Hey everyone, I just signed up and thought I would say hello. I live in Langley and am quite excited to start gardening on the West Coast. I grew up on a farm in the maritimes and did quite a bit of gardening back there. Last year I designed and built two raised bed's to grow vegetable's in. They each measure 4' by 10' wide and are 18"-24" deep (built on a very slight slope). The beds are made from cedar and steel roofing. I estimate the garden will see approximately 7-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. I am now trying to source soil to fill up these beds. They are quite rugged and I am lining the bottom with a heavy gauge steel fence and garden cloth to prevent any rodents/weeds, etc. Is this necessary? I was advised it would be a good idea. With respect to the soil, I was looking at purchasing the garden soil from Port Kells nursery. They have a good deal on until the end of March but I don't want to purchase soil if it isn't of good quality. I am basically trying to find out from the local experts, where I can get good/proven soil for my vegetable garden. I will be growing: -cherry tomatoes -pole beans -peppers -swiss chard -radish -beets -carrots I have included a few photo's of the raised beds. Pardon the long grass, After digging 24 holes 30" deep to make sure they would be bombproof, I didn't have energy to cut the grass during that week :) Any assistance is greatly appreciated, as well as any advice anyone may have for me. Thanks in advance. :)
Welcome to the forum. Sorry I will not answer your questions, since my approach to gardening is diametrically different. In my gardening I follow Nature ways. This kind of approach can be called bio-mimicry, from*bios, meaning life, and*mimesis, meaning to imitate. I grow in the native soil, don't use herbicides, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. I practice crop rotation, intercropping, cover crops, companion planting and mulching. Shortly speaking I keep it simple. My garden supplies me with fresh, healthy food and it is what I am growing it for. Since you ask for "any advice anyone may have" it is the approach that I recommend. Here are a few pictures of my edible garden in the summer of 2013. I am quite happy with the results.
Regarding gardening in unamended native soil. I agree that it makes a lot of sense and offers benefits...BUT many urban gardens have no "native soil" left. By the time a city lot has been cleared, excavated and backfilled the soil available to us is not the native soil of our area but composite 'crap'. My townhouse is at the lower end of a large complex and its 'yard' was traversed by the temporary roadbed used for construction. Thus the garden soil I acquired was 10' deep of compressed junk roadbed fill topped with large patches of blue clay and 4"of commercial 'topsoil'. In those circumstances, raised beds filled with purchased soil mix are often the only practical alternative.
