I had a wonderful raised bed several years ago that I filled with finished compost, or rather, nearly finished compost. It really was great stuff. I planted a couple of English roses and they grew like wildfire and you never saw such huge blooms. They were so heavy that the rose bushes couldn't support their wieght and they drooped over to the ground. I also planted cosmos seed that I had saved from a flower bed in back. The plants in back had been 28" tall but the ones in the compost reached up to the rain gutters on the house and completely blocked the sun from our picture window. The biggest surprise that we got from the compost was that there were some uncomposted cucumber seeds in it that germinated and grew into the most delicious gigantic cukes we ever tasted. Course when I found the first one, it was a complete surprise because I didn't know they were in there. SO there I was, pulling some weeds out of the planter, and I put my hand on a huge, cool green mass and I jumped about three feet in the air. When I figured out what it was I went looking in the masses of growth and found 27 cukes the smallest of which was about 15" long, and 6" circumference. You can certainly use 100% compost, but just don't expect everything to be... 'normal.' Mwahahahaha!!!!!! Cheryl

Thanks, Wayne. I got my feet wet with SFG last spring (some planter boxes on a concrete patio) but I am starting to lean towards a more French intensive or bio intensive approach, even though I don't yet have my own compost bin. No hissy fit here... I just have some serious concerns about my native soil... the original 30+ year owner of our house was a jeweler and I have some concerns about what might be tossed into the site that we're going to use as our garden. Also, we did some construction last year (demo of old lead covered house and compaction of our clay soils), not to mention a major gopher problem. All of which made me want to plant essentially a 24" deep box above ground with a rodent mesh underneath. (I actually posted this question, too.) The SFGers think anything more than 6" is a waste, but I know I need more. I was almost completely convinced that 16" would be fine but I am thinking of going back to my original plan of 23" deep boxes. Plenty of room for my veggies without rodents snacking on roots. LOL Anyway, I appreciate your feedback. My intuition is that the loam/organic mix I'm getting (it's about 30% loam and 70% organic matter) is going to be great. -k

I think coarse is recommended for very clay soil to help cut up the compacted mass. It doesn't work for me. Since your drainage is great it sounds perfect. Peat does add an element of acidity. If needed lime may be added --- soil test would determine.

So many people say strawberries grow well in containers, but I guess I just don't get it. To me it seems opposite of what you want - strawberries spread through runners and they don't really produce much the first year. I tried a few in baskets once and was really disappointed. The ones that I planted in the ground at the same time grew so much bigger/better... And they were still there, ready to go again the next spring. I don't think the shrimpy ones in the baskets even made it through the winter stashed in the detached garage. I'm in coastal VA, though - maybe they'd do better overwinter in SC in a container. All that to say, I think strawberries in containers doesn't work nearly as well as in the ground. My soil is a bit on the sandy side, at least where the berries are, and I haven't noticed any problems with that. My strawberries are kind of ground cover among other plants, so they don't really take up extra space. The rabbits don't seem to care about them, but the squirrels seemed to like them. I put a rubber snake in there and they actually started staying away! I just moved it around every day or two. Maybe I have dumb squirrels. This post was edited by sara82lee on Wed, May 1, 13 at 22:01