Hello! My name is Bethany and I grow things in my rooftop container garden in Chicago, zone 6a. In this video, I’ll show you how I refresh the potting soil in my raised beds each year.
Products used:
Purple Cow Activated Compost (I’ve used many different composts throughout the years and they all have worked great)
Perlite
Wiggle Worm Worm Castings
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10 Comments
Yes, this was very informative especially the worm castings. I always see that at the local stores and never picked it up but maybe I will this time. We never got to see the results of your car posting. Did you say you are very used it? Would have liked to see what it look like. You sure did get a work out amending your soil.
Iโm sorry in your previous videos you have mentioned liquid fertilizer once a week for your vegetables would you please refresh my memory. What should I be looking for in a liquid fertilizer for vegetables?
I just finished container refresh this week. I call it hell month because thats about how long it takes me to do around 100 containers and my beds. I usually dump most of them, except the large tote sips and kiddie pool beds. For them its basically what you did. I take out about 1/3 of the mix in them then add some new peat, perlite, and compost. Refresh the 1/3 I took out in a large old galvanized tub. Then refill. Extra goes in to top off the beds or start new containers. I also use pelletized chicken manure, its my go to organic fertilizer. Menards sells a 40 pound bag for $11.
Excelente trabajo Bethany!! Lindo video. Bendiciones.๐๐ธ๐บ๐ผ๐๐๐๐
Chicken manure and gaia greens is the way i reammend my soil.
Whenever I do a container refresh, I take all of the soil out from the pot. Majority of the time, I find a lot of white grubs on the bottom so I fish those out. ๐จ Then I put the original soil back along with compost and worm castings and making sure to aerate and remove clumps.
Yeah i have a lot of health issues so its REALLY not practical for me to change out the entire bed. Id die
A trick for adding more growing medium is to get coco coir in compressed bricks and rehydrate them up on the deck!
Second year since I got elevated beds on rolls I can move around. I keep them closer to the house. Planting herbs, strawberries, cocktail tomatoes and snack peppers in them. You know for a quick snacky snack while working in the yard. But good to know that I can treat them basically like I treat my raised beds that are sitting on the ground. I was worried I had to renew the potting soil every year. Those ground beds sink in quite a bit over the winter so I refresh them with lots of compost, manure, perlite and Espoma garden veggie fertilizer(5-5-5 or 10-10-10, whatever I have left from the previous season usually). I also bury my smashed Halloween pumpkins and leftover crops in there in the fall. They break down over the winter and give them a good boost for the coming spring.
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