Hi from N. Georgia

hi all - not new to gardening, but new to SFG.  As a background, I have had gardens a long while, but for some reason this year - absolutely everything went 'south' very quickly.  my tomato plants never reached 15" tall.  I obtained a soil sample and let's just say it wasn't easy to figure out what to do - so here I am, and off today to get materials for the Mel's mix - to amend my garden soil. 

I plan on adding the mix to the top of the raised beds then covering with black plastic for a few weeks of solarization before planting autumn crops.  Or maybe i should wait on adding the mix until after the 3 weeks.  idk.  anyway...glad to be here.

krumpetina wrote:I plan on adding the mix to the top of the raised beds then covering with black plastic for a few weeks of solarization before planting autumn crops.  Or maybe i should wait on adding the mix until after the 3 weeks.  idk.  anyway...glad to be here.

Welcome to the forums from Ohio!  Glad to have you here. You will find a wealth of information here to help with your journey in SFG.  Do you have one of the All New Square Foot Gardening books, preferably one of the later ones?

As for your beds, I would recommend that instead of amending the soil and solarizing it, you should remove the top 6" of the soil from the raised beds, and replacing it with Mel's Mix. Solarization will not be necessary, and you will get a clean start.  If possible, put the MM in this fall so that it can mature over the winter and give the microbial life a head start for next spring planting.

thank you for the suggestion - what in the world would i do with that dirt?  we don't really have a weed problem, it's really more of a rest/reset thing and hoping the mels mix has some effect on the pH of the soil - which tested above 7.  no idea why that happened, as the last 4 years in the garden were completely awesome...till this year.

anyway - the beds are 12x3 and that's a lot of dirt to remove - we are both about 70 - LOL.  it's also about the timing on the solarization/reset thing - we are expecting a third grandchild in 3 weeks via planned c section - so starting anything now plant-wise would not be wise - we will be at her house 3 hours away for 2 weeks after to give her some recovery time.  that puts us about the last week of august to be back home and ready to plant for the fall.  it's just how things are seeming to shake out this year.  we usually only plant one bed for fall, and this year, we have a small round metal bed that is deep we plan on putting in carrots - it gets too cold here in Nga to do anything more.  by December we will have to take everything out but the carrots and rest the bed until mid April. 

Happy to be here, hoping to learn some things!

Krumpetina, welcome to the Forum from California.  

As OG recommended, read one of the editions of ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening.  The 4th edition is due out at the end of the year, so a used copy of the 2nd or 3rd edition will work fine for now.  Or check with your library.

One of the benefits of ANSFG is that the beds never need to rest.  That is a hold over from farming many years ago.  Each season we plant, we just mix in more blended compost and the microbes and roots do the rest of the feeding.

Another benefit is that no matter what the native soil is like (Georgia clay?), using raised beds filled with Mel's Mix means the growing medium is around 7.0 pH, is nutritious, and light and fluffy.

If you have 6" of head room in your beds, you can just make Mel's Mix (specific recipe) and top the beds with it.  An extra 1" of headroom is nice for mulching for bedding straw, E-Z Straw with Tack, pine needle mulch, or clean dry fall leaves.  

Method - Square Foot Gardening


PS: I just thought of something.  Did you see any signs of root knot nematodes?  Just a thought.

hi and thanks for posting.  i do have almost 6 inches in 2 of the beds - so definitely not digging any of that out.  the third one will have to deal with however much i can put in there.  currently waiting on home depot to get the vermiculite in - as they had none in the store.  (have to read those pesky in stock notifications before driving there.)  it's been one of those weeks - if we can get a day without storms, we can mix things up and get going.

krumpetina wrote:currently waiting on home depot to get the vermiculite in - as they had none in the store.

Be very careful about buying/using the vermiculite from Home Depot. They normally only sell medium vermiculite, and do not carry coarse vermiculite.  You do not want to use medium vermiculite in your MM.

i was actually able to order the coarse thru the website - viagro coarse and chunky?  does that sound right?  hope so, cause it's on it's way!

krumpetina wrote:hi all - not new to gardening, but new to SFG.  As a background, I have had gardens a long while, but for some reason this year - absolutely everything went 'south' very quickly.  my tomato plants never reached 15" tall.  I obtained a soil sample and let's just say it wasn't easy to figure out what to do - so here I am, and off today to get materials for the Mel's mix - to amend my garden soil. 

I plan on adding the mix to the top of the raised beds then covering with black plastic for a few weeks of solarization before planting autumn crops.  Or maybe i should wait on adding the mix until after the 3 weeks.  idk.  anyway...glad to be here.

Hey there! Welcome to the SFG community! Sorry to hear that your garden didn't do well this year, but it's great that you're taking proactive steps to improve your soil. Mel's mix is a game-changer! As for your plan, I'd recommend adding the mix after the solarization process. The heat from the sun will help kill off any pathogens and weed seeds, and then you can incorporate the mix into the soil. That way, you'll get the most benefit from both processes. But hey, I'm no expert, so take my advice for what it's worth

Tonica24, I am curious, do you currently do Square Food Gardening? Would you visit the "Introduce Yourself" and tell us about yourself?

 To SFG, both of you!  It is well worth your time to get one of the books at your library, very good information.

Tonica24 wrote:
Hey there! Welcome to the SFG community! Sorry to hear that your garden didn't do well this year, but it's great that you're taking proactive steps to improve your soil. Mel's mix is a game-changer! As for your plan, I'd recommend adding the mix after the solarization process. The heat from the sun will help kill off any pathogens and weed seeds, and then you can incorporate the mix into the soil. That way, you'll get the most benefit from both processes. But hey, I'm no expert, so take my advice for what it's worth

Tonica, We do not mix Mel's Mix into existing soil. It is a stand-alone growing medium. We do put 6-7" on top of existing soil if the beds are deep enough to accommodate it. Otherwise, we remove enough material for it to fit.

I put it in my compost bin to be renewed and reused. I have 2 bins and have fresh compost and developing compost.