preparing a new but old bed?

I want to plant some vegetables and need some advice. I don't have a "finished" compost pile, I am building one now with all the weeds I've pulled, chicken house wheelbarrowfulls and old straw along with kitchen scraps.

I tilled over the old owner's strawberry patch a few weeks ago as it was eaten to bits by birds and the chickens. I have been weeding it since then (I didn't do a great job tilling as it was heavy so I've finally cleared it all out by hand now) and the soil seems a bit heavy so I thought I'd add peat moss. I bought a brick of it for $8.49, expecting to need "a few", and it MAYBE covered 1/15th of the bed, so I'm wondering now if this is maybe not the best idea? I spread it out in one area about 1" deep, and by shovelful dug down deep, lifted and flipped the shovelful over so the peat was IN the hole, dirt on top. Then with the point I broke up the clod (if it hadn't busted up during my flipping), dug down again, flipped again, and it seems pretty well mixed in. I watered the small area for a few minutes, and now it is sitting until I decide what to do with the little area before I tackle the big area! The area was about 10' x 4'.

Does anyone have any advice, does it sound like I did things properly so far? Is there a better or less expensive option? Do I need to fertilize, or is peat moss enough? Do I need to add fish or bone meal?

thank you!

my dad puts fishguts in all the wholes he plants tomatoes in and has excellent results.

Hopefully cats and other animals in your neighborhood don't come out and dig up the fish.

One of the most expensive things in raised bed gardening is finding stuff to fill the bed with. I use peat moss, shredded pine bark, compost, etc. Pro-Mix and Jungle Growth are great if you can find them. You can grow tomatoes in 8" of soil if grown on top of some other type soil like clay.

Peat moss contains no plant food whatsoever. Unless you have a LOT of compost, you will need to feed your plants. I would add pelletized fertilizer such as TomatoTone, GardenTone, Vigoro, or Miracle Gro. And then supplement with liquid fertilizer such as fish emulsion, seaweed/kelp emulsion, HastaGro, or Miracle Gro.

This message was edited Jun 3, 2008 2:08 PM

my bed is in-ground, not raised....

Alright, well then 1 inch of peat moss is probably good to loosen things up and improve drainage.

Compost also improves drainage and improves the soil, encouraging earthworms and beneficial organisms to visit.

Shredded pine bark is a good "filler" if you use it sparingly to loosen up the soil further to improve drainage.

Does anyone know if pine bark is something that's available in Missouri?

One idea is to get a bales of straw and prepare them as if you were going to do straw bale gardening (instructions on the Strawbale Gardening forum here on DG). Makes terrific organic material to till into the soil and to mulch with.

Frank

ps - I tried straw bale gardening this year, so far it's been outperformed by regular garden method.

but does it take time to break down some, or can I plant right into it?

The strawbale process takes about two weeks. It still has the look and feel of straw and is still coarse, but you can till it in and plant immediately. It will continue to decompose rapidly in the dirt, break up the soil, and retain moisture without being water logged. You'll have countless earthworm. The first time I did this, I was concerned based on what I'd read that the decomposing material would rob nitrogen, but I saw no evidence of it & just followed a basic fertilization schedule. Worked out OK

I used moldy horse hay instead of straw, because it was available cheap. No weeds sprouted from the hay and it is terrific in the soil. I have a raised bed that's just dirt (got lazy and didn't add any organic stuff). Despite heavy mulching, it's really hard to keep the moisture where it needs to be & I have to water it twice as often as the other beds.

When motivation reaches the right level, I'll remedy that.

I had a similar experience with peat moss - first bed I made out here we used it and it took
three of the four cubic foot packages to to make a meaningful difference in a 6 x 10 bed.

Frank

wow that's a lot of peatmoss! I bought another brick yesterday and worked another section. My bed is about 45x12 I think, I need to "officially" measure it before I do too much more!

Oops!

16 x 10.

ah okay that makes me feel better! I was worried for a minute there!

Yesterday I went to a nursery that I have bought things from in the past so they know me pretty well. They had a ton (and I mean hundreds) of 4 packs of tomatoes, as well as squash, melons, peppers (both hot and sweet varieties), cabbage, cucumbers. I got one of everything, went to the register, and she only charged me $1 for each tomato and nothing for the squash or melons as they were all "big and ugly". I was so happy! But then I have to think now that I won't have much success with them as they were all pretty root bound and as she said ... "big" ... I losened and split the root ball with my fingers, planted the tomatoes deeply, fertilized, mulched etc. Should I do anything else?

It was windy and rainy last night, but nothing blew down as I had caged the tall stuff and the veg garden is enclosed by construction fencing which probably slows the wind a bit. But it is calling for more wind and rain today, interspersed with sun and 85 degree weather. Any thoughts? Should I go and get more, pull out and throw out what I did and try with new seeds, stick with what I did only?

any advice on this please? Everything I planted seems to be doing alright except for one of the "ambrosia melons" and one of the "black (something) watermellon), they haven't perked up like their sisters have. Is there a rule of thumb for how long you give a seedling to look "good"?
thanks!