I'm in my first year and I've had absolutely no problems with Mel's Mix.

I did 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost where the compost was Two brands of cow manure compost and then a muchroom compost. I also put in a little organic fertilizer when planting because I never did get the suggested 5 types of compost and all my stuff did fine.

http://flickr.com/photos/veganbento/

HTH!
V.

Almost every "dirt" based planting area does not fully hit its stride until after the first growing season, one of those facts of gardening life (and why there is a suggestion to prepare new beds well before they are to be planted in). Mel's mix does no worse than the others, and after that first season, things really take off.

As far as the expense there is a FAQ entry on filling beds that includes a lot of hints on how to get a bed together for less than what your initial pricing might suggest.

My first year with Mel's mix everything grew well. Some things did better in heavily fertilized containers, but Mel's mix did very well.

As the soil matures it gets even better.

This past season I tried a square foot garden. My plants were severely stunted and a light green/yellow color. I made a post on the soil forum talking about it. Many smart smart people over there gave great suggestions. I'm a gardening beginner. I did a home soil test kit and it told me that my nitrogen was very low... almost non-existant. I used big box store cow and mushroom compost. I also tried to fertilize with fish emulsion. This year I am trying to raise the bed to improve drainage... removing weed blocker and sand I put in (won't need those weed blocking/drainage tricks because it's raised) and ammending with homemade compost (if I can ever get enough browns!). Vegan mom... What kind of organic fertilizer did you use? I will have to hop over to your flickr site and look around. You may also want to look into lasagna gardening. I haven't tried it, but it looks frugal and interesting.

It's true that if your compost isn't fresh or from a high N source then Mel's mix will be N deficient. It's also true that if you don't add compost as the book instructs which each new planting there will be an N deficiency. Nitrogen doesn't stick around long.

Many folks I think just fertilize every now and then with fish emulsion or whatever source of nitrogen. I think this is something Mel could have been more upfront about in his book(s). Compost alone is enough fertilizer in most cases, but not for nitrogen with all composts.

And you know what I've noticed... my liquid fertilizer is like 0-10-10... Heehee. So zero nitrogen?! Why'd they sell me that? No wonder it wasn't helping too much. It did seem to help the miniature sized collards to grow a little before they were attacked by some disease. Good luck. Please keep us posted and take photos. You will probably be succesful. Despite the growing problems, mine gave green beans, sunflowers and about an inch of cilantro. The cilantro tasted more lemony than the cilantro from the grocer. I'm excited about this new year. I already have a kohlrabi that I just planted in mine growing (hopefully) and am trying to start a few seeds in it for fun. I also have some of that granular Scott's fertilizer... but my understanding is that it is synthetic. I bought it as a gardening newbie, which I still am. I would prefer frugal homemade compost... seems to be better for everyone involved. I haven't used that synthetic on the SFG. Keep my mistakes in mind.

For my Spring plantings, I just added 1 bag of Black Kow Compost and 1 bag of Black Hen ... that will help me get going for the coming season!!

Judy

Here is a link that might be useful: Ft2Garden.com

This may not be the best place to post it, but I'd rather not start a new thread. I'm getting "dirt" mid February to plant soon thereafter. If I'd read this post last year I'd have done it different, but there you go.

I re-read the book on Mel's Mix and have some questions about it. It complains about composts being from one waste source so buy 5 different bags to get 5 cubic feet of compost. Well I need on the order of 4 cubic yards of compost to fill my beds. Not very economical to say the least. That's not the issue because I've budgeted for dirt. The issue is I believe I've found an exceptional alternative.

In the Seattle area, we've got a composting company called Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove compost is sold in bulk or bags and contains no less than 5 sources, all Pacific NW natural bushes, trees, grass, leaves and produce waste. I can't imagine mixing in 10 bags of five different commercial composters when I can get 5 different sources by the cubic yard. I plan on mixing in essentially equal amounts of peet and vermiculite, but is that enough?

I find manure somewhat distasteful, somewhat like cleaning the cat box, but is it necessary? Per the Cedar Grove website, their compost has the following minimum values:

Guaranteed Minimum Analysis: Compost, 1.10-0.40-1.10
Total Nitrogen (N)..............................1.10%
1.10% Water Insoluble Organic Nitrogen*
Available Phosphate (P2O5).................0.40%
Soluble Potash (K20).........................1.10%
Calcium (Ca).....................................0.58%

I don't know much about that stuff, and hope never to need to. If I should start a new thread (sorry if I'm hijacking ccaggaio's thread), I can do that as well.

I appreciate the thoughts. I know my family will say I'm good with standard compost without vermiculite, so I'm used to "helpful" suggestions.

Thanks,
Sinfonian

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden in progress...

Sinfonian, the book doesn't say we *must* use compost from 5 different sources, that's just for those who can't make their own or have access to a compost made from a variety of ingredients.

It sounds like the compost you have access to would qualify as a quality compost made from diverse ingredients.

They way I look at it is compost is the least stable ingredient in the mix so if it seems lacking something during the growing season, just add fertilizer and when it comes time to add more compost, use a different source.

I used mel's mix this summer and everything did really well (almost too well, the hardest part was keeping my plants from overgrowing their squares). I did not add any fertilizer, but did add compost at planting time like the book says. I anticipate this year will be even better, and I'm excited that my soil will be workable even in early spring.

My favorite thing in the mel's mix was the vermiculite. We had an unusually dry summer and my plants thrived--made it worth the hassle of tracking it down.

Hello
I go to the sale barn here in arkansas and load my trailer with manure. I then screen it through rat wire and then put it on my beds. I fertilize by cleaning out my chicken house and puting it in 2 plastic tubs and mix straw with it and fill with water. Let ferment and mix 1 quart liquid to 1 gallon water and water my beds once every 2 weeks it works great for me.

standstall