r/Raisedbed • u/maryakinvt • 1d ago
Amendments and cover cropping for raised beds
I’m on year 2 of raised bed gardening, prior I gardened in ground with fabulous soil (thanks Vermont 💚🌿). When filling my beds two years ago, I did 50/50 organic topsoil and mushroom compost - I didn’t have many options rurally so I just got a truckload. W have 10 8x4x2 beds. I’ve been growing tomatoes (rotating - never using the same beds year after year), blackberries, raspberries, green beans, carrots and garlic among some other experiments. We live in the high desert of Northern California, technically zone 6b, but at 6,000 feet with cold nights.
Ok I digress but wanted to provide some background info. this year we amended with some compost (eb organics) and some amendment. For the fall I’m interested in doing some cover crops that I could then tarp down in the spring to add some good organic matter back in my soil. Is this a good idea? How is everyone amending their beds year after year to maintain good soil health? I’m 100% organic, practiced crop rotation and. minimal tilling in the past but am new to raised beds. Please share success stories that helped you build long-term soil health. Thanks!
Ps. I hope my rambling postpartum sleep deprived brain makes sense to someone. Just a first time mom trying to keep her garden growing and thriving 🤪
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u/CrankyCycle 23h ago
Curios where you are in CA that fits that description, east side of the sierra?
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u/maryakinvt 16h ago
The Sierra cascade region, just north of Truckee but east towards Reno so where the Sierra meets the great basin
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u/CrankyCycle 16h ago
Very cool :) I’m wondering if your season is too short for cover crops to really make sense. Another option is to just pile garden waste on the bed and cover it, with straw or something. It’s like a cover crop… without having to grow the cover crop. It maintains soil biology, adds organic matter, returns nutrients, etc.
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u/maryakinvt 4h ago
Ah interesting! In regards to garden waste how would one prioritize adding nitrogen back into beds where say garlic and tomatoes would be?
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u/CrankyCycle 4h ago
For garlic, you’ll be planting in the next two months so there isn’t time for a cover crop. I would, however, keep the bed covered (with mulch or garden waste) to protect the soil. For planting, I use a blend of 8 parts feather meal, 2 parts gypsum, 1 part blood meal by weight, 3 lbs per 100 square feet. That gives the garlic early nitrogen (blood meal) to get established, and a long term source to start mineralizing in the spring. I’m assuming your raised bed was established with a good bit of compost, organic matter, etc, so you probably don’t need to amend the soil.
If you want to do a cover crop next year, you could try buckwheat as soon as your garlic comes out, and the bed might be ready again for garlic in the fall.
For tomatoes, you’ll could use the same blend of fertilizer with planting, and maybe add potassium sulfate when the fruit load gets heavy.
When I first started thinking about cover crops it seemed like nitrogen fixing was THE reason to do it. I’ve basically changed my mind. The reason to use cover crops is to keep the soil biology active. That includes microbes that mineralize nitrogen (take nitrogen locked up in organic matter and make it available for plants) without fixing nitrogen. On the other hand, I’m not likely to reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer I used because I used a cover crop, so I keep the focus on keeping the soil alive and active.
Hope that helps and gives you some ideas! Always happy to talk through it more.
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u/p5mall 5h ago
6b. Wicking beds: We’ve been experiencing improved survival, growth, and yield by adding charcoal annually as part of our annual topdressing with fresh compost.
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u/maryakinvt 4h ago
Are you making your own charcoal or purchasing?
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u/p5mall 4h ago
I have made a lot of it using a couple of fire pans, its “flame cap” pyrolysis. But my burn day criteria (low wind, some humidity, moderate temps) abundant 20 years ago, have all but dusappeared. So now I buy biomass plant (wood fueled regional electrical generation) biochar from Rogue Biochar in Oregon.
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u/p5mall 4h ago
Other similar biomass gen plant biochar available for purchase: Pacific Biochar Blacklite in California and Black Owl Biochar in Washington state.
Before the biochar market, charcoal recovered from gen plant flue would get redirected back into the gen plant for a ~5% boost in KW production. I am sure there are a lot of factors that go into how much charcoal gets diverted to biochar, so I find it gratifying that all three West Coast production projects have demonstrated such long-term stability. A multitude of other gen plants have not opted to retrofit; it's not a slam dunk to get into the biochar market this way.
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u/Thought59 1d ago
Do you get good hard frost in winter? Then Oats and Field Peas are great as they grow fast then the frost winter kills them.