Hello, Permies,
I've got a very specific question that I'm hoping some of my fellow soil-lovers or PNWers can help me with.
In my suburban side-yard (the only place on the lot any sort of sunshine), I've built a couple of 18" tall raised beds out of some left over cedar
fence boards. I'm planning to use hardware cloth to create a little compost-chute in the center to mimic a keyhole garden.
In the past, on the Front Range in Colorado, I've had great results with square-foot
gardening and the "classic" mix of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 various
compost. This was a semi-arid climate with fairly consistent brief rain every afternoon during the summer.
However, with in my current Pacific Northwest climate, I'd really like to optimize
water retention during our hot, dry summers (it sometimes goes 3 months with no rain). So I'm wondering if it would be wise to incorporate some of the
native topsoil from my
yard into my raised-bed mix? I basically live in a river valley, and the topsoil is pretty clay-heavy, but easy to work. I've read that clay retains moisture, and clearly, the soil here is suited to our climate, so maybe I
should take a big hint from Mother Nature and add a bit of clay into my garden? I kind of feel like if I use the "traditional" Square Foot Garden mix, it will drain super fast in the hot sun, and then come winter, the constant rain will leach all the nutrient out of the soil and I'll be left with very little for next year?
Any thoughts or advice from other Western Oregon/Western Washington gardeners, or just from folks that know stuff about soil? What do other people have the best success with in their raised beds here?
