Thanks, firstyear! I'm pleased with the mix in my hayracks this year, too. I change them around a bit every year but now know a few guaranteed success plants for me. This year I have: Pink Mandevilla, pale pink geraniums, white cleome, white bacopa (does it come in other colors?) pink million bells, mixed white, light and dark pink cosmos (that have not done very well) and blue lobelia which is just starting to take off. Crawling up the back of the trellis from the ground is Sweet Autumn Clematis but I'm not sure you can even make that out in the photo. Over the years I've done morning glories (Grandpa Ott is my favoite) moon flowers, heliotrope, sweet potato vine, passion flower, coleus..... and tons more! It's always fun to walk around the nursery in the spring and group things on a cart imagining them in the planters. As for Al's Mix - here's a link with a ton of information. It can be pretty overwhelming to digest it all so I just took a leap of faith from reading about much success here and bought the ingredients. I mixed it up in a large wheelbarrow - easy to do. I'm a convert. Here is a link that might be useful: Al's Mix and graduate work in water movement ;-)

If I were doing it at my house, with my black gumbo soil, I would do about 50% native soil, 20% compost, 20% finely shredded bark (Lowe's calls it landscapers mix here) and about 10% sphagnum peat moss. The peat moss adds nothing except acidity, but we need that here. Your plan sounds like a good one. Have your beds thought through when you start. Know where you plan to put each one so that everything you do works toward that final goal. That way you won't end up with a bunch of lumps in your yard. You'll need to start your own compost pile if you intend to keep making beds. It is a lot better than bought compost and a lot cheaper. Good luck with it. I did that about 20 years ago and was very pleased with the result. It took about a year to do the ones across the back of the property. (That's a lot of digging in really hard dirt.) I finally hired someone to do the last part, as I was working a lot then. It was all torn down when we added the workshop in the back yard. I have to come up with a new plan now. It won't include that kind of bed preparation, though. bk

Hi! I agree with Harimad. I don't think the formula for the mix is sacred, it is just "recommended". If you are a beginner, it is sometimes easier (and rather reassuring) to stick with a formula. However, I am an "intermediate" and somewhat haphazard gardener and just threw together a soil mix based on what looked and felt right, and what I could obtain at a decent price. SO, for my first beds I put thick, wet newpaper over the grass, which covered the rocky clay. Then I added 4x4 foot frames of 2x10 inch untreated lumber held together with decking screws. I filled them with a mix of free leaf mold (decomposed leaves--about 40%), mostly decomposed mushroom compost (about 40%), and purchased topsoil (about 20%). Oh, and when I say "mix", it doesn't mean that it needs to be thoroughly mixed from the start. My ingredients were just layered in the bed and mixed as I (and/or Mother Nature) had the time. In addition to SFG, I am also a firm proponent of "lasagna gardening" (just do a search on that term within Gardenweb). My (old-school organic gardening/farming) father helped me with most of this and when we were finished he declared that "you could get rocks to grow from this soil". He wasn't literally correct, but my original beds did produce incredible amounts of leaf lettuce, broccoli (raab and regular), kolhrabi, swiss chard, spinach, snap peas, scallions, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and nasturtiums with little additional work on my end (aside from picking the bounty). Hope this helps! --Orena

We all have different opinions, I'm sure, but I think it depends on what look you're going for - in other words, if you're trying more for that "unfitted" or furniture-style look, then you keep the uppers and lowers in certain areas matching and create more of a zone for each color. However, you could also get creative and mix the finishes upper and lower - it really depends on what feel/look you want. My strong suggestion would be to take the elevations of your kitchen (or whatever drawings you have of the cabinet layouts) and photocopy them a bunch of times, then using colored pencils actually color in the cabs a few different ways to see what resonates best with you. I don't believe that there are rules you need to follow - you just need to end up with the kitchen as you imagine it! Make your own mock-ups, be creative and have fun!