Re: Question

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

At 09:56 AM 26/03/2000 -0700, Lori wrote:


raised beds.  I will be using Mel's soil mix.  I guess my first question is---Mel's soil mix has no soil in it, correct?

Not the way I have read the book.  At least half the soil in my sqaures is the orginal, minus the rocks. Then each year, I dig in more compost as I replant each square. 


Second question---what kind of charcoal and what kind of sand worked for some of you?   I don't know what to buy.  Someone at a nursery yesterday told me to use perlite instead of sand--NEVER use sand.   And, bulk is another problem.  I did find a 4 cu ft bag of vermiculite and large bags of manure and the peat  but that is all I have so far.  I'm almost there.  And, what organic fertilizers did you all use?

I didn't bother with either sand or charcoal. For fertilizer, I used what Mel recommends: one part blood meal, two parts bone meal, three parts wood ashes, four parts sifted compost (no leaf mold available).  I think the important thing to do is get plenty of organic materials into the soil.  I have started using mycorrhizae ( root fungus that takes in nutrients and shares them with the host plant) this year. They supposedly work great with plants that have poorly developed root systems and with others such as tomatoes.  We'll see.
--Cal French, Central Calif. (Sunset Zone 7)

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