Am I The Only One Still Using The Old Method?

countrynaturals 4/20/2016, 11:42 pm

Is anyone else still using the old SFG method besides me? thinking

**sanderson** 4/21/2016, 3:18 am

There are a few (Turan is one) that have some older beds, that do work, and they just keep them up by adding new compost. It seems that if they have expanded their garden, they use the new method, especially if dealing with clay or rocks. The New method eliminates digging the dirt down 6", then adding and mixing in 6" of Mel's Mix. The new way just goes straight to the MM.

Do you have a question about the old method?

johnp 4/21/2016, 8:24 am

I have one 4x8 (first raised bed before ANSFG) that I tried to dig out and finally just put in MM the best I could. It is probably half and half. It was primarily strawberries and rhubarb but slowly the strawberries died. Replace with raspberries and dug out the rhubarb and the bed is overwhelming.

BeetlesPerSqFt 4/21/2016, 9:05 am

I have both books, and I'm using both old and new methods. I added more raised beds for this growing season. But I also increased the area of my old-style dug and amended sections (admittedly to varying degrees depending on the intended planting,) even though I have rocks, and somewhat clay heavy soil. I seem to have gotten past the very rocky section. (The section about which my husband later said something like "Oh, yeah- I saw the google birdseye view of that - I think that was a gravel driveway before they put the house in.")

I did add 2" high wood frames with grids to most of my old sections this year so I could see my squares. The old book talks spacing, but I couldn't find anything specified about grid lines. I found the yarn grids on my boxes useful enough last year that I wanted them on my old-style section, too.

countrynaturals 4/21/2016, 10:46 am

sanderson wrote:There are a few (Turan is one) that have some older beds, that do work, and they just keep them up by adding new compost. It seems that if they have expanded their garden, they use the new method, especially if dealing with clay or rocks. The New method eliminates digging the dirt down 6", then adding and mixing in 6" of Mel's Mix. The new way just goes straight to the MM.

Do you have a question about the old method?

I guess my question would be "Does it matter?" We had already bought all the lumber and dirt for this project before I found this forum, so we went ahead and did it the old way. Are there any other differences I should be aware of?

**sanderson** 4/21/2016, 2:01 pm

Suz, Remember, it's your garden Very Happy

The only thing you may run into is that the roots of the tree will grow up into the beds. If it does, well, you won't be the first person to encounter this problem. Embarassed

A few of us have to rebuild our boxes to Table Tops so there was a good air gap between the ground and the Mix. What tree doesn't love rich organic mix?

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