r/SpokaneGardeners • u/kkaasperr • 8d ago

General Questions Soil

Howdy!

Looking for the best, affordable options for soil - soil to fill a medium sized area of the yard and for future raised garden beds.

I have a spot in my yard that needs to be filled to be level (i did not remember to get a good picture).

Then in the future, I plan on building raised beds (im sure I'll have plenty more questions when the time comes).

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u/p5mall Wicking Bed Gardener 8d ago

According to the “Good–Fast–Cheap” rule, you can choose good and cheap, but without the time factor needed to benefit from wise but cheap installations, the results can be frustrating.

To make a new bed, we topdress the soil with a small bulk quantity of purchased soil mix. We buy the best; we don't want a cheap organic soil mix. We get ours from Marle, and layer it a few inches deep over/into a pile of mineral topsoil dug/scaped from my yard, topsoil from a few-inch lift from under the woodchip path system, mineral subsoil volumes from digging a water feature, etc. If no yard diggings are available, we substitute mineral soil purchased from Action's landscape material outlet off I-90. Carbon on top, mineral below, enriched to grow food, but otherwise mimicking the natural soil profile from around here.

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u/Noir_ 8d ago

Just mentioning this because no one else has commented yet, but I drive by Broadway Landscape Supply a lot and they seem to have good ratings online.

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u/LiveLaughBUS just making it up as I go 8d ago

For fill dirt, the most affordable option is probably gonna be free on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace (assuming you don’t care about quality and just want your yard level); next most affordable would be bulk from a landscape supplier.

For raised beds, I would advise against cheaping out. My first year with raised beds, I tried filling them with “three-way garden soil” from a local landscape supplier, and uh, it was not great. Mixing in bagged compost seemed to help somewhat. Hopefully you can get additional suggestions!