"The very best thing you can spend money on is a bag of azomite. " "That's very expensive stuff per volume, and it would be last on my list." While it is true It is good to not add something unless it is needed, it could be needed if your soil really is lacking minerals. There are many that use this "azomite". I never heard of it, but I just read it is used for soils that have been demineralized. It says there is 70 trace elements in it. I am not sure if those same elements can be found in just crop residue and horse manure and composted leaves which is about all I use for organic matter the rest of the nutritional needs are filled with synthetic fertilizer for my garden. These minerals are said to be needed elements. If they are lacking then it needs to be added one way or another. This is great info here- "Justus von Liebig, the German chemist who became known as the âÂÂFather of Fertilizerâ (1803 - 1873) made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry by developing the Law of the Minimum. AzomiteâÂÂs primary nutritional function can be explained through LiebegâÂÂs Law. The Law states that plant growth is determined by the scarcest âÂÂlimitingâ nutrient. If one of the many essential trace elements is deficient in the soil, the yield and immune function of its plant life will be affected; therefore supplementation with the totality of the required nutrients supports optimum growth." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azomite

Thanks again for all your advice and comments :) Since I last wrote, I've had a major change in garden space. My wonderful husband moved the horse corral and the electric fence back about 75' and I now have a much better space for my garden...with amazing soil, as you might imagine! (LOL) There still has to be access to the horses and the water pump, so the whole thing is not garden, but I'll have a space roughly 30' x 40' plus room along the outside of the fence. I debated about putting in a big garden, but remembered what you all said about starting small. Instead, I'm going to put in a kithcen garden, with a 30" deep perimeter bed along the inside of the fence. There are two middle beds, one 11' x 14' and one 7' x 14'. The larger bed will be veggies this year for my nephew (bean teepee and watermelons) with some other things tucked in. Next year (or as soon as budget allows) I hope that will be the grape arbor with dining table and chairs. This is the best view on our property, so I really want to combine entertainment area with garden space. The smaller bed (which is not on the view side) will have three metal arches with a few feet in between each one, but kind of making a tunnel. This is for cherry tomatoes, pole beans, mini-pumpkins, etc. At the end of the tunnel, there will be a little seating area for the kids, with an arbor over it for gourds. I really want to make this garden child friendly, especially for the nieces and nephews under 10. I have a little Peter Rabbit garden full of miniature vegetables planned for the perimeter bed by their tunnel garden. The rest of the perimeter beds are for peas, salad veggies, small root vegetables, herbs, flowers, etc. Also (thanks to suggestions on this forum) I'm putting in a little hopscotch area with stepping stones set in the lawn path in the kids area, between the arch tunnel and their seating area. It's kind of hidden from the rest of the garden, so I think they'll like it. One niece also wants alpine strawberries somewhere in the garden. The space I was planning for the kitchen garden will soon be a 20' x 20' space for larger vegetables, such as corn, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, more beans and some bigger root vegetables. If I decide to grow more vegetables than what I can eat during the summer, I have another space behind the old farmhouse that could be a really big garden in the future. Right now, this is all I can manage! The kitchen garden has wide grass paths and lots of space for the kids to play and garden. The other vegetable garden (my nephew calls it the "corn" garden) is more for the older kids and myself and will not be used as much by the little ones. Oh, almost forgot, across from the "corn" garden, I'm going to have a big bed against the west side of the house for tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc. that take a lot of heat. I'll also have some mediterranean herbs and flowers thrown in too. It should be a lot...

Hi all- I just purchased materials from Menards to build a raised bed. The anchores / posts are called Frame-it- All and the sides are composite (ultra deck). I saw this product on-line and was happy to find it locally. The sections are 4 ft long and you can build numerous configurations and heights. I'm going to start out with 4 X 8 X 12. I don't plan on double digging - etc. Just putting wet newspaper down and following a layered type compost filling that I read about in a book called Lasagna Gardening. This was a small investment, the 2 pack anchors were about 11.00 each and you need three, plus the same amount for the stacking hardware. The decking was on sale and the guy cut it for me : ) This is definately an easy project for a weekend warrior! An added bonus, you can move it around and change it if you want something different next year. Wish me luck!

Forests are often defined by their dominent species in a the mature or last climax succession. For example a if a woodland site is completely burned first smaller bushes will grow then successively larger trees until eventually you get a fairly stable group of plants. It sounds as if you might be in a Maple, Cherry Beech Appalachain type of forest. If you find a forestry text ( also may be called sylvics or sylviculture) you can find a list of what types of trees grow. Usually this will include the big trees and the understory trees. It has been several years since I studied this but I think you might find. Red Maple, Black Cherry, American Beech, Tulip Popler, Sugar Maple and Hemlock as some of you dominate species. Understory might include grey birch, yellow birch, witch hazel, sassafrass. The non-woody plants and much harder to define because they change more rapidly. As the trees grow the shade conditions change and plants that grew well before no longer do. If an area loses its trees by wind or fire wildflowers and other plants which have not been there for years suddenly appear because there is more light. The seeds have been in the soil all the time waiting for the right conditions to grow, this is called the seed bank.