Instead of buying expensive soil, I filled this garden bed organically with stuff I had lying around!
Here’s the free recipe:
🟫 Cardboard — weed blocker + worm buffet
🌿 Old sticks — drainage + spongey structure (the older, the better)
🍂 Dried leaves — quick compost, full of microbes
🌱 Aged compost — about 6 inches of plant fuel
🌍 Native topsoil — so my plants get a taste of the neighborhood 😉
Bonus: I dug a hole next to the bed and dropped in my cold compost bin, now worms can crawl right in and feast!
No bags. No budget. Just backyard scraps and a little soil magic.
#gardening #organicgardening #compost #garden #raisedbedgarden #growyourownfood #urbangardening #homegarden #gardenhacks #sustainablegardening #diygarden #soil
This garden bed was broke just like me. Here’s how I filled it organically without spending a dime. Step one, cardboard. It smothers weeds and gives worms something to munch on. Also a great use for your online shopping addiction. Step two, sticks. Old decomposing sticks are preferred as they act like a sponge but also let excess water drain. Step three, dried leaves. They help to fill in gaps and microbes and worms love them and they’ll decompose quickly. Step four, aged compost. Add about 6 in for a nutrient-rich top layer. Press the compost down with your hands to fill in the gaps. You can stop there and start planting, but for a bonus, add some native top soil. I dug a small hole for a cold compost bin to sit in so that worms have easy access to feast. I took that top soil and mixed it into my garden bed so my plants can get a taste of the neighborhood and feel like locals.
36 Comments
Hilarious 😆 Intro
1. For the last step, did you cut the bottom out of the pot so worms can get into the cold compost pot? 2. I don't know what a "cold compost pot" is!?😂
Just be aware when burying wood in a bed you might not get the best results for a few years as the decomposing wood competes with the plants for nitrogen as it requires this to break down. hugelkultur works well. Once the wood starts to break down then the nutrients become available to the plant.
Nah the top 18 inches of the raised bed needs to be soil. If you don’t have a deep enough bed this will only give you poor harvests.
Carbord has forever chemicals, if yall gonna use any type of cardboard, make sure it’s free from any, though I’m not sure if that’s possible.
You should place a finer mesh as bottom first, so no rodents making their home inside from the tunnel. You also could ask your neighbor's grass clipping, wood branches and chips, ask your local grocery store and coffee shops for old produce and coffee grinds for compost. Those all free and can rich your soil!
Should leaves be used even if they look like they have some kind of disease?
Thanks ❤❤❤
Do you ever have a problem with mice or rats? We do with our compost. I love the idea of drilling holes and putting it in the ground!
Gag irl💀
If you insist on buying or need more. Usually around this time and into winter Walmart will clearance their bagged soils organic and regular for like $0.97 a bag / cf
A note for cardboard to ensure soil and environmental safety : please make sure that any tape or labels from delivery packages are removed.
Staples are ok as long as they aren't too many. Staples are made of metal and should not become a environmental concern.
Wonderful I love this ❤Thanks a lot
Adding sticks/wood seems like it would make the plant rooting zone nitrogen deficient
I have not begun making my own compost so I would still have to buy dirt for my raised bed😂. Viggoro (home depot) and black cow doesnt seem to be bad cheap choices for bagged soils based on my 1st year of growing my vegetables, though I prefer spending the 12 smackers on Whitney's soil from Ace for my heirloom tomatoes.
My native soil is sand and my leaves are pine needles😂 so I have to give my plants their native-ness in moderation.
Just started composting ! This past year hardly had to purchase not so great soil. It’s a win win.
Wood can invite termites into your bed and kill your plants! No go!
Instead of compost can i add worm castings instead? Or its not the same thing
Can i add potting soil to a garden bed or is it only for pots
Taste the neighborhood 🌈
“Organic” lol
One thing that will improve your raised beds is covering the sticks with animal manure if available (grass clippings if not). If you don’t, nitrogen can get locked up by the sticks, but feeding it early will mean it will have plenty to release and feed your beds for a long time.
How is this free? What if you don't have trees (for sticks and leaves) or a composter to make compost or soil on your property? My house has none of those things…wouldn't be free for me.
I tried using sheets of cardboard but found that the vegetable roots needed to go deeper and they couldn’t. The boxes take more than one season to decompose. I ended up removing the cardboard, I cut it up into small pieces and I put everything back in again. This worked better for plant growth. The following spring I started preparing more raised beds and I worked all summer to prepare the soil for the following growing season. I lost a growing season in those beds but now my beds are ready for plant growth. I rotate them- growing vs prepping the soil. For those raised beds that aren’t harvesting- I add herbs and flowers like oregano and marigolds and then work the oregano back into the soil as a form of insect control. My garden never has “ bad bugs” as a result.
I had never really considered the soil from my yard. Well at least not on purpose. I did use some of the soil from my yard in my big barrel planters for my wild flowers and fig trees. They seem happy. But not in my veggie garden.
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You are a very thoughtful gardener. Nobody likes to hear "y'all ain't from 'round here, are ya?" 😂 Great video, great info!
I love getting an Amazon package because of the cardboard box 😂 works wonders in my garden
"Dirt Cheap"
So… like 7 bucks a cubic foot?
I use my greenhouse as a wood shop over winter.
All the sawdust helps fix my dry silty native soil.
It's quite annoying when you drop a screw but nothing is perfect! And rake all the leaves in the fall into the greenhouse. Getting some nice squash and pumpkins now.
Thanks!😊
Hugelkultur is working beautifully for me too👍
go to local city dump, they often have free or very cheap compost, in the fall get a dump of leaves from a leave clean up company
Were you broke before or after buying that expensive Birdy’s bed?
Wet leaves honestly work better because they give some bacteria and will decompose quicker and help your soil, just make sure after you put them in you stomp them down.
Lol 😂😊creative .
Looks like step one was fill it with grass first