Square foot gardening

[Anonymous]

Anyone use "Mel's Mix"? Where did you buy the ingredients? (vermiculite, peat moss, compost) Or do you just follow his other suggestions & use the soil you can buy at Home Depot?

Getting ready to fill my boxes & I have no idea where I can buy such things. I'm in DC, so the closer to the city the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone use "Mel's Mix"? Where did you buy the ingredients? (vermiculite, peat moss, compost) Or do you just follow his other suggestions & use the soil you can buy at Home Depot?

Getting ready to fill my boxes & I have no idea where I can buy such things. I'm in DC, so the closer to the city the better.

I built the boxes and then I just used a combination of my own soil, Home Depot soil, and compost. I didn't buy the soil all at once, either; it's very expensive. It took me about 5 years to get the boxes totally full. (I built a 4x8 box and six 2x8 boxes, all 12 inches tall.) But unless you are growing root vegetables or are not placing your boxes on top of existing soil, it doesn't matter.

I also found that his plant spacings are a little close for some things. Tomatoes really need to be at least 2 feet apart. I grew plenty of them one foot apart, but the plants were healthier and produced tastier tomatoes with more space.

[Anonymous]

I used regular planting soil. I do follow his other tips. You can buy the ingredients ForMels Mix at Behnke's Garden Center in Potomac, off of River Road.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I was going to try Behnke's today