I have been tomato gardening for 10 years. My first few years tomatoes were amazing, disease free and huge. I had bought the best vegetable garden bed soil I could afford, using gaia green rock dust, organic fertilizers, everything I thought sounded important. Since then things have gone downhill. I composted aggressively and added compost, and several bags of vegetable garden soil to the beds each year, and fertilized on the same schedule. I even tested the soil and fertilized based on what was 'missing'. But the trees in my yard have grown, the spots are not as sunny as they used to be, and even though I didn't get blight and only twice fusarium wilt a couple of years (and have left that bed go without tomatoes since) my tomatoes were sickly, thin and not very fruitful. I think we're down to 4-5 hours of direct sun now. That's probably a large factor .

This year I'm moving my beds (4 frames that are 4 by 8 feet) to a sunnier spot, and ordering new dirt to fill them. Pretend I know nothing at all (I probably know nothing here...) and walk me through. What can I do to start these beds off right? What kind of soil can I order? I can order "Big Yellow Bag" garden soil here, or 3-way "top soil" from a couple of landscape companies for half the price (these tend to suck, with mostly half-composted chip bark and who knows what in them...).
Is there something better out there I should be looking for? Or doing my own 'mix' for raised beds?

Thank you for any and all help!!

Is there a landscape company that you can trust? We bought from one a few years ago, and paid extra for their "premium" soil which had organic amendments. It smelled "funny" and I was nervous about using it in a flower garden, but everything grew exceptionally well. A couple of years later, there was a lot of very fine ash in the soil, so I guess the bark eventually broke down....

Chipped bark is a GOOD amendment as it gives aeration to the soil and breaks down well. A friend, who runs her own nursery and has all sorts of qualifications in the biz, says that her preferred soil is a 50/50 mix of bark and soil What you don't want is a lot of sand. That's the cheapest and it has no nutrients....

Good luck!
Linda

I bought a pallet sized super sack of this stuff for my hemp. It is a little rich and could be thinned with perlite.

https://www.hummert.com/dyna-mix-raised ... l-65402600

Alternatively, find a local farmer with some sort of composted manure.

Oh yes, Cole Robbie! We started a 12' x 12' veggie garden with nothing but aged cow manure from the farm next door. You can't beat "free" and "convenient".
Some people say that you shouldn't grow in straight manure, but I've been using that garden for a few years now and getting a great harvest of garlic,
peppers and eggplants. I amend the soil with compost every year.

Linda

[mention]Labradors[/mention] Unfortunately I garden in my backyard, I don't know any local farmers. It would be awesome if I had free composted manure! We have ordered from several landscape companies, but have been disappointed each time. Tried to get soil to reseed our lawn but since it was so much chipped bark, after a few days of watering that's all that was left. A yard covered in bark. It looked like mulch. Grass seeds didn't grow! It was marketed as premium black topsoil. They also offer "3way" which is the topsoil mixed with sand and compost. Other local gardener friends complain too and say they have the best luck buying small bags of vegetable garden soil from Walmart. Like miracle grow brand. It's just so expensive! Clearly I'm a city kid, playing at farming and naive. :p goodto know the sticks and wood chips in the dirt are okay...