I can't tell you how large a planting area you need but a 1200sf garden should be able to grow a LOT of produce, especially if you do succession plantings of fast crops likes greens and peas. I grew up with a much smaller dedicated vegetable garden than that and my folks canned and froze a lot of what we grew. There were 6 of us in my family. You might want to look into 'square foot gardening' for intensive planting in a smaller area. How much soil/compost you will need will depend entirely on how large the garden area is you decide upon. You will have to determine that before you know how much to add. If doing raised beds, it's pretty easy to calculate the volume each will contain (multiply the length x width x depth). If open beds, you'll need at least 6" of soil, more if you want to grow any root crops. Remember to keep the units the same - 6" = .5'. If you were going with the 30'x40' garden area again to a depth of 6", you'd need 600 cubic feet of soil or about 22.5 cubic yards. That's assuming you have no existing soil at your disposal. Here is a link that might be useful: square foot gardening

70% off culled wood to make garden beds. Good stuff from what I have seen at our HD. It just won't last nearly as long as cedar beds wood but at that price (compared to the price of cedar) it can't be beat. Bottom line - it doesn't matter to the garden, just to the gardener's eye for appearance. selling alpaca poop compost, in another post he mentioned it to be organic. Since the rest of the post was same just the title different I would say it's not organic particularly. Alpaca poop compost, is it good bad or doesn't matter? Wish I could get some. Kess weed seeds than horse. So it depends on how much he is charging for it and is it really compost as kimmsr defined, or just aged alpaca poop? But yeah they are all organic UNLESS it contains grasses that have been treated with weed killers or other chemicals. Go see it first, grab a handful, squeeze it, see how fine it is, smell it. It should smell like good earth. If it smells like ammonia or has any chemical odor, pass on it. other people on craigslist are giving away horse poop, and say you should put this under the raised bed when you dig the first layer on ground, so when the plant roots reach there it's most likely "composted" and they get nutrition boost. Has anyone one practiced this? Not recommended for 2 reasons: 1) if it isn't well composted, well aged already it has no business being used in a food garden - no fresh manures go in vegetable gardens, and 2) layering like that often only creates drainage problems and water pooling. All ingredients used need to be well mixed together. Dave

Ainadaliel, Soil- the natural soil or dirt that is outside in the garden naturally, containing leaves, worms, whatever, but your exsisting outside dirt. Soil-less potting mix- Used for POTS only, made specifically for pot use, containing larger fragments for the plants to allow their roots to "breathe" and drain well. Most soil-less potting mix also contains some kind of fertilizer because the plants can't get the natural fertilization in the soil outside, like leaves, worm castings, ect. Where are you starting your plants? Most people start them inside in the winter, which would mean you aren't planting them in the ground. So, if you start babies inside, you want a pot with soil-less potting mix. When they get big, and you want to plant them outside in your garden, then they go in your soil(which is your dirt outside in your garden bed) mixed with compost. I don't know what fungus has to do with anything, if you get fungus on them inside, the drainage isn't good and they aren't getting enough fresh air.

Bruce (Bendback50) knows what he's talking about and is absolutely correct that P. hawayana and A. gracilis are one and the same. This is not opinion, but fact. Earthworms are often re-classified when it is discovered that their physiology more closely resembles a different group or when new families or genera are added to the taxonomic lists. A. gracilis is a species that has been caught in this re-classification loop on more than one occasion, thus it is known by many names, most of which are outdated. The current correct name is Amynthas gracilis. Stay tuned, however, because getting taxonomists to agree and settle on a classification is akin to hearding cats... There is no one worm type or species that is generally "best" for buliding soil. While we break them out into the categories endogeic, anecic and epigeic, most worms have characteristics similar to those of the other categories. For instance, Lumbricus rubellus is categorized as an epigeic worm and performs and grows best in surface debris, but it can and often does burrow surprisingly deeply. The defining lines between species categories are not firm, but are rather blurry in many cases. It takes worms from all categories working in all areas of soil to maximize soil health. Determining whether an epigeic or endogeic species is best for you soil at a given point is akin to trying to determine which came first, the ckicken or the egg. Endogeic worms feed in soil that has decayed OM worked into the matrix; epigeic and anecic species decay that surface debris so it can be worked into the matrix. Which should come first? That is a question only the worms can answer. It is for this reason that adopting the "if you build it they will come" approach is usually the best idea. Create conditions suitable to worm activity; keep the soil well mulched and moist, avoid chemicals and tilling where possible, and the right worms will arrive at just the right times. Lastly, and most pragmatically, there are no sources of endogeic worms for sale, and even if there were, there is no guarantee that the species being sold would be appropriate to your particular soil type. So, mulch, mulch, mulch, get roots in the ground (plant roots encourage soil biology), avoid disturbing the soil as much as is practical, and let the worms do what worms do! Make sense? Kelly S