It sounds pretty good because you have a variety of ingredients. That's really the best way to get a balanced result. The only thing I can suggest is you might be a little heavy on the greens, with all that manure plus seaweed. Be prepared to add leaves to any and all of your green layers.

Keep in mind that the parasite4 that causes toxoplasmosis can live in cat litter even in the absence of feces. Putting used cat litter in a garden where foods you will eat is not a very good idea.

What is the soil pH? The primary nutrient in wood ash is Calcium Carbonate, essentially lime. While small quantities may not be a problem the wood ash could change the soil pH enough, long enough, to cause problems.

How much organic matter is in that soil now? You want to add enough organic material to get the soil organic matter to around 6 to 8 percent.

What is the glacial rock supposed to do? Is what ever is in that glacial rock needed?

Unbalanced soil nutrient levels can cause as many problems, maybe more, as nutrient deficiencies, Calcium and Magnesium should be in close balance since plants cannot utilize Calcium without adequate amounts of Magnesium and vice versa. Too much Potash will inhibit a plants ability to use Nitrogen.

The only way to know what the soils pH and nutrient balance is is with a good reliable soil test. In addition these simple soil tests may be of some help.

1) Soil test for organic
material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in
a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and
replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24
hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight.
For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the
bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above
that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole
1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains
away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain
away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs
more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the
soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful
of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is
released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a
finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your
soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant
odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria
will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter
can be bad as well.

5) Life. How many
earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5,
according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that
is not healthy.

kimmq is kimmsr

Thanks for all the advice! I've never had a soil test done because I've never had any problems growing anything, but I know the soil is going to be acidic just by the fact that it is in a high rainfall area and surrounded by evergreens. Everyone I know who has a vegetable garden near here liberally adds dolomite lime every year. I'm adding wood ashes also because of the recommendation in Linda Gilkeson's book Backyard Bounty. I'm thinking of adding glacial rock dust for the micronutrients, though I guess that might be covered by the seaweed already. I know the toxoplasmosis risk and I'm not concerned. My cat is an indoor cat, and she sleeps literally squashed up against my face most nights - if she had anything, I would have gotten it by now!

Would adding some Epsom salts be a good idea, since it would provide some magnesium to go with all the calcium from the wood ash?

I'd avoid any cat litter. In my area, wood ashes are bad too. I wouldn't say don't do it, but I'd double check first.

If you have a box of Epson salt lying around a tablespoon full won't hurt. If you have a half open bag of glacial rock lying around, why not? I wouldn't buy any though. I'd toss a couple of shovels of regular dirt in there, too.

You had good results with basically the same approach, so repeat.

The cat litter sounds risky since you are growing plants you are going to eat. If you want DE in the mix, you can buy a fresh bag at the dollar store. We don't use wood ash in my area because the soil tends to be alkaline, but your area may be different.

Toxoplasmosis is a problem for pregnant women since it can adversely affect the fetus. It is not of much danger to others, but unless you know for sure that no one pregnant will ever eat any food from that garden it would not be a good idea to use any potential source of the parasite.

Epsom Salts are about 10 percent Magnesium and 13 percent Sulfur. How much Mg the garden needs will determine how many pounds of Epsom Salts will be needed. There are other, less expensive, sources of Magnesium. The usual dose of Epsom Salts is 1 teaspoon per quart of water (1 tablespoon per gallon) sprayed over 100 square feet, so think how dilute that mix is.

Many gardeners each year spread a small amount of lime on their gardens because it is known that the soil is acidic and that small amount of lime does little to correct the problem. A good reliable soil test will show how much lime is needed to correct the soil pH problem and that amount can correct the soil pH for several years. The soil pH of my soil changed simple by adding adequate amounts of organic material, from an initial 5.7 pH to 7.2 pH in 3 years, no lime even though the recommendation was to put down 1 ton of dolomitic lime per acre.

Many people think wood ash has a lot of valuable nutrients but at 25 percent CaCo3, about 10 percent Potash, and less than 1 percent Phosphate, with some small amounts of other nutrients wood ash is not the fertilizer many think. The primary purpose of wood ash in the garden is to make a quick change in soil pH .

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/woodash.html

kimmq is kimmsr