How to Layer Soil for Square Foot Gardens

Soil serves two purposes in the square foot garden: it provides a medium to anchor roots and it furnishes nutrients for blossom, fruit and vegetable development. Creating the proper soil mix for your square foot garden is one of ten essential steps that can ensure a bountiful harvest of flowers and vegetables all season long.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vermiculite
• Peat moss
• Compost
• Trowel
• Pitchfork

1. Place a layer of coarse vermiculite in the lowest level of your raised bed. Vermiculite provides drainage in raised beds, which prevents root rot and fungal diseases.

2. Add a layer of peat moss onto the vermiculite layer. Peat moss acts like a sponge in the garden, holding moisture during dry spells.

3. Top your square foot garden soil with a layer of well-aged compost. Compost provides all the nutrients your plants need for healthy growth and production. Compost also strengthens the immune system of plants, helping them to fight off pests and diseases.

4. Mix the three soil levels together gently with a trowel or pitchfork. Take care not to disturb the subsurface soil, or you may introduce dormant weed seeds into your garden.

5. Replenish your soil with additional compost after you harvest the crop from any part of your square foot garden grid. It isn't necessary to add additional peat moss or vermiculite at this time, unless you removed large portions of soil by harvesting root crops.

Tips & Warnings

• Each soil layer should comprise approximately 1/3 of the total soil content in your raised bed.
• Use compost created from a wide variety of natural carbon-producing materials, like dead leaves, and nitrogen-producing materials, like grass clippings and vegetable scraps. The more diverse your compost ingredients, the greater the quality of the nutrients it can provide.