Im building 3 raised beds out of cinder blocks for my veggie garden. Should my soil mix be different than my MJ soil mix? My MJ soil mix is pretty hot. Are there any veggies that i should worry about in this hot mix. There is a composting place near by that sells a raised bed mix that i can buy in bulk. I may just buy that and ammend it a little
Ammending a raised bed mix is what I would do My list would include: HQ or home-made compost, wormcastings, lava sand, some dry molasses, small amounts of blood and bone meal.... I also like to add a sall amount of gerneral purpose 4-4-4 dry fertlizer
Is the sand for airation? I make my own worm castings, but nowhere near the amount to be able to do a raised bed. Im thinking I can toss some in the planting hole though. Dry molasses for microbe food, I wouldn't have thought of that thanks. Id +rep you but You've helped me out to much in the past and GC wont let me.
Adding some lava sand adds minerals to the mix. You use a small amount - Like 5% of the mix is plenty the same with blood meal and bone meal, and molasses - 5% of the mix each is plenty If you want some aeration, use perlite. What you do is add up to 25% of it to your completed raised bed mix
Thanks Tex. Im pretty excited about these beds. I'll be putting up pics of my garden here in the garden forum once I've got it all up and growing. Who'd of thought my pot habit would lead to this. Im a bit obsessed with the gardening these days. Thanks for the +rep!
IDK if this'll help / Guess it depends on where you live But try CraigsList I know there's some community compost lots around here where you can pick up all you want for free & there's always seem to be a few people offering left over free dirt Probably not the best but you can always mix it Also check with places like HomeDepot Some of them will sell full pallets of bags that have been ripped for like 16 to 20 bux Trust me it'll save you a lot of $$$ Depending on how big/deep they are they can cost a ton to fill + If you have any stables around you hit them up Pretty much all of them will be more than happy to let you come over & shovel all the free crap you want Good Luck
I really don't get this raised bed thing...can some one explain this to me? I just don't understand?? could you send me a picture...looking to build something in the very near future...
[quote name='"Mattbo4"'] I really don't get this raised bed thing...can some one explain this to me? I just don't understand?? could you send me a picture...looking to build something in the very near future...[/quote] Raised beds is just fancy for border garden. You raise the sides of your garden and add compost and peat moss and amendments, this loamy layer will help your plants grow stronger and push their roots deeper into the bottom layers. Thus bigger better plants. It you double dig then raise your in some real money, add a cover crop and you look like you know what your doing.
Raised beds are good for veggies, herbs and some smaller fruits It's especially good to use if you have bad soil You till in some compost into the top 6" of soil and then build a raised bed above it using boards You fill in the bed with a soil mix......and then you plant Here' a pic of one!
[quote name='"Mattbo4"']What are you guys doing for changing the level of the ground if it's a little unlevel? Sand? Stone?[/quote] A rake.