422 - The Truth About Soil, Wood, and Raised Beds with Gardener Scott

The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

Jill McSheehy

Gardening, Garden, How To, Education, Organicgardening, Home & Garden, Leisure, Homegardening, Beginninggardener, Vegetablegardening

4.4 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever wondered if you could fill a raised bed with 100% compost? Or whether pressure-treated wood is actually safe for gardens? In today's episode, I sit down in person with Gardener Scott to tackle common raised bed myths and smart strategies for growing success — whether you're gardening on a patio or across a backyard full of beds.

💬 Topics we cover:

Should you grow in 100% compost?
Is pressure-treated wood safe for raised beds?
When to use a GreenStalk planter vs. a raised bed
How native soil, compost, and minerals all work together
What biosolids are — and should you avoid them?
Mistakes we both made (and how you can avoid them!)

📚 Learn more about Gardener Scott's new book, Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening — a must-read if you're building or improving your beds this season!

🎯 Bonus: Today (May 20) is the LAST DAY to grab my Beginner’s Guide to Growing Herbs mini-course on sale for just $19!
Learn more here » journeywithjill.net/herbworkshop

🛒 Sponsors:

Organic REV: Boost your transplant success — get 10% off with code JILL at organicrev.com
Garden in Minutes: Simplify watering with the Garden Grid™. Save 7% with code JILL at journeywithjill.net/gardeninminutes
Heirloom Roses: Add beauty to your garden — get 20% off roses with code BEGINNER20 at heirloomroses.com

Show Notes:

Thank you to our sponsors: Organic REV | Garden in Minutes

Organic REV

Organic REV is an organic growth stimulant that can increase nitrogen efficiency by up to 25%, replaces depleted soil carbon and bacterial biomass, and absorbs nutrients to make them more readily available to plants via their root systems.

Promo Code: Use promo code JILL10 for 10% off your order

Want to learn more about Organic REV? Enroll in my FREE course that teaches you how to use REV in seed starting, transplanting and so much more! Click here to enroll.

Garden in Minutes

Water your raised beds more efficiently and effectively with the Garden in Minutes Garden Grids. These garden grids take about 1 minute to set up, water all of your plants evenly at their base, and ship in pre-assembled sections! No messy emitters or tangle of tubing. Just connect & grow! https://journeywithjill.net/gardeninminutes

Discount Code: Use promo code JILL for 7% off your purchase

My Products:
2025 Complete Garden Planner (plus several new editions!)
https://shop.journeywithjill.net/

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners Book: https://amzn.to/3TZeJux

Products I recommend:
Recommended Brands & Products page:
https://journeywithjill.net/recommended-brands-and-products/

https://www.amazon.com/shop/thebeginnersgarden

Connect with Jill:
Sign up for Friday Emails: https://journeywithjill.net/gardensignup

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JourneywithjillNet/videos

The Beginner's Garden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeginnersgarden/

Link to Beginner's Garden Podcast past episodes: https://journeywithjill.net/the-beginners-garden-podcast/

(*links above contain affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, we will earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey there and welcome back to the podcast. So just curious, have you ever wondered if you could just
0:05.8	put 100% compost in your raised bed? Would there be a problem with that? And what about pressure
0:11.6	treated wood? Is it really that dangerous? And when you're planting your crops, are there better
0:17.8	options for a planter such as a greenstock or the raised bed? In today's episode,
0:23.4	I am joined by Gardner Scott and he is going to talk to us about practical myth-busting topics on
0:32.0	how to get the most out of your garden, whether you're working with a patio garden or a backyard full of raised beds.
0:39.8	I actually got to talk to Scott in person when he and I both went to the greenstock gardening
0:45.4	facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, and he had just come out with his brand new book, Gardner Scott's
0:52.5	Guide to Raise Bed Gardening. I had just received it in the mail
0:56.2	and I read it on the flight to Knoxville. I've read it in just a couple of hours. It was so good
1:02.0	and I couldn't wait to ask him to expand on some things I had learned in the book. So this was a
1:07.6	unique one. This is when we were chatting in person and I am so excited to share with you all this great information that Gardner Scott shares.
1:16.2	Hey, real quick here. I wanted to make sure that you know that the beginner's guide to growing herbs sale ends today.
1:23.6	It's a mini course that will get you started on growing 11 different kitchen herbs.
1:28.5	It's regularly $29, but it's on sale through today, May 20th, for only 19.
1:34.1	So check that out when you get a chance.
1:35.9	You can go to journey with Jill.net slash herb workshop.
1:40.1	I also want to thank Organic Rev for being a sponsor of this episode.
1:44.6	Now that we're past the last frost date, it is time to fill the raised beds we're talking about
1:49.2	with Gardner Scott today.
1:50.6	And one step I never skip is using organic Rev when I am transplanting.
1:55.6	I dip the root ball of anything I'm transplanting into a 50-50 organic rev to water mixture and I can tell the
	...

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