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  • From: "cheselka AT theriver.com" <cheselka AT theriver.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Mixing A Lot Of Stuff
  • Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 20:40:03 -0400


> I may be a bit ignorant, but why mix it? I usually just put it on top.
In
> the natural process (like in forests) the composts ends up on top. I've
> been doing this for a few years and my soil is getting more beautiful
each
> year.

Thanks, Rosie, for having me clarify. I'm creating what's essentially a
raised bed "garden" using tires. Each "bed" will be a stack of two tires
totalling about 18 inches high. These stacks need to be filled with some
really nice dirt in order (of course!!) for the plants to grow. So what
I've come up with is a mixture which is half compost and half dirt that
seems to make the veggies happy. The problem is this: in the short term,
I'm setting up 9 rows with 11 stacks in each row. Each stack has a volume
of about 6 cubic feet. 99 stacks times 6 cubic feet is 594 cubic feet, or
22 cubic yards. So I need 11 cy of dirt and 11 cy of compost. In the
longer term, I'm wanting to expand this area to about 2 acres.

But ignoring the actual numbers, it's very apparent that I'm dealing with a
LOT of dirt and a LOT of compost. I can't just use the dirt to fill in the
tires becuase it doesn't have all that's necessary to make plants happy. I
don't necessarily just want to use compost becuase that seems to be
overdoing it in the other extreme. So I've decided on a happy medium and
want to mix the two together and then fill the tire stacks. So the trick
is to figure out a way to mix this stuff very efficiently and also very
effectively. Doing it by hand is fine (good exercise, etc), but it's VERY
VERY time consuming. I'd also like to mix more than 2-3 cubic feet at a
time, but I'm not strong enough to do that and besides my wheelbarrow is
only about 4 cf in volume. The cement mixer I can rent is 9 cf and will
run me $75 a day.

Is this any more clear???

Thanks in advance,

Matt Cheselka
Cosmic Lettuce

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