Need Advice on Soil Mix for New Raised Beds

[Percheron chick]

You can also just plant vegetables like squash, beans or pumpkin that aren't as sensitive to soil types and can produce in a variety of conditions in the new bed.
If you have mountains of finished compost, use it up. I'd be using 100% compost before I spent money on dirt.

 

[gtaus]

You can also just plant vegetables like squash, beans or pumpkin that aren't as sensitive to soil types and can produce in a variety of conditions in the new bed.
If you have mountains of finished compost, use it up. I'd be using 100% compost before I spent money on dirt.

Thanks. I do have mountains of compost that I can sift. I just did not know if I could grow directly into compost as I have always in the past just used it to amend the soil.

The only crop I have successfully grown has been beans. I thought I was just getting better, but maybe it's just that the beans are not very sensitive to my poor soil. I am hoping the my chicken run compost that I just started last year and filled in my raised beds last fall will make a positive change for me this year.

 

[Percheron chick]

Not zucchini? What's wrong with you?

 

[gtaus]

Not zucchini? What's wrong with you?

Oh yes, I plant too much zucchini and Dear Wife gets upset with me. I love zucchini, but in good years, we have too much. Last year, I had 5 zucchini plants but only 2 really produced for me. We still had too much zucchini at the end of the year, but I just toss it to the chickens at that point.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Speaking of tons of chicken run compost, can I just fill up the raised bed with the wood on the bottom and just top it off with compost and not even bother with mixing in topsoil? I live on a lake, and our soil is primarily sand. If using 100% compost is not a good idea, I can get a Bobcat bucket full of rich black Red River Valley topsoil at a local nursery for $50.00. If I have to buy topsoil, that is what I think I would do.

I wouldn't do 100% compost, but if you can get that $50 mound of topsoil (nice price!), mix it with however much compost you have to be able to fill up the remainder of the beds on top of the hügelkultur, and I think you should be good to go.

My raised bed soil mix has pumice in it for drainage, not sure how costly or difficult to obtain that would be compared to perlite.

 

[Fishychix]

Thanks. I do have mountains of compost that I can sift. I just did not know if I could grow directly into compost as I have always in the past just used it to amend the soil.

The only crop I have successfully grown has been beans. I thought I was just getting better, but maybe it's just that the beans are not very sensitive to my poor soil. I am hoping the my chicken run compost that I just started last year and filled in my raised beds last fall will make a positive change for me this year.

My experience is similar to yours. I was honestly questioning my sanity. Each year I garden and each year it got worse. Im doing raised beds and sfg this year hoping I get something to produce
Last year I bought a body pillow sized bag of perlite and am still using it. I got it from a local place. I dont think my box stores ever carried them. I heard from a gardening podcast, You Bet Your Garden, that half compost in a raised bed with the rest being perlite and leaf litter is the way to go. Don’t quote me though, I may have gotten the terms mixed up

 

[WestTNriverrat]

If you were near the south east I’d fix you up with a 50lbs feed bags full of worm castings. I plan on starting to sell it but as of now haven’t done anything but give it away under the agreement they only use it on half the garden so pictures can be taken to show if it’s as great as I feel like it is. I’m no gardener but my day lilies irises and phlox look better than ever since I’ve been raising worms.

 

[Sally PB]

I still have some perlite and vermiculite left over from when I mixed my own potting soil. I always thought the reason to use them was to "fluff" up the soil for more air/water and so the soil didn't compact.

For my potting soil this year, I used some compost and some dirt scrapings from where the dirt is BLACK and covered with worm castings.

Some of the varieties of tomatoes sprouted very well. Some very poorly. The peppers, as usual, are very slow and small. For the third year in a row, Habananda peppers did nothin' at all.

The plants that get big enough to be put in the garden tend to do pretty well. I have one garden with heavy clay (but a lot of worms, so lots of organic matter), and one that is very sandy (few worms there), but it's getting a lot of chicken manure compost, so it did well last year.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Some of the varieties of tomatoes sprouted very well. Some very poorly. The peppers, as usual, are very slow and small. For the third year in a row, Habananda peppers did nothin' at all.

I struggle with peppers mainly because we just don't get long enough stretches of hotter weather to get them to take off. Depending on how the peppers do this year, I might just call it quits on most varieties (Shishitos do well for me each year so I know I can safely grow those).

Generally my tomatoes do pretty well, with many reaching about 4-6' tall. Last year I didn't amend the beds very much so that was the poorest harvest I got, but still had plenty of tomatoes to eat.

 

[gtaus]

Each year I garden and each year it got worse. Im doing raised beds and sfg this year hoping I get something to produce

I switched over to SFG and raised beds about 7 years ago. I get better results from that than I did from planting into the ground, but, I live on a lake and my soil is very sandy and even grass doesn't grow that well. Even our weeds don't grow very good in the sandy soil. Anyway, I try to grow a variety of vegetable plants with the idea that, depending on the weather that summer, some plants will grow better than others. The next year, depending on the weather, it may be the other plants.

As to SFG, I can tell you that my best year was the first year that I made Mel's mix and filled my raised beds. But I did not have good compost to replenish the beds every year, and I saw a steady decline in productivity. Now that I have chickens, I started making chicken run compost last year and I hope to rejuvenate my SFG beds.