Hi Sarah, I'm Pam. :) I can see the advantages and disadvantages of your set up. I looked at the ingredients of the soil mix your using and it seems pretty dense to me. Quote: Contains a blend of sphagnum peat moss, compost and natural fertilizer... Sounds like a good, readily available base to start with. To me, here in the temperate rain forest, it would turn into a bog much of the year. Bog plants are nice. But... adding materials to give it more texture, so the roots have air seems the next step.I will link to the thread you want over in the container forum at the end of this post. It's a very long first post full of facts, so I suggest first scrolling through to get a feel for what's there and focusing on the relevant parts for you, right now. You may want to bookmark that one. Where I am, in a city too, I can get super large bags of pumice at an outlying farm supply store. Not sure the size of the bag, but I can't reach all the way around it and it stands up to my shoulders. One bag lasts me a couple of years. The tiny bags sold in most stores are way too expensive, so this might be something you could look around for, if you have transportation. I also use lots of 'bark mulch in my potting soil mixes. I have a gas station three blocks over that brings in medium sized fir mulch each spring/summer, so I walk my garden wagon over off and on and drag back another bag. It's funny seeing car passengers trying to figure out what that old lady is up to. When I bring a bag of manure home on the bus, in my granny cart, it seems better to wrap it in a plain black garbage bag. What they don't know, won't hurt them. LOL. My point being we each find sources that work for the individual. I like the idea of the boxes on the concrete, since it' will be easy to keep the children clean and not tracking stuff in, plus it's small enough you can keep track of things pretty easy and not get discouraged. I'm wondering how it is going to hold moisture in the heat, and how the heat will affect the center and the edges differently. A great garden experiment. I bet the heat loving herbs will thrive in just the right spot. All that extra heat from the concrete will be just heaven to them. My first idea for the plants like a tomato that wants deeper soil. What about adding some bottomless boxes. That could look really nice. Carefully arranged to look good from the window, but with the taller things not shading the other plants nearby. Yeah, this is where you move things around a few times.Any deeper container will work. I'm picturing the tomato roots going down through the container and then spreading out to where ever in the bigger 4X4 box it finds suits it needs. I wonder if somebody on http://pinterest.com/# has done something like this, it could look so interesting. You have a good base to build on. Two budget tips, since this garden thing doesn't get built in a season, would be 1. at the end of the season some places that only sell soil amendments part of the year, put it all on sale. That's a great time to stock up and have ready for next year. And 2. This is the time of year many counties run composting workshops, and also sell smaller plastic bins at a greatly reduced price. The one sold here is the Earth Machine. It's a nice way to start out. Doing a spring clean up around the area may give you some older fall leaves, then add the weeds and some kitchen compost, and your on your way to having more to add next year. My other two thoughts are you may find once it gets hot, it's drying out too fast. Adding a mulch will help, plus be adding for next years total. As far as next year. I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm imaging these boxes going higher, building the same box shape, just adding it on top. Doing it all at the start is just too much expense. I'm so curious how this is going to work where you are. What fun ! Here is a link that might be useful: The promised link

Peat is bad for bearded iris. Japanese like acid but not beardeds. Neutral to alkaline is their preference. I have clay and the beardeds struggle with it. Difficult to put down deep roots. I amend with organic material, adding bonemeal or bulb food (low in nitrogen). Good drainage is imperative to prevent rot. For my soil and climate, I soak the beds for several hours and not again until the top 5-6 inches of soil is dry. During summer the iris are tired after their spring display. It's normal for them to look a bit ratty. New foliage will appear later. In zone 5 they may lose all leaves before winter??? Rooting powder is not needed. The new rhizome has all it needs to grow. It is like a storage tank. Pot culture is not very successful for beardeds - maybe a 1/2 barrel. The rhizome travels to new destinations and quickly outgrows a 12" pot. Plus their roots can grow down 18"+ (tall beardeds). After 2 years expect to redo the pot with new soil and new divisions. Maybe after 1 year for vigorous ones. Standard bearded dwarf iris or Miniature bearded dwarf iris (SBD & MDB) would be a possiblity. Thankfully bearded iris are forgiving. If you have good drainage the winter rains shouldn't rot them. Iris borers may be the biggest enemy?

River valleys are your best bet. Good farms are found in the Chehalis River valley in Grays Harbor county, of course the Skagit and Stillaguamish river valleys up north, and southwestern Washington like around Woodland, Battle Ground and Vancouver (Clark County area). Southwestern WA is beyond the glacial influence so they dont' have the miles and miles of glacial gravelly till that plague most Puget Sound area gardeners. I have been struck by total soil envy by tree farms in Everett and along the Lewis River and along the Stillaguamish, and a lilac farm outside of Woodland. And of course the Skagit River lowlands, though those tend to be rather sticky when wet. Stanwood area, too, I think I inspected a tree farm there with excellent soil. And a blueberry farm in Mossyrock with very very nice muck, just what you want for growing blueberries. Find an area that interests you climate wise, and then get the appropriate county Soil Survey, I think the USDA is the responsible organization for those. They'll tell you what soils appear where, with detailed descriptions of depth and grade, and what uses they're most appropriate for. I got a free Thurston County one at the county fair although I forget exactly who it was that was giving them away - WSU Extension maybe. I have also found Pierce and King county editions from the local Federal Government Repository (The Evergreen State College library). They get all kinds of government documents there although you have to be affiliated with the college to check them out, but anyone can look at them.

If you have lots of worms in your soil, it sounds like you already have some pretty good soil. Guess that doesn't help a whole lot if you need more to fill raised beds, though! Whenever you're putting a different soil on top of an already existing layer it's a really good idea to mix the two soils together fairly well where they meet. So I'd recommend putting 6-8" of the new soil where it's gonna go, then till or dig the new stuff into the old stuff, and then add the rest of the new on top of the mixed layer. That should prevent any sort of problems with water transfer between the new and the old. If your current soil really does have lots of organic matter and worms, it's possible you wouldn't even need to do that, but better safe than sorry! No fear on getting paranoid! Just check out the answers you get here and then pick the one or ones you like the best for yourself. The best way to garden is YOUR way! And the only way to figure that out is trial and error, which we all do---over and over and over....... ;-) Skybird P.S. If you get a chance, head on over to the Who's Here in 2014 thread and introduce yourself a little more. P.P.S. If you do get around to heading over to Timberline, you might want to take a zipper baggie of your current soil with you to see if you can get a general opinion on its quality.