Project #3: Addition of Compost and Other Organic Materials

We are lucky to have a fantastic local compost operation, called Nature's Way Resources (they have a lot of great information of their website too!). Their compost looks like a perfectly moist and crumbly chocolate cake.

I figured that to fill my beds about 2" with compost I would need a little over 1 cubic yard total.

You can use a Soil Volume calculator like this one to figure it out - in the height column, just put in how many inches of compost you want to add, rather than the total height of the bed - unless you want to and can afford to add that much compost!) 

However, I am also redoing the large bed in the front yard and had some plants to pot or repot that I wanted to use a little compost in, so I decided to order 2 cubic yards. In addition to that, I got 2 cubic yards of mulch (hey, I wanted to get my delivery fee's worth!). I wish I took a picture of it, but the dump truck came and unloaded a ginormous amount of dirt in our driveway (a fraction of which is still there, covered by a bright blue tarp, and is probably pissing off my neighbors).

Anyways, since the soil was so completely devoid of any organic material, I ended up adding about 1-2 inches of mulch and mixing it all in, smoothing it down, and then adding about 2-3 inches of compost, mixing it in, smoothing it down. Since the soil had been compacted by the rains before the organic material had been added, I basically had to redig the top 12 inches and turn over again. This stage was a lot of work, but hopefully my hard labor will be rewarded.

Stay tuned for Project #4: Amending the Soil!