Soils

[Christian]

In a raised garden should you use garden soil or potting mix? Does potting mix dry out faster?

 

[DirtMechanic]

Go for the garden soil. It will have firmer texture for proper root support. It usually comes with compost etc ready to go, with fertilizer levels that are not so high as to cause seeding problems.You won't need to do anything fertilizer wise until after the leaf out and even then only mildly.

The potting soil is made for purpose, It has higher fertilzer levels usually and is made to drain and not rot or drown plant roots. But a raised garden is a hill, and water runs downhill. They will dry out correspondingly faster than my flat garden but not as fast as pots . Its a combination of water table and root height relative to that table and can roots tip sip that water, as they need oxygen too. I am not a big pot planter, mainly soil, but some here are very adept at potting and perhaps will give more detail than I can muster.

 

[CanadianLori]

I start with garden soil and then add potting soil from planters that I have no plans to reuse.

 

[Tjohn]

The garden soil is made to be outside where its' larger bits of wood, etc. can decompose. Potting soil does not have the larger pieces since it's made to be used indoors.