soil & amendments for new garden

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hi everyone, i am putting together a couple of new raised beds this spring, but am having a really hard time finding info on figuring out how much soil, compost,etc i need to fill them. one bed will be approx. 150 sq ft 12-16 in deep. the other will bw about 40 sq ft. any ideas? i'm also interested in using coco peat as an amendment to help with water retention for our HOT DRY summers here in texas. any ideas on what the percentage of coco peat should be? also, does anyone have a good source to buy this stuff? i found it at peaceful valley farm (www.groworganic) but the shipping on any good amount is pretty outrageous. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance, dawn

-- dawn weger (chowhuahua@home.com), March 01, 2001

Answers

You aren't even considering buying bagged dirt, I hope.... That really would be outrageous in price. I would say that you are going to need about 40 cubic yards, just in dirt. Any way to use some from another part of your property??

When I did mine back in Illinois, I made beds that were 3' wide, 12' long and only 12" deep. Dug up the ground inside really well, added about 4 yards well seasoned horse manure, 2 yards peat moss and dusted the top with powdered lime. I had to bring in bags for the rest (small lot in burbs).

Do you have rabbits or chickens????? Rabbit manure can be added straight to the garden, chicken doo needs to be composted. But, if you just put it in now, and water it a couple times over the next month, it will be fine.

Can I ask why your beds are so big? The whole idea of raised beds is so you don't have to waste space walking in them.... If materials for the walls are the problem, another suggestion...

In "How to Grow More Vegetables" (John Jeavons) he made his beds with just raised dirt. That gave an even larger area to plant than straight sides, because they planted the angled edges of each bed. This might be of some service.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), March 01, 2001.


To calculate the amount of material needed figure the cubic yard. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, i.e. 3X3X3=27. Since you have 150 square feet in one bed, making it 1 foot deep would yield 150 cubic feet, which divided by the 27 in a yard, would equal 5.5 cubic yards of material. The other would figure 1.48 cubic yards, which would give just a little over 7 cubic yards for the two beds.

Sue, I believe that you misread the 150 square feet as 150 feet square. The 150 square foot bed might be 30 feet long by 5 feet wide, or perhaps 50 feet long by 3 feet wide. A 150 foot square bed would be more like a half acre at 22,500 square feet.

Sorry dawn, I'm not familiar with coco peat and can't help you. I would recommend at least 6 inches of good black dirt, some sponge like material, and perhaps sand on the bottom for drainage if that is any kind of a problem in your area. Being a rasied bed, it shouldn't since that is one of the purposes of a raised bed.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), March 01, 2001.


I'm not sure that coco fiber is your answer. It will certainly lighten heavy soils, but it is not all that great at water retention under hot dry conditions; it dries out too, although it doesn't become water-repellant, the way that true peat does. Your local garden centers will probably have cocopeat blocks for less than having them shipped, or ask them if they can get them and at what cost. Have you considered using the gel crystals that expand with water and hold it? They are supposed to be very good for very dry areas, and they work for about 5 years before breaking down into organic components. You can get enough of those to do your whole area for probably under $40 (mail order, bulk, Gardener's Supply). Some garden places sell them in little teeny packets for high prices to use in potting soil, and buying those would greatly inflate your costs.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 01, 2001.

The gel crystals that Julie F. speaks of are polyacrylamides. While there are different grades of them, the cross-linked polyacrylamides (CLP) that I have used are rated to absorb 400 times their weight in water. When hydrated the CLPs give up the moisture to the plant roots as needed, thereby creating less stress on the plants. Less stress equals better produce and yields. A one pound box of 400x CLP will absorb a 40 gallon barrel of water.

While I have read may toxicology reports on them and am completely comfortable using them, everyone should make their own decision based on individual research.

http://www.hydrosource.com/serv01.htm

http://www.hydrosource.com/

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), March 02, 2001.


My experience with raised beds hasn't been good so far. I tried the sloped-sided ones but the rain washed all the seeds down into the paths even though the soil was nice and loose. Those gel pellets would have probably solved that problem. When I was in Texas an extension agent told me that parts of Texas had very alkaline soil so you should get a soil test before adding lime. In fact all your questions could be answered by your extension agent. Good luck.

-- Peg in NW WI (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), March 02, 2001.


I really love the method in the book "Lasagna Gradening" by Patricia Lanza. It's really the Ruth Stout way. You basically create your own soil using newspapers, peatmoss, grass clippings, leaves compost, etc. (stuff most people have around) You could probably get the book through interlibrary loan if your library doesn't already have it.

good luck and God Bless

-- Arlene in OR (amwauer@todbbs.com), March 07, 2001.


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