Sounds good, I will hold off! I had a massive description ready but figured no one would want to read it considering I'm just asking about (what I thought was) basic stuff... I appreciate it!
Last year I had a small raised bed, this year I decided I'd create a 30' x 120' monstrosity. Long story short, I did a lot wrong and I realized the benefit of raised beds.
The entire space was covered with grass so we bulldozed the area and removed it. I then had a load of "top soil" dumped where the grass was in hopes that it would be better than the clay-heavy ground that was existent. This was done at first for 1/2 the area and I was wrong, and the top soil I received ended up being pretty much was I already had. They then informed me (for the next 10 yards) they had a compost/top soil blend (for a whopping $2/yard difference...) and I obviously got that. One issue I had was planting too many seeds together which eventually germinated and I DIDN'T thin them... I have tomato bushes with 15+ "plants" that are dwarfed but that's another issue (lesson learned). I planted all my "home grown" plants in the first 60' along the barn and anything I bought additionally in the compost blend plot past it (where the plants get more sun). There are different groupings of plants everywhere. One idiotic mistake I made was adding chicken bedding from cleaning my large coop directly on top of the soil in hopes that it would "fix" what had gone wrong. Quite a few tomato plants got burned and not that many are fruitful. Since the start, and especially since the Nitrogen overloading incident, I've been trying to fix the existing ground. I've mulched the entire space with all natural wood shavings that have been mashing with the mud (I finally got enough down to stay). After this season I plan on tilling the entire area with my tractor and mixing in compost that has been sitting on a hot compost pile in preparation for next year. I've got epsom salt (magnesium) for tomatoes and peppers, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, bone meal, and am willing to get anything else that may assist. No I haven't used all those - I just have them in case I do - At one point a tomato plant had discolored leaves and the salt actually helped greatly. For about a week, the space was VERY overwatered... I was on vacation and the timer somehow went off 3 times a day for 45 minutes. There was a long of algae in the irrigation paths BUT only one plant drowned thanks to the mounding and such around others. Long story short, irrigation did suck but I'm pretty sure I've fixed it. The mildew started a while ago on my pumpkins but I thought it had gone away. There were a CRAZY amount of gnats and flies...
Different plant groupings are all over the place -
Summary of area
The first half of the garden, 60', along the barn, POOR top soil, clay underneath, 6-8 hours of sunlight - was the first area to be planted and was all my seedlings that I started early on my own (multiple plants per unit... woops)
Over watered at one point but grew algae because there was enough mulch and the water made a slow stream through the plants to a low point
Lots of gnats and bugs - broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels have been almost entirely eaten - tomatoes and squash (close by) are untouched
Celery is very wilted
The second half of the garden,
60', past the barn, compost blend top soil, clay underneath, 8-12 hours of sunlight - Planted with store bought seedlings - 1 per space
Over watered at one point but has very good drainage and didn't incur any algae
Nothing seems to be particularly "overrun" by bugs but the tomatoes and peppers have some yellowing and discoloration
Got Nitrogen burn
A little mildew and some browning on some of the melons and squash
