I don't do that sort of hole planting. I build slightly raised beds (not raised too high because then they dry out too fast in summer) and improve all the soil in the entire bed, by adding large amounts of organic matter to the soil and rototilling it in well to mix it up. I use various forms of organic matter---homemade compost, mushroom compost, purchased compost in bags, composted cow or chicken manure--locally obtained manure that I then compost first before using, chopped/shredded autumn leaves (we cut them up with the lawnmower and catch them in the lawnmower's grasscatcher), grass clippings, etc. I add everything I can find to the soil, including Soil Conditioner, a bagged produce that is a combination of pine bark fines and humus. Depending on the soil's fertility needs, I'll add rock powders, greensand, lavasand, blood meal, bone meal, alfalfa meal,dry molasses, etc., depending on what I am trying to achieve. I usually add Tomato-Tone organic plant food just before transplanting into the beds. The tomato beds got a huge amount of amending in the initial year when we broke ground and built them. Nowadays, with older beds, I mostly just add mulch to the surface of the ground all year long and let it decompose and break down. In spring, right before planting, I use my little Mantis tiller/cultivator to work the decomposed mulch into the ground before I plant. Then I add new mulch right after planting.

For container plantings, I used to mix my own using an adapted version of Al's 5-1-1 mix from the Container Forum, but haven't had as much time to do that the last 2 or 3 years (my garden keeps getting bigger and I keep getting busier), Lately I mix a bag of Black Kow (only Black Kow and no other brand because it is 100% composted cow manures and some companies composted cow manure often contain as little as 10% manure and the rest is filler) with a bag of Miracle Grow Moisture Control and I get great results in my containers. Some years I have a lot of plants in containers, and some years I don't have many at all.

In some years, because I have really big containers that are very expensive to fill, I've filled the bottom half of each container with half-rotted wood (logs, deadfall, etc. ) collected from our woodland. It cuts down on how much purchased materials I have to use, and the partially rotted woodland materials seem to help hold the moisture a lot longer than the soil-less mix/cow manure mix in containers without it seem to hold moisture. I always add a handful of lime in any container no matter what mix I put in it, and I mix in the lime well before planting.

If I were to improve only the planting holes (and in my clay soil I'd never do that), I'd use the Earl's Hole method discussed in the old thread from the Tomato Forum that I've linked below.

The reason I wouldn't improve only holes in our dense, red clay is that when you do that in unimproved clay, each hole essentially becomes an in-ground pot that could hold far too much moisture during periods of heavy rainfall. If a person already has well-amended clay, whether at grade-level or in raised beds, and it does drain well enough, then you could use the Earl's Hole method once the entire bed was already in good enough shape. If I did that, I'd vary the location of the holes each year so that different parts of the ground were being amended each year instead of amending the same hole area over and over.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Earl's Hole Method of Planting Tomatoes

Dawn,
I have several large containers to fill as well. I have miracle grow garden soil but without moisture control. Can I use this and what can I use for the moisture control?
I also have heard people filling the bottom of their containers with broken styrofoam(like used in packaging). I do not have any rotten wood etc to use at this time and looking for an alernative.
Do really appreciate yours and all others assistance.
Jan

Jan, I only tried regular Miracle Grow without Moisture Control in containers one year and I had to water 3 times a day most days, and that was in large molasses feed tubs that hold between 20 and 30 gallons, depending on the brand of feed. The next year, I did a mix---part regular Miracle Grow and part homemade 5-1-1 mix, and it was a little better. The next year I added the Black Kow cow manure. Still better but still watering constantly. Finally, I tried Black Kow and Moisture Control Mix together and that has held the moisture well enough that in the worst summer heat I only have to water once or twice a day instead of three times. What the MG Moisture Control Mix does so well is hold the moisture and I believe it is because of the coir in the mix. You oould turn any soil-less planting mix into a moisture control mix by adding coir to it.

You will never know what exactly will work for you in your specific weather conditions and with your containers except by experimenting. The best way is to put different mixes in several containers and compare their performance in identical conditions. When I am planting containers in spring, I will alter the mix slightly if I am expecting either a very wet or a very dry year because I know from experience that when our weather is at either end of the spectrum, I get better results when I tailor the mix to the weather. The hardest years on my container plants have not been the dry years--it has been the wet ones, like 2004 and 2007, when the mix just didn't drain well enough because we were getting insane amounts of rain.

Personally I would not use sytrofoam in the soil of anything I was raising to eat. If I wanted to add wood to the bottom of a container to take up space and I didn't have any, I'd likely use a chunky wood mulch instead of sytrofoam, or even rocks. Rocks wouldn't add any water holding capacity, but unlike styrofoam the rocks wouldn't add any synthetic chemicals to the soil.

If you live in a city that collects garbage, you could check and see if they process the limbs and leaves down into municipal mulch or compost. Or, if you contact a local tree-trimming company, sometimes one of them, if working in your area, will drop off a load of tree trimmings in your driveway or yard if you ask. I use deadfall from the woods because there's always plenty of it and I get to kill two birds with one stone since I'm cleaning up the woodland. I also like that we're reusing material from our property instead of sending it to the local dump for someone else to deal with.

Some years when I haven't had easily accessible wood (because I waited too long to collect it and the snakes were out in the woods), I've used spoiled hay that is about half decomposed. It works as well as the wood. Here where I live, there's always someone with some old, spoiled hay sitting around. Most of them just burn it to get rid of it once it its quality is too poor to be used as feed.

Sometimes you can find wood, hay, mulch, etc. on your local Freecycle website or Craig's List. Where there's a will, there's usually a way....you just have to be creative and find it.

Dawn

Thank you for the reply.
I will not use sytrofoam as I was not thinking about the chemical it would put in the soil.
I have quite a bit of miracle grow soil so I will put black cow and coir in the molasses tubs as well and try it.
I also will see if I can locate some chip or my neigbhor might have some old hay he can give me.
We live near Pauls Valley, Elmore city area so we are not far from you and have similar weather.
Tomorrow I plan to start my tomato,pepper and broccoli seeds and was wondering if I could start my peas and bean seeds inside to get an early start as well.
Thanks again
Jan

Dawn thanks for the tip about rotten wood in the bottom of pots.

AS A CHILD WE DID NOT DEAL MUCH WITH TOMATO DISEASES...WHAT HAPPENED, SOIL IS WORN OUT TODAY...SO, TRY THE OKLAHOMA WAY OF GARDENING....
1. ROCK DUST (I USE AZOMITE, BUT BELIEVE LOCAL ROCK QUARRY DUST CAN WORK....7.83 TON...
2. BIOCHAR (CHARCOAL IN AG USE)...MUST BE CHEMICAL FREE, BUY OR MAKE YOUR OWN...ALSO CALLED TERRA PRATA...
3. MYCORRHIZA...I USE PLANT SUCCESS...BUT BELIEVE VIRGIN FOREST SOIL WOULD SUPPLY IT...A COUPLE OF HAND FULLS BENEATH EACH PLANT...MUST CONTACT ROOTS...
4. HULTERKULTUR (JUST BURIED WOOD, TO HOLD IN MOISTURE THROUGH THE SUMMER) OLD ROTTING LOGS PROBABLY BEST...
5. NO FERTILIZER OR CHEMICALS, NO INSECTICIDES OR PESTICIDES WITH CHEMICALS...PROBABLY WONT NEED ANYWAY
6. NO PLOWING, NO COMPACTING (WALKING ON) NO TILLING BUT DO NEED TO MIX WELL ONE TIME ONLY..
7. USE CHLORINE FREE WATER (LET WATER SIT IN OPEN CONTAINER FOR AT LEAST 24 HRS...
ALL THESE STEPS WILL HELP GARDNERS THRU DRY TIMES...MAY NOT NEED ANY EXTRA WATER IF IT WILL RAIN TWO OR THREE TIMES...REW butchfomby@yahoo.com...bug spray rock dust, 1 cup to 5 gals water, stirred good, sit 24 hrs...also coffee and coffee grounds will get rid of slugs, snails etc...

Jan,

You're welcome. When you ask for old spoiled hay, be sure it was not sprayed with one of the long-lived herbicides like clopyralid (see old thread linked below) that can kill garden plants for several years. Even when I personally know the folks who have grown the hay and they assure me they didn't spray the hay with anything, I worry that maybe the landowners on adjacent land might have sprayed and it might have drifted into our friends' hay pasture. I cut up the hay into little pieces with scissors and mix it 50-50 with a soil-less potting mix in paper cups. Then I put bean seed or pea seed in it and wait for them to sprout and grow. If the hay is contaminated with herbicide residue, you'll be able to see it in the way the seeds sprout and grow (or don't sprout and grow).

Yes you can start peas and beans inside but with a couple of caveats.

First, neither one of them especially enjoys being transplanted and it can set them back so much that they stall and don't grow after being transplanted. So, in order to avoid that stall, plant them in something plantable.....peat pellets, peat pots, paper cups with slits cut in the bottom for the roots to grow right through, home-made newspaper pots (directions all over the internet) or cardboard tubes from paper towel or toilet paper tubes.

Secondly, be careful you don't start them too early. Peas and beans are quick to sprout and grow in warm indoor temperatures so don't need 6 to 8 weeks indoors to reach transplant size like tomatoes and peppers do. Start pea seeds indoor 2 to 3 weeks before you intend to transplant them into the ground. I started my pea seeds in paper cups last week. They are out in the greenhouse so are just starting to sprout because our nights have been around freezing about every third night lately. That's fine. They are used to being cold so that it won't be a shock when they go into the ground. That's why I have them in the greenhouse. If you raise the peas indoors, keep them as cool as you can after they sprout because they won't be real happy if they are used to a house that is 72-75 degrees all day and then get transplanted outside where the high temps are, let's say, in the 40s or 50s. I usually transplant mine into the ground when they are just an inch or two tall so that also lessens the chance of transplant shock.

With beans, it can be a little trickier. Once the bean seeds sprout, they can reach for the sky and get 3 to 4" tall in just a couple of days. You need to be ready to put them into the ground right after they sprout. I do like to start my bean seeds indoors. For me, it is more about the spacing. I plant in the John Jeavons' Biointensive Gardening style and don't want to waste an inch of space, so starting with transplants in paper cups instead of bean directly sown into the ground makes me happy because it is an efficient use of space and seeds. I don't have any gaps in my planting because I already have living bean transplants at planting time. I don't waste seeds by sowing too closely together in the ground and then thinning them out. It is sort of the best of both worlds.

Beans will sprout and grow just fine when direct sown, though, so I don't want anyone thinking they have to sow them indoors. I just like to do it so I have a properly filled bed with exact biointensive-type spacing from Day 1.

I sow bean seeds in paper cups only 10-14 days before the transplant date and, if they grow too fast, sometimes I put them in the ground a few days early because I don't want their roots to get too crowded in the paper cups before I can get them into the ground.

I also routinely sow bean and southern pea seeds in cups as succession crops. For example, let's say I expect to harvest my broccoli by late May or early June. A couple of weeks before that, I'll sow southern pea seeds, usually Pink Eye Purple Hull peas, in cups outdoors in a a semishady area. I like for them to get at least a half day of sun while growing in the cups so they can tolerate the sunshine in the garden when transplanted. In the morning of the final broccoli harvest, I harvest all the broccoli, pull out the plants. I might add a little compost to the soil, rake it out and smooth it down. Then I transplant the southern peas into the ground, water them in and then mulch. Your friends and neighbors who happen to keep an interested eye on your garden will be puzzled when they see nice healthy young pea plants growing in a spot that they are "positive" had broccoli just a day or two earlier. It makes me grin when they ask me, in a puzzled tone of voice, "what happened to the broccoli?". Non-gardeners often don't realize broccoli is a spring crop and don't understand why it is suddenly gone from the garden, or how the peas sprouted and grew seemingly overnight.

Helen, You're welcome. It is a technique borrowed from the idea of building hugelkultur beds. I started doing it back after I built my first huglekultur bed in Fort Worth in the 1980s or early 1990s. When I had all these big molasses feed tubs to fill here, I figured that if hugelkultur worked both on top of the ground or in pits dug into the ground, it ought to work in the really big pots...and it did. I like that it gives me a way to use the deadfall in the woods instead of just leaving it to rot (which does enrich the woodland soil anyhow, not that it needs it). A lot of people here burn their brush piles and wood piles, and I hate seeing all that lovely wood and brush go up in flames. I'd rather recycle it and put it to good use.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous Thread on Killer Compost

Dawn,
I will heed the warning and get some hay tomorrow and start a bean or pea and watch it. I will also walk around the neigbhors woods and look for rotted wood.
We have just finished our greenhouse so will plant the peas in paper cups and put them out there.
I will wait with the beans until you mention you have started yours.
Since this is such a new experiene for us and such a huge climate change I read every message and make cards for each vegetable so I can
refer to them plus I have ordered Dr Coltons vegetable starting book you mentioned.
We are having a light rain. Yipeee
Jan