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Old May 31, 2007   #9
feldon30
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Rock Hill, SC
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I'm a little confused about "dug a bunch of holes" and then "raised beds". When I think of a raised bed I think I am ignoring the underlying soil and building up on top of it. I removed the grass and dug around a bit to break up the soil. I figure after a year or two, all of the improvements on top will work their way down.

As for what to fill the raised beds with, I have not even heard of "peat hummus", but I've never gone looking for it. I have seen coconut husks or coco peat. I ended up filling my raised beds with about 50% sandy topsoil, 35% compost, and 15% peat moss. Unfortunately, building and filling raised beds is expensive. If your soil is not likely to hold a lot of water from rainstorms, you may be able to get away with digging down a few inches and building a few inches up. In Houston, we get too much rain, so you really need a full 8-12" of raised bed.

As for the hole method, I transferred the 1 cubic foot of soil into a wheelbarrow and mixed all the ingredients into that soil and put it back in the ground, then planted the tomato plants right in the middle of the rich "ball" of soil. This way the plants have immediate access to the nutrients they need.

I did add a handful (2/3 cup) of pelletized lime in addition to the other ingredients mentioned by Earl to counteract the pH of the peat moss.

Gardening is all about the details.

Last edited by feldon30; May 31, 2007 at 01:57 PM.
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