Where are my square foot gardeners!?

[mostnonymouse]

I'm building a 40 square foot raised bed this year and looking to see how our community feels about "Mel's Mix", how people have tweaked it, and what their results have been. For those that don't know, the mix calls for 1/3 peat, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 blended compost. Mel also says that straight compost can be used if necessary, so I'm going a little heavier with it. I'm using 3 bales of coco coir (7.5 cubic ft expanded), ~7 cubic feet of vermiculite (friggin paper bag ripped), and as many different types of compost as I can find locally..ie worm castings, cow manure, traditional compost, etc

I'm also considering picking up some rice hulls depending on how airy this mix turns out being. Our local hydro shop just began stocking the stuff and it sounds great from what my friends in the organic soil forum have told me.

 

[habeeb]

who' mel ? I must be out of the loop..

what's odd to me is using vermiculite in an outdoor bed, just never hear of that much..

also on the rice hulls, do you mean how heavy? as rice hulls are suppose to lighten the mix.. also they will degrade over time leaving a lightened mix, not so lightened..


I'm using some autopots, only because I have a balcony not being used, and it seems good for veggies..

 

[mostnonymouse]

also on the rice hulls, do you mean how heavy? as rice hulls are suppose to lighten the mix.. also they will degrade over time leaving a lightened mix, not so lightened..

yes...how heavy. How airy the mix DOESN'T turn out I guess I should say.

Google "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. Pretty complete straight-forward raised bed guide for newbies. This is my first veggie garden! I'm psyched. I have a friend with a farm starting transplants for me too so all I really have to do is bang the boards together, fill it with my mix and pop the plants in.

 

[FunkBomb]

Mushroom compost. It's worth every penny when the plants start producing.

-Funk

 

[Lazyman]

I've been adding about half a pallet a month of used coco/perlite to my clay-heavy soil in my 3000 square foot veggie garden. Next week I add another big batch and then it's time to till it all in and cover it to kill all the damned weed seeds. Can't wait to start planting! I learned a lot last year, (including that my neighbor rips off weed) but I hope he comes back this year, organic fertilizer is good stuff!

 

[geopolitical]

Mine are full of rocks, clay, compost, dirt, whatever was around in the field when I was building them. The mix is not light at all, in fact you could probably knock someone down with a shovel full of most of the back beds. Every fall they get covered with a layer of leaf mold & compost to wait for spring. Over time they've become a little "lighter" but not much. Plants don't care in the least, at least under our local conditions.

Rice hulls are a great source of silica & organic material. You can get them VERY cheaply as a bulk brewing ingredient (superbag style bulk) but I would mix them into your compost pile prior to incorporating them into a bed. As part of compost I love them, I've never added them directly to a planting mix. I think I paid about $0.50/kg + delivery.

 

[mostnonymouse]

I ended up using ROUGHLY 25% vermiculite, 25% peat and 50% compost from 3 sources (cow manure, worm castings, craigslist). I dug my bed out a bit and laid cardboard down as a weed barrier before filling it, so i'm left with a bit of extra space at the top. I think I'll grab a few bags of shrimp & seaweed compost and some mushroom compost and mix them in, and then mulch the entire thing with leaf mold.