Rain Barrel for Community Garden? And Native Flower Seeds? And bulk soil? - Ask Extension
Hello MD Extension! First, thank you so much for your service and care for the environment.
This April 4th and 11th I am leading a community farm r...
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Rain Barrel for Community Garden? And Native Flower Seeds? And bulk soil? #926717
Asked March 25, 2026, 11:27 AM EDT
Hello MD Extension! First, thank you so much for your service and care for the environment.
This April 4th and 11th I am leading a community farm refresh day in Mount Clare. We have plans for refreshing the existing beds, laying cardboard and mulch and topsoil, and planting native wildflower seeds. I would love your advice on some details!
1. Bulk Soil - I am contacting ACE Hardware and looking at Hollins Organic. The prices feel expensive but soil is important for planting! I have a budget from a Clean Corps grant of $702.78 for soil (which would need to include any fees). Do you have any advice for getting bulk soil within this budget? There are ten 4x8 foot raised beds, which is a lot to fill. Thankfully all of them are about 1/2 to 2/3 full with broken down woodchips and soil from a couple of years ago, so I am thinking we will fill about 6in of mulch and then 6in of topsoil (about 60 cubic yards) if we can.
2. Native wildflower seeds. Currently I am planning on ordering seeds from The Vermont Wildflower Farm. But any tips on other places to order and/or how many pounds to order (within a $63.50 budget) would be great.
3. Rain barrel/water catchment system - unfortunately it seems we won't be able to get water access to the site any time soon (we've been trying for about 4 years now), so we need to get creative to water the seeds while they germinate and establish. I'm planning on getting a portable 5 or 8 liter pump for spraying, which we can fill at our house a block away. But I am wondering if a water catchment system is possible at the site. Unfortunately I don't currently have that included in the Clean Corps budget, but I'd love your advice and maybe it's something we could get donated/for free somehow, or invest in later on. I'm curious if it would need to be attached to a downspout or if there are ways to collect rainwater that aren't dependent on being connected to a home - but I also wonder if the adjacent homeowners would be open to connecting barrels to their buildings.
Thank you again for your support!
Baltimore City County Maryland
Expert Response
Hello and happy Spring! Thanks for your questions and your enthusiasm!
Bulk soil can be pricey but will always be less expensive than the equivalent of bagged soil. My gut says a retailer like Ace may up-charge the soil and you can get a better price elsewhere, perhaps directly from a compost/topsoil manufacturer. If you are looking at a bulk number of bags, I would recommend instead looking for bulk loose soil that can be delivered in a pile and moved with wheelbarrow-toting volunteers. We cannot advise one retailer over another, but I would definitely recommend calling several sources in your area, or even a touch further away, to get quotes on your needed volume plus delivery fees. Google "bulk soil delivery near me" and go from there. To bring the cost down even more, I believe your needed amount of soil may be off. To calculate volume you'd multiply the bed length by width and the depth of desired soil (4'x8'x0.5') then multiply by the number of beds (10) to get a total of 160 square feet, which is roughly 6 cubic yards, not 60. That should be a solid cost savings if you've been pricing for 60 cubic yards!
As for your beds, it sounds like you have the right idea, to partially fill them with biodegradable material to lessen the amount of soil needed. A similar method called hügelkultur is what this is based off of, and it works very well. Rather than mulch you could use compost, or a mix of the two, if that works within your budget. Often mushroom compost can be purchased by the cubic yard and delivered, or picked up for free if a volunteer has a pickup truck and/or trailer. Just like the soil, buying bulk-loose compost will be much less expensive than bagged.
In regards to your seeds, again, we cannot recommend specific retailers. I can tell you that when buying seeds for central MD, retailers that are of a similar provenance (zone 7a-8b, mid-Atlantic) will have a better time germinating and acclimating, thereby surviving, here. Be sure to check the seeds listed in those "wildflower mixes" as well. Often there are non-native invasive seeds included in the mixes, as a number of them are not considered invasive in all areas of the country, and many readily grow and flower, making for a more enticing floral display. Since you listed "native" wildflower seeds in your question, I assume you are already on top of this, but I would be remiss if I did not mention it.
Finally, rain barrels and cisterns are a great way to catch and store free water, but most do rely on gutters and downspouts. If you do not have this option you can get creative and make a rain barrel with a DIY funnel top. It will not catch as much as a downspout connected barrel, but it will be on site, which is convenient. If you are only a block away, perhaps a rain barrel on your property (and some willing neighbors) would be another plan. You can use a dolly to move 5 gallon buckets or 7 gallon camping water containers from there to the site. If the drop in soil cost leaves anything in your budget, perhaps it can be used towards irrigation.
I hope this was helpful, please let us know if you have follow up questions or need further assistance.
Bulk soil can be pricey but will always be less expensive than the equivalent of bagged soil. My gut says a retailer like Ace may up-charge the soil and you can get a better price elsewhere, perhaps directly from a compost/topsoil manufacturer. If you are looking at a bulk number of bags, I would recommend instead looking for bulk loose soil that can be delivered in a pile and moved with wheelbarrow-toting volunteers. We cannot advise one retailer over another, but I would definitely recommend calling several sources in your area, or even a touch further away, to get quotes on your needed volume plus delivery fees. Google "bulk soil delivery near me" and go from there. To bring the cost down even more, I believe your needed amount of soil may be off. To calculate volume you'd multiply the bed length by width and the depth of desired soil (4'x8'x0.5') then multiply by the number of beds (10) to get a total of 160 square feet, which is roughly 6 cubic yards, not 60. That should be a solid cost savings if you've been pricing for 60 cubic yards!
As for your beds, it sounds like you have the right idea, to partially fill them with biodegradable material to lessen the amount of soil needed. A similar method called hügelkultur is what this is based off of, and it works very well. Rather than mulch you could use compost, or a mix of the two, if that works within your budget. Often mushroom compost can be purchased by the cubic yard and delivered, or picked up for free if a volunteer has a pickup truck and/or trailer. Just like the soil, buying bulk-loose compost will be much less expensive than bagged.
In regards to your seeds, again, we cannot recommend specific retailers. I can tell you that when buying seeds for central MD, retailers that are of a similar provenance (zone 7a-8b, mid-Atlantic) will have a better time germinating and acclimating, thereby surviving, here. Be sure to check the seeds listed in those "wildflower mixes" as well. Often there are non-native invasive seeds included in the mixes, as a number of them are not considered invasive in all areas of the country, and many readily grow and flower, making for a more enticing floral display. Since you listed "native" wildflower seeds in your question, I assume you are already on top of this, but I would be remiss if I did not mention it.
Finally, rain barrels and cisterns are a great way to catch and store free water, but most do rely on gutters and downspouts. If you do not have this option you can get creative and make a rain barrel with a DIY funnel top. It will not catch as much as a downspout connected barrel, but it will be on site, which is convenient. If you are only a block away, perhaps a rain barrel on your property (and some willing neighbors) would be another plan. You can use a dolly to move 5 gallon buckets or 7 gallon camping water containers from there to the site. If the drop in soil cost leaves anything in your budget, perhaps it can be used towards irrigation.
I hope this was helpful, please let us know if you have follow up questions or need further assistance.
Thank you so much! This is wildly helpful. And the cost savings on the soil (boy, am I bad at math) will leave room for some other options for sure.
When you say using budget towards irrigation, what would that mean?
Great thought about mixing in some compost! I heard that the native wildflower seeds take pretty well to any quality of soil, but it can't hurt to give them a good environment. If it's helpful, these are the flowers included in the native seed mixes I am looking at:
Northeast Native Wildflower Seed Mix (more of this): Lance-leaf Coreopsis, Butterfly Weed, Swamp Milkweed, Purple Coneflower, Blue False Indigo, Spotted Joe Pyeweed, Golden Alexanders, Black-eyed Susan, Lupine, Wild Bergamot, Blanket Flower, Partridge Pea, Hairy Beardtongue, Heath Aster, Smooth Blue Aster, New England Aster, Narrowleaf Mountain Mint, Brown-eyed Susan.
Native Perennial Pollinator Wildflower and Grass Seed Mix (less of this): Little Bluestem, Virginia Wildrye, Indiangrass, Deertongue, Purpletop, Partridge Pea, Butterfly Weed, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan, Blue Vervain, Tall White Beardtongue, Swamp Milkweed, Blazing Star, New England Aster, Smooth Blue Aster, White Avens, Wild Senna, Golden Alexanders, Blue False Indigo, Wild Bergamot, Common Milkweed, Boneset, Roundhead Lespedeza, Narrowleaf Mountain Mint, Ohio Spiderwort, Joe Pye Weed, White Snakeroot
I'm not asking you to check if these are all native for me (that would be a lot to ask I think). But just sharing in case you are interested or any stand out at a glance!
I just found out that ACE Waverly has free bags of soil as well available this Friday and Saturday, so I will pick some of that up for sure.
With many thanks,
~Mia
Sounds like you’re off to a great start! Seed mixes look perfect, no invasive plants listed (woo hoo!!), and you are correct that native plants will adapt to most soils, and actually do best in lean soil. Too much fertilizer (nitrogen specifically) will make them tall and leggy, prone to flopping. Compost, however, adds crucial organic matter to the soil helping more with moisture retention and soil tilth than nutrient additions. In short, compost is always a good idea, for pretty much any plant.
And my comment about irrigation was mainly for the cost of rain barrels, a dolly or two and the containers to transport the water in. I doubt you would have enough to run a water line to the garden, but that could be a future grant opportunity!
And my comment about irrigation was mainly for the cost of rain barrels, a dolly or two and the containers to transport the water in. I doubt you would have enough to run a water line to the garden, but that could be a future grant opportunity!
