Question..Setting Up Veg Garden in Arlington, TX in clay!

[firefightervince]

I have a question...
I'm making a Vegetable garden in clay and I was told to use my native soil in my raised garden beds. I know that I don't need raised beds, we just like the look of them and can walk around more.

2 4x8 1 foot tall, built
2 2x8 6 inch's tall building after work
1 4x4 6 inch's tall building after work
all cedar and will put cedar mulch around the area when finished

I added two loads of compost and tilled it all up with 4 bags of cow manure and 4 bags expanded shale. I could only till about 4 inches down since I have cable lines ect in the back yard and did not want to hit anything...

I need more dirt, can I just order some mixed and toss it on top or should I add some compost to another high area and till? Should I add anything extra? Some one told me to toss some worms in the dirt and lava sand? Any ideas?

Thanks!

[rainbowgardener]

No, no, no! The POINT of building your raised beds is so that you don't have to garden in your clay. Don't put any of that clay in your beds, it will just clump up. Fill the beds with nice loose rich well-draining topsoil with compost/ aged composted manure/ etc added. Worms never hurt, but if you have rich soil with compost, the worms will come.

You don't absolutely need the raised beds, but they do save a lot of work in trying to turn that clay in to something you can garden in.

[firefightervince]

Thanks rainbowgardener!
Oh.. So I should just leave the tilled dirt on bottom and buy some dirt from living earth? They have a Vegetable mix I just found online...

https://livingearth.net/products-services/products/landscape-soil

Vegetable Garden Mix is a unique blend of compost, loam, sand, aged mulch, expanded shale and Texas Green Sand. It will perform well with most plantings, especially vegetables. It has excellent drainage, moisture retention and friability. The more you use Vegetable Garden Mix on your veggies, the more You'll want to use it in all areas of your garden.

Or just get the Mixed Soil with Compost mix?

[jal_ut]

It would be good to fill those beds with some nice soil to work with. Your plants roots will still go down into the native soil and benefit from the minerals found in that clay. Plant roots go quite deep. A gardener only works with, or needs to work with, the top six inches of soil. Worms and roots do the deeper work. You see as your roots go deep then die, they add organic matter to the lower levels. Worms will live in your soils if the organic content is high. They help break down the organic matter into forms the plants can use.

A soil with about 20% clay is OK. When the clay content gets higher, the soils are heavy and hard to work with.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, leave your tilled soil on the bottom and fill your beds with good stuff! The Vegetable Garden Mix would be the primo, but you would be fine to buy mostly the mixed soil with compost and just add some of the VGM into it.

I heard what jal_ut said, but if it were me, I'd build all your beds at least a foot deep. It's so much easier to do it now, than wish you had later. Gives you more of all that good loose, light, enriched stuff. ESPECIALLY if you want to grow carrots, which are the most picky about that, you will want a foot deep.

And start your compost pile, so after this you won't have to be buying compost!

[firefightervince]

Thanks! Ok, I will stick with the foot beds and start on a compost pile on the side of the house. I will add a picture when I'm done with the setup, thanks again!

[firefightervince]

Oh, I did a ph test in that clay do you think it will go down from 8 after a while with all the compost added under the raised beds?