What is the difference between garden soil, top soil, potting soil, etc?
November 3, 2010 by soil
Filed under Garden soil
And which should be used to fill a raised bed for growing veggies? Thanks.
November 3, 2010 by soil
Filed under Garden soil
And which should be used to fill a raised bed for growing veggies? Thanks.
The answer is in the names of the soil! Top soil refers to the top few inches of soil on the earth that has the highest amount of organic material in it, often this is sold in large quantities for people doing major landscaping. This is very similar to potting soil, but potting soil is usually further enriched with nutrients and sometimes fertilizer, and comes in smaller bags to be used for smaller scale gardens and containers. Garden soil I would assume is basically the same as potting soil.
For a raised veggie bed you will want to put in a mixture of potting soil and compost. You can make it anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 compost. Often times you can buy what is called something like “Veggie mix” compost, might want to try that for your beds.
Actually, top soil is generally what you would call “dirt”. Like Phoebe said, its the stuff you would buy in bulk for landscaping and what not. Therefore, its often actually not very high quality, but instead used as a filler for if you want to build a hill for a waterfall or something. Garden soil is often pretty good quality, but is used for the garden (which is normally where you keep the hardier plants, and thus they can thrive on less nutrients). The potting soil is going to be the highest quality, with most nutrients and what not. Thats because its going to be used for the less hardy plants, such as exotic houseplants. So think of it as a spectrum. Low, medium, high. For growing veggies, it mostly depends on what youre growing. Some veggies are more picky, while others are really hardy and actually thrive in poor conditions. Hope this helps!
I think you will enjoy these likes about raised gardens. You find the answer to soil there.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=square%20foot%20garden
what you buy labeled “potting soil ” or “garden soil ” will vary GREATLY as to its contents. So you need to read the contents printed on the bag.
they are trying to fill the bags for least cost and then sell them.
I have bought many bags of potting soil because i grow my vegies in containers.
It seems most of it is composted wood and bark from tree farms as byproduct to growing trees.
Then they add some of the other stuff to it. .
It would take a lot of bags to fill a raised garden.
Different mixes of dirt/clay/peat/etc. – you can buy it or make it yourself.
I wouldn’t pay a lot for it – most is just dirt.
potting soil is made to be light and drain well to make it better for containers, it is a lot easier moving a plant potted in potting soil than one with topsoil