What Material to use in your Organic Growboxes

If you're going to build the raised beds, add a lot of compost to the soil so
that when you rake it up into your beds, you'll have plenty to work with.

My raised beds, which we like to call Grow-Beds, or Soil-Beds, do not have any
added compost. We teach and demonstrate that you can have a great garden in any
soil with no soil amendments, and it's been proven in gardens all over the
world.

If you have materials that are clean and free of weeds, bugs, and diseases, it
is a good idea to incorporate organic materials into your soil. And before
winter is the ideal time to do it, so they will have time to decompose
thoroughly before you plant. HOWEVER, NEVER PUT MATERIALS - COMPOSTED OR
OTHERWISE - INTO YOUR GARDEN UNLESS THEY FIT THIS CRITERIA. DOING SO WILL CAUSE
YOU MANY MORE PROBLEMS THAN THE BENEFIT YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM IMPROVED SOIL
TILTH AND MAYBE A LITTLE ADDED NUTRITION.

IF YOU ARE USING CONTAINERS, WHICH WE LIKE TO CALL GROW-BOXES DO NOT USE COMPOST
OR SOIL AT ALL!! Our experience has not been good with having people use their
existing soil, especially mixed with compost, for filling their Grow-Boxes.
Aside from the problems of the soil itself, such as too much clay, etc., etc.,
often there are seeds, diseases and/or pests in the soil which are introduced
into the mix.

In addition, compost is often an additional problem - with seeds, pests, and
diseases from that source - since most people don't know how or don't take the
trouble to compost with sufficient heat to kill those things.

It's for these reasons that we always strongly encourage people to obtain clean,
fresh materials such as sawdust, peatmoss, etc. and sand for their container
gardens.

Jim