Help! Just ruined a brand new raised bed...

Ok...I'm an admitted beginner at all this gardening stuff. And I really, really messed up! I'm hoping someone has some ideas on how to salvage this mess, cause it cost a lot of money and hard work to get it going.

To start I built my first "experimental" 4' x 8' x 12" raised bed from old 2" x 6" boards that I had laying around the shop. I built it 2 layers deep. This is standard lumber, not treated.( I realize it will rot in a few years but have already purchased a load of cinder blocks to do more beds with.) I covered the bottom with some fine hardware cloth as we definitely have moles/voles around the area. I then decided to use cardboard to line the bottom so that it would decompose thoroughly, but hopefully be a weed barrier in the meantime. I then proceeded to put in the soil in a kind of layered fashioned as listed below:

1) 5 bags of topsoil
2) 2 bags of topsoil/4 bags of hardwood mulch- raked and mixed together
3) 3 bags of topsoil
4) 5 bags of Miracle Gro Garden Mix on the top.

I then proceeded to transplant 3 groupings of carrots, okra and jalepeno peppers into the bed which had been suffering trying to grow in our hard red clay soil in the backyard.

I watered vigorously as it's 92 degrees here in the daytime and we've been in a drought for awhile now. Everything seemed to be going fine, over the next 3 or so weeks. None of the plants died and the carrots even sprouted new tops. The okra and jalepenos just wouldn't grow, they'd put out new leaves and flowers and then just kind of drop them and start over.

Then yesterday, I went out early with a heavy dew on ground and noticed something glistening in the dirt around the carrots. It looked like a mold/fungus of some sort. I started digging in around it and the "top soil" looked crystalline and grey and smelled foul. I dug down further(trading my hand trowel for a shovel) and the whole bed is completely rotten and stenchy while the mulch layer is only slightly soaked. The cardboard is still intact and seems to have totally prevented drainage underneath.

I took my shovel and have at least turned over and piled all the soil to one end(plants are history at this point) in hopes of it drying out and salvaging some of the very expensive soil. I've been reading like mad for the last few hours and realize that both the cardboard and the mulch layer caused most of the problem, as well as way-overwatering, but now I need to know what else I can do to fix it, if possible, even if I need to wait a season to reuse the soil?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

How often were you watering? It sounds like that may have been your biggest issue. Also, I have purchased bags of "top soil" that looked like it was dredged from the bottom of a river. Much worse than my native clay soil.

- Brent

wolflvr, I have found that cardboard takes a longggg time to break down. You may have better luck with newspaper as the under-layer. Or even straw. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

thanks for the replies...! I was watering at least once a day sometimes 2-morning/late afternoon on the really hot days. I think the top soil was ok when I got it. It looked really good going into the bed.

I'm fairly sure that my dutiful attention to making sure the cardboard covered the whole bottom of the bed was my biggest mistake. That, and then adding the hardwood mulch as yet another water barrier level. I also read today that hardwood mulch in itself is prone to mildew and mold as it decomposes if left very wet, which would of been the case with this scenario. The only time I've seen this much rotting soil was when I worked with horses and we would clean out really bad stalls to the clay bottoms. The aging rotten muck that we took out, looks very similar to the mess in my bed.

My biggest question though is still can I save this soil or is it dead or worse toxic at this point? My sister-in-law has some aged wheat straw that I could turn and compost in with it and I have enough extra cinder blocks to build a compost bin to work this soil into. Should I try using lime to kill the mold and damp?

Still looking for answers....

Actually, the cardboard in your area, Mary, will take a long time, mainly because of the lack of moisture. In other parts of the country, like TN (even in a drought!) it tends to break down faster - exponentially faster.

But yeah, if the cardboard wasn't wet to begin with, I can see where it can be more of a block than an absorber, especially with the landscape cloth beneath it - that stuff is water permeable, but it takes a while - and doesn't allow some of the other stuff to come up and help break down the cardboard, like worms. I personally hate the cloth/ plastic/ etc. treatment, but can't offer a better way to stop the moles/ voles short of hardware screen, which will only add to your costs at this point, and would probably disintegrate in a few years...?

I'm betting Brent hit the answer with too much water and little to no drainage. I'm also kind of confused as to why you put the hardwood mulch into the mix and not as a top dressing/ mulch? Hardwood takes a while to break down and robs soil of its nitrogen while it is in the process, so it's really not going to help condition your soil for quite some time. You can kind of screen it out of the mix and save it for a top dressing, if it's worth it to you - sounds like it might be.

HTH, Good luck!!!

Edited to add: Sorry, I was typing while you were posting!

If you're willing to wait, just about anything will compost. And you have a great beginning if you get those hardwood pieces out of it. I wouldn't add the straw to the mix, it will take quite a while to break down, unless you chop it pretty finely.

I'd leave it where it is, stir it up a few times after you rake out the wood, put in anything else that might easily break down - leaves, grass clippings, small stuff and let it sit for a bit. I don't think it's quite as bad as it looks.

This message was edited Jul 17, 2007 9:41 PM

Thx for the ideas Pagancat...I'm just a goof when it comes to gardening, but I'm trying! (I actually do really well with container plants..can grow anything in a bucket!) My mulch theory came from reading some bad advice stating that hardwood mulch would allow more drainage if mixed into the soil...I learned that lesson the hard way!

Screening all the dirt in the bed will take some time...but I have that..so I'll work on it a bit at a time as it dries out some. Right now it's soooooo moldy..I don't even want to touch it without rubber gloves. Hopefully I can rake up enough grass clippings to mix into it. I was actually looking at my two huge oak trees today, wishing it was winter so I'd have some leaves!

And also the bed only had the hardware cloth/screen and the cardboard...no landscape fabric or plastic stuff at all. And yeah..I'm still choking over the cost of the hardware screen...but it's an absolute must with the moles and voles in the area. We are on 2 acres here and the garden area is edged on two sides by raw forest and they come out from there, every couple of years and wreck the lawn(errr...pasture grass...LOL). I fought them back last year with used kitty litter and running the John Deere over their tunnels like a madman!! They didn't like that much and retreated back to the forest.

Re: cost of screen. Shew - I can imagine. Does your area support free-cycle? (www.freecycle.com) If so, I'd put up a request for it - you never know when someone is dying to get rid of something. I'm not sure where Savannah is, but I'm in mid/upper TN (north of Cookeville, if you're familiar) and we have a kind of on-line garage sale called local sales network (www.golsn.com) and you could put it up there, as well - if it's anywhere near you!

Take your time in mixing stuff in - for the time being, just take your rake or whatever and mix it up, which will dry it faster than anything, and give you a chance to pick out some of the larger pieces of wood.

Don't say you're a goof, lol - this stuff doesn't come without some knowledge, and more importantly, experience. I haven't known one farmer who hasn't had a bad crop, right? You figured out the mole thing better than half of America, who are still trying bubble gum in the tunnels!

wolflrv: From my years in archeology, I am an expert at running dirt through screens. In fact, if there are any archeologists near you, they may lone you a shaker screen, which processes dirt quite fast. Shovel the dirt in shake, and the dirt goes through. The other way is to water screen the dirt.

You need to nail together a frame: 2 x 4, or 1 x 8 or make a square box, then nail hardware cloth on the bottom, as large a mesh as you need to get the dirt through. Set the frame up on blocks, wherever you want the screened dirt to be. Shovel in the dirt, turn on your hose, and the dirt will come through the screen leaving the hardwood chips behind. Use as much pressure as you can get on your hose. We used fire hose nozzels.

Good luck.

Well...3 hrs of screening dirt later...the pile I finished is looking much better already. I just wish it was a bit bigger pile...LOL! Had to come inside for today..it's getting way too hot already out there.

As far as where Savannah is..we are south of Jackson and east of Memphis and about 25 miles north of Corinth, MS. If you know where Pickwick Lake/Dam area is or Shiloh Battleground, I'm about 4 miles from the lake and about 10 miles from Shiloh. My partner is from here originally and we moved back about 2 years ago to retire. It's very nice and peaceful and Memphis is close by, if we need to get some city life in once in awhile.

Most everyone around here has gardens and such, but more traditional large plowed farmer's gardens. I'm somewhat disabled and can't get on my knees at all(it's tough gettin' old!), so I wanted to build some raised beds so I could grow some veggies and landscape an area for our patio as well. I started on the bed for the garden( the one in crisis) first so we could hopefully get some good carrots and okra...two of my favs. We have a huge container of grape tomatoes and another of jalepenos on the deck and they are thriving. I've also setup a small greenhouse(one of the pop-up types) and have a fan/shadecloth and shelves already in for growing herbs and seed starting other stuff. I'm hoping to sell some herbs around at the farmer's markets here. I seeded my first 100 plants and they are doing very well, starting to have some sprouts already. I really love being outside in any respect and this is hopefully a way to help make some extra money.

As far as the screen goes, glad to see a fellow archeology fan. I took a few courses on it in college and paid my dues at a few dig sites when I could. I actually had a 2x4 frame sitting around the shop(old bench top with plywood removed) and used a scrap piece of that very expensive hardware cloth/screen and stapled it up. It's definitely getting the job done. I'm getting out all the cardboard and probably all of the big chunks of mulch and more than 2/3rds of the rest of it. The stuff I'm left with is actually finer than the Miracle Gro Garden Mix. I've got the entire bed piled high on one end and am shoveling and sifting it to the other end, so I can get to the very bottom of the bed and make sure all the cardboard is cleared out. I need to do some weed-wacking and mowing in the next day or two, so should have some good clippings to toss into the mix. Not sure I want to try the water hose method, considering that I'm trying to dry this mess out, even though it would be easier I'm sure.

I figure it will take me about 4-5 days of sifting early in the mornings when it's cool enough to be out there. But as I said earlier...the soil is looking much happier already. Once I've finished that, I'll start doing a few soil tests and figure out what I need to add to balance it out again. I figure this bed will not get anything in it the rest of this year. I've got cinder block to build up another one or two, but my herbs will be taking some time to work soon, so I may wait and build beds and fill this winter to prep for next spring. By then hopefully this first bed will be much better.

Thanks everyone for all the help and advice...I'll keep ya posted as I work on it more....will probably have a ton of chemistry questions, once I get the soil testing done.

Hey Wolflrv,
Let nature help you break down your pile. Go get yourself some used coffee grinds from your local coffee shops. Probably about two five-gallon buckets full and mix them into your soil. The earthworms will migrate to the pile and actually begin to EAT the moldy organisms growing there (which is what they do eat) . They'll start to aerate your soil and help break it down. Plus, the earthworms enjoy some of that moisture you already have in your pile.

The worms will convert that moldy mess in no time flat. If you don't have very many worms, go to your local bait and tackle shop and get yourself some REDWORMS. They're small and more efficient than earthworms. But the earthworms are free, although they take a bit more time doing their job than the speedy redworms.

Don't try to kill the mold just yet. It actually serves as food for the microorganisms that the good things eat!

Yeah! Gymgirl! Im following this because Im working on a new bed that needs improvement also. Worms are the key.

Just my 2 cents worth: If you have to buy additional "dirt" to fill it up, go for bagged compost over bagged "topsoil" or "garden soil". When I've bought even bagged compost it's always of better quality than anything called garden soil or topsoil. I prefer my own homemade compost, but never have enough.

Karen

Hey Gymgirl..coffee grounds I can get...I make several pots a day here...will add up in no time! On the worm thing, I can most probably get some worms...being only 4 miles from the lake...we've got bait shops all over the place. My biggest question is if I introduce a bag or two of worms to this bed...will I then still have a planting bed or a compost pile? Will they eat the stuff I plant? Disturb or destroy roots and such? I'm a major carrot fan and don't want my root veggies all messed up. Also do I just dump them in the dirt and let them dig for cover, or do I dump them and then put some dirt over them?

Hey kqcrna..:) On this question of "dirt"...when I go to walmart or lowes(only options around here close)...I don't see any bags labeled specifically "compost". The closest i've found is "composted peat humus" or "black cow manure compost". I can also get spagnum peat moss and basic topsoil. and just plain steer manure. Any ideas on which one would be the better? I'm also gonna try and do the soil test tomorrow morning early and see what readings I get on the stuff I sifted today.

Also since I made such a fiasco of this bed...anyone care to help figure out what to put in the next one? I don't see any need to buy $8 sacks of Miracle Gro Garden Mix! This is my biggest problem atm. I'm good at planting up pots and containers...but my basic formula there is holes in bottom of pot, some small rocks/gravel at bottom and rest is generic potting soil. I then usually add some liquid miracle gro or a fertilizer stick sometimes. My potted stuff is very happy and does well. But that's not the same thing as a 4' x 8' raised bed! And it took 19 bags to fill the first bed....which at $8 x 5 sacks of miracle gro plus the rest made the first bed cost about $80 (not counting $30 worth of hardware cloth to cover the bottom). I will say this first bed is 12" deep and the next will only be 8" cinder block deep, so shouldn't need quite as much dirt...i'm figuring 10-13 bags this time. But it would be nice considering the cost of the hardware cloth, if I could keep my soil cost to around $30 instead of $80. Also wondering if I should add a few bags of builder's sand and/or peat moss as well?

Thx everyone for all the help...much appreciated!

In the beds I am making I am using potting soil from containers with plants that didn't make it (used potting soil), sacks of humus and rabbit poop with used hay and straw. I put cardboard on the bottom to kill weeds.

Sounds like you are on a roll now wolflvr - I love a happy ending. Lots of great info here.

That's right - now I remember looking at Savannah when we figuring out where in TN to move to. DH was born in Memphis and raised in Ripley, about an hour north of there. Have you checked out the Mid-South forum at all? You have a lot of neighbors on there - seems like they're concentrated down in southwestern corner and nearby states. Very friendly [mostly] gals, do a lot of get-togethers and nursery crawls.

In terms of what soil to get/ use - OMG, don't buy all of the bagged stuff. That will cost a mint. Either a landscape company, nursery, garden shop or a farm co-op will sell bulk compost by the truck load. If you don't have a truck or access to one, they'll often deliver - a little more, but still not as bad as bags. Especially if you can take your time - you can compost anything you get in the constructed beds.

Great idea for making the gardening work for you and your body - I can see you're not the kind of person to let much slow you down!

Another thing to keep an eye out for - broken bags. We bought most of the soil for our raised beds from the big box stores which were getting rid of broken bags of soil by the pallet, especially Home Depot and Menards. We could get a mixed pallet of 15-20 bags of various types of "soil" including topsoil, humus, compost, and potting mix, for about $5-$7 for the pallet. They don't like the broken bags because nobody wants to buy them, so they sell 'em off cheap! They do this more and more as the season wears on and less people are buying soil. We did the same with landscape rock and paving sand. When you can get it at that price, it's as good as getting a truckload delivered from the landscapers (which is always cheaper than full price bags).
Claire

Thx Pagancat...will have to do some calling around...most of the big "piles" i've seen around town at the various centers are all mulch in 20 different colors and they want too much money for it too. I'll check the local co-op and see if they still have any in stock. Other than that...it would probably be Corinth or Jackson to find something. I'll see what I can find.

Cmoxon..I did snag some "end of season" deals on the bags that I started with from Wal-mart, so that helped some. If I can use the Peat humus or the manure compost..then it wouldn't cost but about $15-20 per bed..which would be reasonable.

Should I even bother with the peat moss or sand though? Or just get whatever compost I can find to fill the bed and then amend from there?

For my raised beds, I would be pretty happy using a high proportion of composted manure. The peat moss itself can be good for water retention, although I try not to use much peat in my garden because of the global depletion of peat bogs, but that's not because peat is bad for my beds, just a personal/environmental issue. If the composted manure you can get is good quality (i.e. nicely composted), I'd rely primarily on that rather than topsoil. Mix with the coffee grounds (I use those too) and maybe some other organic materials - grass clippings (not in a big lump or layer, but mixed in), straw, plant clippings (not weeds or voraciously seedy things!), kitchen vegetable/fruit scraps, etc. In my opinion, that'll give you far better soil in your beds than using the bagged topsoil.
Claire

Thx for the advice CMoxon...:) That helps alot as the composted manure is fairly cheap..and would suffice to fill the beds. I'm also still gonna do some calling around to see about having a truckload brought in.

Also...did the soil tests this morning...and despite the moldy look of things...the tests showed what Pagancat and others figured would be the case:

PH-neutral around 7.0
Nitrogen-very low
Phosphorus-Medium
Potassium-Medium

So I guess I get to hit every restaurant in town for coffee grounds....in addition to my own collection. We go through about 2-4 pots a day and also another 1-2 family sized teabags for iced tea. We aren't much on drinking cokes...only 1-2 a week..if that much.

I've been studying the whole composting process and should be able to setup a decent bin or two once I get my main fencing finished. We have about 10 or so neighborhood dogs that freely roam the countryside around here..and make daily territory sniffs through my property. If I even leave a sack of trash in the back of the pickup overnight...it's shredded in the morning by something, dogs, cats, possums, raccoons, etc. So my whole gardening operation is gonna get fenced off to keep the wandering around to a minimum and I'll probably use a box or wirecage with lid type composter. I had planned to use the cinder blocks to build a small one..but that's just advertising problems.

Most of the time the wild creatures around here are fairly well behaved. We feed the squirrels and birds regularly and have 3 hummingbird feeders. I just don't want to invite a "bar room brawl" at the compost bin if I don't have to. But I'm all for the composting idea. I always have brush and stuff that I trim down and keep the forest from encroaching on the backyard. Plus with a septic tank, we don't even have a garbage disposal..as they are very bad news for septic systems. We did have a slop bucket we ran last year, while sister-in-law raised a couple of pigs(one for them and one for us)...they were VERY well fed pigs....and we've really enjoyed the full freezer. I'm figuring on getting out the slop bucket again once I get the compost bin running as this will take care of lots of "wet" trash that I hate sitting in the trashcan anyway.

Uh oh - what's up with garbage disposal and septic systems? Just overload, you mean?

Garbage disposals are VERY bad for septic systems. Nothing should ever go down the drain in a septic system, except normal human waste and toilet paper. No paper towels, diapers, food scraps, grease, paint, etc. Also you should keep dishwasher runs, laundry and showers to a max combo of about 3-4 a day and give a day rest in between. If you run 3 showers a day, plus dishwasher and then try and do 4 loads of clothes, you'll be forcing too much water too fast through the system..which will force the hot septic juice to leach out into your leach lines and mostly likely cause funky lines in your yard. Ours got burned some earlier this year when my mom stayed with us a couple of months. Could not seem to explain to her the concept of paying attention to how much water she used.

The problem with adding other types of waste to the system is two-fold. First it adds more solids to the system, which can clog it and also fill the system way faster than it can be absorbed. Second, it can cause either a system that is way too hot and/or one that shuts down, because not enough organic material is in there to decompose the solid stuff.
Picture your septic system as a hyper-compost heap...if you have stuff cooking underground that's reaching 150-200 degrees it's gonna burn your yard...especially if it gets flushed too quickly. Also be careful and don't use those septic tank additives too often..as they can super heat your tank and cause problems too....once a year is way more than enough...this once a month stuff gets the tank way too hot and active.

For example, we ran our system for the first year and a half we were here....a 1000 gallon unit and plenty big enough for the 2 of us. Everything ran fine, although the toilets didn't seem to have a lot of "suction" power to flush very well. Then one sunday morning, the toilet just wouldn't flush...and the sinks wouldn't drain. Thank heaven the stuff didn't backup into the house, but the system was completely blocked. We got the septic guy on monday morning and they proceeded to dig up the access hatches and have a look. It was amazing that we had anything at all going through the system! Only about 1 foot of water and slag was floating on top and the entire rest of the tank almost 6ft deep was a solid mass of diapers, kids clothes, hot wheels cars, baby wipes, you name it...it was in there!!! Now WE DIDN'T do this...in fact the folks that built and owned the house for the 12 years before us..were quite proud that they'd never had the tank drained. Well...we inherited the mess. So after about 4hrs of irrigating the tank to break up this mess...we finally saw the bottom of the tank. Thank goodness no damage had been done.

The moral of this story is always have your septic tank drained and inspected about every 5 yrs or so..and don't put anything in there that doesn't belong!

Here's a pic of leach line burns in a yard...mine for example...leftover from mom's stay....

Also while I was out in the yard with the camera...I got some pics of this notorious bed and a closeup of the nasty soil.

Here's the bed...partially sifted, with the days clippings from the tomato plant tossed in.

And here's the closeup shot...notice the crystalline form of the mold...it actually glistens in the sunlight.

Mm - looks like the carp I got last week - just wanted enough soil for a small pot - hyponex brand. Looks gray and has micca-like sparkles to it.

Thanks for the info on the septic system... I was raised in a home that had one, but that has been ...uh ...a while!

The beds have obviously gone anerobic due to the lack of oxygen due to the lack of drainage. Even after all of the sifting etc, you are still predisposed to suffer the same results because the wrong set of bacteria grew in that soil. Worms are a good idea, but I think worm castings or even a compost tea made from worm castings will give quicker and longer lasting benefits with a good drench. In general it's not good to use alot of topsoil in a raised bed. You can use a 70% Organic and 30% topsoil mix that will probably give the best results, or even a 60% and 40% topsoil, but I would'nt go any higher. The only disadvantage to using high organic content is that you will have to add material more often as it will degrade with the sun etc. You can also use coir or coconut fiber in place of peat for water retention. They are wonderful and cheap. Main problem is drainage. Try and use organic fertilizers afterwards and the beneficial bacteria and worms will thrive and you will have healthy plants without even trying.

Thx for the info Wormagic...here's what i'm doing at this point...I bought a Biostack unit and am layering this bad soil and fresh grass clippings about 2-3 inches per layer..and soaking it good as I fill it. The soil by itself still seems to be mostly mulch and dust..not really much soil there at all...I think the soil just turned to dust. I am sifting out as much of the mulch as I can and getting rid of all the cardboard.

I plan on setting up a new bed right next to that one and turning this new compost mix out into that. I did do soil tests and the only thing it was low on was nitrogen, so I'm hoping the clippings will help some with that, as well as breaking down the mulch some more. I plan on retesting this new compost again and then if it still seems like funky soil, I will probably grab some worms and put them in the bed over the winter, to hopefully finish the job so I can plant the bed in the spring. I definitely will not put any other topsoil in this bed. I'd probably try cutting it with cow manure or something, but I'm hoping the clippings will help alot.

I also don't plan on using any cardboard and such on the ground this time...will just use the hardware screen(for the voles) and will dig out the big grass clods before I start. The ground underneath the bed is a fairly packed heavy clay soil, but it does drain, just hard to dig in. This piece of land was originally forest and then cleared for pasture, but was never farmed that we know of. The packed soil came from a flooding issue that was present for several years until we bought the house and diverted the water back to the ditch that runs beside the garden area. It had silted up and was backflooding the yard, but we had it trenched out about 4ft wide and about 3ft deep all along the side of the property and now it drains well, even in strong storm conditions.

wolflrv

Compost we do it the lazy way - pick a place where we want the next raised flower bed, toss in "stuff", everything you can imagine except for human waste and things which have oil in them (i.e. leftover veggies with Italian salad dressing) add a little lime, dead leaves whatever, cover with a layer of packaged top soil, just enough so it won't draw flies ... and the worms will come "a'runnin" making the pile their home and in the process aerating the packed clay soil beneath. We work on a the pile for about 6 months or so, depending upon how much material we add, then let it decompose for 6 months to a year but always over winter, depending upon how quickly I need another bed.

However Jo (jozeeben) created an excellent thread on composting which included pictures and if we had the energy it would be exactly what we would want to do.

Jo lives in TN just across the stateline from Corinth and he is a wonderful gardener, a true gardener. Here is one of his threads. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/632861/ He also sells at the Corinth Farmer's Market on Saturdays, the thread is titled "Nerd Goes to Market - No laughing!" http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/748269/ Here is another thread of his entitled "Winter Veggies & Garlic Prep Work" http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/663743/ Whatever he tells you, you can take it to the bank!! Not only that, he is a very nice person

Judy

FREE compost .... City of Corinth Compost, they take all the bagged leaves, etc that people leave on the curb and mix it with other material like grass clippings, wood chips from tree trimmers etc. mix it together and let is sit until it's compost. The plastic bags are mixed up with it but easy enough to pick out. We got a load today so I can report back to you in a few days to let you know what I think, but I'm going to fill the 4x8 raised bed with plants, not food plants, ask Joe what he thinks about using it for plants that produce food.

In Corinth, there is a new Civil War Interpertive Center on Linden, just follow the signs for it, go on past it but not to far, when you come to a railroad crossing it's an immediate left into their drive.

Judy

Will they let us TN'rs have some of it? Also I'm definitely looking at about 8-10 4x8 beds to start with...only about 3 will have food crops...one will be mostly sand for rooted cuttings and the rest will be buried 1-gallon pots for growing up nursery stock...shrubs and tree stock to then sell on..hopefully wholesale..but some retail.

Then I want to do another set of about 6 beds that will be my "stock" plants..for cuttings...these beds will be in another area of the yard..set aside to be a patio as well..and will be much more landscaped and nicely done...(ie..landscaping timber vs cinder block..etc)

Then we'll have another area along the front where my partner wants a day lily bed and other nice flowery type plants...mostly perennials...I'm not much on annual stuff. I also have to "heal" a very abused 74 ft long hedge of boxwood...it's been sadly neglected by previous owners and they also dumped plastic, landscape cloth and large rocks into the bed...it's infested with poison ivy, milkweed and what looks like a deeply engrained poison sumac that is trying to take over one end. Plus I'll have to replace two of the boxwoods that just didn't make it...when my partner decided to hit the poison ivy with the roundup before I could stop her...the ivy lived..but it took out the two shrubs. It's a huge mess basically..and will take a big chunk of time this winter to fix it back up. We also need to install roof gutters to eliminate the drainage problem that's in the beds.

Needless to say...my need for good soil is "massive" and will undoubtedly be ongoing....LOL!

They surely will let you have it for FREE!!! They load it on your truck via machinery so all you need to do is drive in and drive out. A lady just across the stateline into Tennessee who sells all sorts of plants, including daylilies, told me she only uses their compost, she does not buy any top soil or potting soil. The load is still on the truck, we rescued 3 puppies from a ditch along side the road so my time has been spent with them, but I did run my fingers through it and smelled it after we got home ... seems like good rich compost in need of a topsoil to mix in with it to retain water. In and of itself I think it is too light, but I could be wrong.

Judy

Cool..thx...I will definitely check it out!!

BigDaddy has unload the compost and I took pictures for you. I'm going to water it down to see how it does. One backhoe bucket full almost filled a 4x8 raised bed, 3 landscape timbers high on one side and 4 high on the other. Will post pictures a little later.

Judy

BigDaddy, his little Datsun truck and his faithful companion Melanie, whom we rescued in March.

Raised bed is full, notice the debris on two sides, this is what I picked out of the compost as he unloaded it.

Judy

Upclose look at the compost

Looks good..thx for posting the picks...trying to figure out my schedule to take a run down there..:)