Question about new garden

[FloorCandy]

Hi there, last year I grew a variety of vegetables in cinderblocks beside my fence. I got the large blocks with holes that are about double size. It worked great, tomatoes, peppers, corn, cucumbers, sunflowers. This year I’m going a bit larger. I’m moving my quail all under the deck because the 3 feet of snow was hard on me and the pens spread around the yard, the under the deck pen barely knew it snowed.

I’ll have a 6x4 area surrounded by cinder blocks that’s holding maybe 3 inches of decomposing pine chips, poop and dirt. I would like to mix in a few inches of top soil or something and I’m wondering if top soil is what I should get. Last year for my plants I put potting or container soil in the holes, and then the roots also grew down into regular dirt. It seems like top soil is pretty cheap, but it’s just boasting about sphagnum peat moss, and I know peat is supposed to be good for roots starting and draining, but doesn’t add much nutrients to the soil. Is there a better type of dirt to mix in to create a new raised garden bed? I’m starting the plants inside in peat cup things, so they’ll be well established when I replant them.

Other info that might be helpful, my property borders swampland so the ground is often very wet, but the raised bed seemed to work well last year.

plants I’m growing:
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Peppers
Mango melons
Bush Beans
Broccoli
And a lettuce, maybe kale I forget which seeds I got.

I also have several grow bags of various sizes in which I plan to grow strawberries, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes and I am planning to use potting soil.

We moved from Brooklyn only 2 years ago, so I haven’t done a garden for many years and I’m out of practice. What are the best “dirts” to use?

I have just set up a compost tumbler, but I don’t expect to have any compost in time for this season to start.

 

[Percheron chick]

Top soil can be anything from junk fill dirt that can't make mud pies to highly productive garden soil that will have you drowning in zucchini.
Your raised bed is very small and only needs about 1/2 yd of soil for every 8" cinder block in height. For calculating your needs, 1 yd will cover 40 sq ft 8".
Start by filling the bed with organic materials. Even if the compost isn't ready, I would dump it in the bottom where it will continue to break down and be available for future gardens. If you're talking a lot of space, throw some cardboard on the bottom. Works as a weed barrier and it too will break down in a year. Leaves, straw, wood chips...anything. Save the top 8-12" for good soil. You aren't growing any root vegetables so you can get away with less on top.
If you have a truck, go buy a yd of bulk garden soil. Should run $50-75. The richer soil will pay for itself many times over in vegetables. With chickens the excess never goes to waste. If you're stuck having to buy bags of soil figure around 30 bags for 1/2 yd. I think it's close to 55 40# bags per yd. Don't spend your money on name brand soil. Mix the bags so you are adding compost and texture to the soil. Check CL too. If you're in a pot legal state, growers swap out their soil with every new crop and need a place to get rid of the old stuff. Free.
I wouldn't use peat moss. It's pretty much void of any nutrients the plants need. Amended top soil, garden soil, compost, sheep or cow manures... you just have to evaluate what you have available, read the tags and punt. You will do well with some and learn what not to do for next year.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Most soils sold will contain chemical fertilizers. If you plan on using them this is fine. If not try getting organic soil or mixing your own like Percheron chick said.

 

[FloorCandy]

Top soil can be anything from junk fill dirt that can't make mud pies to highly productive garden soil that will have you drowning in zucchini.
Your raised bed is very small and only needs about 1/2 yd of soil for every 8" cinder block in height. For calculating your needs, 1 yd will cover 40 sq ft 8".
Start by filling the bed with organic materials. Even if the compost isn't ready, I would dump it in the bottom where it will continue to break down and be available for future gardens. If you're talking a lot of space, throw some cardboard on the bottom. Works as a weed barrier and it too will break down in a year. Leaves, straw, wood chips...anything. Save the top 8-12" for good soil. You aren't growing any root vegetables so you can get away with less on top.
If you have a truck, go buy a yd of bulk garden soil. Should run $50-75. The richer soil will pay for itself many times over in vegetables. With chickens the excess never goes to waste. If you're stuck having to buy bags of soil figure around 30 bags for 1/2 yd. I think it's close to 55 40# bags per yd. Don't spend your money on name brand soil. Mix the bags so you are adding compost and texture to the soil. Check CL too. If you're in a pot legal state, growers swap out their soil with every new crop and need a place to get rid of the old stuff. Free.
I wouldn't use peat moss. It's pretty much void of any nutrients the plants need. Amended top soil, garden soil, compost, sheep or cow manures... you just have to evaluate what you have available, read the tags and punt. You will do well with some and learn what not to do for next year.

I’ve been using deep bedding, just put new chips on top of the old since last fall. I plan to move the quail and take half the partially decomposed deep bedding and use it to compost to mix in for planting some blueberry, and ground cherry bushes that I ordered. The other half I plan to use in the new bed which will occupy the space of the quail pen. Based on what you’re saying, I will mix it all up and leave some on the bottom and I’ll mix the rest with a topsoil, I’ll have to hit the store and start reading tags. As far as weed control, the quail killed or ate every inch of greenery in like a week, then they dig out any bits of seeds or roots, then compounded 5 months thick of wood chips and feces over the area, I think the weeds have given up haha, anything new will come from blowing onto the top.

I appreciate the detailed response and all the info provided, thank you.

 

[Percheron chick]

Blueberries are one plant that greatly benefit from peat moss. They love the high acidic medium. When I was investigating adding some to my garden, the state master gardeners recommended just burying a bale of peat and planting the blueberries directly into the bale. No dirt no nothing. I would put the BBs in their own special area in the garden.
The decomposed deep litter should provide an excellent amendment for the beds. Screen it to remove any chunks. Throw the chunks at the bottom of the bed and cover it with the fine mixture you shake out. It should be nice and fluffy with a ton of nutrients and hold a ton of moisture. I'd just add screened garden soil or screened augmented topsoil and go from there. You're miles ahead of where you were last year. Can you tell I don't like dirt clods ?
Then, once you get everything planted, mulch, mulch and mulch some more.
Train any vine plants to grow up to save space in the garden.

 

[CDitzel]

We live at the top of a mountain on 10 acres so my main problems are deer and rodents, squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits etc!! We are putting up 2 10 x 10 x 8 ft kennels giving us 10 x 20 x 8 ft garden. This is totally enclosed and with 8 inches of clay topsoil removed and replaced with mushroom soil. The sides can be used for climbing plants like cucumbers. This will keep chickens and ducks from the garden. We have also used a kennel as a protection for the chicken coop at night.

 

[FloorCandy]

Blueberries are one plant that greatly benefit from peat moss. They love the high acidic medium. When I was investigating adding some to my garden, the state master gardeners recommended just burying a bale of peat and planting the blueberries directly into the bale. No dirt no nothing. I would put the BBs in their own special area in the garden.
The decomposed deep litter should provide an excellent amendment for the beds. Screen it to remove any chunks. Throw the chunks at the bottom of the bed and cover it with the fine mixture you shake out. It should be nice and fluffy with a ton of nutrients and hold a ton of moisture. I'd just add screened garden soil or screened augmented topsoil and go from there. You're miles ahead of where you were last year. Can you tell I don't like dirt clods ?
Then, once you get everything planted, mulch, mulch and mulch some more.
Train any vine plants to grow up to save space in the garden.

My crazy neighbors have half a fence on one side of the yard. Our yard wasn’t fenced, but I have put up 4ft metal garden fencing all around the yard to keep deer and rabbits out because my dogs kept getting tapeworms. The vet says most preventatives don’t do tape worms because they’re so uncommon lol. Anyway the area where it goes from privacy fence behind my fence to nothing, I plan to put wooden trellises for my cucumbers and mango melons to climb, and to offset the unsightly fence (half their fence is someone else’s used privacy fence that they put up last year, the other half is pieces of an old deck they stood up at the back of their property and piled logs behind). The blueberries are not going in the garden, I’m putting them along the garden fence on the other side of the yard, ideally so we and the neighbors on that side can just pick some easily.

Ive got half my compost tumbler filled with bird bedding, coffee grounds, leaves and kitchen peelings, and it’s closed up and I tumble it every day, hopefully it will be compost in time to plant some stuff, the booklet it came with said as short as 3-5 weeks if closed and tumbled regularly.

I’ll definitely screen my litter, that’s a great idea! Thank you for the insight.

 

[Nigel27]

Awesome thread!
im making activated chicken manure/salmon liquid fertilizer with scrapings from the poop board and jarred dog food salmon that didn’t seal properly. I’ve it in a barrel filled with water and a bubbler, stir everyday and I’m amazed that it doesn’t make me gag! The bubbler keeps is aerobic, and I’m hoping it’ll be ready after a few weeksCan’t wait to see how it works.
I use my greenhouse as a brooder during the off season and that seems to really control weeds and boost the soil. I had protected plantings of crowded cabbage and broccoli right in the chicken run using the birds to prevent cabbage moth infestation, that was highly successful!

 

[writerskramp]

Started with blow sand.. live high above a river, like old sand bar on top of glacial drift in the land of gnarly oak trees.. So built raised beds out of thick old barn floor boards scrounged from a son.. Someone dumped on his property, and he knew the guy. Which are rotting and falling apart, eventually be just mounds of dirt.. Ordered in a dump truck load of supposed garden soil, old decomposed pig manure and car parts.. Add what ever to it over time.. Oak leaves.. too chicken stuff.. Am trying to do the deep liter method, but so many roots growing up from beneath compact the soil.. I have made it my goal to plant as many perennials as possible.. So as to spend more time processing and less time gardening.. It's a work in progress. Postscript: Been doing this about ten yarn.. and using a tiller kicks my old behind.

 

[Percheron chick]

Car parts. Is that like a secret sauce? Makes the plants grow big and strong?