Bulk (sort of) soil and compost supply

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I’m not in love with the raised bed mix/garden soil at Clegg’s, but maybe that is good enough

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that’s a mix of ground forest products (bark, etc) and sand. It’s a good start but it has two issues…it doesn’t absorb water and it’s relatively sterile. Since you only need 2-3 cy you could amend it fairly easily. You would need to add something like peat moss or coco coir for water retention, powdered clay for minerals, and organics for “life” (you need the fungi to get the magic going).

bagged compost from the store isn’t that great but it’s better than nothing. You’d be better off mixing in rotted leaves or similar to get the mix going, and composted manure for nutrients. The good news is that once it’s down, all it takes is time and regular top dressing with good compost to get the black gold

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ulk (sort of) soil and compost supplyby cgrand
BTW Lafayette has a community compost center that you can go get materials from

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Picked up two truck loads in tge last 2 weeks

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bagged compost from the store isn’t that great but it’s better than nothing. You’d be better off mixing in rotted leaves or similar to get the mix going, and composted manure for nutrients. The good news is that once it’s down, all it takes is time and regular top dressing with good compost to get the black gold

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I’ve started my own compost pile of live oak leaves and green yard waste, but it isn’t quite where I want to mix it in yet. I think live oak leaves take longer to break down than leaves YouTubers use. It might work though.

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you want the leaf mold fungus. wet the leaves good and cover with a tarp for a week or so. That’s enough to get it started.

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I can round some of that up that is naturally accumulating from under my live oaks.

for longer term stockpiling, you can make a large quantity of leafmould which is super easy to work into beds and use as top dressing

1) bag leaves
2) turn a hose on inside the bag and wet thoroughly
3) cut slits in bag for airflow
4) leave alone in a shady place for 6 mos to a year