you are missing half of the peat that is required

Well, you MIGHT be missing some peat. It depends on if you got compressed bales or loose (mushy bags). My understanding... please someone correct me if I'm wrong... was that the compressed bales actually yield double what they say on the bag. (Mel's new book, page 100.) For example, a 3.9 COMPRESSED bale will yield about 8 cubic feet of loose peat. (FWIW, even my nursery didn't know what I meant when I said that it would yield twice as much, so I had to look hard on my bag to find the words "compressed." Another way to know is the compressed bales are these ginormous, heavy, densely solid packed bags of peat the size of a hay bale. But another nursery sold it in loose 1 cu foot bags, it was not compressed. And yet another nursery sold smaller 1/2 sized compressed blocks, I think they said 2.2 cubic feet. If you have one big block plus a couple small (smushy) bags of peat, I think you're going to be short. The smushy bags that are mareked 1 cu ft may NOT be compressed. I'd just check that.

As far as the vermiculite, I think you have the right amount. It sure does LOOK like a lot of vermiculite when you first drop it into the pile, but really... it sounds right to me. Once it mixes in, it looks just like the photo in the book.

Good luck.
-k

I cheated. First, I do have to say that I used 8" boards instead of 6" boards so I had a little more to fill.

But, in calculating my "mix" I based it on the 6" not the 8". Each bed was a little low. So, I planted and as the plants grew, I added straight compost to try to make up the difference. Plants are doing great. I have been testing the soil to make sure that the NPK levels are okay.

So, my advice is to leave it as is. Get a soil test kit and check it next week. Make sure that the kit you get will test for NPK levels. And amend as necessary.

With that, you'll be fine.

Thanks everyone for your advice. To kristimam: I did get the 3.9 cu block of compressed peat moss and two 1 cu blocks of compressed peat moss. I don't have the bags now so I wasn't able to look for the words compressed, but am sure they were because they definitely were not the loose l cu ft. bags. With that said, did I get my mix right?

If you mixed it right it will visually look to be about 50% vermiculite! The vermiculite expands when water is added and seems to look like it floats to the top. If you get down and listen you can actually hear it soaking up the water like rice crispies do with milk! It sounds like you did it right though. Good luck planting!

Your numbers are adding up correctly if you used the compressed peat moss. Its heavy and square in the package. It sounds like you got the right stuff though!

Yep, if you used the compressed peat you're right on target. :)