What amendments the soil might need can only be determined by a good reliable soil test that tells you what the soils pH and major nutrient levels are along with these simple soil tests,
1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drainsâ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.
that inform you of the condition of the soil.

The manures and blood meal could easily introduce far too much Nitrogen which can create many growing problems.

I think that sounds like a fine mix of amendments. One thing I have noticed in my (clay) soil is that over time with regular additions of a lot of compost, the K and P levels got rather high. I'm talking 15 years of compost additions. Nitrogen is more leachable and does not pile up. Manures and the bone meal will all have relatively high levels of P, which is not very mobile at all and can build up to excessive levels.

Depending on how many years you've been doing this, if you have never tested your soil you might want to take a sample to the ag extension lab to find out what your P, K and micronutrients look like.

Other than that, if your garden grows fine, you have nothing to worry about.

I think the amendments sound fine but you do realize that the amounts you intend to add will in no way fill the bed? A typical 8" deep, 8'x'4' bed will hold about 24 cubic feet of soil/amendments or almost 1 cubic yard. What you are adding may total 3 cubic feet at best. What's going to make up the rest of the soil mix?

Kimmsr, thank you for the detailed post. A great read.

Both you and Toxcrusadr recommend a soil test. Unfortunately, our local ag extension doesn't do soil tests for the public (even though they're UC Davis, the leading agricultural university in the country). Does anyone have suggestions for a mail order soil tester?

Gardengal48, thanks for your concern, but these are merely amendments to a ten-year-old raised bed. There is plenty of existing soil beyond these amendments.

Cheers everybody!

OK then :-)) There was nothing in your post to indicate this wasn't a new bed.

If your beds have been productive previously, just adding the manures or other compost should suffice. Typically, organic matter is an optimum source of nitrogen, which tends to be the most mobile nutrient and the one most often requiring replenishing. I'd pass on the bone meal primarily because the P component is higher than one normally requires on an ongoing basis. Once you got enough P, you don't often need to add any more :-)

Most west coast land grant universities (extension service sponsors) no longer offer soil testing - just overwhelmed by requests in these very heavy agricultural/horticultural states.

I've linked to local testing labs listed by your extension service but you can also try UMass or TAMU - both have excellent reputations and fast turn around.

Here is a link that might be useful: NoCal soil testing labs

You can phone the Master Gardeners in your county to ask which labs the university suggest. When you request the test, make certain you tell the lab it's for a home garden so that the recommendations won't be per acre.

Use the map at the link below ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Locate your county's Extension Service office

As I recall the University of Connecticut, UCONN, will do soil testing for out of state people.
The current issue, December 2014/January2015, of Organic Gardening magazine has an interesting article on raised beds in it.

Here is a link that might be useful: UCONN soil testing

This post was edited by kimmsr on Fri, Oct 31, 14 at 5:54

I greatly appreciate the replies here.

I spent about an hour looking at various soil testing labs and their testing rates, and was surprised how expensive they were. Then I saw Kimmsr's post about the University of Connecticut, and at least from their website, it looks like they will do an out-of-state soil test for a mere $8. Sign me up! Thanks Kimmsr.

-Ray

All of my raised beds were built at different times, using soil from different places.
Would I need a test for each bed? Nancy

Nancy, that depends. I would start with the simple soil tests outlined above for each bed and try to get them as close to each other as possible. Then have a good reliable soil test done pulling soil samples from each bed and mixing them all together, unless one or another would be for say blueberries or another crop that requires a quite different soil. As long as each bed will be raising crops requiring similar soils there is no need to test each one separately.

For those thinking of raised beds the current issue of Organic Gardening magazine, December2014/January2015, has an interesting article on them.

For my raised bed shown in the picture, I used the "lasagna" method. Layer 1 - Cardboard to inhibit grass growth; Layer 2 - 2-inch layer of organic garden soil; Layer 3 - 1/2 inch layer of shredded newspaper (for the worms); Layer 4 - 2-inch layer of good top soil mixed with humus and manure; Layer 5 - 2-inch layer of composted manure; Layer 6 - 2 inch layer of organic garden soil mixed with blood and bone meal; Last layer - 2 inch layer of composted leaf mulch. The soil settles and I add manure and humus each year.