Compost. Commercial "garden soil" usually doesn't have much organic stuff in it. So it will turn into a brick when the little organic material in it has degraded and disappeared. Plan on adding some compost every year.

Compost - 2-3 inches mixed in well - if you can get it. If buying bagged stuff is all that is available to you then a good soil-less mix made of peat, bark fines, and perlite can work. Composted manures sold at most garden centers as a last resort. But high quality compost works best for soil improvement.

Dave

I wondered how much digging you were willing to do. I love the lasagna method of building a raised bed (I don't have sides, just mounds). If you build your beds at the end of this season, you'll be all set next year. It's composting in place. I've only tried a green manure crop on one bed last fall. It was a mixed seed and I'm not sure how much organic matter was actually added. Start saving grass clippings, kitchen scraps, etc. Even if you only empty half the bed and start sheet composting in place after the garden season ends, you can add a lot of organic matter. I use the pile of grass clippings to cover kitchen scraps plus have some aged manure to layer in. You can even add shredded newspaper as your brown layer. It will compact over winter and I like to top off in the spring with a layer of aged manure (free on Craigslist).

The suggestions of using compost is *always* a good recommendation. Good compost takes care of a number of soil issues and provides wonderful nutrition for the plants.

I'm not sure where you are located but... Leaves, leaves, and more leaves. Kitchen vegetable waste (no meat, nothing greasy). If your local town/county has a landfill they may have an area where chipped and shredded vegetation is piled...that can be good stuff. I don't like the idea of using other people's grass trimmings due to herbicides used on many lawns. But, leaves and chipped wood usually is good. I use no grass trimmings in my garden due to having mostly bahia grass, but other people do well with non-seedy grasses...or grasses that can't root on their own.

Seriously, if you can scrounge up leaves they will do wonders for your garden. Don't worry about the "it will mess with your pH" idea...it won't change it enough to matter.

If you're talking about a couple of 4x8 foot raised beds then you might want to invest in a couple of large bags of vermiculite. It works very well in aerating the soil and also aides in water holding abilities. It's good stuff for soil structure, but gives no nutrition.

I like leaves, can you tell?

Compost does NOT provide wonderful nutrition for the plants. Boy, this myth is hard to break! Compost provides minimal nutrition, but loosens up the soil enough that nutritive sources are more easily accessible. In fact, poorly composted organics provides a lot more nitrogen than composted organics do, but can be an over-dose.

I agree completely about using leaves for compost. I make several yards of leaf compost every year. Don't worry about adding "greens" to make the "browns" in the leaves compost successfully. They'll compost just fine by themselves, though it will take a little longer. By all means shred them first, with a shredder or lawnmower, and moisten them thoroughly. Whole leaves will take years to break down.

daninthedirt, I’m. pretty sure that compost provides ‘wonderful nutrition’ when added in large quantities. A large quantity of compost provides as much nutrition as a small quantity of synthetic fertilizer or a moderate quantity of strong organic fertilizers like chicken manure and soybean meal.

Okay... terminology alert lol...

Although compost is often thought of, by many, as a way to provide nutrition to plants, it really shouldn't be considered - in the strictest of terms - as a fertilizer. It really isn't concentrated enough, and because methods of production vary so much (often produced in such a way that many available nutrients leach or dissipate long before it reaches a garden,) that considering it a fertilizer leads to misapprehensions and misapplications.

That said, however: It would be fine to change the phrasing to something along the lines of... "compost takes care of a number of issues and provides wonderful nutrition for soil."

BUT... lol... dirt_tracker had already qualified his comments with the term... 'good compost.' And that's true. 'GOOD' compost can indeed provide "wonderful nutrition for the plants." The problem is that it's really tough to know - without testing or making it yourself under controlled conditions - the difference between 'good compost' and bad. Because even 'bad compost' can be very beneficial, the definition of 'good compost' would need to be agreed upon in each use of the term. It just becomes a quagmire of well-meaning garden advice to consider compost a fertilizer, or as seen here, even alluding to it as such.

I've read that home made compost is around 0.5-.0.25-.0.75 in NPK. Of course that can vary greatly. So given those numbers (and if my math is correct) if you add 1 lb. of compost per sq/ft. in a 40 sq/ft bed that would add 0.2 lbs N, 0.1 P, and 0.3 lbs. of K. That would be the same N as adding about 1/2 lb. of urea. Not a huge amount but not trivial either. I don't count on it providing any nutrition for nitrogen lovers and add fertilizer.

I stand corrected in my verbage. Sorry for causing any confusion.

"I stand corrected in my verbage. Sorry for causing any confusion."

I too apologize for shaking the tree. I just thought it good to hash that out a little. Personally, I don't find it too much of an issue to consider compost as a fertilizer, but... meh... best to leave it there. I too collect tons of leaves. I haven't yet had enough to last until the next autumn. So many uses. Love those piles!

Home made compost usually tests out as somewhat higher in nitrogen than commercial compost. Why? Probably because it isn't well composted.

No one is saying that compost doesn't provide nutrients. It does. But not a lot, at least of primary nutrients.

"daninthedirt, I’m. pretty sure that compost provides ‘wonderful
nutrition’ when added in large quantities. "

Sorry, seun but no. I realize that is one of those common garden myths out there that often appeals to new gardeners but ample research has proven that it simply isn't accurate. You might want to do some reading on the Soil Food Web and how it works. Plus "large quantities" is an unknown and needs to be specifically defined or one can create the problems associated with gardening in a bed that is excessively high in organic content.

"No one is saying that compost doesn't provide nutrients. It does. But not a lot, at least of primary nutrients."

Agree but a further point. The compost's ability to provide any nutrients is all dependent on the level of soil micro and macro bacterial and resident activity. Without that active soil micro herd to digest that compost and release those nutrients in a plant usable form there is little to no nutrient benefit.

Those that insist on equating compost - regardless of quality - to fertilizer are missing the big difference. As already mentioned, compost feeds the soil, not the plants directly.

Dave

Let me add that, although you can put LOTS of pounds compost on your garden, taking material that has small nutrients-per-pound and thereby ideally loading up on nutrients in your soil, It doesn't really work that way. I can dig in loads of compost at the beginning of the season, but I'm not going to be digging in loads of compost repeatedly as the season progresses. So water soluble (e.g. nitrates, phophates) in the compost are going to be GONE after a few rainfalls, and the rest will be released very gradually, as the compost degrades. But I can add fertilizer every week or so and, by the end of the season, will have nutrified the soil vastly more than that original dose of compost would have.

Thank you, Dave for your edit. Yes, compost contributes nutrients very gradually, as soil bacterials degrade it. So even the small amounts of nutrients in it take a long time to be released. Much less the case in even organic fertilizers. For chemical fertilizers, the fertilization is instantaneous.

Thanks to all who posted, keep 'em coming!

This is perfect info, I planned on adding a ton of brown leaves after fall and will then till in a bunch of compost in the spring. Any advantage to adding compost in the fall over spring.

THANKS
Matt

Yes, just tilling in whole leaves will do OK, but you'll need to let it stew for a few months before planting. That's in situ composting. Better if you can grind them up first.

No particular advantage adding compost in the fall, though if you add it in the spring you'd like to make sure it is well composted before planting.

It might depend where you are. If you're up north and the ground is very cold, in situ composting over the winter will be slow. Down here a few months works. Of course, if you're up north, you may not be planting much until many months have gone by.

Agree that using whole leaves can be problematic. They can often take over a year to decompose and in the process they can bind up any available soil nitrogen. You'll find discussions over on the Soil & Composting forum about the problems that can create, situations where folks have tilled in lots of fall leaves only to discover come planting time in the spring that most are still intact and the garden has a severe lack of nitrogen.

Shredded leaves will decompose much faster and mixing in a good amount of high nitrogen fertilizer (barring lots of natural greens to mix in) will speed up the process.

Climate and your level of activity in the process can make a big difference in composting.

Dave

South Alabama climate. Those were whole red oak and white oak leaves. It really amazed me how quickly they disappeared after tilling them in. During the tilling I could see that the tines were breaking them up pretty good, but still, I guess the microbes were really hungry, too. Apparently the time between spreading the leaves and tilling them in was shorter than I recalled:

Covered the garden with leaves on 11/27/2017...

Leaves set until January 6, 2018...

...when they were tilled in.

Then on 04/09/2018 the garden was tilled again and wide rows were formed and peppers and tomatoes were transplanted. Some leaf litter is still seen. This is basically four months from the time I piled over a foot of leaves on the garden until I started planting.

You can look a few messages above to see how the garden has grown. The climate does play a big role in what we can do. In a colder climate those leaves would not have broken down as quickly. But, with the heat and moisture (and later some nitrogen applied) they will be gobbled up much quicker than they would be in a cooler climate.

What the soil microbes do in one location can be significantly different from what they do somewhere else. :)

I can shred the dried leaves before adding to garden in the fall, no problem. THANKS

I have the same problem in my raised beds in that I should have sprung another $30 or $40 for better soil.

I am mulching with wood chips during the summer, so eventually when that breaks down, the soil should be better. I have also added my own compost but had limited amounts so couldn’t do all the beds. Once I have more it will go on the beds (hopefully before planting fall crops).

Have you thought about growing some green manure? I'm growing buckwheat for the first time...super easy to grow. I'll be cutting it (hedge trimmers) in about a week and then replant. I'll use the foliage as mulch around my tomatoes and peppers. At least that's my plan. :) In the first photo I posted of my garden's current state in the upper right corner you might be able to see some white flowers...those are the flowers of the buckwheat. Very pretty, dainty flowers, too. As they decompose they add organic matter to the soil. I'm thinking that when I get the garden weeded that I'll plant more buckwheat around the perimeter. Pollinators and predatory insects love it!!!

A couple of shots of buckwheat in the garden...

Great stand of buckwheat!

Dave

The shorter growth isn't actually shorter but got laid down by some storms and is turning upwards again. I'm still in awe at all the pollinators and predators that it draws in!!!! When it was growing straight up I was thinking it would be simple to mow it down with the hedge trimmers, but then it got blown down. It might be a bit more of a challenge now.<grin>

dirt tracker - a weed eater should do the trick but the stems may gum up the head a bit by wrapping around the shaft. Beware that the bees won't be happy with you for cutting down their food! Don't let it go to seed! It's great for mining P from the soil.

Yep, but don't have a weed eater...by choice. I had one years ago and after using it I would vibrate for three days.<grin> When it finally bit the dust I just never shopped for another one. One would be nice for certain things, I suppose.<grin>

I'll have to pick a time when there's no activity from the bees. It's weird. Sometimes I walk up and can hear the buzzing of the bugs before I get inside the garden fence. Other times I have to look hard to see a single bee or wasp. And it's hard to put my finger on when exactly those times are. I guess they have their on clock they go by...both the buckwheat on producing nectar and the bugs on when to work it.

Gotcha on getting it before it goes to seed. I'm planning on replanting it after I mow it so going to seed won't hurt in regards to it reseeding. But, it seems I've read that the quality of the manure goes down once it goes to seed...???? I've got plenty of seed so I'll probably "nip it in the bud"...or "bloom", in this case. ;)