Posted By: Irishguy
Compost Mix for My Square Foot Gardens? - 11/20/20 12:26 PM
First off... I've never been a gardener, but I want to start in the spring of 2021. To that end I have been reading and planning.
I've been reading this book called "Square Foot Gardening" written by Mel Bartholomew. It appealed to me because not only has the method enjoyed widespread success, but because it seems simple and logical. He is an engineer that took up gardening as a hobby when he retired, and wanted to follow a logical approach that appealed to me.
My question is this:
I built these raised beds that I'm going to plant in and I need to fill them up. In Mel's book he recommends equal parts of: Compost, vermiculite and peat moss. However I have this pile of compost that I got delivered from a local landscape company that I want to mostly use. It's good looking stuff and based on the areas of my cabin yard that I have filled in with it, it appears to be very fertile. Here's the problem... It has all kinds of weeds in it.
We want to have a mostly organic garden, so how can I kill the weeds (Basically sterilize the compost after I put it into the frames.) without using chemicals?
My first thought is to take some black plastic and cover the frames after I fill them up and hopefully the black plastic will cause the beds to heat up so much that the heat will kill any seeds.
Any suggestions?
Pics of said gardening area for people who like pictures...
The compost is in the background next to the pile of crusher run.
I've been reading this book called "Square Foot Gardening" written by Mel Bartholomew. It appealed to me because not only has the method enjoyed widespread success, but because it seems simple and logical. He is an engineer that took up gardening as a hobby when he retired, and wanted to follow a logical approach that appealed to me.
My question is this:
I built these raised beds that I'm going to plant in and I need to fill them up. In Mel's book he recommends equal parts of: Compost, vermiculite and peat moss. However I have this pile of compost that I got delivered from a local landscape company that I want to mostly use. It's good looking stuff and based on the areas of my cabin yard that I have filled in with it, it appears to be very fertile. Here's the problem... It has all kinds of weeds in it.
We want to have a mostly organic garden, so how can I kill the weeds (Basically sterilize the compost after I put it into the frames.) without using chemicals?
My first thought is to take some black plastic and cover the frames after I fill them up and hopefully the black plastic will cause the beds to heat up so much that the heat will kill any seeds.
Any suggestions?
Pics of said gardening area for people who like pictures...
The compost is in the background next to the pile of crusher run.