[z_willus_d]

I've started work on a 2nd, or perhaps strictly speaking 3rd or 4th, raised bed at my home. Last year, I grew tomatoes in the raised bed(s) described earlier in this thread; in half-barrel (55-gal) containers and at a 5x10'x1' bed at my work garden. I found that the vines in my work garden quickly succumbed to various diseases and really turned out to be a great disaster. This was partly because the location of my bed is on the outskirt of the larger garden and adjacent to fields and fields of dry grass (think all kinds of bad critters) and partly because I wasn't available to constantly watch after the vines, spray things like Neem to help with the bad vectors. A friend had a bed adjacent to mine that was planted only with the Early Girl variety, and he didn't experience any of the issues that I did. Suffice it to say, I will not be planting heirloom tomatoes at that site any time soon. It will have to do with peppers and corn. The half-barrels on my hillside also did not fare so well, probably for similar reasons. I've decided to commit them to eggplants this season.

In general, I also want to give my tomato vines more breathing room this season. I hope that will help with any foliar issues I might have suffered last season.

So I'm left with far less area/volume for tomato growing, hence I commissioned work (my own) to start on this new bed. It is carved into the hillside of my backyard property. That hill is nothing but various sized rock (say 2/3rds of gravel to bowling ball sized river rock), sand and the top-soil that's accumulated as weeds have broken down through the years and the workings of earthworms. It's not easy work.

The bed is roughly 30 feet long across the width; it runs out over the hill by nearly 5 feet, and it's dug down at least 2'. I expect the back 2-3' to be devoted to tomato plants. In front of that will be some room for lower plants, like zucchini and melons, basil and other herbs. And I'll have a small foot space to walk on in the front. I also will have about a foot to walk on flat behind the wall face.

I've calculated that I will need around 8 cubic yards to fill the bed, and right now I'm leaning towards using a formulation similar to what I used on the other beds (described at the beginning of this thread). I think I'll cut back on the sand component, given how sandy the soil is already in this location. Also, I believe the soil in my other beds turned out a touch too sandy overall, which might have contributed to some of the issues they suffered in the rising heat of summer (nematodes and such).

I'll post the end result here for my own record keeping and for any to enjoy sans all the work it took to erect. Any ideas on what to use in the filling, please post on here.
Thanks,
-naysen