New Garden Spot, Maybe time to try Organic only.....

[dice]

The least work, of course, even less than a raised bed,
goes to Ray's Earthtainer's with automated watering
system. There is some up front work constructing them,
but all of that is amortized over however many years
the containers last. There is some up front cost for
materials and for the watering system parts (the
most expensive item), and one needs a good container
mix for them. I think he estimated that he had around
$1k into 25 containers with watering system, but it is
almost hands free once they are growing. I can't think
of many other vegetable gardening methods that one
can say that about, at least not for tomatoes.

There are several threads in the Growing In Containers forum
describing them. Soil underneath is not an issue. (One could
use them on pavement, and they would still work fine. )

[dice]

Yet another possibility, that combines a raised bed, your
legacy tiller, and bringing in some good topsoil: till up
the row, but don't remove the clay. Pile the topsoil on top,
so it looks like a hipped up row. See how it does.

If you like the performance, you can build sides around
it next winter to keep the dirt in place without having
to shovel any of it back up onto the row after a tropical
downpour. If not, you can still shovel the dirt off to the side
and save it for plan B.

The roll roofing mulch might work. That reminds me of
TomatoDon's description of rolling out heavy construction
paper for mulch and putting a short piece of 4" (I think)
plastic pipe into the soil right next to each plant for watering
when the soil is dry. He does it just to keep down weeds, but
it would also reduce the amount of water that runs into your
planting holes in a rain.

People do actually garden right in the ground in places with
soil like yours, some of them are even T'ville members. The
difference is that they have been tilling or discing in manure,
compost, last year's straw mulch, dead leaves, grass clippings,
and so on for years. (Year one performance may not have
been all that satisfactory, but that was decades ago for most
of them.)

[harleysilo]

My parents have raised beds, and while they are nice looking they are a lot of work to build, and require a lot of initial investment, which may require a few years track record of really enjoying twenty some odd tomato plants growing in the yard before my wife would approve the permanent structure being built in that location. I have already made this last summer our first summer at this house...


that is also where all the "compost" we had from last summer grass clippings/leaves/other organic stuff went. The preparation for that bed was till up the area to as deep as I could with my neighbor's roto tiller (12") and then add bags of good dirt bought at home depot and some old (4-5 years) wood chips the previous home owner used in flower beds. Mix it all up and plant. My experience with that "raised bed" is that it takes a lot of water to keep the plants from drying out in the middle of the summer. I'm sure as I continued to add to it my compost it will improve.

[harleysilo]

Forgot to add that the bricks that line the above pictured bed are 2 high on three sides and then the furthest part of the bed the brick are 3 high, bricks are like 4" tall. So they bed really is raised up out of the ground.

[harleysilo]

Well isn't a picture just worth a 1000 words.....

[harleysilo]

So last night I took my little trailer and got a load of mushroom compost. It was that or a blend of dirt, hardwood mulch and chicken crap. 1 Cubic yard proved to be a little much for my trailer but it was all right.




So none said how terrible this stuff smells I'm going to have to where a painting fume mask when i add it to the planting area. Dang it is stinky!

[dice]

I have never used mushroom compost, but it looks
like great stuff (light, airy, organic). It looks like it
has about the same texture and density as composted
horse manure (which does not have much odor, by
the way; nothing like fresh manure).

I remembered your raised bed from last year. While
this may sound absurd in the context of this discussion,
adding a little clay to it will help it hold water better.
Not much, though, because you don't want to eliminate
all of the air space in it, which is a big win for roots,
beneficial bacteria and fungi, worms, etc (all of the things
that convert the added organic matter into plant food).
I would guess no more than 2-3 inches all over it, mixed in
well. I don't remember what you used for mulch last year.

[harleysilo]

Originally Posted by dice

I have never used mushroom compost, but it looks
like great stuff (light, airy, organic). It looks like it
has about the same texture and density as composted
horse manure (which does not have much odor, by
the way; nothing like fresh manure).

I remembered your raised bed from last year. While
this may sound absurd in the context of this discussion,
adding a little clay to it will help it hold water better.
Not much, though, because you don't want to eliminate
all of the air space in it, which is a big win for roots,
beneficial bacteria and fungi, worms, etc (all of the things
that convert the added organic matter into plant food).
I would guess no more than 2-3 inches all over it, mixed in
well. I don't remember what you used for mulch last year.

I didn't put a layer of mulch in it last year......I did add the stuff I mentioned but mixed it in well with a tiller. This year I just put like a 3-4" layer of what I had in my compost bin. I didn't not disturb the soil this year, no tilling, no flipping it over with a shovel....nothing......and I didn't remove any clay last year either. I was thinking about mixing in peat moss or something else to help retain moisture but alas I never got around to it.

[dice]

I didn't put a layer of mulch in it last year

That would make a big difference in how fast it dries out
in hot weather. Straw, paper, plastic, fresh grass clippings,
shredded prunings, anything to keep the sun off the surface
of the soil would work.

From your description, I would not till the raised bed. Just plant
in it, and add any fertilizer that you want to add in the bottoms
of the holes under the seedlings or side-dressed beside
anything direct-seeded. You can toss another 1/2-cup
or so of fertilizer under the tomato plants once they
flower.

Add any lime? One of the web sites that I ran across
looking for information about "red clay" claimed that
the red clay soils in Georgia are rather acidic (low pH).
That may not be the case in your raised bed, but something
to consider for the planting holes or tilled bed out in the
yard.

Edit:
Of course, if you add some clay or peat or coir to the raised
bed to improve moisture holding capacity, then you would till
it or spade it in to mix it through the soil in the raised bed.
If you put on a mulch after the plants are up and growing,
though, you may not need to add any of those. The raised bed
plus the clay soil underneath it may hold plenty of water as is
if you reduce evaporation with a mulch.

[harleysilo]

Originally Posted by dice

That would make a big difference in how fast it dries out
in hot weather. Straw, paper, plastic, fresh grass clippings,
shredded prunings, anything to keep the sun off the surface
of the soil would work.

From your description, I would not till the raised bed. Just plant
in it, and add any fertilizer that you want to add in the bottoms
of the holes under the seedlings or side-dressed beside
anything direct-seeded. You can toss another 1/2-cup
or so of fertilizer under the tomato plants once they
flower.

Add any lime? One of the web sites that I ran across
looking for information about "red clay" claimed that
the red clay soils in Georgia are rather acidic (low pH).
That may not be the case in your raised bed, but something
to consider for the planting holes or tilled bed out in the
yard.

Edit:
Of course, if you add some clay or peat or coir to the raised
bed to improve moisture holding capacity, then you would till
it or spade it in to mix it through the soil in the raised bed.
If you put on a mulch after the plants are up and growing,
though, you may not need to add any of those. The raised bed
plus the clay soil underneath it may hold plenty of water as is
if you reduce evaporation with a mulch.

Thanks for your insight. I tilled up my row and removed about 6 " of clay. Filled it in with the mushroom compound and then tilled that in with the clay really well. I've rolled out my roll roofing and started cutting 12"by12" holes every 3' for planting. The roll roofing got tested over the weekend. It worked great as the soil was dry underneath. I don't know how much that will change once the squares are all cut. I will also be interested how the white roofing material will impact the temperature of the soil. Will it be much cooler, much warmer or just not much different?

[dice]

[white roofing material for mulch]

The soil will be cooler.

I noticed a funny thing with white mulches last year where
I had mulched a few plants with shredded paper. On cloudy
days, the lower leaves and any lower side shoots would bend
down toward the mulch.

I was trying to be concientious about trimming lower leaves
and side shoots to keep them out of contact with the soil
and mulch (where leaf disease spores blown in on the wind
and washed down by the rain can be found). I went through
them all one day and did a thorough trimming, and I was
rather annoyed to look at them a couple of days later
and see that leaves higher up the main stem were now curled
down toward the mulch.

It does not seem to happen in sunny weather, where they
reach for the sun instead of for this bright reflective patch
underneath them, and that may not happen at all with
your higher light levels down south, even on cloudy days.

For your garden, the combination of reducing evaporation,
cooling the soil in hot weather, and protecting your bed
from becoming a canal full of mud in a downpour is probably
more important anyway.

[harleysilo]

Originally Posted by harleysilo

Need to cut and mount my cross posts to the poles, and then string the wire. Need about 9 more water jugs too....