Filling Raised Beds

I have just purchased 8x1 meter square link-a-board raised beds from you. How much soil will I need to fill them?  

Thanks

Joyce  

Many thanks to your recent order and subsequent message regarding the quantity of soil required to fill your link-a-bord beds, sent in response to our latest Kitchen Garden E-Newsletter.  

Each single tier (15cm) deep 1m square link-a-bord bed will require 150 litres of compost to fill it; as you have 8 beds, you will require 1200 litres of material. However, we would not advocate filling the beds exclusively with compost or soil; it’s important to add organic matter - in the form of well-rotted compost or farmyard manure – to the mix.  

There are no hard and fast rules for the ratio of top or garden soil to compost, but anything around 75:25 in favour of the soil should suffice. And on the subject of manure; it needs to be well-rotted as the fresh variety will release ammonia as it decomposes, and this can harm plants. This is particularly important if you are intending to plant the beds up almost immediately after filling.  

We are delighted to be supplying high quality loam and topsoil courtesy of Rolawn, recognised as the country’s leading supplier of turf and soil and you may have already realised that the quantity of soil you require equates to just over a bag of Rolawn topsoil (I’d recommend the Fruit and Vegetable Topsoil) but if you add plenty of organic matter as recommended, the a single 1000 ltr bag will be more than sufficient.  

I hope this answers your question fully, but if you have any further queries, or any comments regarding our monthly garden updates, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  

Martin