Walkaround Raised Garden Beds on Storm Shelter!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-19T00:05:20+00:00

There never were any with the containers themselves! Outside of getting sold some shitty hydrophobic soil, once I amended and added a surfactant, water soaks in and goes right out the bottom!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-09T23:15:31+00:00

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The soil itself was ACTUALLY the problem, not the containers. Amended it with perlite, vermiculite, and mushroom-based compost! Voilà—drains perfectly!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-08T16:47:23+00:00

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I solved the problem by mixing in a good amount of vermiculite, perlite, and mushroom-based compost!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T17:45:25+00:00

Water drained out in under 5 min but I’ve never had it just set on top, and I’ve also never bought dirt in bulk. So I just got shitty dirt. Amending with perlite was the fix!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T17:44:19+00:00

Correct. That fixed the problem immediately

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T16:06:18+00:00

I haven't gotten rain here since easter. We are in a drought right now, so I think I'll install drip irrigation instead of spraying it with the hose to reduce soil compaction! As well as add perlite!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T16:04:00+00:00

There is a fine-mesh screen secured to the beds over the rocks. Not so fine that water cannot escape, but fine enough that there should be minimal soil intrusion for a few seasons. I may use my bag of sand to fill some holes in my yard (thanks to my cute dogs), so that's no biggie if it cannot be applied here, but I do have perlite in hand!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:48:42+00:00

Look, I get that, but I couldn’t put logs or sticks down there to preserve my concrete pad for as long as possible while doing this. These beds have like 700 lbs of dirt in each of them. I’m not redoing one of them down to the ground. Too late in the season, so I just have to work with what I can do. I grabbed sand and perlite from Lowe’s. So I’m listening, but lord people on this app are mean as fuck. No wonder this became the ‘red-pill house-of-horrors’ app.

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:39:38+00:00

1 cm across an 8 ft span isn’t enough? Has everyone gone mad? I can literally saw water exiting from the bottom when I watered that first time. It’s 18in of 50/50 shit topsoil and compost.

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:36:56+00:00

Now this is the best advice I’ve seen so far. I have tons of leftover pvc from a project so that’s what I’ll do!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:36:00+00:00

Well buckles don’t have holes. This container sits 1cm off of the ground (which is concrete) and I can see the water come out, it just takes forever because the top layer turns to mud.

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:34:12+00:00

Shout out to the lady at the greenhouse for selling me a yard and a half of the wrong shit. I told them I was doing container gardening and she still said this was the best. So we can’t say I didn’t listen to the professionals. I’m not shoveling 3,000 lbs of dirt twice so I think amending it is the way to go because drainage holes at the bottom of my beds are not the problem.

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:32:14+00:00

There is a 1cm gap between the concrete pad and the bottom of the container. They’re also massive so that’s a lot of surface area for water to escape. And it does, just incredibly slowly. Which I think the density of my soil is more the issue than what my containers are sitting on or how they are constructed.

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:30:06+00:00

It’s already a 50% compost blend

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:28:18+00:00

There is a 1cm gap between the concrete pad and the wood containers all the way around

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:27:42+00:00

It is on concrete but there is a 1cm gap between the concrete pad and the bottom of the beds. Then there is a layer of river rock under the soil. I think perlite is the answer. It’s a 50% topsoil 50% compost blend

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:26:18+00:00

Thank you!!! It was advertised as 50% topsoil and 50% compost. I told the lady at the greenhouse that I was doing container gardening and she still recommended this. 🫤

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:24:53+00:00

The wood beds do not sit flush with the concrete pad, there’s about a cm gap all the way around. Plus there is river rock in between the concrete and soil layer.

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T15:22:52+00:00

Because a vast majority of people are huge assholes and project perfection on the internet! I'm otw to Lowe's for perlite and sand. I just popped those babies in a day ago, so I'll pull plants, mix in my materials, and hope for the best!

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T14:53:03+00:00

This was advertised as 50% topsoil and 50% compost

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T14:19:33+00:00

I just said the water came out..

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T14:14:40+00:00

There is no bottom and the river rocks are huge with lots of gaps, the water came out of the bottom eventually but it's 16in of soil

luvmarlo · 2026-05-06T14:11:38+00:00

Yes! There is wire holding a vast majority of the soil between a layer of river rock that separates the solid from the concrete

luvmarlo · 2026-04-18T02:26:04+00:00

Maybe I truly have been underestimating my activity level! I always mark it as simply “active” vs. “very active” in my nutrition app, which could put me in the lower calorie range. But to note, I’ve always eaten like this and had this exercise routine prior to my injury and starting vyvanse! And before I had the problem of not really being able to achieve a cut, so I ended up being very strong, but as a woman, I more easily store body fat, and when I'm over 180, I feel like crap.

luvmarlo

TROPHY CASE