Hi Gardengirl,

Every fall, I collect fallen leaves and simply spread them on my beds, sorta like making lasagna. It rains here during the fall and by march/april, half of the leaves turn into compost. I simply plant top. The rest of the leaves work its way into mulch and eventually compost. Not sure if others do the same but this has worked great for me. The only downside is sometimes the layer gets too thick and don't compost fast enough - I do a couple of tilling and water the beds for faster decomposition in that case.

gardengirl,

You basically quadrupled the area of your raised bed, based on the dimensions you mentioned.

7'x8' is 56 sq ft, whereas 4'x4' is only 16 sqft. (Double would be a 4'x8').

The simple answer is: add aged compost before every growing season! You can never go wrong with that.

The more complicated answer is: now that the bed is established, get a soil test and amend as necessary for pH (pH preference is based on the types of plants you are growing), and soil requirements (N-P-K) as well as other minerals (Ca, etc.) will be determined by the soil test.

Just adding Nitrogen is a BAD thing. Too much nitrogen will give the plants a beautiful look and vigorous growth, but very little fruit. True "TOMATO" fertilizer has a much higher value of P and K, than N. But, again, just blindly adding N, without knowing that your soil is deficient is just asking for trouble. If you want to amend with fertilizer, you should go with a far more balanced one, like a 5-5-5, 10-10-10 or 5-10-5 instead of something like bloodmeal, which is almost entirely N.

If you want the best results, get a soil test. If you want an easy solution, aged compost and BALANCED fertilizer. Something with a LITTLE added calcium to help prevent Blossom End Rot is nice also.

LOL! That explains why approximately double the soil mix didn't fill the box that first year (sheepish smile).

The bagged compost is aged, correct? Would you recommend raking off the topmost (i.e. not decomposed) layer of mulch or just spreading the compost right on top of the whole deal?

I used Osmocote for Flowers & Vegetables (14-14-14) the last few summers, but only when I planted. Perhaps I should reapply midway through the growing season? Or is that not the kind of fertilizer you are referring to?

For now, I am leaning more toward the "KISS" (Keep It Simple, Silly!) school of thought until I have a better understanding of basics, but I had been wondering about a soil test-- I can have one done at the local extension office for $15, I just wasn't sure if it was warranted for such a small area (it seems like most people have at least a couple hundred sq ft-- mine sounds pitifully tiny compared to that:). Although, I have read that too much Nitrogen can definitely be a bad thing...

Thank you both for the responses!

Hi Garden Girl,

An easy amending procedure is to add an inch of compost a year along with blood meal & bone meal applied with the boxes recommendation. You can also fertilizer your garden with an organic fertilizer like fish fertilizer that will feed your plants and build your soil at the same time.

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I like the KISS method, too, Gardengirl! And the lazy way of doing things when I can get away with it. This is one way you can KISS and get away with being lazy ~ take Dan's advice to spread an inch (atleast) of compost and forget everything else for now, including the extra N. Your soil sounds like it's nice and friable already (loose), so no need to add a bunch of other stuff except more organic matter to replace what was broken down and used by the plants last year. And compost'll do that.

When my plants are a few inches tall, I add an inch or two of composted manure and that's it. I have three growing seasons, so my garden gets between 3 and 6 inches of composted manure a year. Then I wait and don't add anything else unless my plants tell me they need it. If you Google up images for "nitrogen deficiency", "phosphorous deficiency", "potassium deficiency", "micronutrient deficiency" and "mineral deficiency", you'll familiarize yourself with what to look for. Then Google fish emulsion, bone meal and liquid seaweed, and you'll find that those two will add most everything you need in case of deficiencies. There may be a few micronutrients those won't cover, but they'll cover the vast majority. And buying just those three is nicer/cheaper than buying nine different things.

I'd definitely rake back any of the un-broken-down wood chips before you add that compost. Don't till in any large wood chips as they tie up a lot of nitrogen in your soil as they decompose, and that would hurt your plants.

Good luck! Bet you'll have a bumper crop this year. :)

Will do! Thanks for the responses!!!

Given your cool climate, just be cautious about adding TOO MUCH organic matter (i.e. compost) if your existing bed was established with that much compost and sphagnum. That being said, scraping off the bark mulch and working 1/4"-1/2" compost into the top 4"-6" wouldn't be a bad idea. (The danger of adding too much OM is that compost usually has a higher concentration of phosphorus which can throw PH way out of wack, throw the calcium:phosphorus ratio out, as well as lead to calcium uptake problems. Yes, it is possible to have too much organic matter in your garden, and it is more common than most believe).

I'll definitely keep that in mind. Hmm... maybe I should do that soil test after all... Thanks!