Phisherman wrote:

Jeana wrote:
Someone is telling me they're going to start a raised bed veggie garden
with a load of compost. Not digging it in, just planting in compost.
When I said, get a soil test first, and you need to dig the compost in
etc..., he said I was wrong. I don't mind being wrong, but am I missing
something here with what he's doing?


I can't see where anyone is "wrong." Good compost alone has much
what's needed to make plants grow, but some plants will grow better,
have minerals available and have better support when the compost is
tilled into the ground. There are different kinds of compost--some
made entirely from animal manure, some from decayed vegetation matter.
Take a look at his garden mid-summer and let us know?


Yeah. Right/wrong doesn't seem to be the best way to frame this question.

What kind of "compost", and whether it's finished composting are important
issues. How thickly it's spread, what kind of soil is underneath, what's being
grown, what the weather conditions will be, and whether some, and what type of
mulch might be used will factor in as well.

We're talking about a raised bed, but how raised are we talking? If we're
talking more than six inches over the existing soil, there may not be any reason
to till anything into it. If it's hardpan, breaking it up a little would help
with drainage, but you wouldn't need to till in the material you're using to
fill the bed.

If they're buying bags of "planting compost", it's not really what we might call
compost. It would be a mix of compost and soil, which gets us back to the same
kind of medium you'd get tilling compost into the existing soil.

And what is their goal in this garden? Do they want to turn it into a project to
maximize the yield from some vegetables? Or are they just looking to put
something in that spot of the yard, and decided that they'd like to try their
hand at vegetables? To some of us, seeing how great of a crop we can get is fun.
To others, soil tests, and optimizing the growing medium and such takes all the
fun out of it.

For some people, gardening isn't a competitive sport. It's like the difference
between someone who buys special running shoes, and keeps a training diary,
versus someone who just goes out and runs around the neighborhood in their
basketball shoes every couple of days. If you take these people off, and tell
them that they need to get the right shoes, and keep a training diary, they
might stop running all together because it's no longer fun.

They're not setting themselves up for failure. They're probably not going to
hurt themselves. Depending on what kind of "compost" we're talking about,
whatever they're going to plant will probably grow. They may not be ready for
the competitive vegetable harvest circuit in fall, but their approach may result
in enough to satisfy them.

Right or wrong? Nope. Just different.

--
Warren H.

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