pow wow
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Hi, I just ordered it so what exactly I plant is still on the drawing board. It will be against the garage in front of my greenhouse so I'm thinking, because the way the trug is shaped, that I would plant snow peas at the back and build a little trellis for them. A root veggie in the middle and some kind of leaf veggie or perhaps herbs in the front. Not sure yet.

pennsylvania
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pow wow wrote:Hi, I just ordered it so what exactly I plant is still on the drawing board. It will be against the garage in front of my greenhouse so I'm thinking, because the way the trug is shaped, that I would plant snow peas at the back and build a little trellis for them. A root veggie in the middle and some kind of leaf veggie or perhaps herbs in the front. Not sure yet.
That sounds like a solid plan. I'm totally new to gardening so its alot at one time. I was going to start with the smaller one (I think).

Good luck with your gardening! It's snowing in PA right now so maybe I shouldn't feel so behind.

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ElizabethB
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Raised bed, square foot or container gardening is no different than row gardening except fo the confined - easy to work space and plant spacing for mature size - no thinning. If your seeds are best sown directly into the soil then do so. I direct sow my cucumbers, bush beans, mustard greens and turnips. I just space them. I plant 9 bush bean seeds in each square foot. I grow the cucumbers vertically and plant 4 along the back side of the box. Peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are best started from seed then transplanted to the garden - my experience. My herbs are in containers. I started the basil and dill from harvested seed in starter pots then transplanted to larger pots. The book will answer most of your questions. Hopefully it comes in quickly.

pennsylvania
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I'm trying to create Mel's mix and have found 4 cubic foot bags. The problem is, I need 2.5 cubic feet! What is the best way to pull out 2.5 cubic feet?

Sorry for the voter on this. I figured it all out in my head relating to 5 gallon buckets but think I'm confusing myself.

Does anybody with a bit more experience have a good idea on how to measure this?

cynthia_h
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Which ingredient is packaged in 4 ft3 bags?

Cynthia

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Jardin du Fort
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I don't think you need to obsess about this. Close is good enough. Half of your 4 cu. ft. bag is 2 cu. ft. and about 1/4 of what's left will give you your remaining 1/2 cu. ft.

:)

pennsylvania
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cynthia_h wrote:Which ingredient is packaged in 4 ft3 bags?

Cynthia
Hi Cynthia,
It is the vermiculite. I'm seeing that a 5 gallon bucket is .67 cubic foot. This should mean 3x5 gallon buckets = 2 cubic ft.

Then, since 3.74026 = a half a cubic foot, I'm guessing I could do 3 and 3/4 gallons to measure the rest.

Does this logic makes sense?

Thanks!

cynthia_h
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I like jardin's suggestion of approximating by halves and quarters, so follow him before taking off on my wild goose chase; I used to teach math....

and, yet again, I will inveigh against the "customary system" of measurement and say that this entire situation would be so trivial an 8-year-old could figure it out in the metric system.

OK. Breathing normally again. :oops:

1 cubic foot = 7.48 gallons (but we'll call it 7.5 gallons). Therefore,
4 cubic feet = 30 gallons, or six 5-gallon buckets full of vermiculite.

Since you only want half of what's available, you only need three 5-gallon buckets full of vermiculite (pretty close to jardin's recommendation and your own arithmetic! :) ).

Be sure to work with the vermiculite in a wind-free area; the stuff is very light and fly-away. If you can't find a wind-free area, or if the wind comes up while you're working, tie a handkerchief or scarf around your nose and mouth or wear a surgical mask (a la serious allergies) while working with it. It can make a lot of dust.

What we did was to mix the compost, potting soil, and vermiculite together on a tarp. Rolling the stuff by using the edges of the tarp was quite easy, and everything got thoroughly mixed together. Then we used--yes--our 5-gallon buckets to transfer the mix into Bed #1--the cement block bed. By the end of the process, we were using trowels to fill the buckets, but the whole thing was fairly quick once we got the "tarp-mixing" moving along.

BTW, back-calculating from your total of 6 yd3 of materials (vermiculite + peat + potting soil), it looks as if you plan to make a 4'x4'x6-inch container; correct? My experience in Spring and Summer 2008 with the 6-inch depth was pitiful. My bok choy, chard (!), peas, zukes, tomatoes, leeks, carrots (oh, my, the poor carrots), beets, and parsnips were uniformly un-impressed with 6 inches of "improved" planting medium. Only the lettuce managed to grow to a normal size. Since the newspaper to block off weed development was new, the veggie roots had trouble penetrating it that year at the tender length of 6 inches. :(

As we "harvested" the very small collection of plants, it became clear that a greater depth was needed for basic root development. I measured the cement blocks again, and confirmed that they could hold 10 inches' worth of planting medium. I added a boatload of compost--couldn't afford vermiculite that fall, and haven't purchased peat again--and mixed it in as plants came out, building up the depth over a few weeks.

The fall/winter plants were much happier: more chard, kale, fava beans, cabbage, broccoli romanesco, and similar veggies. Thus my recommendation for 10 inches minimum.

Even the carrots were happier with 10 inches than 6, but now I plant them in the 12-inch box we have. I have a grand total of 92 square feet in veggies, all of it in raised boxes. There are a few containers (fewer after the house-painting of the last while) with herbs and other veggies; those containers need revamping for the Spring....

Cynthia

pennsylvania
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pennsylvania wrote:
cynthia_h wrote:Which ingredient is packaged in 4 ft3 bags?

Cynthia
Hi Cynthia,
It is the vermiculite. I'm seeing that a 5 gallon bucket is .67 cubic foot. This should mean 3x5 gallon buckets = 2 cubic ft.

Then, since 3.74026 = a half a cubic foot, I'm guessing I could do 3 and 3/4 gallons to measure the rest.

Does this logic makes sense?

Thanks!
Doing a small Vegtrug which hits 12" in the center.
Slopes upward to more shallow on the sides.
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/m/produc ... -farm-kit/



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