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soil Soil for raised bed

Helldozer

Helldozer

Hi all,
 
Question. I'm building two raised beds, which will equate to approximately 19 cubic yards of soil. To have that much GOOD soil delivered, is a little over $1k. That's crazy. Does anyone have any suggestions to make this way less expensive? 
 
By the way, the above cost is for a really good "veggie mix," at $41.20 a cubic yard.
 
Thank you.
Helldozer
 
Haha. Hey man. I haven't priced it for this. I'll check it out though. Thanks!
 
Which Pro-Mix? At a glance, I saw 3.8 cubic feet for $75 on Amazon. It was for Pro-Mix BX.
 
Helldozer said:
Haha. Hey man. I haven't priced it for this. I'll check it out though. Thanks!
 
Which Pro-Mix? At a glance, I saw 3.8 cubic feet for $75 on Amazon. It was for Pro-Mix BX.
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You can get it much cheaper local to you. I think I pay $36 then I use all kinds of good amendments. 
 
Helldozer said:
Hi all,
 
Question. I'm building two raised beds, which will equate to approximately 19 cubic yards of soil. To have that much GOOD soil delivered, is a little over $1k. That's crazy. Does anyone have any suggestions to make this way less expensive? 
 
By the way, the above cost is for a really good "veggie mix," at $41.20 a cubic yard.
 
Thank you.
Helldozer
Click to expand...
 
 
19 cubic yards is a lot of soil  and is going to cost you especially if you go for the top of the line quality.  Around here (Northern Colorado) I've seen soil range anywhere from $20/cu.yd to $100+/cu.yd  depending on what's in it.  Even plain old filler dirt can be 10-15$ / cubic yard.
 
Some places may give you a discount per cubic yard for such a high volume order.  Even if their website doesn't say so, call and ask about a high volume discount.  Check multiple sources and find your best deal but be prepared to pay.  Start a compost pile if you don't have one already so that you can add fresh compost each season to keep it fertile.
 
I just noticed that you said all this soil is going into 2 raised beds.  Just how large are these raised beds to need 19 cubic yards of soil?  Are you sure you don't mean cubic feet? That would be a big difference.... for reference 1 cubic yard is 27 cubic feet which is about one standard truck bed full.
 
yea 19 cu. yards IS A SHIT LOAD OF SOIL.
 
I have four(4) 4'x6'x18" raised beds and only needed about 4.5 cu. yds. of soil.  I think the company delivered like 7 cu. yds. as I had a lot left over.
 
rjacobs said:
yea 19 cu. yards IS A SHIT LOAD OF SOIL.
 
I have four(4) 4'x6'x18" raised beds and only needed about 4.5 cu. yds. of soil.  I think the company delivered like 7 cu. yds. as I had a lot left over.
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Yeah. My two beds are 20'x5'x2.5'. Each come to about 9.26 cu. yds. each. The soil company rounds that up to 9.5, so that's 19 cu. yds. total. I don't know how people do it. That's a ton of money for some raised beds.
 
Helldozer said:
 
Yeah. My two beds are 20'x5'x2.5'. Each come to about 9.26 cu. yds. each. The soil company rounds that up to 9.5, so that's 19 cu. yds. total. I don't know how people do it. That's a ton of money for some raised beds.
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Why 2-1/2' deep? Most I see are 12-18".
 
Jeff H said:
 
Why 2-1/2' deep? Most I see are 12-18".
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Hi Jeff. I wanted a taller bed, because I wanted to allow more room for the roots, and because I'm tall, and I didn't want to bend down as much. 
 
Ask An arborist near your place if they have composted ramial chipped wood., you can mix it with soil.
and you can fill the bottom of the bed with fresh RCW 
 
IMO you are going to deep.   I have a raised bed I made and only put 10 inches on top of existing.  Grows fine.  This would drastically reduce your total yards needed.
 
Dont forget to allow 3-5" for mulch.  If you allowed 6", that cuts you down to 15 cu. yds. basically(~7.5 per).  I knew this, but when they delivered my soil and I had a ton left over I just started packing it in.  Im going to actually build another row on to the top of my raised beds to allow for mulch.
 
Thats still a shit load.
 
I paid 300 delivered for my 5 yards of high quality "vegetable" soil.  Price was $45 per yd, plus tax, plus delivery.   So 800 for almost 4 times as much seems like a bargain.
 
Get a BIG wheelbarrow.  It took me 5-6 hours to move all of mine in a 6 cu. ft. wheel barrow.  Sucked big time.
 
Thanks all for the great suggestions. That helps a lot. I'm thinking of combining your suggestions. I have a quick question, I'm going to throw some trees down at the bottom of my raised bed, and was curious if anyone knows if Crape Myrtle trees are okay to use?
 
Helldozer said:
Thanks all for the great suggestions. That helps a lot. I'm thinking of combining your suggestions. I have a quick question, I'm going to throw some trees down at the bottom of my raised bed, and was curious if anyone knows if Crape Myrtle trees are okay to use?
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If you had access to all the fall leaves man that would make an awesome bottom layer, as for your question I do not see why they would be bad, not like they are pine. 
 
crepe myrtle, from what I know, root out horizontally and not vertically, thats one reason they are used in Texas all the time because we tend to have shallow soil and high bed rock.  Just a thought on tree selection if you are planning on planting vegetables in your raised beds.
 
Last season was my best year yet. I used raised beds.
 
Local landscaping supplier, my friend. That's the solution to this conundrum.
 
You can get truck loads for pennies relative to cost of these premium bags.
 
From there utilize the magic of worms. Start a worm farm. It's easy and fun. I ended up turning my pepper beds into worm farms at the end of the season, essentially.
 
You will save lots of money on soil and ferts this way.
 
Spicy Mushroom said:
Last season was my best year yet. I used raised beds.
 
Local landscaping supplier, my friend. That's the solution to this conundrum.
 
You can get truck loads for pennies relative to cost of these premium bags.
 
From there utilize the magic of worms. Start a worm farm. It's easy and fun. I ended up turning my pepper beds into worm farms at the end of the season, essentially.
 
You will save lots of money on soil and ferts this way.
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My raised beds are loaded with worms and I don't have a worm farm lol.
 
SavinaRed said:
My raised beds are loaded with worms and I don't have a worm farm lol.
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I started with a dedicated red wiggler farm in a separate unit. Later on I found they were surviving fine in the beds and had enough organic snacks to munch on, so I just moved all the worms in! haha. The beds basically have two levels; bottom layer is where the earthworms break up and aerate the soil, and the top layer is where the red wigglers turn the organic material into pepper fertilizer. They naturally stay in their respective areas.
 
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