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Sat, May 14, 11 at 8:02
| Help!! I manage a school/community garden with 6 handicapped accessible beds which means they are 3' high filled with topsoil/compost. The soil is nice and rich but drains very quickly and is difficult to keep damp. Later in the season we can mulch, but how to keep it damp when trying to get seedlings started??
We water with rain barrels so trying to conserve water!! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by TheMasterGardener1 none (My Page) on Sat, May 14, 11 at 11:36
| Multch over the seeds to keep moisture in. Use wet peat and spread over the top to keep soil from drying. |
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- Posted by mustard_seeds 4 -Onalaska Wisconsi (My Page) on Sat, May 14, 11 at 12:56
| thin layer of straw may help - allows germination but keeps in some moisture |
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| I've used the damp peat moss over the little seeds...works very well. Lightly tamp it down. |
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| What is the soil in those raised beds like? How much organic matter is in that soil? One of the original reasons for making raised beds was to solve a drainage issue, the heavy clay that was native to the area would not drain well so raised beds were constructed and they did. In my area with our very quickly draining sand raised beds drain much too fast and unless the soil contains quite a bit of organic matter, which helps hold moisture in the soil, would not grow much of anything. Raised beds can be like a pot filled with sand and nothing else to hold moisture. |
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| Are the beds on the ground & 36 inches deep? Or are they 6-18 deep on legs, like a table? If they are in ground then you need to mix in clay, coco coir or some other organic matter that holds water. If it is on legs, then I would fix a sheet of clear plastic to one side of the bottom, then pull tight across the bottom & fix the other side. But not the ends, so it can drain. This would slow water lose,after a time you can remove it if the bed it too wet or stop watering. You would be treating the bed as a container in both examples. As for covering seeds & seedlings, I am with wayne 5, damp peat moss. Love to see photos! |
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