# What Soil For my Vegetables



## captnickm (Feb 16, 2011)

Now that I have my fruit trees planted I want to start my vegetable garden. Its a raised bed that's about 30 Square feet. What soil should I buy. We would like it to be as organic as possible........
Thanks in advance.


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## mas360 (Nov 21, 2006)

I have a raised bed and I bought one yard of garden mix for $28 at a landscape soil supply house. It works great. Very little weeds to deal with and it is very easy to pull weeds. 

Next year I probably will add some cow manure. For now I use Miracle Grow fertilizer.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Garden mix & then add some chicken poop & till it. Then keep building your soil year after year. I have a compost pile & compost everything. Such as egg shells, grass clipping, coffee grinds, chicken & quail poop, plants I pull from the garden etc. Let it age & add it to your garden as you go & till it in.
Takes years to get good dirt & you gotta keep adding to it.
I have sandy loam here & it works for me. But has very few nutrients in it. I just keep adding to it.


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## Muddskipper (Dec 29, 2004)

You will find not all soil yards have the same quality

I tell you this because I want you to use caution .....the garden mix mentioned above is good and a rose mix is good too.....

Starting you own compost pile (4'x4'x4').... It good as it's free and it from your own property, so you know what to add.

It's the amendments that matter to the soil. An OK place is Living earth technology.

Get either their garden or rose mix..... But follow it up with either their forest floor compost or get the Black Kow Compost (yellow bag) from Lowes.

Last, use a native mulch for moister help and weed suppression. It will also break down and help with adding to the dirt.

This year I added green sand to my garden for trace elements.....lava sand would do the same.....consider that from the start....it works.

And great job taking the organic path


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## captnickm (Feb 16, 2011)

Thanks guys. I ended up getting soil from Living Earth that is labeled as "Vegetable mix". This is what the website says it has in it.

Vegetable Garden MixÂ For vegetables, we make a mix that is high in organics but also has a finer texture that keeps moisture around roots. Made of compost, sandy loam, aged mulch and other ingredients, Vegetable Mix provides an environment where vegetables can thrive. Vegetable Mix makes a great planting medium for annuals, perennials and herbs.It has excellent drainage, moisture retention and friability. The more you use Vegetable Garden Mix on your veggies, the more youâ€™ll want to use it in all areas of your garden.Living Earth Product Description From:Â http://livingearth.net/products-services/products/landscape-soil#ixzz33Jkl6VwiÂ

Is there anything else I should add?


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## Muddskipper (Dec 29, 2004)

Mulch will help once things get planted.... It suppresses weeds and breaks down to feed plants

Just don't put it on the veggie stems at the root flare

Give it time to rest....the dirt will be hot for a few days....

And consider something with trace minerals ...green sand, lava sand, or there is a post about azimoite .....

10 pounds goes a long way....and you can't have to much


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## captnickm (Feb 16, 2011)

Thanks! I'll look into the trace minerals today. 
This soil already has a good amount of mulch mixed into it. Do you think I need more?


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## whiskey1 (May 8, 2014)

Really good garden soil needs to be built over time. You have a good start with the soil you bought. I wouldn't add any more mulch into it. Now you can focus on building a compost pile and start gathering up manures, etc. Some ingredients I would consider for your soil would be calcium carbonate or crushed oyster shell from the feed store for calcium. This takes time to break down and become available to the plant so its good to get started with that now. Azomite, green sand, and bone meal also good things for your plants. If you do the work up front, practice crop rotation, you'll have to do very little to your soil for years to come.


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## monkeyman1 (Dec 30, 2007)

whiskey1 said:


> Really good garden soil needs to be built over time. You have a good start with the soil you bought. I wouldn't add any more mulch into it. Now you can focus on building a compost pile and start gathering up manures, etc. Some ingredients I would consider for your soil would be calcium carbonate or crushed oyster shell from the feed store for calcium. This takes time to break down and become available to the plant so its good to get started with that now. Azomite, green sand, and bone meal also good things for your plants. If you do the work up front, practice crop rotation, you'll have to do very little to your soil for years to come.


Very good advice here. I found a friend has horses and go several times each summer to harvest the barn "treasure". We also have 8 chickens and their treasure gets added to the compost in the summer. I also go to Bolivar thus time of year and get a truck bed full of Sorgassum (sea weed). The dirt is the lifeblood of any garden. Feed it and the veggies will come.

Incidentally, I don't mulch my garden. Not saying you shouldn't, but I don't like to fight to keep the mulch off my plant trunks. To each his own.


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## cva34 (Dec 22, 2008)

Plenty good advice above..If soil is heavy, some coarse sand is good too..Compost is wonderful stuff but like above said there's lots out there thats mostly wood shavings and chips they mix a little compost in and call compost..I like to start with about 1/3 existing soil 1/3 coarse sand 1/3 good compost ..Thats a starting point and like said above it gets better with age and additions/// evolves


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## LandLocked (Apr 28, 2005)

I had pretty good soil to start with but have tilled in compost and manure. Last couple years i have tilled in a bag of microlife. Seems to have made a nice improvement. When it peters out i try and rip everything out make sure the soil is moist add just a little nitrogen and cover it with some black plastic. Gets pretty hot in there.


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## Johnny9 (Sep 7, 2005)

My neighbor uses old bad veggies, egg shells, horse hay, horse manure, anything that can breakdown after its till in real good. He has one of the best gardens in the Brazos River Bottoms with red soil.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

juan said:


> My neighbor uses old bad veggies, egg shells, horse hay, horse manure, anything that can breakdown after its till in real good. He has one of the best gardens in the Brazos River Bottoms with red soil.


 So, he doesn't compost first then add to the garden? 
I compost mine for three are four months then add it on top of my rows & then till it in. 
By leaving it in the compost bin for many months it turns into a very rich dirt. The dirt will still have some clumps in it that will break down & act as a fertlizer through out the growing season.


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## mas360 (Nov 21, 2006)

monkeyman1 said:


> Very good advice here. I found a friend has horses and go several times each summer to harvest the barn "treasure". We also have 8 chickens and their treasure gets added to the compost in the summer. I also go to Bolivar thus time of year and get a truck bed full of *Sorgassum (sea weed)*. The dirt is the lifeblood of any garden. Feed it and the veggies will come.
> 
> Incidentally, I don't mulch my garden. Not saying you shouldn't, but I don't like to fight to keep the mulch off my plant trunks. To each his own.


The salt trace did not kill your plants? my neighbor washed his coolers after saltwater fishing trips and the run-off killed his grass.


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