The answer to your first question is yes.

The answer to your second question is a bit more involved. Overall I would answer yes, but would also say to watch your plants for signs of nutrient deficiency, particularly nitrogen (slow growth, paling of leaves) and be ready to supplement if your choice of materials doesn't work out. For the most part composts will provide 100% of any plant's micronutrient needs and most, if not all, of the P and K needs, but nitrogen is a slippery nutrient and sometimes needs to be supplemented for optimal growth.

apx 33 cubic feet.....not cubic yards. you'll need a little over 1 cubic yard :)
i'm thinking that the bags you're referring to are also cubic feet not yards.

holy carp, how did I miss that?

You are right, it is cubit yard. Forgive my misinterpretation, i calculated both 11 cu.ft., or 0.4 cu.yd.

In regards to the soil mix question, i guess i will play it safe and buy 3 bags of Peat Moss at HD. It will cost me $32 plus tax. Also, i will buy about 3 bags of the humus and manure, and buy the compost and vermiculite somewhere. If i cannot find the verrmiculite then i will just use the peat moss and the compost only. Thanks for your replies.

lol justaguy2

piantini
not sure if you have a lowe's next to you, but that is where i found vermiculite.....little pricey though - $21 / 3.5 cu feet

Vermiculite is becomming hard to find. You can subsitute with Perilite. My faavorite specialty nursury had it last year, but not this year. HD actually had it this year. $21 for a 3.5 CF bag.
I am an idiot and left my ox uncovered for the winter, and my cats decided to use it as their own personal supersize litter box
That was an exspensive mistake on my part

I found vermiculite at the 3rd big nursery I called

also $21 for a big 3.5 FT3 bag

cats!!!!!! ARGGHG

bdobs, you normally cover your OX in the winter? Your cats peed on your OX? Sorry, couldn't resist :) since usually its me that mistypes..

wait a minute guys....8x4x1 is 32 cubic feet. if the bed is 6 inches high (.5) it's 16 cubic feet...right?

a recently available replacement for vermeculite is expanded shale. it's produced in texas and may not have a wide distribution yet, but it does about the same thing as vermeculite.

i missed the part where he had two beds....never mind...

"bdobs, you normally cover your OX in the winter? Your cats peed on your OX? Sorry, couldn't resist :) since usually its me that mistypes.."

Yea, my OX was POed that he got pee'd on :)
OX, BOX, LOCKS, CROCKS, DOCKS

Alright guys, i found the vermiculite finally!. for 2.5 cu.ft. was $19.99 so i bought 4 bags for a total of $85.

I will buy the peat moss at HD at $7.95 for 3.3 cu.ft. so that will total $32 for 4 bags.

Now i need at least 3 to 5 different types of compost. I have a feeling this is what is going to cost me the most. Any idea of which type to look for and how much it should cost me to buy a total of 11 cu.ft.? Thanks!

Depending on where you live, find out if they have bulk compost for sale in your area. You should be able to get it for $30 or less a cubic yard (pick-up truck load). The bulk insures that you'll have a very diverse blend as it's normally made from municipal yard waste. Good luck! Vermiculite was the most expensive part of mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

Thanks for your comment sinfonian. Pardon my ignorance, but isn't it require to buy a minimun of one cubic yard or something like that from them?. I really only need 11 cubit feet.

Also, i found at Lowe's The following compost items:

1. Steer Manure 1 cu.ft. $1.86

2. Compost Peat Humus 40lbs at $2.06. Is this classified as Peat Moss, Compost, or both?

3. Black Cow manure compost 50 lbs, at $4.97

4. Whitney Farms Mushroom Compost

Will this 3-4 items (3 items assuming peat humus as peat moss) will be enough for the compost mix recommended?

Also, Does Miracle Grow Organic Choice classifies as compost?

Any other recommended compost?.

I am freaking out here, i know nothing about compost and i want to make sure i got the right amount of compost mixture for my beds. Thanks a lot!

Presuming item 4 is also in a ~50# bag, 2 parts item 2, one part each item 3 and item 4, and (semi-optionally) one part vermiculite or expanded shale will have you a more or less "by the book" mix.

The fact that "compost" is offered by the city certainly does not ensure that it's a diverse blend nor that it has any nutrient value. There have been several recent reports of bad chemicals passed on in the stuff. Be careful before you buy this and make sure you can get some kind of nutrient analysis before you put it in your garden. Our municipal supply is nothing more than ground up tree limbs and pallets.

I agree with Melonguy that the term 'municipal compost' is too vague to really say much about.

Where I live it is free for the pickup 24x7 and it is made from yard waste that residents leave on the curbside. There is *always* bits of trash in it and personally I don't mind picking it out given it is a nice mix of grass and leaf matter. The actual tree wood gets turned into mulch.

It isn't a very good source of nutrients given the lack of diversity in material, but it is free, available in bulk (as much as I can haul) and helps soil tilth.

Your mileage may vary and it should never take more than a phone call to whatever public department is responsible for making it to find out what they collect to make it.

I'm reading a book by Steve Solomon called Gardening When It Counts.

In a chapter on compost he has done some research on municipal offerings of compost and came to the conclusion that most, if not all, municipal offerings will not support a vegetable

garden because the compost is largely made of paper and wood products. The C/N ratio is way out of wack and the N and P numbers are way to low.

So, as the last two posts indicate, you better be real careful what you have before you stick it in your garden.

I'm not sure about growing plants but when I create substrates for my portabellas I can tell you that vermiculite and perlite are not interchangeable.

Perlite is a crystalline structure that is non-porous and does not absorb water. It retains some water because it's pockmarked by thousands of tiny divits all across it's surface which hold on to air and water on the pico-liter scale.

Vermiculite is heated and "puffed" mica (a silicate) which is used in everything from hydroponics to fireproofing. I think part of the reason it's becoming harder and harder to find at big box stores is because the entire lot of stuff has gained a bad-rap by fear-mongers spreading false rumors about it containing asbestos - it does NOT so don't worry - because some old fireproofing grade vermiculite was found to contain trace amounts of the contaminate in old buildings and whatnot.

Current vermiculite mining operations are required to routinely test for asbestos in the vein as it's extracted, before it's heated and "puffed", so I wouldn't worry about it in that regard.

I've found the stuff is easier to order from ebay than to track down locally but if you can't find it anywhere else, try calling your local hydroponics store. They'll either have it or have a referral to where you can get it.

Over in the container gardening forum there's a lot of talk about something called Turface MVP (and lesser talk about similar products named PlayBall and OilDri), a fired clay that holds water very well. Although it is apparently even harder to find that vermiculite  and maybe expensive  it only degrades (according to the manufacturer) about 3.5 % over twenty years, and it holds it's own weight in water. And unlike perlite, it doesn't float to the surface. I wonder if it would be an acceptable substitute for vermiculite?

As an update, since I'm new to the area, I found that the local farmer's coop here in nashville sells it for $18 USD per 4cu. ft. bags. That's a sweet deal compared to the shipping rates I was paying... ;-D

I also just bought a 4 cu ft bag of vermiculite today for $16.75 at a farm supply in St Louis today.

tworivers1 - Can you tell me where you bought your vermiculite in St Louis?

I am getting four bags of vermiculite from a local nursery for $16.00 3.4 cu ft. As for the compose, @28.00 is getting me a scoop into the pickup truck. It is a good nursery so I hope the compost is good. I am also looking for manure to add to each of my four bags. I will have peat moss coming from the nursery. BTW, this nursery beat Lowe's.