Zoe, Dr. D, and other Folks!
Thank you all for your sage observations and comments. We're learning from each posting! Please be patient with us as we try to understand exactly what you are saying... it can all be rather confusing...
So now I guess we need to get down in the weeds of how we set up our raised beds... we set them up so the top 4 to 6 inches will be pure compost in which we intended to transplant the seedlings when the time comes. Right now we have all the seeds sitting quietly in milk jugs in a newbie's rather pathetic first attempt at winter sowing...
This (mostly nitrogen free) compost will sit in the bed on what is mostly soil we dug out of the pecan bottom down by the creek bed. It looks like sandy loam to us. This layer of soil itself sits on a base of punky logs and some extra composted horse manure at the bottom of the raised bed in a newbie's rather pitiful attempt at hugelkultur. In places we mixed the sandy loam 50:50 with some extra compost material we had extra that didn't go into the compost pile.
But what might be of real interest to you fine people is that we actually had a soil analysis performed on the sandy loam as well. We carried this soil up to the ridge from the pecan bottom for mixing in the raised beds. I attach that analysis below.
This soil has a higher nitrogen level of 8% according to TA&M.
Does this answer any questions for y'all? We are still as confused as ever....
BW--
