What is the best combination of soils for a raised bed?
Welcome Paula, You will want to incorporate some of your native soil, but there are many options to create your raised beds. What kind of compost is available to you in bulk? Composted leaf mulch is good, cow manure compost, mushroom compost, composted horse manure (but watch out for weed seeds), all of these composts mixed together will help. You want the pH to be between 6 to 7, ideally 6.5 for the most available nutrients. What type of soil do you have, Sandy or Clay based?
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This is an excellent response. To it I would add coarse perlite if the native soil is heavy clay, like most of the Midwest seems to have. I also might consider adding Potting Mix (not potting soil) which typically has peat moss, perlite, plus other organics. Be sure the mix contains at least two-thirds of the native soil.
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This has a wide variety of choices, depending on where you live, and the variety of soils available. I have horse troughs, so I first drilled holes, and put down 1/4" chicken wire to keep out unwanted critters. I layer the bottom 1/3 with sticks and leaves, to fill up the space. I love Gardner’s n Bloom organic raised bed potting soil. You might want to pick a couple different ones and mix them together. I also mix in some organic fertilizer.
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