You don't say what you plan to grow. Perhaps vegetables in rasied beds?

Generally, I would ease myself into the new environment by having a reasonably sized garden at first with some soil ammendment. This would allow you to do some gardening while getting to know the local gardening community and the local methods.

I am a frugal gardener and the thought of spending hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars on raised beds and soil ammendments does not fit with my idea of gardening. I have some raised beds but those were made from salvaged lumber.

Doing a little at a time is not a bad idea. It seems that in our "make over age" everything has to be done at once to look picture perfect. I do all my gardening with hand tools which includes a garden fork, a shovel and a crow bar. A little at a time gets the job done and saves my back.

for me i'd simply suggest cut to the chase and do the raised beds, why you need them 2' high is know only to you? but no matter.

for me i would opt for filling them with organic material, for us that main ingredient is spent mushroom compost from the mushroom farm.

we have pics on our page on what we do.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

Yes, I was going for vegetables. I've built up and conditioned the soil where I am in MN, but that took several years to do. I know from prior experience in Oklahoma that churned clay soil is good for growing bermuda, but not a lot else that I'd want to grow there. So I was wanting to short-circuit the several year process of amending and get some good growing area in less time, like a year.

What I'm wondering is whether a raised bed (whether edged with stone or recycled scrap lumber or whatever) will dry out excessively in a hot, dry Oklahoma summer, if the bed consists largely of sandy loam and compost.

If it will, would it be any better off if I incorporated some of the native clay soil into the bed?

Is there any advantage if I didn't raise the bed at all and dug down, essentially heavily amending where I plan to grow?

With clay, you may be better off with the raised beds. With enough organic matter it should hold moisture well enough. The problem with an amended area in a sea of clay is that you may create a sinkhole that stays wet too long. Never gardened in Okla, so maybe thats not an issue there, but generally speaking that can be the case.

tj

Raised beds would get you gardening much quicker than properly preparing the soil in Oklahoma, but could be much more expensive. All that soil needs is lots of organic matter, but getting the OM incorporated can be a long term process, even if tilled in.

I'll have access to tilling equipment, at least until the house is built. My father owns the building company (and I'm getting a great discount on the house!) But once things are in place, I don't want the lot torn up by heavy machinery if I can help it. I'll look into the cost of manure, compost, etc.

If you have a shovel you can find free manure in Oklahoma.

Paul James the TV "Garden Guy" lives next door to your new B.A. home...over in Tulsa.

You should be able to do everything he does on TV.

Then again ... he has mature trees and a TV show budget to spend on his garden...and you probably can't believe everything you see on TV.(smile)

But look on the bright side of the move; you can leave your snowblower and cross country skis in St Paul.

I live in west Tulsa and have sand! Would love to swap clay for sand. If you use raised beds in Tulsa you need to keep them watered well, because the winds and the month of 100 plus days will dry them out fast. You will find we do not have a real spring in Tulsa. One day the high is 30 and then 70 only to be in the 80's the next week.