Finishing the garden

The square-foot garden is almost ready for plants... It's frakking June again, and my plants are still in starter cups. At least they're already in soil this year...

It's split-level - oooh, fancy! 'Cuz it was easier than leveling the old and new portions...



I bought 1/2 yard of compost, 5x2.2 cu ft of peat, and 4 cu ft of vermiculite from the nearest nursery (which, conveniently, had the lowest prices on 2 of those items). The ratio for square foot garden soil is supposed to be 1:1:1, but this is 13.5:11:4, or about 3:3:1. Vermiculite is fricking expensive, and that's all they had, anyway. I probably will skip buying more.

It really isn't cost-efficient for me to build a raised-bed garden & build the soil like this, when I've moved 3x in the last 3 years. But it's for the soul, not the pocketbook, that I do this. Additionally, as this is just my second square-foot garden, it's a learning opp.

Dexter rode on my lap as my roomie drove me there, and did OK. He certainly liked that better than riding on the passenger seat floor alone.

Once there, the landscaping center dude filled his front loader bucket with 1/2 cu yd, and dumped it in Torvaldr's truck bed. That's when I noticed that what he gave me was about 15% clay, 2% rocks, and the rest - gray dirt. Now, I'm not a professional landscaper or nuttin', but... the last time I checked, plant matter doesn't compost down into clay & rocks.

I followed the dude back to his lair, and told him he made a mistake, giving me topsoil for compost. I wasn't angry; just matter-of-fact. He informed me that this was the "unscreened compost"; the "screened" stuff was more expensive. Sorry, "I just don't see how clay gets into compost, screened or not. Can you explain that to me?" He agreed to go ask his boss.

He returned and admitted he made a mistake. Quoth he, "That was taken from the unprocessed pile of compost. I didn't realize the processed pile was somewhere else."

Two things:

1. It's the end of the rush season on landscaping materials. What are the odds he'd never been asked to get compost before?

2. Again, how do you process clay & rocks into compost? They really should patent that process...

He shoveled Torvaldr's truck mostly clear, and delivered a half-yard of black, composty-looking, composty-smelling compost. And apologized at least seven times.

OK, the man made a mistake. I think he honestly didn't know that pile was topsoil. Clearly, he'd been fucking over previous customers; some of those won't be back when they realize they'd been defrauded. His lie about "unprocessed compost" is pure crap; it's topsoil, and he was too proud to admit his full error. Whatever. If I'm here next year, I'll be driving a bit further for soil...

Back home, I rushed to unload the soil into the four raised beds, and mix them with the vermiculite and peat. Got all the soil in; all the vermiculite mixed; only one bag of peat mixed, before lightning & thunder started.

Reminds me of an outside job I did once. I was standing on an aluminum ladder, fixing an 8'-high steel fence, when lightning started. I came in & announced to the fence owner why I was calling it quits. His response? "Count the seconds between the flash and the thunder, and divide by five... it's still two miles off!" Yeah, thanks for the thought...

UPDATE: Rain stopped, and I rushed out and finished mixing the soil. Done!!! Just as the rain started again...

UPDATE 2: Added picture of garden.

POST SCRIPT:  Many thanks to my late friend Viscountess Rannveigr, for starting the garden, and to her husband Alexander for letting me use it.

A green testament. A place of life.