Sounds and looks great! You're good to go!

Looks like a great sunny spot. Sandy loam will grow excellent melons.

Ed,
Looks like you are off to a great start. If you haven't already done it, I would consider a complete soil test of the native soil just so you know what you started with.

As for the peat, if you already have it and want to experiment maybe half-a-bed or something, hey nothing to loose right?

Sounds like you have a plan and that IS half the battle.

Keep a notebook, you won't be sorry. Oh, and mulch outside the beds too if you have it. Even cardboard or newspaper. It will help keep the weeds down and help feed the roots.

Looks real good.

Good Luck,
Gumby_CT

Thanks ya'll, it's got a ways to go yet, but it's coming together finally. :)

swanz, I don't know about melons, but as I was reclaiming an older garden back to yard I decided to grow some gourds one year. With some attention I ended up with 13" gourds with walls 3/8" thick. You can see some of them hanging in the background. :)

Gumby, you're right about the soil test. If I can find the one I had done about 7 years ago it would be interesting to compare the two. But, thinking about it it seems something was screwy about the tests... As I recall I sent two samples off to Auburn University was testing. The reason I sent two was confusion on my part...thinking I needed a separate sample for an organic analysis. The two samples came out of the same bucket that small samples from several parts of the garden area were mixed in. In other words, the samples should have been more or less identical. It seems the test results showed a noticeable difference between the two samples. Yeah, I need to get a test done *and* find those old results.

Well, the peat has got me in kind of a bog (no pun intended). The peat was supposed to compromise 1/3 of the "Mels mix". If I don't use it then I'll come up short on the growing medium being as I really don't have that much alternative organic matter to add. I'm not sure what the absence of the peat moss will have on the structure, tilth, etc., of the soil. I mean, if I just mix the vermiculite, bagged compost, and the little bit of local organic matter that I have and use it what will the result be? I don't have to fill the beds all the way up right now, I'm fine with building their levels up over time, but I'd like a good medium to start out with. Does any of that make sense?

Thanks for reminding me about the notebook...gotta get it started! Yelp, will definitely have some mulch going in around the beds...the picture was just after construction when I was still reeling from the heat and wiping sweat outa my eyes.

Ed

If you have access to leaves or grass clippings consider putting some on the bottom. Maybe more on top? If you can get some. Or a layer of cardboard if you are concerned about the native weeds coming back up.

My leaf season is about to begin here. 58 degrees last night. Leaves have brought my soil along way.

I am a fan of using whatever you have on hand or can get for free. Put out the word to friends, neighbors, co-workers. Someone may have a pile of compost they are dying to get rid of ;-)

Decison, decisions.

Howdy Gumby, taking a break from the heat/humidity. WOW...clearing some privet-hedge out with a chainsaw and it's HOTTTT!!!!

Ok, leaves are good. The basic leaves I have access to are oak and pecan, along with the odd-n-ends...lot's of privet hedge down here, it's getting as bad as kudzu. I would chip/shred it and throw it in the compost pile, but it's getting near berry ripening time for it and I don't want to seed the beds! I might still chip some of the limbs, though.

I may forego the peat moss, I like the texture, but some of the cons have me leaning away from it. Of course, after getting the frames built I'm dieing to get some type of soil in them...and yes, I realize I've already got the native soil there. :)

58F???? Man, I'd LOVE to see those temps. Just looked outside and the thermometer is reading 91F...better'n 99F! :) I *think* it may be dropping into the upper 60's at night.

I may hold off on filling the frames and see what else I can rustle up. Hmmm, first frost will kill off the kudzu....seriously, if you could get up under the vines there's gotta be some REALLY GOOD STUFF there!!! ...legume, DEEP-rooted plant. I'll keep my eyes open for any "old leaf piles" somebody might want moved. :)

I'm planning on focusing on leaves...

We'll see...in the meantime I hear that chainsaw calling...

Ed

Hi Ed
I started gardening back in 1983 using Mels method of Square foot gardening. At the time I used all you have listed minus oak leaves. Now I have compost made mostly from oak leaves in the fall, and a different house and different garden beds, but still use the square foot method of planting. I'd use all that you have handy to fill those beds up, adding in my area some lime to it also. Don't know if your soil in AL is acidic or not though. Have fun, get away from the chain saw its too hot for that, :)
Sounds like you have all the best ingredients for a great crop.
Alberta

Howdy Alberta, thanks for the feedback. Since '83, eh?...definitely sounds like you've got experience with the SFG method of planting. Do you use framed beds or un-supported beds?

I'm planning on going by the county extension office today and pickup a soil test kit from them. Normally our soil down here in south Alabama is acidic requiring lime.

I'm curious/confused about whether to simply place the growing mix over the native soil or to blend the mix in with the native soil. According to the SFG book growing mix should simply be placed on top of the native soil.

Well, I finally laid the chainsaw down...then moved on to the chipper/shredder and ended up with a big pile of pecan limbs and leaves chipped and shredded. Is pecan safe in the garden?...for some reason I've got it in my head that pecan might have somewhat of an aliopathic characteristic about it, or maybe I dreamed it. :)

Ed

Hi Ed
My beds are framed, one is 5x10 that holds strawberry plants the others are all 4x4's. What I would do if I were you would be to loosen the native soil (use a crowbar if you have to) then add the prepared mixes that you have. Another idea and would certainly bring lots of worms is to layer newspaper over the native soil, say about 8-10 sheets thick, then add the prepared mixes. I think you'll definitly enjoy gardening this way, meaning Mels method. Next season I want to add some trellis's at the top of my 4x4 beds to grow some cantalopes. In the other house I did have a few set up with the trellis method, but not here. Hope that helps.
Alberta

Thanks for the information, Alberta. I may go in an loosen the native soil some, I don't really want to stir the soil much due to bringing weed seeds to the surface (though the surface will be close to 8" under the mix). It actually is somewhat loose now, but the clay subsoil could probably use some loosening...maybe hardpan underneath that needs breaking up?

I am hoping that once I get things set up that the small raised bed garden will not be overwhelming. I do think I'm going to enjoy gardening in this fashion...I just gotta get those frames filled in! :)

Ed

Well, the last thing I did Monday night was shred/chip up a bunch of the debris from the chainsaw. Tuesday night when I got home I spread it around the beds. I didn't have enough to completely surround the beds but there's more chainsaw fodder to be had! Here's a couple of pics of the mostly pecan with a little oak mixed in mulch:
{{gwi:307916}}
{{gwi:307918}}

Nice-looking frames!

Just a note on my own experience ... I started about a year ago basically following the square foot method and did about equal parts compost and peat and a little less vermiculite. One bed I augmented with a good base of leaves and grass clippings that I let compost in place for a couple of months.

After a summer of 100 degree weather, my peat was bone dry and water repellant despite daily watering (probably not enough of it, admittedly).

If I were starting again, I would cut the peat way down and probably add a bit, maybe a quarter, of some kind of dirt just to give the mix better absorption and a more stable structure -- that organic matter breaks down surprisingly fast. I don't think the difference between growing in 100% organic matter and 75% would be all that big.

Ed is stepping out "IN Style". ::grin::

That looks like that Trex decking material....$$$$...should last a lifetime. Good idea getting the wood chips down now. I believe any fresh green matter will reduce the amount of nitrogen available in the soil but by next year you should be good. Someone correct me if I am wrong here.

I coverted my row garden and used the native soil with compost and more leaves, leaves, and more leaves. But what newtxan is saying about the peat makes sense.

From what I have seen in my beds, if you get enough leaves or organic matter in & around your beds, the earthworms will come to break-up your native soil. Saving YOU from breaking it up.

The year after I started SFG, I sold my garden tiller cuz I didn't use it.

GREAT job,
Gumby_CT

Howdy nextxan. I'm pretty happy with how the frames turned out...hopefully I will be 10 years down the road. I'm wondering, though, if I should have used longer screws but I didn't want the points coming out into the bedding area...might've caused nasty scratches. I bit the bullet and went with composite material from Lowes. Actually the frames are built out of the "trim" board and not the actual decking material. It is thinner and more flexible than the decking boards, but also 3 1/4" wider...thus the piece in the center to help support the sides. It wasn't cheap, but I figure I won't be replacing it in the next 20 years either. :)

Thanks a lot for the information on your peat moss experience!!! This was info I dearly needed. I had been hesitating mixing it all up primarily because of my concerns with the "drying out" and "water repellancy" aspects. Living in south Alabama I can sympathize with the heat issues.

How did the bed that you added the base of leaves and grass clippings to turn out? Better wet-abilty and moisture retention?

I'm thinking of adding some more dirt to the mix and just a minimal amount of the peat moss. I think most of the bagged compost has a fair amount of sand mixed in with it...just from my casual inspections of torn bags at the big box stores. Lowes has bags of "humus" for a little over a buck a bag. Now I know that humus isn't actually something that is bagable, but I read a short note from a lady who added some of this stuff last year to her beds and she reported that her soil's structure had improved substantially. I may add a few bags of this to the mix. ...now if I can just get Lowe's to take back two bags of the peat moss. :)

I'm thinking more and more that the way to go is manures and leaves, along with some compost.

As I mentioned early on, I'm more in a soil building stage at the moment. I'm thinking of just scrounging up all the leaves and manure that I can and piling and mixing them in the beds, over winter they ought to break down pretty good.

Thanks again for sharing your experience with the peat moss.

Ed

Howdy Gumby. Hmm, somehow your message snuck in on me. :)

"IN Style", eh? A description of the "Choice Decking" material I used is in my previous message. It isn't inexpensive, that's for sure! I wrestled with figuring out which material to use, and in the end the idea of not having to replace it later won out. At the time I had the do-re-mi, but I *never* have enough time. Cost averaging makes it look a lot more affordable. ;)

Depending on how the original two beds work out, here is a rough sketch of my "planned" 30'x22' garden plan:
{{gwi:307920}}
The two current beds will receive sunshine pretty much all day long during the summer. In the winter they will lose some sunshine due to trees to the southwest. The two future beds will not receive as much sunshine during the summer as the two current ones due to those trees being situated more to the west of them. I'm thinking this might actually help those beds some as it does get HOT down here. :) The perimeter shows a narrow bed running around it...I'm thinking 1' wide, but might increase this to 1.5'...if I frame these it will be with either cypress or cedar.:)

Paths/lanes are all 4' wide. There will be a 4' 2"x4" mesh fence surrounding the area with rabbit wire at the bottom...to keep out dogs, cats, ARMADILLOS, etc.,. Along the fence will be taller supports to hang "confusion wire" from as a deer deterent....also to maybe support some trellising.

Watersupply enters from the west. Irrigation mainline runs between the north and south beds, feeding off to each bed. Irrigation of the perimeter beds will be figured out later.:)

The area in the garden proper will be dedicated to growing. Compost piles, organic materials, etc., will be stored outside of the fenced area.

Anyhow, that's my plan and I'm gonna *try* to stick with it. :)

Ed

BTW, I might have found some interesting stuff. There's not a lot of wheat straw around here for mulching or composting. I noticed my neighbor had some piles (was round rolls) of some kind of straw/hay spaced out around a fencerow. I saw him today and asked him about it...it's old millet straw that he bailed up. The piles are just sitting there "deteriorating". Looks like I'll be hauling a couple of loads of it. :)

Ed

I made the trek to Lowes this evening and picked up 6 bags of the "Robin Hood Composted Peat Humus" for a little over a buck a bag. While I was in town I went over to WallyWorld and checked their Evergreen brand of "humus". There was a busted bag of it so of course I had to touch it. :) The handful I grabbed had several pieces of gravel in it...one piece 1/2 inch across!...hmmm. The Robin Hood brand (I love busted bags!) felt finer with no gravel that I saw in the little I could see.

I also picked up a modest wheelbarrow that I sorely needed...afterall, I had to use that "$10-off your next $25 purchase" coupon they sent me! ;)

Ed

A man "with" a plan. You go man ;-)

4ft between beds....YOU won't be sorry.

Irrigation? Self starting plants too? Done your homework.

Are you planning to build the compost pile nearby? Or did you get the high-mileage wheel barrow? Don't forget critters do like the compost buffet, I mean pile.

You're doin' GREAT.

Gumby, I tend to over-research things sometimes. After reading all the suggestions for path width, which were from one to four feet or more, I sat down and tried to visualize the width. After figuring the plants would be hanging over the sides of the beds (optimistic, eh!) I decided on 4' paths....I already like'em!

Yelp, will be installing a small irrigation system...after the drought we had this summer I figured "an ounce of prevention...".

Yelp again...SELF STARING PLANTS. Ya gotta be careful when you buy these being as the "Soil and water not included" disclaimer is in small, small print! ;)

Compost pile will probably end up being 25-30 feet away. The wheelbarrow came with a directional, Z-rated hi-performance radial with flow-thru tread to combat hydroplaning and with a UTQG of 1000 AAA. Designed for the performance-minded wheelbarrow pusher.

Ed

Activity today:

Finished chipping/shredding some small oaks I'd cut up and spread the mulch around the beds.

I managed to pick up some UCG from Starbucks...actually around 5 bags worth. :) Not really knowing where to go from here I decided to follow Alberta's advice and break the native soil up some. I used a heavy pointed iron bar to stab and pry, stab and pry...nice workout. Anyhow I got it broke up pretty good down to around 10 inches. This left me with some holes in the ground and fractures in the surface.

Again, not knowing what I was doing I grabbed a bag of coffee grounds for each bed and started spreading them out, getting them in the holes I'd punched in the ground, etc.,. I wet the beds down a bit and then took some shredded leaves I had and spread about a 1/2" of these out over the beds(and into the punched holes). I then slightly mixed all of this into the soil and I smoothed things out. I again wet the surface down. I threw some more leaves down on this to "seal" in the moistened oganics and then covered loosely with a sheet of plastic.

Like I said, I don't know what I was doing but maybe it'll get something going on with the micros in the beds.

I am curious about a couple of things, though. One of the bags I put out was regular coffee grounds while the other was a more "fine" texture. I figure the finer textured CG was maybe expresso or something. It was ok to use it wasn't it?

Also, will the UCGs that I have left be ok in the bags or should I go ahead and use them "somewhere"? When I mix the rest of my soil components together would two bags of coffee grounds be too much to put in the mix for a 4'x8'x8" bed??

Below is a shot with one bed already having CGs and leaves spread on it and the other one just CGs.

Thanks for the help, everybody!!! Ed
{{gwi:307922}}

Your beds are beautiful.

I planted into lasagnas and had reasonable success - you could try reading up on lasagna beds. UCG's, leaves, manure, clippings, half - finished compost, straw, etc - any organic that you can find, layer it on! Put a pocket of your bagged soil-ly stuff for whatever seeds you plant, and you'll have a very fertile garden. I can't get over the worms in my lasagna - it boggles the mind.

(Peat was the only thing that let me grow potatoes in SoCal's heavy alkaline clay soil, and I am definitely pro-peat.)

Thanks for the compliment, Patty. The beds will look a lot better when there's some nice green edible plants filling them! :)

I've looked at the lasagna method and might try it on the upcoming two more beds. I'm thinking of putting down some cardboard this winter in the spots for the other two planned beds in preparation so lasagna is an option.

I'm still debating the peat option. Here in south Alabama most of the sandy soil is acidic. Being as this was pastureland also tends to move the soil to the acidic side. We'll see. :)

Ed

Well, I finally got around to filling the frames up. Who knows how this will turn out, but...it's a start. :)

The native soil had been solarized this summer and was broken up with a digging bar and UCGs and shredded leaves spread over it a few weeks prior to adding the mix.

The west bed was filled weekend before last, the east bed last weekend.

The mix (per bed) consists of:

4 bags Black Gold "Mushroom Compost"
4 bags Black Gold "Black Kow Compost"
2 bags Robin Hood "Peat Humis"
8 cu ft coarse vermiculite
4 cu ft milled peat moss
20 gallons shredded oak leaves
1/2 cup dolomitic lime spread on native soil before adding mix
1/2 cup dolomitic lime mixed into mix
1 cup Epsoma fertilizer(5-2-2???) mixed into mix

Here's a shot of what the mix looks like:
{{gwi:307924}}

An aggravating aspect of this was that some of the ingredients were "too moist" when I bought them at Lowe's and thus resulted in some clumping. I suggest anybody buying ingredients to check for excessive dampness and if found, purchase elsewhere...it would have mixed much more easily if it had been drier. As things dry a bit and the mix is weathered a bit I think the "clods" will break down nicely.

Nope, didn't get a soil test done. :o The reasoning behind the dolomitic lime is that 7 years ago a test I had stated the area needed liming. I applied the appropriate amount then, but basically the area has been in grass/sod since about 6 years ago. With the sandy soil historically be acidic in my area I dangerously figured liming would not hurt...especially with the peat in the mix.

Below is a link to a series of pictures I took as I mixed the last bed's mix. If you check the photos out look from last to first photo to be in sequence...didn't upload/post in the order I thought it would. :) Basically what the sequence shows is the volume increase of the mix as different ingredients are added.

Now...what to plant here in Z8 with temps 80ishF/60ishF, though the next two nights are in the high 30's!!!!...will be camping tomorrow night!!!!. Check this out....predicted low Saturday night is 38F and high Sunday is 81F...a 43-degree spread!!! WOW. But, then back to the 60's and 80's.

So...what to plant? :)
Ed

Here is a link that might be useful: Sequence of filling the beds...view in reverse order :)

Very nice, impressive setup. I would only suggest...

I built 4x8 raised frames, but if I could do it all over, I would have done 4x4 or 2x8 or 2x(any length). 4x8 beds are OK until plants get bigger as the season progresses. It gets very difficult to reach the innermost squares. It's especially annoying because I have trellises on the north end of each box and it eliminates the possibility of reaching through string and tomato and bean vines to get to the inner boxes. If the frames weren't raised, it wouldn't be a big deal. Next year I may put some metal stakes in the boxes with some sort of grip so that I can hang on to the grip while leaning over to garden a square without falling in.

Howdy genetic. I'll have to see how the 4' width works out for me, I think it will be fine but for my wife it might be a stretch.

Hmm, maybe drive a couple of iron t-posts spaced 2' in from each end of the beds and in the center of the beds. Tie (securely) another t-post or maybe a piece of rebar between these two posts. The ends of the crosspiece will extend past the posts and should give you a secure "brace" for leaning inward. Adjust the height for your reach and height. The t-post structure could also used in helping support plants planted toward the centers of the beds. To set the posts use a post-driver...2-handled contraption, weighted in one end, that you slide up and down on the post pounding it into the ground. When I bought mine the guy at Lowes offered to loan me one, but I'm got lots of fencing I'll be doing. You might want to inquire if they have a "loaner". Just a thought... :)

Ed

Wow Dirtracker! Those are some POWERFUL grow lights you have in your back yard! LOL Nancy