Mixing Mel's Mix

My plans shot for early planting as the last frost date had come and gone I frantically worked at getting things done for my garden.

I wanted worms in my garden so instead of putting down the weed cloth I followed the advice of someone on the square foot garden forum, and used newspaper, keep the weeds out let the worms in, great idea!!


Then came the mixing. I will tell you one thing... dirt isn't light, neither is peat moss, and vermiculite is too light. Okay I need approx. 3 cu ft each per garden. Okay don't have a tarp but honey does have a big sheet of black plastic. I don't know why? Hmmm... better keep him happy.
Let's see, compost, I bought 3 different kinds, lucky to find that many, spread out on clear plastic... where is all this plastic coming from anyways?? Mix together, easy, not... I need a hoe.. hey Mel said I wouldn't need a hoe... tsk tsk. Let you on a little secret.. I am lousy when it comes to calculating anything. I drew plans for my barn once, realized after that I added 16ft to one side. Would of been fine if I hadn't been using the drawing to get estimates.

Back to the crap... I really didn't think I had enough so I added some of my own horse manure that was composting. It was almost 6months old, figured I was safe. Now out to the big black plastic. Pour on the compost, next comes the peat moss... hmmm, 3.8cu ft, I only need 3 so I should take off .8. Scrape, scrape, scrape... yeah that looks about right. Boy... 3cu ft of peat moss is a lot! Shrug shoulders... grab hoe again to beat up peat moss. I don't know, that whole equal parts thing just flew over my head that day. It wasn't the only thing flying... vermiculite is LIGHT. Since I live in a wind tunnel it made mixing an exciting experience!

Mix, mix, mix... sweat dripping from my brow, my shoulders aching from the strain, hands shaking from exhaustion. When did the easy part come in I wonder? Put mix in bed... AAAAHHHH... I forgot the newspaper. Well there is no *&%#$ way I'm taking it back out, we'll see what happens. I'm fairly even tempered until exhaustion hits me. Then children cower as I walk down the street, men move to the other side and women cross themselves and pray.

Accomplished... I am finally done... hmm looks a little more brown than the book. Time to plant!!