Savvy Gardener

Organic compost is the best material to grow your plants in. Compost is the type of soil plants really love to grow in, because it?s made from lots of great organic material. It?s the safest kind of material to grow your plants in.

You?ll need to start with a base of material that is rich in carbon. You?ll need things like straw, dead flowers, shredded newspaper, and dried leaves. Some people forget to add these brown materials, but they?re essential.

Next, you need green materials that are high in nitrogen. These materials include things like kitchen waste from plants, animal manure, green garden clippings, and grass clippings. You can use all kinds of fruit and vegetable peelings and leftovers, but no meat!

Then you?ll need a little bit of soil from your garden. It?s important for you to remember that you should actually add a bit of natural soil to your compost to get it started. You?ll start by putting down a layer of your brown material.

This could be straw, dry leaves, or even shredded newspapers if you don?t have anything else. On top of that, you?ll add some of your green stuff, then a layer of soil. Then you?ll add more of your brown material to the top. Finally, you need to add water to these layers. Just moisten them, don?t drown them!

You?ll continue in this manner to add layers until you have a compost pile that is around 3 feet wide and 3 feet high. You should probably have a ratio of about three parts brown material to one part of green material. If your pile isn?t 3 feet tall yet, just keep adding material to it whenever you have it available.

About once every week or two, you should turn your compost pile. This means using something like a garden fork (a pitchfork) to stir your pile. You?ll want to work all of the stuff in the middle out toward the edges, and move the outer material inward toward the middle.

Be sure to keep your compost pile moist. It should never be soggy, but be sure not to let it dry out. If your compost pile gets too dry, it will stop decomposing properly. If you see steam coming up from your pile when you turn it, you can be pretty sure everything is decomposing properly.

You can add earthworms to your compost pile if you want. They?ll find the pile on their own, but you can speed the process up a big by adding some to the pile yourself. You can buy earthworms at a fishing bait store and use those.

You can also build or buy a bin to house your compost pile. This can help keep your pile neat and tidy, so it doesn?t spread out too much. You can also buy rotating compost bins that you can turn in order to mix your compost. These aren?t necessary, but they can make your job easier.

Once your compost turns into a rich, nearly black material, it will start to smell much better. Your new compost will smell a bit sweet. Once it turns black and starts to smell sweet, it?s ready to be mixed with your regular garden soil. In fact, you can use this rich compost as potting soil, usually with nothing else added. You can even replace most of the soil in your garden with this material, or use it in raised beds.

Posted in - Organic Gardening - Comments(0)

The biggest problem organic gardeners face is dealing with pests. An infestation of aphids or cutworms can absolutely devastate a garden! You can have an entire row of plants wiped out in days, or even hours.

It?s important to try to prevent infestations, rather than just treating them once they occur. You can do this by spraying your plants with solutions that deter many of the most common garden pests.

There are many organic solutions available, but you can make your own by using recipes that can be found in most organic gardening books. Most of them will be sort of like a tea, made with things like hot pepper sauce and garlic.

When you can, you should try to plant species that are native to the area in which you live. These plants have natural immunity to many common diseases in the area. There are also plants that are pest-resistant, and won?t have as many problems with pests as other varieties.

If you plant early enough, you may be able to avoid the worst part of the bug season. Insects have just a short period of each year in which they will be active and eating your plants. If you plant early, you may be able to harvest before those insects terrorize your plants.

You should do everything you can to encourage natural insect predators like ladybugs, praying mantis, ground beetles, and birds. Some types of plants like mint and rosemary can attract many beneficial bugs that can help you keep other insects under control.

You should keep a close eye on your plants to spot potential problems before they get out of control. If you see a hornworm on your tomato plants, pluck it off quickly and drown it in soapy water. By watching your plants daily, you have a chance to stop these problems before they become too difficult to handle.

If you?re having trouble with a particular pest, you can take pictures and then try to identify the pest. Go online and try to search for it. If you can?t identify it, you can take your pictures to your local county extension office or library and ask for help identifying it.

Once you?ve identified the pest, you can ask your extension office for advice with regards to controlling it. Just be sure to tell them you?re an organic gardener, and ask them if they have any ideas for you.
You may be able to prevent some pests by installing netting over your plants. Although this is probably a last resort, you may be able to save your plants from utter devastation if you have a particularly bad season of beetles or other such bugs.
Just remember, netting will also prevent beneficial insects from reaching your plants, so if some pests make it through, it may be harder to detect them and for predator insects to control them.
Pest control is a very difficult part of organic gardening.
If you lose a crop to insects, you may be tempted to abandon organic gardening and rush out to buy a chemical spray. A lot of organic gardeners experience this! Don?t feel bad. It can certainly be very frustrating to deal with pests, especially when you?ve worked very hard to take care of your plants all season.
But just remember, organic gardening has so many benefits that it?s really worth it to go through all of the extra work. Your family will be rewarded with healthy food that is safe to eat!

Posted in - Organic Gardening - Comments(0)

Weeds are the bane of any gardener, but they can be especially bothersome to organic gardeners. Many gardeners choose to use weed killer to get rid of weeds, but you can?t do that in an organic garden. So what can you do?

Well, you?ll need to identify your most troublesome weed, and then deal with it in the way that best gets rid of that particular type of weed. We?re going to look at a few of the most common weeds, and how to get rid of those weeds.

Dandelion is one of the worst offenders. Although some people choose to grow dandelions for their greens, most gardeners just want to get rid of them. To get rid of dandelions, you need to dig out the entire taproot.

You should always pull them up with a hoe before they flower. And you can spread corn gluten over the areas you wish to remain free from dandelions in the early spring. This will help keep a lot of the seedlings from growing.

Crabgrass is a major pest in many yards and gardens. It is very tough to pull up, and it is especially hard to get rid of. You must pull up the entire plant, including all of its roots. You can suppress further growth by spreading down corn gluten in the early spring. You can also mulch to prevent the seeds from germinating.

Poison ivy is a horrible plant. It can cause terrible rashes even with very mild exposure. You should always wear gloves when handling this plant, and don?t ever let it touch any part of your skin.

You must cut the plant at the base, then let it dry out completely. Bury the vines, or throw them away in the trash. Never, ever burn poison ivy, because the smoke can be fatal! Do not compost poison ivy.

Lamb?s quarters is an edible wild green. Some people grow these for food, but most people think of them as common weeds. They can be difficult to get rid of. You can hoe or pull up the plants when you see them. Then you should mulch heavily to suppress the seedlings.

Ragweed is a plant that many people want to get rid of. It?s a very common allergen, and its pollen is a major cause of hay fever. You can hoe up seedlings, and use a mower to mow down full-sized plants. You can use mulch to cover the areas where it grows. You can compost ragweed if it hasn?t yet gone to seed.

Purslane is an edible plant. You can remove individual plants by hoeing. If you pull the plants, they can reroot themselves if you leave them lying on top of the soil. The seeds of this plant can mature after the plant has been pulled, so don?t compost them. You can mulch to prevent these from growing.

Prickly lettuce is an annoying little plant. It can cause itching and burning if it comes in contact with skin, so always wear gloves when you handle it. You can pull or hoe plants, or cut the taproot below the soil.

You might wish to leave it alone, as it can attract beneficial insects, but it can carry lettuce diseases. Be sure to keep it away from your lettuce patches. Cocklebur is poisonous to livestock, so you should be sure to keep it away from your animals. You can hoe or pull plants beneath the soil line. You can compost it if it hasn?t yet gone to seed.

Posted in - Organic Gardening - Comments(0)

Droves of people are turning to organic produce as a way to feel safer about the foods they eat. People are worried about the foods they put into their bodies. With all of the reports of food poisoning from fruits and vegetables, many people are worried about what they?re eating.

We now know just how dangerous all of those chemicals that we spray plants on can be, too. Many chemicals have been banned because they were shown to cause cancer! But some of these dangerous chemicals have not yet been banned, and there may be plenty of hidden dangers that haven?t yet been discovered.

When you garden organically, you can feel safer about the food you eat. You?ll know that the food you?re feeding your family is safer and healthier than the questionable stuff you find in the grocery store. You and your family deserve to eat food that won?t give you all cancer!

Organic gardening is also extremely beneficial to the environment for several reasons. For one thing, every time you spray your plants with chemicals, those chemicals wash off of your plants and onto the ground. From there, those chemicals wash down into the ground, and eventually make it into the groundwater!

When the insects on your plants are poisoned, they can be eaten by birds or other animals. These animals can then become sick and die. If the toxicity was high enough, any animals that eat those animals might also perish. This can have a very strong environmental impact.

By killing too many of a certain species of insect, you can also cause an imbalance in the local wildlife. If you and your neighbors kill off a large portion of the population of one insect, then anything that depends on that insect for food might also start to die off.

Then anything that depends on the second species for food might start to die. This could spin out of control if the problem became too widespread. This is unlikely, but it?s not impossible. Organic produce is also known for its superior flavor.

For example, organic carrots are widely known for being much sweeter than traditionally-grown carrots. They don?t have the same bitterness that other carrots can have. This is a very good reason to grow your produce organically, even if you aren?t worried about the chemical effects to your body and the environment.

There are obviously a few drawbacks to gardening organically, too. You have to deal with pests differently, and it can be a longer and more complex process to rid your plants of certain pests. Instead of picking up some chemicals, you have to pick off insects by hand and drop them into soapy water.

You have to spray your plants with solutions made of things like hot peppers and garlic to prevent some bugs from eating them. It can be difficult. You also have to stick to organic fertilizers, rather than using easy chemical fertilizers.

But organic fertilizers can actually be cheaper, because you can make them yourself. Fish emulsion is a common organic fertilizer. It?s a sort of tea made from dead fish. Seaweed fertilizer is another tea-like fertilizer that many organic gardeners swear by.

And of course there?s natural compost that can help you make use of your kitchen waste! The benefits of organic gardening far outweigh the few drawbacks. It may be a bit more work, but it is so rewarding!

Posted in - Organic Gardening - Comments(0)

Fertilizing your plants may not be quite as simple as it would be if you used chemicals in your garden. Chemical fertilizers are certainly convenient. Most of them come in a form that only needs to be mixed with water and sprayed onto plants. But organic gardeners need a good, organic way of fertilizing their plants.

You need to pay careful attention to the package if you?re going to purchase a pre-made organic fertilizer. Some of them are high in one of the major plant nutrients, but low in the other two. Plants generally need nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash. You should research which of these nutrients your particular plants need, so you can purchase the correct type.

Some common types of organic fertilizers include blood meal, fish emulsion, cottonseed meal, compost, manure, and seaweed fertilizer. Many of these can be purchased, but a lot of them can also be made at home.

You must be careful to fertilize when the ground is warm enough. Organic fertilizers need organisms in the soil to break them down and release the nutrients they contain. So the soil needs to be warm and moist so the organisms in the soil will be active.

Cottonseed meal is one common organic fertilizer. It?s a byproduct of the cotton manufacturing process. It is great for acid-loving plants, because it has an acidic reaction in the soil. It generally contains about 7% nitrogen, 3% phosphorous, and 2% potash. Cottonseed meal is usually used for flowering plants like azaleas and rhododendrons.

Fish emulsion is a very popular organic fertilizer. It is made of a blend of decomposed fish. It is a high-nitrogen fertilizer, and also contains a lot of trace elements than can be very beneficial for plants. Fish emulsion is a nice, balanced fertilizer.

Blood meal is the blood of cattle that is collected from slaughterhouses and then dried and powdered. It is high in nitrogen, and care must be taken to ensure it doesn?t burn plants. You should be very careful not to exceed the recommended dose, because this could really harm your plants. Blood meal is also high in several trace elements like iron.

Manure is a well-balanced fertilizer, but it is relatively low in the nutrients it contains. It?s a very popular fertilizer, but it just isn?t high enough in these important nutrients to make it a viable choice for home gardeners.

Seaweed fertilizer in the form of a seaweed tea is often used by organic gardeners. Dried seaweed is added to water and steeped like tea, then applied to plants like other liquid fertilizers. This can be a very good fertilizer, and won?t burn plants. It is very high in nutrients. Use a dried seaweed, and be sure it?s not roasted or seasoned.

Some people use sewer sludge for their fertilizer. It?s made from recycled material from sewage treatment plants. You can purchase activated sludge, which is higher in nutrients, and you can buy composted sludge, which isn?t quite as good.

It is generally found in a granular form. There is some concern over the safety of sewage sludge, because it can contain buildups of heavy metals like cadmium. This can build up in the soil in potentially harmful levels.

Posted in - Organic Gardening - Comments(0)

It?s sometimes recommended that you don?t try to grow vegetables that are readily available at your local supermarket. If a particular vegetable is inexpensive, you might want to skip growing it and just purchase it.

Of course, it can be difficult to find good quality in some types of vegetables, so if there is a big difference in quality, that could be a great reason for growing that type.

Tomatoes ? Although technically a fruit, its savory nature leads to this little beauty being considered a vegetable by most people. Tomatoes found in stores are usually picked nearly green and then ripened artificially.

This is done to ensure they are tough enough to survive shipping without being smashed, and so they last longer on the shelves. Since tomato quality can be really poor in stores, this is a very good choice. Tomatoes are the most popular choice for vegetable gardeners, because they probably have the most noticeable difference over store bought.

Lettuce ? Although iceberg lettuce doesn?t very that much from store to home, leaf lettuces and other fancy lettuces can taste much sweeter and crisper if grown at home. Plus, exotic lettuces can often be very expensive.

Peas ? Peas can be very hard to find fresh. Canned peas are often mushy, and although frozen peas are certainly better than canned, they still pale in comparison to fresh peas. Tiny baby peas are sweet, delicate, and delicious, making them well worth the effort.

Carrots ? Store bought carrots are often woody, tough, and bitter. Even organic carrots often carry a strong bitterness caused by being kept at temperatures that are too cool for too long. Fresh carrots are generally very sweet and delicious.

Radishes ? Radishes are cheap and easy to find in stores, but most store bought radishes are already turning pithy. If you?ve ever bitten into a radish that was dry and spongy inside, you?ll understand how bad pithy radishes are. Fresh radishes are delightful!

Greens ? Although most greens are readily available in stores, they?re often yellowing and wilted by the time you buy them. By growing them yourself, you can be sure you have fresh greens when you want them.

Asparagus ? Fresh asparagus is often ridiculously expensive, and canned asparagus is mushy and horrible! The only way to get affordable asparagus that isn?t mushy and bland is to grow it yourself.

Peppers ? Peppers in stores are often shriveled and pathetic. Plus, peppers that aren?t standard green peppers can often be very expensive. My local store has sold red peppers for as much as $2.99 each, which is crazy! Grow your own and save money.

Cucumbers ? Store bought cucumbers are often bitter and dry. If you?ve ever had a dried out, semi-hollow cucumber, you?ll understand the importance of growing your own!

Corn ? Sweet corn is a delight to eat when it?s freshly picked. Corn is extremely sensitive to being off the stalk. Once it?s been off the stalk for 6 hours, it starts to deteriorate rapidly. You?ve never had corn until you?ve eaten it cooked fresh.

Posted in - Vegetable Gardening - Comments(0)

Raised beds are a very popular method for growing vegetables and other produce. There are several distinct advantages to growing in raised beds. They can really make growing vegetables much easier, and you can usually get a much larger harvest for the space.

One of the biggest advantages to growing in raised beds is the fact that you can save a lot of space over traditional gardening. If you plant in rows, as most people do in traditional gardening, about half of your garden space is taken up by the paths between rows!

That?s a lot of wasted space. But if you plant in raised beds, you save a lot of space, and you can plant more per square foot than you could in rows. This means you can harvest a lot more produce from the same amount of space.

Another distinct advantage is the fact that you can have good soil more easily than you could in a traditional garden. In a traditional garden, you have to mix your compost in with your tilled soil. This means you have to first use a tiller to loosen the soil.

Then you have the back-breaking task of turning the compost into the soil. This can take a very long time, and is very hard work. With raised bed gardening, you can simply use compost as your soil!

You can choose to till the soil underneath your raised bed, or you can leave it alone. Most plants will grow without the tilling of the soil underneath. Then you can just fill your raised bed frame with compost and plant directly into it. It?s certainly much easier than turning compost into existing soil.

Raised beds are generally about 4 feet wide and 6 feet in length. They?re made from a wooden frame set on the ground, often on tilled earth. They?re generally spaced about 18 to 24 inches apart to allow for walking between the frames to care for the plants.

They?re usually separated into 1 foot sections, with each section holding a certain number of plants based on the size of the mature plant. Very large plants may need an entire 1×1 foot square. Smaller plants may be planted 4, 8, or even 16 per 1 foot square. You can plant up to 16 radishes or carrots in a single square foot!

In order to divide your raised bed, you would section off 1×1 foot areas. Then you would section those off into smaller sections based on the size of the plants you wanted to grow there. For larger plants like tomatoes or broccoli, you?d simply plant one in each square foot.

If you wanted to plant lettuce, you can fit 4 per square foot, you you?d divide each square foot into four equal squares. For radishes or carrots, you?d divide each section into 16 equal squares. Once the space is divided using string or small pieces of wood, you plant your seeds or seedlings in the center of each section.

Another fantastic benefit of raised bed gardening is the fact that you don?t have as many weeds to deal with. Since the soil you place on top is generally fresh compost or soil mix, there shouldn?t be as many weed seeds in it as there would be in tilled soil. Any weeds that do make it into your garden are easily spotted and pulled out.

Raised bed gardeners often find caring for their gardens much easier. With fewer weeds and plants that are closer together, gardening becomes a pleasure rather than a chore. It?s a great way to get more produce out of the space you have available, and it?s generally easier, too.

Posted in - Vegetable Gardening - Comments(0)

Pests are a big problem for most gardeners. Some types of pests can destroy a crop in just a few hours! Most pests are more annoying than wantonly destructive, but finding bugs chowing down on your crops can drive anyone crazy!

We?re going to look at some of the most common vegetable garden pests, how to identify them, and how to get rid of them. Aphids are extremely common in vegetable gardens. You?ll usually see clusters of very tiny insects with soft bodies in various colors. They might be gray, pink, red, green, black, or yellow. To rid your garden of aphids, you can use neem oil or an insecticidal soap.

Beetles are annoying little creatures that love to chew on leaves. They can do an extraordinary amount of damage to crops, so it?s important to get rid of them. You can pick beetles off by hand, or you can spray your plants with an insecticide that poisons them.

Borers get into the stems of plants like melons, squashes, cucumbers, and pumpkins. You?ll notice the leaves start to wilt, and you may find a hole in the stem where they bore into the plant. You have to cut the borers out of the plants. If the borer is found at the base, you?ll have to destroy the whole plant. You can use insecticide to try to prevent these.

Grubs are fat white worms. They cause plants to wilt, or their growth may seem stunted. Grubs can be controlled by treating the soil with milky spore. The adult beetles that grubs turn into can be killed with stomach poison insecticide.

Cutworms usually cut off the plant stem at the base of the plant. The only effective way to control these is to use a paper collar on your plants about an inch below and above ground level. These bugs usually infest cabbages, peppers, and tomatoes.

Corn earworms will eat the kernels off of the cobs while the corn is still on the stalk. A similar worm, the tomato fruitworm, will eat the insides of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. You can use an insecticide that is made especially for earworms, and be sure to get rid of the plants at the end of the season so hopefully they won?t be back next year.

Slugs and snails leave nasty slime trails on plants and eat plant leaves. They are especially destructive to cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, turnips, and carrots. You can buy bait to kill them, but placing a shallow pan of beer in your garden should attract them and drown them.

Thrips cause irregular white marks on leaves and leaf tips that look deformed. They infest beans, cabbage, carrots, melons, peas, squash, turnips, celery, tomatoes, and many more plants. You can hose the bugs off of the plants and then spray with a contact poison.

Tomato hornworms are one of the scariest looking garden pests. They eat the leaves and fruits of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. They are large, fat, green and white worms that look like caterpillars.
They have a large horn that looks like a stinger. You can remove them with gloved hands and drown them in soapy water. You can also spray with neem oil, stomach poison insecticide, or Bacillus thuringiensis.

Posted in - Vegetable Gardening - Comments(0)

The type of plants you choose for your raised bed will obviously be based on things such as your zone, the availability of sun in your garden, and your own personal preferences. But we?re going to talk about how to choose vegetables for your raised beds in a general way.

First of all, you should be sure to plant only those vegetables your family actually likes to eat. Sure, those golden beets may be beautiful, but do you eat beets? Do your kids like beets? Is your spouse going to run away screaming if you try to serve them? You should only plant varieties that you actually believe your family will truly enjoy.

The easiest plants to grow in raised beds include beans, Swiss chard, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, and radishes. These plants are all great for beginners. Herbs are also generally very easy to grow. You should choose some of these easier types if you?re new to raised bed gardening or to gardening in general.

If you want plant vegetables that reach maturity very quickly, you can choose varieties that are better for this purpose. Some of us can be very impatient. If you hate waiting around to harvest your first vegetables, you can try radishes, spinach, lettuce, beans, beets, squash, cucumbers, carrots, and peas.

If you prefer to get your plants out as early in the season as possible, you should choose varieties that are especially good for early planting outdoors. Some varieties you can plant four to six weeks before the last frost include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, parsley, peas, and spinach.

You can plant beets, carrots, radishes, and Swiss chard up to four weeks before the last frost. You?ll be able to plan beans, corn, summer squash, and tomatoes on the date of the last frost. And you can plant cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, and winter squash about two weeks after the last frost date.

If you want to extend your growing season as late in the year as you can, you should choose great fall vegetables. You can harvest beans, Swiss chard, corn, cucumbers, eggplants, squashes, and tomatoes up until the last frost.

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, carrots, lettuce, and spinach can all be planted just a few weeks before the last frost and will have time to mature before the frost hits. And you can plant lettuce and radishes up to a week before the first frost in many areas!

If you?re a beginning gardener, you should probably stick to those plants you can grow during the normal growing season. You won?t want to get too complex or too complicated when you?re just starting out. You should stick with the easier varieties, and plant them during the normal growing season.

Also, be certain to choose varieties that grow well in your area. You should check your USDA zone chart to be certain a particular variety of plant will grow well in your area. Don?t pick varieties that won?t grow in your area, no matter how tempting they may be.

And be sure to choose varieties that will grow under your lighting conditions. If you have a very shady yard, don?t pick vegetables or herbs that need full sun. You need to work with the conditions available to you, especially if you?re just starting out.

Posted in - Raised Bed Gardening - Comments(0)

The first step in creating a raised bed garden is to decide how large you?d like it to be. It should be no wider than 4 feet, so you can reach comfortably to end to plants from both sides, but it can be as long as you?d like. Most people stick with 4×4 foot plots, and you can do many 4×4 foot plots or one 4×12 or 4×20 or whatever you want!

You can build your frame out of standard lumber. 2×6 lumber is good enough for a frame that will house shallow-root vegetables such as radishes, lettuce, and spinach. If you want to grow larger vegetables like corn or tomatoes, you?ll need 2×12 boards, so your soil can be at least 10 inches deep.

Opinion varies on whether or not you should use treated lumber. If you use untreated lumber, it will rot within a few years and you?ll have to start your garden all over from scratch. If you use treated wood, it has a small potential to leech toxic chemicals into the soil which might be picked up by your plants and passed to you.

If you want to be on the safe side, you should stick with untreated wood. But treated wood is very convenient, and many scientists claim the chances of anyone actually being harmed by the small amount of chemicals that might leech into the soil would be miniscule. This is a personal choice, so whatever you decide is right for you is just fine.

You should have your lumber cut for you when you buy it. You need the lumber ends to be perfectly even so soil won?t leak out once you put your raised bed together. This is extremely difficult to do yourself unless you have a large saw. A circular saw or handsaw probably won?t cut it.

You?ll need to use three 4-inch ribbed deck nails at each joint to put your frame together. Other types of deck nails just won?t hold tightly enough to ensure your bed won?t fall apart until the pressure of all that soil and plant material.

You should assemble the frame on a flat, level surface, not directly in the garden if you can help it. Your frame will be much sturdier if it?s assembled on your deck or driveway. Then you might require help moving it to the garden, as it will probably be heavy.

You should leave a minimum of two feet between boxes, preferably three feet. You need enough room to move around comfortably. Be sure to choose a good location right from the start, because once they?re filled with soil, they?d be impossible to move without emptying them!

You can dig up or till the soil underneath the frames if you wish, but it?s generally not necessary. Most plants will grow just fine in the 6 or 12 inches of soil inside the frame, and they should be able to push through the ground if they really need to. As long as you provide very high quality soil with plenty of organic material, your plants should never need to shoot roots down past those 12 inches.

Your soil should be the highest quality soil you can manage. You can purchase commercial potting soil, but it generally won?t be high enough quality. You should add more organic material to this soil. You can use homemade compost, composted manure, or other rich organic material to make the soil you use the best possible quality.

Posted in - Raised Bed Gardening - Comments(0)