have an offer of lots of that but it's quite a drive.

Many thanks

D.

[NSB]

I'd ask on the freecycle website, I got loads of bits from there or ebay tend to advertise as well

[Duronal]

I have an add running on Freecycle at the moment but it hasn't yielded anything yet. I'm contemplating using mutilpupose compost as it's down in price at the local b and q. 150 litres for �6.50

Scale that up and i could buy 4 of them for �25 and then go raid a local stable for some manure to make it richer.....

Does this seem like a good plan?

[gojiberry]

Sounds like a good plan. Well rotted horse manure on its own would grow most stuff and the worms would soon pull a lot of it down to the lower levels.

Ian

[markwcel]

we just filled our new raised bed with multi purpose compost and the veg is growing better than the old bed which we manured in november...we were getting 4 100 ltr bags for �12 from our local garden centre...

[rustylady]

Are your raised beds on soil or concrete/paving slabs? If they're on soil you really don't need to fill them to the top right away - what I'm doing with mine is top-dressing with manure or compost each year and gradually building up the level within the bed. If they're on a solid base it's a different matter as you need sufficient depth of soil/compost to be able to grow stuff, and drainage could also be a problem.

[Duronal]

hmmm food for thought there markwcel i'll have a look around and see if i can pick anything cheaper up, call me a cynic but because i live in surrey the chances are pretty slim!

Do people think i ought to top dress the raised beds with the compost or mix it in - A hard and dreaded double dig (i've got a damaged back aged 24 ) - or stick it on top and le nature do the rest? Of course there's then the horse manure to consider later on... I was thinking that i may just pop the horse manure on top for now and let the worms do the rest......I have to be honest though this garden doesn't seem to have too many worms....it's a horrible sandy loam which dries out very quickly. I've shovelled enough of it to find stones through it too....the carrots could be tricky.

As for building it up in layers i love the idea of that but i get the feeling that i may not be here long enough to make it worth while maybe a year but i'm hoping for longer - it all depends on the wife.........

[Lazgaot]

I'm in a very similar situation as you Duronal. I've just taken over a very unused plot and managed to clear all 175m2 of it over the last few days, thank god for petrol strimmers! I cheated and used a very small amount of glyphosate to kill off the grass which is is now raking up nice and easy.

I'm going to try a zero-dig approach as I too have a bad back and it looks like a no-brainer. I plan on making raised beds next week using damaged scaffolding boards and filling with a mix of horse manure and compost and letting the worms do the rest. Fingers crossed...

[Duronal]

well persistance can be amazing. After reposting on free cycle i've now got an offer of compost manure and topsoil. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll be ready to plant out the pots. i get my garden back Hooray!