I have looked at the Serrano website, it sounds like a good product, I have been thinking of buying some for my parent's garden in Laguna Beach. Let us know how it works out. I have done a workshop with one of the premiere organic farmers on the Central Coast, and she uses composted manure on her tomatoes, pumpkins and squash generously and I followed her guidelines with success in my little garden. However, root vegies, such as carrots and beets, do not like such rich soil. You will learn as you go, different vegies need very different conditions to flourish,( what a celery loves tomatoes hate ( constant water )) How thoroughly composted is what you will be getting?? If it is composted all the way to black humous-y small particles like soil, you should be able to fill your boxes up with that and have at it.If it is still recognizably horsey, then a bit more caution is needed!I would think about adding some good bagged mix on top. I garden in Los Angeles, at a community garden where we have a great source of composted horse manure made with wood chips which is still fluffy and stinky , and also a more finished compost which is garden cuttings,and manure composted for longer until it is very black. Even in our garden there is NO consensus on how to use the manure and compost, almost everyone has their own theory. And the garden is full of happy vegies! Everyone doing it their own way. You will need to find what works best for you. In my plot, I did the whole double dig, mix in the compost and the manure routine, it is HARD WORK.I used a lot of manure, and the plants seemed to love it. I planted the tomatoes into holes filled with the manure, it was a jungle of tomatoes.Then in some areas I also added a top layer of good bagged planting mix.This is where I planted the root vegies. I like Happy Frog or Whitney Farms. Yes, it is expensive, but I have a small garden, and I wanted the best chance of happy vegies. It is a lot of work to turn the soil like that,and if you are doing raised beds/boxes , I don't see the point. In your case, if your lawn was free of major weeds such as nut sedge or burmuda grass, just cover it with cardboard or newspaper, and go ahead with filling up the beds. Poke through the sod with a heavy garden fork, this will open up for drainage. I would make the edge of the walls higher than 8" though, at least 12" if not higher if you can afford the lumber. If you can afford to fill the boxes with all new, purchased materials, that would be the best. Adding any of the soil from your garden is just adding problems, possible dormant weed seeds, nematodes, and soil borne disease. With out seeing the Serrano compost, I can't say for sure, but if it is like what we use, still a bit rough and rich, you can fill the beds with that, grow only the plants that love rich compost this year, which would be tomatoes, squash,peppers and flowers such as zinnias,marigolds,dahlias, sunflowers, let the worms and such do their work, and I think you will be pretty happy with it. Add bagged soil as you want or can afford, next spring plant the root vegies etc. Happy gardening

Here in Citrus county on the lakes we are blessed with the joys of nature and cursed with sugar sand. I did exactly what you are proposing and would have to say UF is dead wrong. We are lucky enough to have access to an unlimited amount of trims from Nelsons with just a phone call. You have to understand that not all wood chips are equal. If you get wood chips from a tree removal company where it is the entire tree that was chipped a large part of the chips will be from the heartwood, the trunk and large primary limbs which are low in nutrients and nitrogen. What you want is what you mentioned, the trims especially from the companies that do the trimming work for the utilities as that is mostly the smaller limbs, twigs and leaves. Those trims are packed with nitrogen and softer which speeds up the decomposition process. Now you can just plop it down and wait and it will eventually rot but it will take a long time. I laid out a 40 foot long by maybe 25 foot wide or so area and with the front end loader dug it down 2 feet or so removing all that pure white fine sugar sand. I refilled the spot with I have no idea how many truck loads of tree trims until it filled the spot and was heaped up 1-2 feet so 3-4 feet deep of chips. I laid the irrigation on both sides on a timer to keep the chips damp which is crucial to getting the chips to break down fast. On top of the chips I added manure and used a tiller to work it all in and kept the area compacted just by running it over. Weekly tills and compaction with some added nitrogen and the "garden" started shrinking in depth as the chips broke down. It is not a over night process, took 18 months I would guess from ground break until I planted the first garden in that spot but the soil is now jet black, I actually had to add sand back to it to get the texture just right. It is a lot of work but on the plus side you will have ZERO nematode problems and the garden will grow anything. I did add 50 lbs of lime to the soil over a month or so right near the end to get the PH just right. If that is too much work you can always use the chips between the rows of your garden or along the edges and incorporate them each year and the soil will get better over time. I would say go for it.....Ph is easily adjusted with lime and not sure what pests they are talking about. Any organics you can add will just improve the soil, feed it, it is a win win.

The raised beds will help - that was a detail that was overlooked in your original post :-) The problem will be that concentrating a lot of organic matter at the base of the beds can result in shrinkage. It will continue to decompose and break down and after a season, your 'soil' level will be markedly lower. That can create issues with the plant roots, either by exposing them or smothering them when you add more soil. Personally, I would work to incorporate all the material together thoroughly, concentrating on a regular mineral soil as the primary component. It is suggested that any raised bed soil be no more than 25% OM. You can add sulfur if you still need to lower pH. And if you think that mulching with pine needles and coffee grounds will help to contribute to lowering soil acidity, they won't. That's a common misconception. Used coffee grounds are essentially neutral with regards to pH - all the acid comes out in the coffee liquid itself. And while fresh green pine needles may be acidic, dried pine needles are not and neither will leach any significant acidity into the soil.

Dear Trish! Ouch!!!! I can just see the whole event happening in front of my eyes! Yes, kids can get into the the most interesting situations at times. This little lady also broke her ankle on a swing at school about seven months ago, just a few days before her fourth birthday. So it was the whole process of rushing to hospital and dropping her three-month old baby sister and my eldest off at someone's house along the way while at the same time trying to comfort her and keep all calm. At that time my husband was gone for work so it was quite a challenge. After the whole stint in hospital, we had to carry her around for the whole time while she was recovering as she could not mobilize with crutches (too young ). In the end, she got so frustrated and she started to bum-shuffle, which was hilarious. :-) I found her one day trying to water my pots outside while still shuffling on her hands and buttocks, dragging the hose behind her :-) :-) :-) At least it is a bit easier this time around (that is, after surgery and the visits to the wound care nurse to clean the finger), and I know she is getting better the moment she starts watering the garden, which she has :-). She has a great affinity for soil and dirt and I must just try to keep her away in order to keep the finger clean until it has healed appropriately. Easier said than done :-) Moses and Lisa, I had a good laugh about your initial confusion about the word "kraal" My apologies! One tends to forget that local vernacular is not always known internationally. But well done on your investigations! Lisa, If I remember correctly you also have some Dutch heritage? I initially thought "kraal" might have had its origins in Dutch (where Afrikaans originated) but after reading your posts it struck me that the word might have come from the Koisan or other indigenous African languages - it indeed refers to an enclosure for cattle although, in centuries past, I think it was also used to refer to an area where groups of dwellings of particular tribes were constructed in a circular pattern which were then closed off with thorny branches etc. in order to keep wild animals out. We have so many languages over here and we all eventually "borrow" words from each other so "kraal" is an accepted English word here as it is in Afrikaans (our home language) and several other languages as well :-). One tends to forget that it is not necessarily known internationally. Moses, I think our mushroom compost might be similar to yours although I believe (I stand to be corrected) that we use coir peat instead of peat moss, which is not such a sustainable resource over here. We also have mushroom growers, possibly in greenhouses? They are readily available in our supermarkets although prices can be slightly more expensive at times. I used peat moss for my roses the previous time I amended some garden beds but was not satisfied with the soil quality a year later, that's why I considered the "kraal manure" Thanks to all of you I think I might get the recipe better this time. I really can't wait to get all my roses in the ground. The previous time was a bit easier as I had to start from scratch so I could design everything as I wanted. This time we have moved into a much bigger but older house with a large established garden (although not a single rose apart from 5 iceberg tree roses (we call them standard roses) at the gate. There are many trees providing lots of shade and it is a bit more daunting to think what must be moved / removed/ altered as there is already a basic plan and I don't want to simply redo the whole place right now. :-)