Best soil for raised beds?

[RainCloude]

Hello gardeners! We've just had some raised beds made - long and narrow alongside a wall and a fence - for growing flowers and plants (not fruit or veg). The builder has put top soil in them for us, but I've read that I should add compost or sand as well.

Does anyone know how much and what sort of stuff to add? Is top soil lacking in nutrients so perhaps some fish blood & bone mixed in as well?
Thank you!

You can buy bags of soil improver and manure at garden centres. We used them on our new beds and then annually top up with a bag of manure and some fish blood and bone.

Thank you! Soil improver it is.

Do I also need grit or does the soil improver give enough drainage ?

You can add anything organic basically! If you are growing things that don’t like to get too dry then adding shredded newspaper (or even shredding a from a shredder) will help. Any well rotted manure will help improve the soil structure. Sand should only be added if it’s a heavy soil as that helps break it up. If you can then do a soil test - you can get ph testing kits from garden centres or amazon or for a more available method do a soil jar test - use some of the soil, Mia thoroughly in a jar with water and leave it for a good while to settle. That will show you what levels you have in the soil and give you an idea if you actually need heavier or lighter mix to add. Topsoil though should be fairly neutral! More important is choosing what plants to grow for the light - so are the beds south/north/east/west. South or west will get lots of hot sun so pick drought tolerant or plants that like plenty of sun. North or east then shade lovers are much more needed. If it’s a very wet area then adding more gravel will help drainage and stop the roots rotting.

Hope that all helps! I run a lane education charity - we have lots of free videos on our you tube channel search Abberton Rural Training in case anything on there helps! Good luck with the garden!

Thank you - it's going to be fun!!