New planters

muckisluck

I'm looking for advice. We have recently cleared out old planters and renewed the lining etc. This time around we want to ensure we get the right soil mix for planting both flowers and vegetables. What would you recommend. The planters are about 18 inches deep by 12 feet wide. We don't intend planting anything very heavy duty in them Drainage is good but should we line with stones or other filter to aid drainage. We don't want to import trouble into our garden and would really appreciate recommendations.

looksee

Presumably you have not lined across the bottom, you only need it on the walls and folding in a few inches underneath. A layer of small stones or gravel would be no harm, but if the drainage is good its not important.

Since they are only 18inches deep (which is fine) you would be better to put good soil in rather than subsoil or whatever at the bottom. If you are buying tonne bags of decent soil put that in, then dig in some well rotted or bagged manure and some compost/fibrous stuff (peat is no more). You will probably find you need to top up after 12 months but then it should be ok.

If you are buying the individual bags then get compost with John Innes, which is a soil and compost mix and will be all you will need. Do some calculations based on what prices you get, you might find the smaller bags are no more expensive than the tonne bags + compost + manure.