@homegrownmomma
It sounds like you're doing right with the 4 by 8 foot raised beds. That's what I wanted to do this past winter but didn't have time so I'm going to do it next winter. I'm going to have one Bobcat scoop of topsoil and two Bobcat scoops of mushroom compost. I'm going to buy a big bag of perlite to mix in it. It might not be the way other people do it but it's how I'm going to.

Whatever mix you use make sure it drains good I grow Arilbred iris in a 1/3s mix of native soil, construction sand, and compost

I try to keep the cost as low as possible. I used 13 bags of each Earthgro Topsoil and Earthgro Humus & Manure mix to fill the bed. I mixed it well so there wouldn't be any hotspots. Should I add anything else to the soil before I start adding my plants? Also, do I need to use a fertilizer? Would worms survive if I found some and tossed them in the garden bed or do they need an extra food source? Thanks so much for the help!

Worms are an indicator. If your soil is in good shape there will be earthworms. It won't take them long to find your beds.

Goodmorning to all. I have found tn. Can be difficult to garden in at least where im at. I have heavy clay. So much so that i have made hugleculture beds this year and it turned out better than last years garden.

@TnWildflower. Though I am in NE Mississippi, we too have nothing but God-awful, heavy clay. It will not drain at all. I had to build raised beds to grow my vegetables, and the bed is now 2' deep.

I dont see how earthworms could tunnel around in this clay. We have massive rock if you did deeper in some spots. These mountains ate lovely but hard to grow in.

The places that I have dirt is really good dirt. But I live on a hill which is made of solid rock. Most of the time when I dig I need a pickaxe not a shovel.

Mine could be extremely thick and long because of how the plates shifted along time ago shoving them together and moving massively. Interesting looking the Appalachian mountains and how they came to be.

I feel your pain. We do raised beds. The cemetery next door piles clean dirt out back. All I have to do is go get it. I'm planning to use the rocks we find to dam up our spring down stream. I want a big pond!

Knock Knock - anyone here?

I'm here, @Nominix, but I am in NE Mississippi, Starkville.

I'm here and I'm in Tennessee

@Nominix, Heath grows a lot of tropicals and has a beautiful garden area. I think he's into bromeliads now.

Thanks Ken. I do love my tropicals my favorite is all my plumerias and my orchids. I haven't really got a lot of gardening done this summer. I have been focusing on trying to keep my beehives alive this summer. I did manage to get my vegetable garden planted in the raised beds that I built last winter and i built a shelf with a shade cloth for my orchids. The shade cloth is an old trampoline that I found works really well.

It looks like everything is nice and lush, Heath. You are doing a good job. I hope the bees prosper too. We all new more pollinators.

I'm still here. I had a death in the family so not on a lot. You have a wonderful garden, Heath.

@songofjoy Sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you're healing up okay

Thanks, Heath. Lost my husband of 47 years. Very tough time for me.

On a brighter note, I've been doing some re-landscaping. A few pics.

Looks good. Lot of work. Check this out. I was able to get a swarm of bees in downtown Gatlinburg and someone put it on Facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.p...