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Worm Casting Compost
Ive looked through all of your files on composting, raised beds, lazy gardening etc. and might be merely picking at semantics but thought Id clarify one step further:
Ive brought in a huge pile (15yds) of worm castings compost and dropped it on my clay (4under the crappy topsoil) lawn to form a large bed. No, I didnt put down newspaper first.
Its about 10-12 thick and fluffy to smother all the nice dandelions and other weeds from the prior owners. Do you think I can just plant into it, or should I dig it into the topsoil?
Ive double dug in the past, but am getting lazier these days.
I was originally thinking of renting a large rear-tine rototiller to rip up everything but that usually brings more weed seeds to the surface. My only concern is it is so fluffy. Is that an issue? Id hate to create weak plants that didnt have to try hard to survive.
Doug says:
Fluffy isn't an issue for me, it will settle over the season.
True compost is fine to grow in contrary to some reports. The problem is whether the material is true compost or some partially composted material (most often).
An Awesome Pile!
15 yards of worm compost is an awesome pile; I'm surprised you have a worm farm close by that produces that much material it can be sold by the truckload.
That will be powerful growth stuff. (Between the lines I'm doubting that you actually have pure worm castings, I suspect you have something that has been composted and worm castings added - hence my reluctance to plant into it).
Dig / Till In
My own sense of this is that I'd be putting it on about an inch thick on the existing soil and digging or tilling it in. Then I'd be planting into the existing soils.
You can build up existing soils into beds if you want but unless I had an analysis of this much material, I wouldn't be planting directly into it particularly that thick.
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