The first and last photo were taken 4/4 while the middle photo is 3/29 so the cucumbers and beans have grown a bit more.
Old bed was amended with new compost only.
New bed is thin sticks and twigs over burlap on the bottom, old dirt from lots of pots, and about 1/3 of a bag of Happy Frog Tomato & Vegetable Dry Fertilizer (5-7-3). This is just the bottom 15” or so. The rest on top is a mix of bagged raised bed soil, in-ground garden soil (I goofed and didn’t look closely enough when ordering), a bunch of compost, a bag of perlite, and two bags of sand.
The same thing happened when we started the first garden bed and nothing really grew very well until the following season. I added a bunch of semi composted live oak leaves and thought they might have impacted the soil pH too much so I left them out this go-around. Is this something that happens with new garden beds and they just have to become “seasoned?” We are experienced container gardeners and I felt like we finally had the raised bed thing down.
I’ve been watering with fish emulsion every week because I suspect a nitrogen deficiency due to the amount of wood in the soils and compost. Things just aren’t growing well.
by Salt-Operation
3 Comments
Good soil takes time
I find my new beds consistently underperform older ones. I have a raised bed that’s just in-ground garden soil (similar goof) and it’s doing just fine.
It may be helpful to think of any bio after you get growing in there as an investment in future veg. Even if you don’t get much out of it, what you grow there and chop/drop/mulch in for next year will go a long way.
Have you added any fungal/spore components to the bed? I might get some mycorrhizal additive for the soil (I have a bag I use when I transplant) and see if that can help. Or mushroom compost – it might be the missing ingredient.