2nd year garden

We are planting in our square foot gardens for a 2nd year in a row. We followed the directions of mix last year. This year, we have some things that have come back - parsley, mint and thyme. How do we figure out 1. how much mix to put in, 2. do we scoop out some of the old soil to add new or do we only add new, 3. how do we insure the plants that have come back are ok? Also in another bed, we have strawberries that have come back and they have grown out farther than we'd like. Can we pinch off some of the tendrils w/o hurting the plant? Where and how do you pinch them off? Thanks for any and all help!!!

PS - I'm in Atlanta. Don't know if that's relevant.

This is my second year too, so my reply is far from expert... But my understanding is that you leave all of last years mm there and ammend with compost to add nutrients for this years crops. I turned my over this spring as the top was warming up and the bottome was still cold. I think this also fluffed it up nicely.

That's the only part I can answer.

jason1261 wrote:We are planting in our square foot gardens for a 2nd year in a row. We followed the directions of mix last year. This year, we have some things that have come back - parsley, mint and thyme. How do we figure out 1. how much mix to put in, 2. do we scoop out some of the old soil to add new or do we only add new, 3. how do we insure the plants that have come back are ok? Also in another bed, we have strawberries that have come back and they have grown out farther than we'd like. Can we pinch off some of the tendrils w/o hurting the plant? Where and how do you pinch them off? Thanks for any and all help!!!

jbh gave you good info.

1. No new mix needed, just add blended compost to each square as you harvest, usually one trowel full is enough. If you did not add compost as you harvested last year, put two trowels full into each square. This will also help keep the level of your Mel's Mix up close to full.
2. Do not remove any Mel's Mix. It is just fine and again, the only thing you need to do is add blended compost.
3. Mint and thyme usually will come back each year. I would give them some time to see if they are doing well, look bushy and have new leaves coming up. They may even need a haircut if they look a bit straggly. As for the parsley, it is a biennial, that means that if you started this plant last year, and it survived all winter, it will want to bolt and put out seeds this spring and needs to be replaced. If these are new parsley seedlings coming up around where the original plant was, they should be just fine.

Regarding your strawberries, I just leave all the little baby plants attached, but I never get a good harvest from strawberries, so maybe I don't do the best thing for them.

We do have several memebers that grow large amounts of strawberries, hopefully they will jump in and give you good advice about strawberries.