completely new to creating my own garden...HELP!

[wvsheila]

HI . I have a question, if anyone can help me. I'm building a new raised bed and have an old sawmill a mile down the road, he told me I could have all the composted saw dust I could haul away. its as black as my keyboard but I've never used old sawdust what will I need to add to it and when??? I have chickens, bunnies, horses and goats So I have lots of manure but I have to haul and dig that by hand the saw dust will be hauled and dumped. Ps I'm planning this bed for strawberrys and rasberrys.

 

[homesteadmom]

We have no top soil here & clay soil to work with. I took one section of my garden & for 2 yrs just buried my kitchen compost right into that area & now the soil is the best looking in my garden. I continue to work on my soil every yr & this will be the 8th yr planting out here. We till manure in every fall & compost in the springtime(now). I also use mulch when I first get it started each yr. My soil is still not the best soil but it is a lot better than when we started 8 yrs ago. We also till our plants back into the soil too. I do have some raised beds too & they are great. But I prefer my big in the soil garden. So not get too discouraged it can be done just work on one area to garden(smaller) while improving an expansion area for next yr & keep going till you expand to the full size you are wanting. Then that way too you won't get over whelmed with too much gardening at once. When you bury the compost straight into the garden soil it takes about 1 month for it to break down.

 

[j.luetkemeyer]

I forgot to mention sheet mulching. It would be an excellent way to get things going as well. Here is a link with some basic ideas. You can also do a search on the web and get all kinds of information.

http://www.permaculture-exchange.org/sheet.html