Mel's Mix - The First Year

16 years ago

Last year was my first foray with growing veggies. I had two beds dug up from my existing lawn. One was an 8 x 4 bed slightly raised, bordered by railroad ties. The other was a 12 x 4' bed against the foundation on the side of the house. I had initially intended the second bed to be used for bushes, perennials, annuals etc. But I had a bunch of veggie plants left over. Money was tight. So that became my second veggie bed. I grew cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, red peppers and basil. All of the plants thrived and I was quite popular in the neighborhood when I had so much that I had to give a lot away.

I live in an area with very sandy, compacted soil. The soil is so compacted that you can't dig more than an inch or two before it is like cement. I had to hire someone for the day who dug out these two beds because I couldn't do it myself. The sandy soil was amended with peat moss & compost. And throughout the summer, I occasionally fertilized. With just that, all of the plants thrived.

I plan on building four 4 x 4' raised beds this spring. I spent 16 hours in the last two days selecting seeds, laying out the beds etc. I am very excited about SFG but am somewhat concerned about Mel's Mix. Aside from the expense, I have seen numerous complaints about the quality of the soil the first year. Posts that say that the first year's crops didn't do that well and Mel's mix wasn't that great. I would hate to go through the expense and work involved with building the beds only to have my plant growth compromised because of the Mel's Mix.

Am I worrying for nothing?

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Comments (11)

veganmom30
16 years ago
I'm in my first year and I've had absolutely no problems with Mel's Mix.

I did 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost where the compost was Two brands of cow manure compost and then a muchroom compost. I also put in a little organic fertilizer when planting because I never did get the suggested 5 types of compost and all my stuff did fine.

http://flickr.com/photos/veganbento/

HTH!
V.
Ray Scheel
16 years ago
Almost every "dirt" based planting area does not fully hit its stride until after the first growing season, one of those facts of gardening life (and why there is a suggestion to prepare new beds well before they are to be planted in). Mel's mix does no worse than the others, and after that first season, things really take off.

As far as the expense there is a FAQ entry on filling beds that includes a lot of hints on how to get a bed together for less than what your initial pricing might suggest.
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Bethany, why are you scared of the composters? We're cheerful, eager, responsive, enthusiastic, wacko, quick to respond, strong personalitie who are almost evangelical ... um, never mind. Come and visit anyway. While the list is fast moving you don't have to read every thread. In almost 2 years of constant reading I've never seen anyone's question called dumb, even those that could have been answered by reading the FAQs or that get asked a million times. I also recommend the Master Composter site, which was great help to me when I was first learning. It lays things out simply; gives instructions #1, #2, and #3; teaches you the basics on the components of a pile (browns, greens, air, water); and describes the differences between hot and cold compost. I think 6 weeks from horse to mature compost is ambitious, especially for a first pile. It's possible, if you get the brown/green ratio right and put sweat-equity into your pile; but there's a learning curve involved. Understand, if you don't have the optimum brown/green ratio or you don't turn your pile, you'll still get compost - it'll just take longer. Harimad Here is a link that might be useful: Master Composter site
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Compaction is probably not the main worry about the vermiculite, especially in a light mix like Mel's Mix made "by the book." It will eventually "break down" into smaller particles, which is why Mel says to start with the coarsest grade you can find. Over all it will last a long time and make a major contribution to your soil quality. Not only will perlite not do the same task, but perlite will add its nasty texture to your soil, making it unpleasant to handle (which is a very un-SFG thing, as one of the fundamentals of SFG is that you work on your SFG and handle your soil some every day). Perlite will also float to the top of your bed, at which point it will either wash away or sit there not providing any benefit at all to the consistency of your soil. I have no idea about the bark, I would wonder if it is even more acidic than the peat, which wouldn't be a good thing. I don't have any especial love for peat either (although it is worth noting that it is being generated in Canada faster than it is being harvested, and is indeed a renewable resource) but it does seem to result in a soil mix, built by Mel's formula, that was excellent from the very start for growing vegetables and flowers. If I were to make any changes in future boxes I might cut down on or leave out the peat, but my soil formula would alway contain at least 1/3 vermiculite if possible, due to my experience in the pre-raised bed days of the first SFG book, where vermiculite was by far the best addition I made to my native soil, producing better results, that showed quickly and lasted longer, than any of the other stuff we added over the course of many years. In my raised SFG I plan to add a little vermiculite and a lot of fresh compost every year.
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Sounds like a great mix. Awesome mixure of composts for sure! Boy do I wish cat manure was as good as other animals for growing things. What a shame! As for the earth box, they're very similar to Self Watering Containers if I remember correctly. You can make a SWC for about $20 or less each, and they go down in price the more you make of them (shared cost of materials). I'm going to use a SWC for my tomatoes this year. May want to look into them for your second Brian's Box... Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure
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daybreak2, Since you had good success the first year, something must have changed since you built your "perfect" soil. I'm thinking about several things: 1. Your irrigation water might contain chemicals that have built up in your soil; 2. Your compost might have the wrong pH or be missing important nutrients (what is "soil builder" btw?); 3. Disease organisms might have been introduced into your soil; 4. The amount of sun your boxes gets could have changed. It sounds as if your garden is getting progressively more heat as it moves from box #1 (soaked) to box #4 (too dry) or you're growing plants that use more water in some boxes than others. Here are some suggestions: 1. Have your soil and water tested. 2. Rotate your crops among the boxes. 3. Make your own compost. 4. Fix your irrigation so that it delivers different amounts of water depending upon where each box is located (full sun, part shade, windy or not) and the water demands of the various crops. 5. If those don't work, start over with your boxes in different locations and without the landscaping fabric.
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justaguy2
16 years ago
My first year with Mel's mix everything grew well. Some things did better in heavily fertilized containers, but Mel's mix did very well.

As the soil matures it gets even better.
soleado
16 years ago
This past season I tried a square foot garden. My plants were severely stunted and a light green/yellow color. I made a post on the soil forum talking about it. Many smart smart people over there gave great suggestions. I'm a gardening beginner. I did a home soil test kit and it told me that my nitrogen was very low... almost non-existant. I used big box store cow and mushroom compost. I also tried to fertilize with fish emulsion. This year I am trying to raise the bed to improve drainage... removing weed blocker and sand I put in (won't need those weed blocking/drainage tricks because it's raised) and ammending with homemade compost (if I can ever get enough browns!). Vegan mom... What kind of organic fertilizer did you use? I will have to hop over to your flickr site and look around. You may also want to look into lasagna gardening. I haven't tried it, but it looks frugal and interesting.
justaguy2
16 years ago
It's true that if your compost isn't fresh or from a high N source then Mel's mix will be N deficient. It's also true that if you don't add compost as the book instructs which each new planting there will be an N deficiency. Nitrogen doesn't stick around long.

Many folks I think just fertilize every now and then with fish emulsion or whatever source of nitrogen. I think this is something Mel could have been more upfront about in his book(s). Compost alone is enough fertilizer in most cases, but not for nitrogen with all composts.
soleado
16 years ago
And you know what I've noticed... my liquid fertilizer is like 0-10-10... Heehee. So zero nitrogen?! Why'd they sell me that? No wonder it wasn't helping too much. It did seem to help the miniature sized collards to grow a little before they were attacked by some disease. Good luck. Please keep us posted and take photos. You will probably be succesful. Despite the growing problems, mine gave green beans, sunflowers and about an inch of cilantro. The cilantro tasted more lemony than the cilantro from the grocer. I'm excited about this new year. I already have a kohlrabi that I just planted in mine growing (hopefully) and am trying to start a few seeds in it for fun. I also have some of that granular Scott's fertilizer... but my understanding is that it is synthetic. I bought it as a gardening newbie, which I still am. I would prefer frugal homemade compost... seems to be better for everyone involved. I haven't used that synthetic on the SFG. Keep my mistakes in mind.
magnolias4ever
16 years ago
For my Spring plantings, I just added 1 bag of Black Kow Compost and 1 bag of Black Hen ... that will help me get going for the coming season!!

Judy

Here is a link that might be useful: Ft2Garden.com
sinfonian
16 years ago
This may not be the best place to post it, but I'd rather not start a new thread. I'm getting "dirt" mid February to plant soon thereafter. If I'd read this post last year I'd have done it different, but there you go.

I re-read the book on Mel's Mix and have some questions about it. It complains about composts being from one waste source so buy 5 different bags to get 5 cubic feet of compost. Well I need on the order of 4 cubic yards of compost to fill my beds. Not very economical to say the least. That's not the issue because I've budgeted for dirt. The issue is I believe I've found an exceptional alternative.

In the Seattle area, we've got a composting company called Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove compost is sold in bulk or bags and contains no less than 5 sources, all Pacific NW natural bushes, trees, grass, leaves and produce waste. I can't imagine mixing in 10 bags of five different commercial composters when I can get 5 different sources by the cubic yard. I plan on mixing in essentially equal amounts of peet and vermiculite, but is that enough?

I find manure somewhat distasteful, somewhat like cleaning the cat box, but is it necessary? Per the Cedar Grove website, their compost has the following minimum values:

Guaranteed Minimum Analysis: Compost, 1.10-0.40-1.10
Total Nitrogen (N)..............................1.10%
1.10% Water Insoluble Organic Nitrogen*
Available Phosphate (P2O5).................0.40%
Soluble Potash (K20).........................1.10%
Calcium (Ca).....................................0.58%

I don't know much about that stuff, and hope never to need to. If I should start a new thread (sorry if I'm hijacking ccaggaio's thread), I can do that as well.

I appreciate the thoughts. I know my family will say I'm good with standard compost without vermiculite, so I'm used to "helpful" suggestions.

Thanks,
Sinfonian

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden in progress...
justaguy2
16 years ago
Sinfonian, the book doesn't say we *must* use compost from 5 different sources, that's just for those who can't make their own or have access to a compost made from a variety of ingredients.

It sounds like the compost you have access to would qualify as a quality compost made from diverse ingredients.

They way I look at it is compost is the least stable ingredient in the mix so if it seems lacking something during the growing season, just add fertilizer and when it comes time to add more compost, use a different source.
amy_d-r
16 years ago
I used mel's mix this summer and everything did really well (almost too well, the hardest part was keeping my plants from overgrowing their squares). I did not add any fertilizer, but did add compost at planting time like the book says. I anticipate this year will be even better, and I'm excited that my soil will be workable even in early spring.

My favorite thing in the mel's mix was the vermiculite. We had an unusually dry summer and my plants thrived--made it worth the hassle of tracking it down.
standstall
16 years ago
Hello
I go to the sale barn here in arkansas and load my trailer with manure. I then screen it through rat wire and then put it on my beds. I fertilize by cleaning out my chicken house and puting it in 2 plastic tubs and mix straw with it and fill with water. Let ferment and mix 1 quart liquid to 1 gallon water and water my beds once every 2 weeks it works great for me.

standstall

Mel's Mix - The First Year

Comments (11)

veganmom30

Ray Scheel

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