I would not get mulch that is made from trash for veggies garden. it is ok for shrubs, trees but not for veggies garden.

So I would get good compost from reputable nursery. and mix it with the native soil. also add manures. Home depot sells a brand of steer manur for under $1.50 per one cubic foot.

I don't know how deep your boxes are but they should be about 10 inches deep . in this was the case you will need
about 30 cubic feet filler. If you use 15 cubict foot native top soil(+some bottom soil) , you will need to buy 15 cubic feet compost and steer manur. Cheapest way is Home Depot garden section. Cost : about 30 bucks.

Final Note: clay, to certain amount is not bad it is actually good. It maintains not just water but also the nutrients. When mixed with compost and manur, it will be fine. Yes, clay can get hard if it get dry but you sshould not let your garden to get that dry anyway.

yes they are about that deep, maybe 12" deep even.

Why is the compost from the landfill not ok? They collect our yard waste to make it. I'm not sure I have any spare topsoil except what the box is sitting on and then it would be lower than the surrounding grade, is that ok?

Oh we also have some old rotting acacia roots that DH dug up when he started to dig a trench, they have sat rotting for about seven years and are starting to break up, are they useful?

Thank you for your help Obi wan!

Some communities that I know process some home garbage (COBB COUNTY, GA). I also know communities that shred trees, compost along with fall leaves etc. You have to see their yard. If everything is clean stuff then it is ok for vegetables garden.

I would not recommend rotted tree. It can be infested with unwanted organisms that might get to work on plants roots.

If you have a flat bed truck or can borrow from a friend, you can check the county's waste yard and pick up some compost. But compost alone is not good. So eventually you have to mix with topsoil(50/50). The steer manure sold in HD in a lot of places is adtually mostly compost, topsoil and manure. Because of that it is a good soil amendment. Plus, it is inexpensive. I have probably used 30 bags of it this year so far.
Here is what you can do. Ask your son or husband just turn over where the boxes wil be (about shovel depth. Then mix the losened soil with compost manure and some addition all purpose top soil, and fiill the boxes up to 9 -10".'As the mixture compacts , you can add more.

Drawback of 100% compost is the it will bind(hold) fertilizers and other nutrients. So yu would wondr why after all that fertilizing, you plants are not doing as good as they should. But when the compost eventually, little by little, decays, the nutrients will becom available to the plant. So actually some compost is good to regulate the nutrients, especially nitrogen.

check our bale garden presentation:

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden

Thanks for the advice. Ok so rotten tree roots, in compost or toss them?

Len, wow, I hope I can grow a fraction of that. How long did you leave all that before you planted?

Seysonn, thanks for the advice, I will check out the steer manure, perhaps I can use a combo of stuff including that, perhaps some of the free mushroom compost and some of the steer manure and some of our nasty soil.

Any advice on what the easiest (most resilient) plants would be to try?

I garden in a very different part of the country, but given all the info in your post, this is what I'd do:

1. Contact your county Extension service (maybe here: http://cesandiego.ucanr.edu/ ?) and ask them about the certified compost. It sounds pretty good from the PDF, but the Extension office -- or the Master Gardeners program -- should be familiar with it and be able to either reassure you or tell you to steer clear. But if the local Master Gardeners use it themselves, I'd jump on it.

2. If they give you the green light, mix equal parts certified compost, mushroom soil, and either purchased or existing top soil to fill your bed. (Bagged top soil is pretty cheap at the big box hardware stores - maybe start with 2 bags per 4x4 and see how much that gets you.) You could also mix in some vermiculite and/or peat, a la Square Foot Gardening's Mel's Mix. I agree that you'd want some top soil in there to give the soil some structure, but I think you're pretty lucky to have all that free compost. If you want to throw in some coffee grounds and your own homemade compost, great ... you could also look for worm castings. All that organic matter should go a long way toward lightening up that concrete-like soil you describe. You'll need to add additional compost each year (or even over the course of the season) but it sounds like you can come by it a lot easier than most of us.

For plants, have you tried swiss chard? I've found it to be one of the most effortless things in my garden. And really pretty, especially "Bright Lights" or other rainbow varieties. You can stir fry it with garlic as a side dish or make it into quiche. Start with 3-4 plants and see how you like it.

Radishes are also easy, if only because they germinate and grow really quickly. :)

How many hours of sun will the beds receive?

Thanks, I'll try calling them! I remember seeing a booth about them at the county fair one year.

The beds should get full sun from 11am until about half an hour before sunset (which is about 7.30pm right now), so right now there is about 7 hours of sun.

My kids like rainbow chard :) we saute it until the edges are a little brown.

You know I had a thought, DH plans to rest the corners of the boxes on a paver, so I guess I could dig out the topsoil from that and replace it with some of the free stuff so I have topsoil to mix in with the stuff above.

ugh sorry, it told me post rejected or something and then double posted.

This post was edited by oscarlet on Wed, May 15, 13 at 0:26

Lots of people have been double-posting lately; something must be going on with the boards.

With 7 hours of sun, I'm wondering if regular tomatoes might be a bit finicky, but cherry tomatoes would probably do fine. The plants can get bigger than regular tomatoes, though, so you'd want a strong, tall cage or support for them.

Lettuce should do pretty well for you, especially in spring and fall, when it's cooler. Afternoon shade is better for them than morning shade, but they don't need as many hours of sun as fruiting plants.

Since you like herbs, have you tried basil? I've had good luck with it and we love to make it into pesto. :)

This post was edited by kathyb912_IN on Wed, May 15, 13 at 10:49

g'day oscarlet,

we planted as soon as the gardens were finished no waiting, had massive summer season now the brassica season well on the way cabbages and broccoli heading up.

we've been topping up with more soil, and planting straight away.

must take a now pic of the brassica garden

len

My beds are only 6" deep but placed directly on ground so roots can go deeper. I have been experimenting with the Mittleider method this yr. Mostly for the vertical growing techniques and fertilizing and spacing methods. My strawberries grew 8" in 8 days, my potatoes about doubled in size in 3 days. I am growing as I usually do in my regular amended clay soil. Plus I am in the process of installing an automatic irrigation system as well. Check it out at link below.
Tammy
http://www.tammyinwv.blogspot.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog

If you suspect your soil is not good, just mix up a potting soil and fill the boxes with that. In any case it is not a bad idea to begin this way, as it removes one variable.

A simple formula is one part peat moss, one part perlite, and one part good compost. You don't have to be all that exact about it. Mix it a little at a time in the box, or mix it on a tarp and then shovel it in. If possible, mix a variety of types of compost.

Some landfill places give away free composted solid waste from the sewage plant. I wouldn't trust that stuff, because a lot of bad stuff goes into the sewers.

A 4 x 4 box one foot deep is 16 cubic feet. So you would want something over 5 cubic feet each of peat moss, perlite, and compost. If you have gophers, in your area, make sure you staple half-inch hardware cloth to the bottom of the box, or you will regret not doing it later.

My neighbor has a horse stable and I can get all the mostly composted horse manure I want for free. It is mostly crumbly like dirt with bits of shavings mixed in. I mixed loads of that in with my garden soil.
Tammy

so following up a little. My husband has not finished the irrigation yet so I'm still waiting. I'm not too worried though, one of our friends was still growing strawberries into december.

Luckily our neighbour was putting in a patio and the contractors gave us some of the soil. My husband commented that their soil was nicer than ours so they may have bought top soil over the years. So anyway I have some soil to mix in now.

I haven't see gophers in my neighbourhood, but I've seen them at the school half a mile away (there is a canyon between us) he already put hardware cloth on them though. I suspect I will have more trouble with the raccoons though.

Unfortunately your link didn't give me any info about your landfill. However, my brother used to live in the area, and used the "garden blend" from the landfill (also certified organic)
I have horrible clay, and what I do to start a new bed is

1. Break up the soil/clay as much as you can with a shovel or pitchfork

2. Water deeply
   3)Add aged Manure of choice (horse, cow, etc. These must be aged!) goat, sheep llama, rabbit can go in at any time.
   4)water deeply! LOL
3. Place boxes, lined with hardware cloth (if you have ANY inkilng that you have gophers!)
4. Water deeply!
   7)Add "garden blend" from the landfill or a landscape supply place
   8) Plant!
   9) Water deeply!
   If you are filling raised beds, buying bags of soil will cost you tons of $$$$$$!!!!!
   If you can get a truck load for $12 you'll be better off!
   Good luck and happy gardening!

Perennial herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme will be hardy enough to survive most mishaps. Parsley, too; it's a biennial, and after mine died the ground it just grew right on back. Same with my sage. I've found that bush beans require little effort, though I would do several successive plantings, spaced maybe two weeks apart, because the plant's crop matures largely at once rather than spread out over a long time. Chard is a good bet. I've heard summer squashes are easy and they're VERY productive.

"My neighbor has a horse stable and I can get all the mostly composted horse manure I want for free.
-----------------------------------------
it couldn't be any better than this.
If I were you, here is I would do: Mix topsoil/garden soil , compost , horse manure (5/3/2) and fill the beds to the rim. It will compact several inches. Horse manure and compost already have some nutrients, enough to get you going. Then check the mixtures for pH. 5.9 to 7.2 is a ranges that most garden veggies can grow in it.

Thanks for all the help. I called the extension people (thanks!) and the lady was very helpful. She said that the local landfill stuff was fine except that it still has little pieces of wood in it after sieving so you need to add nitrogen fertiliser if you use that. She said if I can be bothered to go get the mushroom compost she thinks it is superior. She suggested 2/3 compost 1/3 soil as apparently my soil is heavy clay.

She sent me a list of veggies and said it is really too late for chard now here. She suggested squash, tomatoes and cucumbers as possibles.

I did look at the soil/manure options at Home depot today (I went for grout so thought I'd look) it was really expensive considering how much I'd need.