Okay, so it seems I just need to find the stuff somewhere. One problem I'm
having is that every source seems to sell it in a different measure, so
pounds one place, quarts or liters somewhere else. I'm looking for 3 or 4
cubic feet. Does anyone know how many pounds of vermiculite is in a cubic
foot? I think 4 cubic feet comes to just over 100 quarts which is a heck of
a lot of those little 8 quart bags they have at the one local store I found
which carries vermiculite. Does anyone have a trusty online source they've
used?

For the record, I'm planning on a 5x3 8" tall raised bed. I've bought 3.8
cubic feet of peat moss and I'm hoping to get about the same amount of
compost from the city (Boston) along with slightly less vermiculite wherever
I can find (and afford) it. Does this sound about right or am I totally
barking up the wrong tree? If I don't end up finding the vermiculite, I was
thinking of suplementing with something else (some kind of soil?) and just
throwing in a small amount of the perlite. What do you think?

Thanks for all your advice!

LauraJ


"John McGaw" wrote in message
. ..
"Laura J" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to gardening and am trying to start
a
plot using the concepts of www.squarefootgardening.com. He suggests a
mixture of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 coarse vermiculite and 1/3 compost.
Problem
is I can't find the vermiculite and the guy at our local garden center
says
it's because it's now illegal. I did some research on this group and
see
that it's been discussed extensively but couldn't find any suggested
alternatives. What else would you put into this mixture if you couldn't
find vermiculite? In case it matters, I'm in zone 6a and am planning on
planting tomatoes, peppers, beets, arugula, basil, parsley, peas and
beans.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

LauraJ

I've always found perlite to be useful in applications similar to this.

BTW vermiculite is NOT ILLEGAL but it seems that some of the ill-informed
have decided that since vermiculite from one location in the US had some
asbestos in it that all vermiculite must be dangerous and that the sky is
falling and refuse to have anything to do with it no matter the source. If
you can find a vendor with the intelligence to know the difference you
should have no trouble buying vermiculite.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/asbestos/ve..._overview.html

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com