Hi all re landscaping garden. I'm doing a raised bed round the outskirts raising about a foot. The garden had a lot of gravel when moved in so I've removed all this but has left me needing a lot of top soil to refill. I'm also wanting to put weed hard down covered by woodchip. My question is can I put the gravel and soil mix back in that I took out then put top soil in cover with weed guard and lay chip on top. Reason I ask is the mrs wants to put a few flowers in. So I said you can cut a sufficient hole in the weed guard and pot like that. Am I right or will they just die due to gravel base and not getting any nutrients or will top soil be enough for them to grow or am I just being thick. Haha. Hope I haven't bored anyone with my essay.

Garrett wrote:

Hi all re landscaping garden. I'm doing a raised bed round the outskirts
raising about a foot. The garden had a lot of gravel when moved in so
I've removed all this but has left me needing a lot of top soil to
refill. I'm also wanting to put weed hard down covered by woodchip. My
question is can I put the gravel and soil mix back in that I took out
then put top soil in cover with weed guard and lay chip on top. Reason I
ask is the mrs wants to put a few flowers in. So I said you can cut a
sufficient hole in the weed guard and pot like that. Am I right or will
they just die due to gravel base and not getting any nutrients or will
top soil be enough for them to grow or am I just being thick.

Since you already went through the trouble of removing all the gravel
throw/give it away or put it to some other use (like mixing into
concrete) but if you bury if in your garden you will curse every stone
as they resurface. Gravel has no place in gardens, none whatsoever.

Garrett wrote:

Hi all re landscaping garden. I'm doing a raised bed round the outskirts
raising about a foot. The garden had a lot of gravel when moved in so
I've removed all this but has left me needing a lot of top soil to
refill. I'm also wanting to put weed hard down covered by woodchip. My
question is can I put the gravel and soil mix back in that I took out
then put top soil in cover with weed guard and lay chip on top. Reason I
ask is the mrs wants to put a few flowers in. So I said you can cut a
sufficient hole in the weed guard and pot like that. Am I right or will
they just die due to gravel base and not getting any nutrients or will
top soil be enough for them to grow or am I just being thick. Haha. Hope
I haven't bored anyone with my essay.

you can use the fill for areas you have
no plans for planting (around the lower
outer edges a few inches won't matter
much and may provide some added drainage).
concentrate the topsoil in the areas
where you are going to put the plants and
even dig down a bit deeper to make a hole
for the topsoil. that will encourage the
plant to put roots down deeply enough to
weather dry spells better.

different plants like different soils. if
you have specific plants in mind you can amend
the topsoil to suit them. many times you'll
find the topsoil brought in isn't all that
great anyways and could use a bit of a boost.


songbird