[Plantoid]

Clay & stones.
 Clay usually has all the nutrients needed for plant growth it is the fine particles of it that cause the prob stopping drainage and closing down the air paths.

clay can easily be made into friable soil by adding rotted material that makes Humus , add horticultural grade sharp sand ( stuff that is not sea side sand with shells aka lime in it ) , add 4 to 6 mm grit .
 
The first couple of years are the worse  but if you double dig ( with a mini excavator  Hee hee ) down to say a metre and layer the infill including soil in 100 mm layers things soon shape up .
Sprinkling in  lime helps crumb the clay so does  bags of opened plaster that  would normally be thrown away & are instead liberally sprinkled on /into the soil .   .

 I made my first five level beds on hard dried out blue clay and 2 inch stones in what used to be  an ancient pond bed  that used to be in the middle of farm pastures where the new housing estate was built in 1982 .
 The mini digger was a real boon . the top layer got a decent dose of frost

 After the first year from construction  I re dug the beds out by hand and heaped it all on the path ways , made sure it was fairly well remixed and added a big barrow of black rotted horse turds & one level barrow of sharp sand per metre run  ..each bed was 36 inches wide  by 30 feet long with 24 inch concreted pathways all round . There was a massive amount of worms right through the new soil .
 
 The next crops were fantastic .. I'll see if I still have a piccky of them & if so will photo bucket them into the post .

 

[Blonde]

Hi All, me and the Mrs have just bought and moved into our first home!.
I have grown in pots / grow bags for the last couple of years with fairly good results, but this year as I have new and bigger garden I want to put raised beds in, and up the scale of produce that I can get from next years crop.

I have never built raised beds before and have limited knowledge about what to fill them with for growing next year, can you please provide me with some advice?

the things I will be growing are: potatoes early and main crop, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, Peas and broad beans, salad stuff, courgettes, Chillies, Peppers, etc

I will also be putting in some fruit trees but these will go in the borders.

Thanks in advance.

Straw, manure, compost...... till you build it up to the level you want it.  Turn weekly for 6 weeks and keep moist and you should have a good friable soil that you can plant any thing in to.