Cut & Paste from another subject. Where are you located?

Good questions. Don't have the answer. Your environment is very different
than this one in South Eastern PA (USA). If we were to make a raised bed
garden I would start with a boundary for raising the bed, I would try to get
some black locust logs. I would surely not consider using railroad ties or
any other type of treated wood with attention on the chemicals in treated
wood leaching in your garden. Black locust as it dies or as parenchyma
cells die (symplast) the nitrogen based substances move out. So in order
for common fungi to break down the wood, such as a post in the ground, Some
people ask me if I have a PhD, yes, I have several post hole diggers
somewhere. Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) was named after the first
arborist. The first arborist's name was pronounced "row-bin"(sic)? I was
taught the tree was named after him, i.e., from a reliable source. Then I
would go get a dump truck load of Certified Organic Mushroom soil from
Mother Earth Organic Mushrooms. [http://www.organic.com/] I then would
(Land lord makes final decisions) would add about a dump truck load (7
commercial yards) of screened top soil. Together by mixing the both I would
hope to end up with good soil. Defined as a substance made up of sands,
silts, clays, decaying organic matter, air, water and an enormous number of
living organisms. I myself like zucchini and it grows well with little if
any so-called pest. I think we are going to close this garden in. A late
client and his wife had a organic garden - WOW! They wrote some sections
for me http://home.ccil.org/~treeman/bradley/index.html. My father has an
organic garden and he is going to start some plants for me. I would get a
load of leaf compost from somewhere. Its great when its just been screened.
I would mulch the plants with leaf compost to keep down 99% of undesired
plants (so-called weeds). It would be serving multi functions like feeding
the soil micros and retaining moisture. I hope we get one together. Good
luck with yours. What are some of the native trees in your area? Does
anyone have a suggestion related to keeping the leaf compost off the stems
of the plants. On those plants I would put the leaf up to the plants.
Chicken manure would be best if composted for a year or more. The people I
have gardened with don't use products like preen. Don't require it. Why
waste the money on something not required to have healthy plants? Leaves
are great. I would make an attempt at adding some composted wood chips to
feed the soil cellulose. As long as they are composted and symplastless I
would think they would be fine. Any thoughts?


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Forester & Tree Expert
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.

"SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message
...
We bought a house with a garden. Irrigation system in, but I will be
making some changes.

The soil locally is blow sand from red sandstone. A friend of mine gave
me a big tiller for doing some work to help him clean up after a fire. I
got it all cleaned up and put new gas in it, and it fired right up. So, I
took it on a couple of rows of the garden.

The soil is light and fluffy and not rocky as the adjoining soil.
Apparently the previous owners had put a lot of organic material in there.
It's really nice looking soil.

Is there some simple tests that I can do to see what's sand and what
isn't? Say, put some in a bucket and see how much floats vs. how much
sinks?

Should I go buy some garden soil (I already have five big bags) and till
that in, too? Should I till in some general fertilizer for the whole
garden?

What would be some good things to do now that I have a blank palette, and
don't have to redo what someone else has done?

Steve