Elevated box garden soil

Curious as to what kind of soil I would need in an elevated container box. Its 5 feet by 3 feet and 12 inches in height. I will be drilling some holes in the bottom for drainage. Any info would be great as to what type of soil to use. I also live in so cal if that matters.

If you're looking for a single product, look for potting soil, preferably organic. Using soil from outside, unless you know what you're doing, can result in a cement-like mass inside your planter.

Depending on what you're growing, you might be able to bury garden and kitchen scraps shallowly under the soil's surface over the season (look up Ruth Stout), but you might need to ensure soil contact for appropriate worms and other soil life to break it all down to forms useable by plants.

In addition to that, I'm sprinkling a dried kelp amendment on the soil surface which gets pulled down through the soil strata with each watering.

-CK

So I would pretty much follow the same ideas as container gardening in relation to what id use

Pretty much. Just be careful of the soil you get. There is some concern of late that herbicides are making there way into much of the "industrial "composting facilities. Mother earth magazine has been running a story about this for the last two issues. And Paul has mentioned it several times.

I've actually been doing my own compost bin I'm just not 100% certain it will be ready within the next week or two as far as using it in my bed

I just topped up my hugelbeet from last year, and I framed it with 2'x3.5' skids, making for a 2'vertical starting point. I stockpiled kitchen scraps in plastic bags and tins while my compost was dormant. I just took my woody bits both fresh and rotting, packed them in a ring between the original bed and the outer ring of skids, topped with composted manure, fresh kitchen scraps, the anaerobically digested stockpiled ones, and all my unfinished compost including detrivore life to innoculate it all. Then I put a garden bed on top. I'm not worried.

-CK

Well, because it's referenced here, I thought I'd post it up once again! Great article!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/herbicide-damage-zmgz13fmzsto.aspx#axzz2Va967Q1I

If you are going to buy potting soil, you might as well make your own. In my opinion, the most important thing is to source properly produced earth worm castings or compost. I have a lot of experience in the field of "making potting soil", so let me know if I can help you save some greenbacks.

First off; I by no means, whatsoever, am implying what I did was ideal... But; the mix I made seems to be doing great, thus far . Last fall I made up my first attempt at a large homemade mix of garden soil. Then, let it rest over winter. It hasn't seen as much use as I had hoped (yet), as it was not made for me, but rather for my folks... However; what has grown in it, whether intended or wild, has done famously

In roughly equal parts: Peat moss, coconut coil, semi-aged horse stall manure, llama manure, homemade compost, on-sight dirt (99% sand). The final 1/7th was a mix of AZOMITE, hardwood ash from stove, gypsum and crushed oyster shell...

When the pH was checked this Spring, it was sitting at 6.5! I was quite tickled to see that; as that is right in the ideal zone for growing just about anything that would ever be intended to be grown in it