Nice. I do something similar for sifting pine bark using an old/deep picture frame from a flea market lined on the bottom with 1/4" mesh chicken wire. The smaller pieces go into my container mix...the larger pieces go into the mulch material pile.

Hi greenthumbnick, I'm in the situation of gardening on sand as well. I decided not to bother too much with digging and batteling the sand/nematodes so I have been gathering as much organic matter as I can find. This includes cardboard boxes, newspapers, lawn clippings, leaves, any wood chips that the tree services want to dump at my place. I have paid a little money to have mushroom compost delivered (like $20 for a huge trailer load.) I get the free compost from our county whenever they have it available. My first season I didn't have much time to get a "garden" ready so I simply took cardboard produce boxes, plunked them down on a bed of wood chips, filled em with compost from the county, and planted in them. It worked in a pinch. That was this past spring. This fall's garden has several different types of beds going but I think my favorite was simply laying down some cardboard, piling fresh mushroom compost on it (mushroom compost here is horse manure mixed with straw that has been used to grow mushrooms but now they are done with it, it is usually still quite hot), covering the compost with wood chips and planting. The cucurbits planted that way are doing very well so far. Now I'm starting to think about prepping beds for the cooler weather crops and realizing I'm running out of compost so I may have to do lasagna beds with a variety of materials for layers, I'm hoping it isn't a problem that they won't get to sit long before I plant in them. I definitely think gardening with materials you can find rater than paying for dirt is the way to go. Does your local have yard waste pick up? If so you can just go around the evening before they collect the bags of grass clippings ad leaves and get lots of great stuff. Also, if they do collect such things, they probably compost them. Check with your county to see if they offer free compost to residents. Check to see if there are any mushroom farms in the area, they might give away or sell for cheep their compost. We get sawdust pretty cheep from a sawmill in the area. I also tell any tree services I see working in our neighborhood that they can dump the chips in front of my house if the need. They are usually happy to leave the chips unless the person paying for the work wants them. I've gotten three big piles this way. This last time there were lots of palm fronds in one of the loads and that stuff is making great cover material for the compost bin. More, more, I need more organic material!!!! : ) One thing I did learn about making raised beds. Extend the weed barrier (cardboard or newspaper layers) beyond the actual planting area and cover with mulch. This gives nice walkways that help keep the weeds further from the planting beds. I've found it is difficult to mow right up to the beds and can wind up just flinging the weed seeds right into the planting area!

Avoid the bark and the pre-packaged soil mixes. The soil mixes are best for containers and even then you need to alter it with some other material. I suggest trying to find a landscape materials yard that sells bulk quantities of decomposed granite (and other stuff). Here in AZ they are all over the place. Ive had great success mixing in some 1/4" minus granite with my native soil for raised succulent beds. 1/4 minus has enough gritty and finer particles to provide good drainage. You can have a few tons of this delivered to you much cheaper than anything you can get at HD or Lowes. You can also get a nice top-dressing material fron them. If you cant find one in the phone book, maybe call up some landscaping contractors and ask them where they get their non-plant materials. Good luck!

PK, I think the list of leaves that should NOT be added to a worm bin is very short. You mentioned eucalyptus because of the oils. I've read that leaves from certain oak species (don't know which ones) take a very long time to get processed, but don't seem to harm the worms. Pine needles take 6-12 months, but the worms love them. I use camphor tree leaves all the time and the worms love them. I tested by adding a small amount in one corner and watching to see if the worms avoided them. I've added freshly fallen leaves (not yet decomposing) as top bedding. It does no harm, but the worms won't really start processing them until they start decomposing a bit more. I collect leaves through Fall & Winter and leave them in the bags. I then use them throughout the year as bedding for my worm bins. Within a few weeks they start to get moldy and/or slimy depending on moisture content - perfect for the worms. If I was in a hurry or wanted to save space, I'd put the leaves through a shredder.