Irie67's organic, raised bed, square foot garden

Im hoping to get lots of advice here!

I built these 3 raised beds out of cinder blocks. I used a mix of equal parts compost and topsoil that I purchased from a local compost company. I then added a bag of peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, azomite, kelp meal, calcitic lime, and gypsom. I then mulched with what I think is alfalfa hay (could be timothy hay. I found it in a barn, didnt know what it was). Then a layer of leaf mulch bought from the same compost company. This is not leaf mold. It has not been broken down as much as mold. It is ground and aged though. It was steaming hot when I bought it. Heres some pics.

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Here they are right after planting.

This is a more current shot of the garden. Im doing my best to utilize companion planting.
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Brocalli and cauliflower with onions and carrots. My carrots are just now popping the soil. There are 3 kinds of onions planted here. Red, white, and yellow. The only ones that came up were the red onions. The whites and yellows were leftover from a year ago, so they might have been too old. I planted some chamomile olong side of these brassicas to help deliver calcium, but I didnt water it and it died. I harvested it wild, so I'll just go get more and be a little more careful with it this time.
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This is a pic of my 2 strawberry plants with a borage plants in the middle. Borage apparently helps with flavor and yield. I then surrounded the plants in spinach and different kinds of lettuce, but none of those seeds popped. Once again, I suspect that I needed to water more than I did.
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This pic is my 3 sisters garden. Pole beans, corn, and squash. They apperently work together. The beans feed nitrogen to the corn and the corn provides a trelis for the beans. The squash shades the ground so no weeds will compete. I dont know if Im doing this right, but Im giving it a shot.
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This bed has tomatoes, eggplant, and bush beans. The bush beans are supposed to give nitrogen to the tomatoes.
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This bed has tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, parsely, Borage, marigolds, and nasturtiums. The main focus of the bed is to raise the tomatoes, pepers and eggplant. The basil, parsely, marigolds, and nasturtiums are for pest control. They are supposed to invite beneficial insects and scare away bad insects. The Borage is for flavor and yield. Ive planted these companion plants in all of the beds.We'll see if that theory works soon!


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compost pile
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More borage
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That looks really good man. I think im going to do raised beds next year also because my okra are having a tough time in the clay soil. Check my thread out in this section. Its my second time having my own garden andim looking for lots of tips and advice also. Best of luck to you!

Clay soil can be pretty productive if you till in a shit ton of compost and use multiple ACT applications. I used 2 truckloads of compost here. One load I tilled into the soil underneath the beds. The other, I used to fill the beds

Yeh thats where I messed up. Underestimated amount needed. I mixed in manure and top soil;; it just wasnt enough i dont think. Thanks for the tips though man! I have no idea what a ACT is!

ACT= Airated Compost Tea. If your not using organics dont bother. The chemicals will kill the living microbes in the compost tea. But if your doing organics without compost tea, you are missing out. Basically, compost and earthworm castings contain living microbes that help deliver nutrients to your plants. They are a delivery system. A compost tea gives them an environment in which they can multiply and grow. When you apply them to the soil, you will see results that will make anyone a believer in organics

Read this thread and you'll know more about compost tea than you ever wanted to. Pay attention to the posts by Microbeman and Lumperdawgs.

http://forum.grassci...tml#post3871952

Edited by Irie67, 24 May 2012 - 03:14 AM.

I'm def subd to this thread. Your grow is going to be amazing my friend. I love your soil recipe. Kinda like what I used but I didn't get my hands on some kelp meal so I went without this year. I do need to go to the store and pick up some happy frog 10-10-10. Prolly this weekend I'll pick it up. Can't wait to see what happens

And I'll def be checking up on your thread. More pics the better.

Check out mine it's in my sig.

Happy gardening!!

I'll post em as it grows. I tried hard to put together a good soil mix. Glad that you like it. I hand mixed all 3 beds with a flat shovel and a tarp. That was a lot of mixing! My back was killing me.

I will be giving them a compost tea application soon and then soon after that a kelp/alfalfa tea. That should keep everybody happy for a while.

Clay soil can be pretty productive if you till in a shit ton of compost and use multiple ACT applications. I used 2 truckloads of compost here. One load I tilled into the soil underneath the beds. The other, I used to fill the beds

Irie67

The soil west of the Cascade Range is very prone to Alkaline and compacted clay in the native soil. This is a typical and common situation for gardeners and farmers around here. Big time.

Look at agricultural Sulfur to supplement the Sulfur levels in the Gypsum. I'd definitely stay away from any Calcium (Ca++) (Calcite, Dolomite, Limestone or Oyster shell powder). When clay compacts in a soil it causes a huge imbalance in the soil's Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and adding more Calcium than what's already in the Gypsum isn't helpful.

Removing the positive charge (+) on the clay platelet's outer edge leaves only a negative charge (-) and therefore will repel each other and this opens the aeration and water pathways in the root zone.

Pure humic acid can be a major player in this process and Leonardite ain't gonna cut it.

HTH

CQ

Edited by ComfreyQuery, 26 May 2012 - 07:59 AM.

CQ,
Good to have you watching over my garden buddy. Thanks for the advice. Into the clay soil, the only thing that i tilled in was compost and kelp meal. Then I built the raised beds on top with a soil mix that did not include any of the native clay soil. So, I guess I did right here, because I didnt add gypsom or lime to the clay underneath, just in the soil mix in the raised beds. I guess sul-po-mag will do if I wanted to add sulphur? I hope I can water it in. Topdressing would be a pain.

CQ,
Good to have you watching over my garden buddy. Thanks for the advice. Into the clay soil, the only thing that i tilled in was compost and kelp meal. Then I built the raised beds on top with a soil mix that did not include any of the native clay soil. So, I guess I did right here, because I didnt add gypsom or lime to the clay underneath, just in the soil mix in the raised beds. I guess sul-po-mag will do if I wanted to add sulphur? I hope I can water it in. Topdressing would be a pain.

Irie67

You're fine and I didn't think of using Sul-Po-Mag but you're spot-on!

My work here is done - LOL

CQ

Irie67

Just to be clear, it's not going to be any element or compound that will eventually 'break up' the clay component. That isn't how it works but that's the usual terminology.

What creates humus is organic material. Look at Stankie's Mulch thread. He explains it perfectly. When you have this type of layering in your raised beds this attracts earthworms. Earthworms move deep into the sub-soil and consume materials which are processed with enzymes in the digestive tract. When the earthworms move to the top of the soil they deposit their castings and when it rains or you water those elements are moved into the top soil and rhizosphere.

In that movement from the sub-soil to the top the earthworms create tunnels (for lack of a better/accurate word). These tunnels allow for the movement of air and water and thereby increases the microbial levels and activity and that is what will give you a true soil.

Clay is good. Clay is necessary. Clay needs to be freed of its positive charge on the edges. Humus can accomplish this without much intervention on our parts.

HTH

CQ

your beds look awesome,,,,

and i can tell you put a lot of time in making them,and making them '' right''

Thanks for the compliment there chicken. Im just tired of failing. So I did my research, started from scratch. Glad you like it. Thanks for the rep+ too!

CQ,
Thanks for the knowledge. My whole garden is thanks to you. You've taught me so much.

Hey ruh roh, Thanks for the +rep. You asked me about weather marigolds work or not to ward off the bugs. To tell the truth, I have no idea. This garden was constructed on book-read and GC-read knowledge. I read the stick at the top of the gardening forum about companion planting, did a little research about raised beds, and became a pupil of Lumperdawgz. So I havn't actually tested it to find out. I have grown these veggies before, but this is my first year planting herbs and flowers as pest prevention. I'll let you know how it goes for sure.

Marigolds release root exudes that kill pathogenic nematodes which can wipe out fungi colonies.

"Get the correct variety" - Calendula is a great option and maybe even the best. Check the medicinal compounds in this plant.

The flowers also produce pollinator attractors as well compounds that repel herbivore insects. Yarrow is another great companion plant - medicinal compounds, bio-stimulators for the plant, pesticide, fungicide, nutrient accumulator, etc.

HTH

CQ

Edited by ComfreyQuery, 29 May 2012 - 12:26 AM.

Marigolds release root exudes that kill pathogenic nematodes which can wipe out fungi colonies.

"Get the correct variety" - Calendula is a great option and maybe even the best. Check the medicinal compounds in this plant.

The flowers also produce pollinator attractors as well compounds that repel herbivore insects. Yarrow is another great companion plant - medicinal compounds, bio-stimulators for the plant, pesticide, fungicide, nutrient accumulator, etc.

HTH

CQ

Damn you know your shit!

Did ya go to school for this and/or does your job involve farming/gardening?

Hi Folks,
How do you handle seeds and mulch? Do you wait for the seeds to pop, then mulch. Or will the seeds pop through the mulch?
I wasnt sure so I did one bed with alfalfa and leaf mulch hoping that the mulch would help the seeds by retaining moisture. The next bed I mulched with just alfalfa, but no leaf mulch. and the third bed with no mulch. All of the beds got a light layer of homeade compost. Beds 1 and 2-all the seeds popped. They were corn, bush beans, pole beans, and nasturtiums. Bed three- My red onions grew, but not the white or the yellow. Some of these onions were old sets though. The lettuce, spinach, and carrots didn't pop. I got busy and didnt water them as much as I should have, which is why I had such a failure rate on the seeds. But the mulch did seem to help retain moisture because I had good germination in the beds with mulch.

Hi Folks,
How do you handle seeds and mulch? Do you wait for the seeds to pop, then mulch. Or will the seeds pop through the mulch?
I wasnt sure so I did one bed with alfalfa and leaf mulch hoping that the mulch would help the seeds by retaining moisture. The next bed I mulched with just alfalfa, but no leaf mulch. and the third bed with no mulch. All of the beds got a light layer of homeade compost. Beds 1 and 2-all the seeds popped. They were corn, bush beans, pole beans, and nasturtiums. Bed three- My red onions grew, but not the white or the yellow. Some of these onions were old sets though. The lettuce, spinach, and carrots didn't pop. I got busy and didnt water them as much as I should have, which is why I had such a failure rate on the seeds. But the mulch did seem to help retain moisture because I had good germination in the beds with mulch.

I have the same exact question!

Currently I'm waiting on a bunch of sprouts to come up and makes me nervous as hell waiting because the soil gets a all crusty and dry on top and it definitely doesn't look like healthy soil for sprouts to be in

Hey there friends, time for a garden update.


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Here are a few of my tomatoes. Ive been plucking the suckers to keep the plant single stem. I fed then a kelp alfalfa tea with a little neem tea today. Sprayed neem oil/ pro-tect mixture yesterday evening. Ive got some brandywines, sun sugar, parks whopper, and a roma variety.
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These are my borage plants. In the second pic you can see my 3 sisters garden. The corn is ahead of the beans and it seems to be working as planned so far.
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My peppers aint doing so hot. they're just sitting still.
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Nasturtiums
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Bush beans
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I like the purple basil. Its pretty. I have a lemon/lime basil that I just cant stay out of. I grab a leaf crunch it up and smell it everytime I walk by it
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