How to FILL Raised Garden Beds CHEAP and EASY

today me and tuck are going to show you  how to fill a deep raised bed for cheap that will produce massive productive plants let's go this tall metal rais bed is convenient because  it will be easy to work in not having to kneel down but if we were to fill this whole bed with  quality soil that would get super expensive about 3 or 4 years ago I filled this deep metal raised  bed with the same method that I'm going to show you today and the results were incredible every  spring the plants are hea

lthy and happy I grew some monster spinach one spring and by the time  summer came the whole bed was completely filled with veggies some of the lettuces got massive  I harvested a number of beautiful cabbages from this bed as well big healthy and delicious ones  so I know for a fact this method of filling deep beds Works let's hop over to our deep raised bed  and start filling it so we can get a step closer to harvesting we're going to start by filling  our bed with logs if you can get logs that

are old and rotting and have been sitting for a few  years those are best in my opinion they break down quicker than fresh cut down trees but they will  be lighter than fresh cut down trees making them easier to move and also the main thing is rotted  logs will be able to absorb some water allowing deep rooted plants to tap into them during  the dry season I dug up logs from a deep bed I filled years ago and old logs had the roots of  plants running through them let's get the bottom of our bed

filled with logs if I were too fill  the whole bottom of our bed with native soil it would be too dense and wouldn't drain well and the  soil would lack oxygen and possibly go anerobic which means without oxygen which is bad because  our plants Roots need oxygen to breathe when we fill the base of our bed with logs they will not  only allow for better drainage but since they're rotting they'll be able to hold some moisture  as well rotting wood has an incredible ability to both retain and distri

bute water which is  why they are such a great option for the base of the bed and also over time the logs will break  down into humus and improve the soil after we get our base layer of logs in we can start adding  some smaller organic matter like branches you can add small sticks as well which I've done  in some of my other beds basically anything that is natural but isn't green we don't want  to add both green and brown materials into our raised bed and then cover them with soil or the  two co

uld compost together and that would cause a soil stomach ache if you do want to add in some  fresh plants or greens just allow them to sit and dry out and compost down in the bed before you  add soil on top after adding my logs and a few branches I only have about 20 inches left to fill  this bed me and Tuck wanted to mention now is the perfect time to grab a raised bed they will last  for over 20 years they come in so many different colors like pearl white terracotta olive green  sky blue and m

any others grab your metal raised bed now at TeamGrow.us we want to create a buffer  between our log and our good soil I will add in some composted squash vines that I have they will  act as a great filler and will still allow for good drainage I'm not going to add sticks this  time because I don't have any on hand next we will add in some soil that will help build more  of that buffer up this is if some of our plants Roots reach deeper than our good soil they have  something they can easily roo

t into this will also fill the gaps between the logs so the soil  doesn't sink a lot you can use native soil I have done that in the past for some of my other beds  and it works fine or even some finished compost but this time I'm using old homemade potty  mix that I used to grow plants last year I just composted it down and now I'm reusing it as  a filler for my bed we want some air space so the soil can breathe but we don't want big pockets of  space then I will add in some more filler soil on

top now we only have about 14 inches from the  top of the bed which is perfect because I know the bed will sink down a bit you can water the bed  in if you want if you're not expecting a rain to help the soil settle deeper in the bed now is the  time to start adding in our homemade high quality raised bed soil that me and Tuck make ourselves  I showed you in a previous video how I make this we'll put it into these 5 gallon buckets then  we'll start adding it into our bed let's start filling the

rest of our bed with our homemade soil  we had a rain so the soil sank just a little bit more but we only have about 15 inches of soil  to fill so we're getting all the advantages of a deep bed without paying more for soil yet we  will still get massive Harvest from this bed this year start filling it up over time the bed  will sink but that will take a long time because the logs will last for many years in there every  year or so if we want we can add a bit more soil or even just some compost

and mix that in to  help replace the small amount of sinkage let's get our last bucket in for today see how close  we are to filling this up we'll spread it all out just like this looking beautiful looks like  we can still add a little bit more soil in here but for today I think that looks pretty good  essentially we're all ready to go for spring the only additional thing that I will do is I'll  mix in some fertilizer into my soil before I transplant or before I direct sew then in no  time we'll

be grabbing massive Harvest from here feasting on the fruits of our labor if you  want to fill your deep rais bed I suggest you use logs like I did or some kind of organic matter you  don't want to use inorganic matter and you want to make sure that it drains well we really don't  want our soil going anerobic this whole thing needs to drain we don't want it to fill up like a  bucket wood with water and then all that soil to just sit in stagnant order we wanted to be able  to drain well that's w

hy the logs just work so proficiently in my opinion you wouldn't want to  put like huge rocks and boulders down there that could prevent some drainage so overall with this  technique drainage is super important and those logs are so cool because not only will the water  drain around them but again they'll fill up like water batteries and then deep rooted plants can  tap into that water during the dry season it's worked for my bed over here and it's a just a  fantastic way to be able to grow food

to save some money and essentially make it so we only  had to fill a bed that's like 12 to 18 inches deep if you wanted to save even more money you  could have just left it at 12 inches and then only filled the top 12 inches with good soil just  make sure you keep a buffer below those 12 inches of like some native soil or some compost just  so the roots have something to tap into before the logs break down we essentially have one  deep raised bed all filled and finished and we still have a bunc

h of more beds that we need  to get filled me and tuck are super excited about it there's nothing like getting out here on  a beautiful day getting your hands dirty in preparation for the spring and the summer garden  I could just see some of the harvests I want to show you a few more things check out these two  new raised beds we put in they look beautiful don't they and check out the arch trellis I  can just envision some plants growing up the side some Tomatoes some cucumbers some beans grab 

and harvest as I walk through I cannot wait we've even started to trellis some of a grape vines so  imagine grapes hanging over the top as I walk in another thing I cannot wait to try out is this  raised bed cover this is going to make all the difference for my harvests I know it it's going to  be able to protect it from insects and also from rodents and stuff so it's going to just give  us overall Harvest Insurance tuck back there working hard we'll see him in a minute I want to  show you anot

her thing check out this raised bed this one's really cool because this one's going to  be a self-watering raised bed where we put wicking cells at the bottom so in the Heat Of Summer the  bed's going to be wicking up water and it's just going to make less work for us we're not going  to have to water as often me and Tuck had a lot of fun out here we hope you guys enjoy the video  he never quits he's been going hard for 14 years and he's the leader of the channel we wanted to  send a thank you a

nd I especially wanted to send a thank you to everyone for all the continued  support that you give talk all the love you share with him and all the hearts that you spam  down low that means like it means the world to me this guy he never stopped I don't want to pet  him too much cause my hands are dirty but he's always out here he's always working hard overall  we had a blast out here we hope you guys enjoyed the video uh we hope you got some True Value out  of it and we hope you get your deep

raised bed filled cheap but also make it so it's still filled  with great soil so it'll be super productive and you get some massive Harvest this year Tuck  and James will be back at you again real soon we out