What to do with my 11 3'X 11' raised beds

I'm 74 years old been gardening all my life and changed over to raised  beds 2 years ago. I have a lot of time, money and material in these beds and hate to take out all the soil to put in Mel's mix. My beds are mostly PRO MiX , and my own compost.  I have been practicing intense planting over the last year and a half.  I mulch most plant and have drip  irrigation.  I am ready to try square foot gardening. What should I do?"

Welcome to the board Dean!  Like you, my original beds were not filled with Mel's Mix - I had never heard of SFG or Mel's Mix at the time I started moving from in-ground gardening to raised beds. Those first raised beds came because of my advancing years, not because of moving to SFG.  They were a mixture of top soil, home-made compost, and coconut coir. After learning of SFG, and reading up on it, the newer beds were filled with a modified Mel's Mix. But, I use the same grid intense planting in all of the beds. The original beds actually produced better than the new Mel's Mix beds for the first couple years. Over the years I have added more compost, coir, and vermiculite to the original beds, and all of the beds now are pretty much the same.

The ProMix you have in your beds has a lot of peat and perlite in it. If you add some good quality compost, possibly including some composted manure, you will still have rich soil to grow in. Over time you can add some coarse vermiculite to help retain water, and always top off with good compost.

OhioGardener wrote:Welcome to the board Dean!  Like you, my original beds were not filled with Mel's Mix - I had never heard of SFG or Mel's Mix at the time I started moving from in-ground gardening to raised beds. Those first raised beds came because of my advancing years, not because of moving to SFG.  They were a mixture of top soil, home-made compost, and coconut coir. After learning of SFG, and reading up on it, the newer beds were filled with a modified Mel's Mix. But, I use the same grid intense planting in all of the beds. The original beds actually produced better than the new Mel's Mix beds for the first couple years. Over the years I have added more compost, coir, and vermiculite to the original beds, and all of the beds now are pretty much the same.

The ProMix you have in your beds has a lot of peat and perlite in it. If you add some good quality compost, possibly including some composted manure, you will still have rich soil to grow in. Over time you can add some coarse vermiculite to help retain water, and always top off with good compost.

Thanks so much for the information.  That is kind of what I had in mind. We raise chickens and I compost some chicken manure with my other stuff, table scrapes, shredded leaves, grass clippings,  shredded cardboard. It turn out great. I add this to the beds early every spring 2 to 3 weeks before planting. Do you think I should backfill my planting hole with Mel's Mix this year to try and get some of it into my beds?

Welcome to the board, Big Dean!  That isn’t a bad idea, to use MM in the planting holes.  At least it’s a leg up?  Then, as you move forward you can put more vermiculite and compost into those existing beds and see how it goes.

Big Dean, Welcome to the Forum from California.

Mel's Mix is the heart and soul of SFG, and along with raised beds and grids, is a specific method of gardening. Only 6" of MM is needed, so if you have the head room in the beds, you can top off with as many inches as possible. I understand not wanting to empty your beds and start over. I'm 73 and all of my beds are up in the air at 24" of height. (called table tops). If you ever want taller beds, you can build the beds taller and then top with MM.