Vicky
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Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:27 pm
Location: Congers, NY - zone 5

Building up a veg bed

I need to build my bed up about 6". The bed is approx 20x10. What should I build it with? I found a place that sells organic compost. Someone told me that straight compost is no good, and that I should mix with 50/50 topsoil. the guy from the organic compost place said 100% org compost is best for veggie and flower gardens. Will it burn my plants? Should I add anything else?

Thanks!

GardenJester
Senior Member
Posts: 244
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:59 pm

nah... only man made chemical fertilizer can burn plants. 100% organic composts never burn plants, because plants had millions years to adapt to using organic composts, they had nothing but organic compost for all that time.

just realized, it's not totally true, some animal droppings could burn delicate plants, but you aren't planning to fill you garden with bird droppings, I assume?

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

You can use the straight compost. To save money, you don't need to, you can mix it with topsoil. The Square Foot Gardening folks use very closely spaced plantings in very enriched soil. They fill a raised bed with 1/3 blended composts (compost from several different sources like mushroom compost, worm castings, regular compost), 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 coarse vermiculite.

Vicky
Full Member
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:27 pm
Location: Congers, NY - zone 5

thanks. Great recommendations. I just carefully measured my garden and calculated that I will need close to 2 yards. Getting excited about this years garden.

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Lupinus
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Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:12 pm
Location: Upstate SC

The only way I can see it "burning" your plants would be if it's not fully composted. If it's not fully composted it will put out heat from the composting process and also potentially rob nitrogen, depending what organic matter is still needing to break down.

But if all of the organic material is broken down then I would say have at it with strait compost. Your vegggies will love it. I'd only bother mixing it if the cost of using strait compost is prohibitive and you need to stretch it further.



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