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Soil, Compost & Mulch

New Raised Bed Garden

jenniferny_gardener

15 years ago

This past spring I built a 28' x 16' Raised Bed Garden out of 2 x 12's with a 2' wide aisle up the middle. Due to weather and my health I did not finish it until July 20th. I planted the seedlings that I had grown anyway, adding 20 bags of manure I bought at Home Depot on one side, where I planted the Tomato Plants. Three of the Brandywine's reached 6'3" and set a lot of fruit but because of the late planting I did not get much ripe fruit. The plants on the other side of the garden did OK, but not as well as the Tomatoes that had the Manure added.

Now that you have some background here is my Query.

The Topsoil I bought unfortunately looked a lot like a clay/sand mixtire and was a definte light brown/tan color(which is why I added the manure). As soon as the first frost hit and killed the plants I lifted my mulching mower onto the bed and mulched all of the plants and unripe fruit two or three times to get a fine mulch. I then tilled it into the soil using my Mantis. When the leaves fell I raked all my leaves, and my neighbor raked all his onto my Raised Bed(about one foot deep before mulching and I filled & mulched it twice with leaves and I again Mulched them until fine and then tilled them into the soil using the Mantis). I am very new to gardening. Did I do the right thing?? Do I need to do anything else in the spring in the way of soil amendments??

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated by this novice gardener. Thanks!

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Comments (5)

digdirt2
15 years ago
Hi Jennifer - unfortunately there isn't any way to know for sure what your soil needs without having a soil test done - a professional one. Local county AG office can do one for you for $10-12.

Given all the leaves you added it is very possible that you will need to add some additional nitrogen and perhaps bring the pH of the soil back into line too. But just no way to know without testing first.

Check out the discussion further down the page called Whole leaves versus shredded.......... for more details.

Dave
jenniferny_gardener
Original Author
15 years ago
Digdirt-
Thank you for the response, I did read that before I posted but in that case the leaves were whole, not well mulched and not tilled until spring so I wasn't sure that would apply to shredded leaves tilled in the fall. Do you know how long it takes for mulched or shredded leaves and plant mmaterial to decay once tilled into the soil?
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Update time. So far everything except peppers is growing great. Since the last post I have mulched with leaf mold that IÂve been saving. Mulch looks funny on pictures because I was feeding my lawn with alfa alfa pallets so I threw some in there as well so they are starting to break down and thatÂs what you see on pics. I donÂt know why but all peppers are looking very weak even after I gave them epsom salt as foliage spray. I read that that might help but it didnÂt make a difference. They donÂt look sick just weak like they are missing something. I donÂt think I picked a good spot for them neither. I think next year I'll make a separate raised bed for peppers only. I think they need more sun and maybe slightly different soil mix.As for tomatos Early girl has the biggest tomato of course but Rutgers and Beefstake arenÂt far behind. Brandywine just keeps dropping flowers I guess they are not getting pollinated but I didnÂt have much hope for brandywine anyway, I just wanted to try a little bit of everything to get an idea whats going to work for me. Cucumbers are growing very well too I just need to build some sort of trellis for them. Overall so far so good for my first year. I just have to figure out peppers for next year.
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I lost my first bed rotting from the inside out. It is the job of Nitrogen. And we load lots of nitrogen in our beds. My first idea was to buy a pond liner from home depot. It would protect the wood. Fortunately before I opened the box a dear friend cautioned me on chemical migration. I call the distributer of this Chinese import they said don't use it. I got a partial roll 4' wide and they did cut what I needed. It was polyethylene. Only 4 mils thick. But it is very tough. No staples or punctures in the installation on the inside. I looked over my records and I can't find the place online. I think if you google polyethylene rolls 4' wide food safe you will find it. Good luck. You can see my old bed on the left. I see its last crop. bush beans.
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To answer your questions... I am not sure what was used on the lawn, but I guess I could call the local chem lawn service and find out. The yard has been recently treated, but I wasn't sure that even a year would be okay. I was also thinking about composte. If I use grass clippings and leaves in my composte that have been on the yard, I am still getting the chemicals. This is quite frustrating. I was thinking of just pruchasing some plastic kid swimming pools to use as "raised beds", and starting an "organic" mulch pile. This would take care of the chemical problem. Has anyone tried gardening in those plastic pools??? Then again I am sure the chemicals in my yard are no worse than the chemicals on the food I buy in the grocery store... Decisions, Decisions...
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well I am no expert at growing in Phoenix but I like having raised beds. You probably want them at least 8" high and no wider than 4', that way you can weed and pick without walking in the bed. The tomatoes and beans will probably need to be staked or supported in some way. You need to install those supports when you plant them. I put down weed barrier between the beds. I have lots of river rock in my soil and as I remove it, I put it on the weed barrier, makes nice pathways. Good luck!
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val_s
15 years ago
Jennifer - no expert here but it sounds like you did just fine. I think a lot depends on how poor the topsoil is that you brought in. If it was me, I wouldn't put anything else on in the spring, I'd just plant and see how everything does. For me, gardening is like a big experiment; some things work and some things don't.

Val
robertz6
15 years ago
There are a number of weeks in October and November where the mix of grass and leaves is great. Shred it a bit and you've got a ready made compost pile. You did not say what type of leaves, so maybe they will break down ok, and maybe you will need a bit of a nitrogen pick me up.
digdirt2
15 years ago
Do you know how long it takes for mulched or shredded leaves and plant mmaterial to decay once tilled into the soil?

Can't say "how long" as that is controlled by garden-to-garden variables like weather, moisture levels, humidity, etc. It can be anywhere from 2 months to 6 months. So while it is true that they will decompose faster than whole leaves, they will still bind up the nitrogen in the soil while they do. Thus the need to add additional nitrogen sources to the soil.

Leaves are also very acidic so until they have decomposed and the pH has leveled out near neutral, the bed's pH can be very acidic. Thus the need to measure the bed's pH and "fix" it if necessary.

Why go to all the work and expense of planting a crop, waiting for germination, and then discovering crop problems due to soil problems when it is so easy to fix it up front? ;)

Don't get me wrong - leaves, especially shredded/mulched ones, are a great soil improver. They do wonders for the soil tilth and its water retention ability and do offer some nutrients. But it sounds like you added a great deal of them and anything other than finished compost added to the garden in very large amounts has the potential to temporarily create other problems that may need to be addressed.

Dave

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