I just received a beautiful Oregon cedar 8x10 greenhouse as a retirement gift from my husband in May. I have been an avid gardener in Butte, Montana for 25 years. So, I thought a greenhouse would be a nice addition to adding longevity for my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. There are 3 raised beds in the greenhouse. At the bottom of each bed I put a layer of small stones. Then black landscape fabric, followed by 12 inches of soil. In one bed I planted 3 tomato plants, the second 2 cucumbers, the third 4 pepper plants. After 3 weeks all the plants were dying. The tomatoes had leaf curl, end blossom rot, and yellowing leaves. The peppers and cucumbers never did "take off". I went to the nursery that sold me the soil for the beds and asked for a hard copy of their soil analysis. The pH in the soil was 9, and all the other soil components were low. I removed all the sad looking plants. Then I removed about 1/3 the soil in all the beds, and I patiently re-added manure, peat moss and store bought topsoil to each bed. After rototilling all the soil mixtures together in the beds, I replanted the same things. And the same thing happened with the plants. My next step was to have a soil analysis done with the county extension office. The pH level was now 6.5, however there was a "trace" of Nitrogen in the soil...potassium levels were very high. Today I removed all the soil from the beds right down to the small stones...hosed down the beds and am starting over. While I will probably wait until spring to add any medium to the beds, any input would be greatly appreciated.

hello all, Newbie to Gardenweb forums. I live in Central NJ. We have lots of pine trees around our house with surface roots. I tried to make new beds for flowers and vegetables etc, but most plants grew poorly in the last growing season due to the Pine roots around. I made couple of raised bed containers this winter to resolve this root issues. What sort of soil mixes should I look at for adding into the raised bed? Any places that Central NJ folks would recommend for getting soil in bulk? I will be planting roses, hostas and other annuals in them. Thanks in advance. Mel.

You might find this interesting about llama beans - https://paradisefoundfiber.com/resources/the-wonders-of-llama-poop/ I have nine llamas right now so now shortage of llama beans! They are totally pasture fed and their manure has done wonders when we pour buckets full directly into holes before planting trees or shrubs. I put about 1/3 llama beans in my soil when we made our garden beds originally. It breaks down very quickly. I have llama tea made all the time also and pour it on my veggies from time to time. I planted tomatoes from seed last July and had tomatoes through Christmas (I covered them the first couple of freezes). I had some that the slices were the size of corn tortillas. We put in soil, llama beans, seaweed and the amendments listed in Howard Garrett's book in the amounts he says too for about 14" deep in our raised beds. They aren't overfull yet I was just thinking they would become that way. Didn't realize that wouldn't happen. My compost (which is mainly vegetable/fruit scraps from the kitchen) wasn't ready between the fall and spring garden but it will be before I plant again so I just didn't realize how to do it or how it worked. I was concerned about disturbing the dirt or removing any since I read not to till and that you don't want to disturb the earthworms and the beneficial life too much.

You need to go to the vegetable gardening resource of your local ag extension. For you, that would be the same as mine, which is Texas A&M. You will find that here. https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/ Their vegetable planting calendar, for Texas, is here https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/VegPlantingGuideJan2015.pdf In that calendar, the average dates of first and last freeze is given, in general, for Texas (which is a big state). For you in Houston, those dates will be a little different, and can be looked up here, by zip code. https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates Those are AVERAGE dates, which means that you have a 50% chance of your frost intolerant plants getting killed. Add or subtract a few weeks if you want to be safer.