Is Mel’s Mix Really Marvelous?

Four lettuce plants per square foot

Making a batch of Mel’s mix for our raised bed involved a trip to the garden center and the labor of two people to mix the ingredients on a large tarp and then shovel the mix into the box. Done. No digging, rototilling, or fertiziling required. Ever. Compare this to the advice on soil preparation offered by garden writer Adrian Higgins in the Washington Post, this week: “Our native clay soil is a beast, but it can be tamed, initially with large quantities of compost, leaf mold, well-rotted manure, mineral soil conditioners and even sand.” And don't forget the Advil. 

So what about those grids? The whole point of square foot gardening is to make maximum use of minimal space. The grids provide an easy visual cue for planting: 4 lettuce plants per square foot, 2 peppers, or 1 tomato. No wasted space, and no need to plant hundreds of seeds, only to thin most of them to achieve the right spacing. I’m sold.

Gardening by the foot

Like baseball fans, gardeners literally "spring" back, undeterred by memories of last year's disappointments. This year, we are adopting a new approach to edibles - square foot gardening, as described by Mel Bartholomew in his book All New Square Foot Gardening. Mel wrote the first Square Foot Gardening book in 1981 and has been tweaking the method ever since. He also offers loads of practical advice on his website.

The basic idea is to grow more, in less space and with less work. (No, he doesn't promise you'll loose 10 lbs, too. That would make it too good to be true). Planting in raised beds filled with garden soil made with Mel's own recipe is the main strategy here. We purchased our raise bed from Rebuild, a nonprofit in Springfield, Va., that recycles used building materials. It is sitting on pieces of slate and Larry added the cedar planks along the top edge as a place to rest tools and bottoms.

Our raised bed is made of recycled 2x8s

The bed is filled with Mel's mix, a lovely, loose-structured gardening soil made up of equal parts peat moss, compost, and course vermiculite. Since our box is so deep, we made two batches, mixing the ingredients on a large plastic tarp. Both the peat moss and the vermiculite are very light and dusty, so we wore masks and picked a not-so-windy day on which to do the mixing.

Peat moss is readily available at the big box stores, and we located the vermiculite at a full service garden center. Mel recommends blending compost from two different sources, so we combined a bag of commercial compost with some from our own pile.

For the grids, we bought plastic lath, cut it to fit and used Liquid Nails to glue the joints. Why the grids? Good question, and the subject of a future post.

April Showers and Signs of Spring

Daffodils nod

Hyacinths and yes, that is a dandelion

A good year for the magnolias

At last, time to come out of hibernation. For this first post of 2011, on this rainy Friday, the photos say it all.