Hi all,

I have to be honest, I am soooo confused as I'm sure many newbies are. I've read the soil posts and continue to reread them daily. I'm in the process of building SWC's out of 18 gal totes. I bought a ton to use for moving and then afterward for gardening :o). Anyway, I have access to unlimited double grind mulch which is a mixture of native Central Texas tree's. It has also been sitting a while, so I would call it partially composted. It's very rich and dark, but compacts very easily. We used it at our old house to mulch up beds that I put various containers in (since we were renting I didn't want to ground plant) and in 2 years not a single blade of grass grew up through it.

I would like to be able to use this free resource, but I'm at a loss at how to do it the best way. I'm also not familiar with the bark materials spoken about in the soil threads and I'm wondering if this is comparable to that product.

I'll be doing all of my veggies in containers, just trying to figure out this soil thing. Seems so many have their preference to mixes. I'd love to use this mulch as a bulk of the soil, but not real sure how to make sure it works for me. If it can be considered in the same category as the bark mentioned in the soil mixes then I'm good to go!!

I was thinking of just having a truck load of mix brought in. There is a place local http://www.geogrowers.net/ that has what they call Thunder Garden, I'm just not sure about the contents and what purpose they serve.

Also, another ? what is the difference in the Granite Sand and Decomposed Granite. Showing my ignorance, but I didn't think rock or minerals like Granite could decompose??

Ok, one more ?.... promise! LOL Can anyone give me a visual or help me figure out how much soil I will need for the 18 gal tote containers. Perhaps someone out there knows that X cubic feet or yards will fit X containers. I realize containers can vary, but a rough estimate will help me in trying to figure out how much of everything I need to get.

TIA!