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rainkiss86

first garden- store bought compost and soil drainage/ structure?

rainkiss86
14 years ago

Hi! little help needed here....

I just started my first square foot garden (I live in zone 5a, midwest)- I have two 4x4 aprox 11 inch high beds with drainage-hole-poked weed block fabric underneath and I am concerned about my "soil," make-up.

I watered the beds for the first time today and I feel a bit worried. Moisture didn't get wet all the way down until I made my beds look like a swimming pool for a bit on top... maybe that's to be expected for the first watering? It seemed slow to drain down... also I had a bunch of vermiculite float up, and the texture of the wet soil seemed more course and dense than I had anticipated.

I did not follow the "mel's mix" recipe exactly because of cost, research on all compost beds, and desire to have slightly deeper beds.... but here is what I have:

In each bed there is:

1 Cubic foot mushroom compost from nursery

1 Cubic foot mushroom compost from wal-mart

1 Cubic foot wood-fines compost from wal-mart

1 Cubic foot cotton-burr compost from nursery

1 Cubic foot hen manure compost from nursery

1 Cubic foot cow manure compost from nursery

1 cubic foot "5 mix" from wal-mart (compost, peat moss mix)

2 compressed cubic feet of peat moss (half a 3.9 bale)

2 cubic feet of medium vermiculite (half a 4 cubic FT bag)

depth - aprox. 9 inchs, now less after watering, more like 6-7

plants to grow - carrots, tomatos, cukes, zucchini, basil, onions, beets, peppers

Have I gone wrong somewhere? Should this be ok? Should I throw some seeds in and hope for the best or try to add something else?

If I missed anything, is it too late to add something and mix well now that it's all moistened?

Thanks for your help!!!

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