Earth Care Farm — Attraction in Charlestown

8th-year home gardener here (still an amateur). I used Earth Care's raised bed mix to fill some new beds and areas last year, 2024. Year 1 looked great. This year, year 2 (a much dryer summer) was pretty rough: tomatoes/zucchini stayed stunted and “wispy.” Frankly the growth was disappointing. When I removed the mulch and opened the bed in early August to take a look, it was basically completely bone-dry and water-repellent. This was after regular weekly waterings (or so I thought). That hydrophobic dryness is on me for not doing a deep early-season recharge and not 'noticing' the issue - sure. But compared with my 6+ year beds of significantly cheaper sandy loam + compost that I lightly amend ever year, this material has been far far less forgiving.

Frankly I find this mix to be 'tricky' and harder to work with than the cheaper stuff, harder to 're-wet', and easily hydrophobic, plus prone to 'cracking' from dryness. The day after I water this soil, any additional water I decide to add just sits on top as the top is completely dried out and cracking (from the dryness - after just one day). My cheaper beds behave like you'd expect - the next day the surface is still visibly darker/moister, subsequent water that second day soaks up like a sponge, quickly disappearing. That's just an example scenario of what I'm talking about

Ironically this soil is also slower to 'dry out' and warm up in the spring to get an early start on summer stuff (again, all compared to my 6+ year old raised beds which were a 50/50 mix of sandy loam and compost, and was less than half the price).

One other issue from my batch (2024 raised bed mix delivery):

Lots of shells, honestly too many IMO—large pieces that will take a long time to break down, and they weren’t well mixed throughout. I love the idea of using shells but...too many!

Even getting the soil delivery and filling up wheelbarrows to go fill up my beds and top off my other areas was resulting in clearly different 'mixes' - some areas were completely covered in shells!

For vegetables/flowers... I just don't think you need pricey pure compost or raised bed mix, at least not unless you 'dilute' this 50/50 with some sandy loam—you really want something with a good mineral backbone (topsoil/sandy loam) that is easier to manage and re-wet. If you don't believe me go tour the fields of various farms around who have completely fantastic results....and see how 'sandy' their fields are! They are not using this kind of pure soil and they do just fine. If you do buy here, plan to blend in mineral soil, maybe mix this 50/50 with sandy loam, and do one deep recharge before mulching in the early summer (and by deep recharge, I mean potentially in excess 40 gallons of water to an 8'x4' raised bed that has dried out - and you may need to 'fluff' the surface to guarantee good infiltration). You need more water than you think - this is how much it takes to 're-wet'. If you let it dry out (which it is prone to) - it is a hassle. I was constantly 'stirring up' the top inch or two to try to get some good infiltration of the water.

Again - this is a hassle I haven't experienced with my cheaper beds, and is it worth it? I have to say it isn't.

I’m uploading photos showing the dry soil after regular waterings and an application of mulch and the minimal root growth, as well as year 1 vs year 2 pictures, and my older cheaper beds (all from this season). The pictures of plant roots are 'full size' nasturtiums and zucchini growing in this raised bed mix all summer (pics taken August 9th). I'm sure you'll agree the plant/root development is quite poor in the year 2 bed with this expensive and 'good' soil, and that the pictures of my older and cheaper beds look significantly better. Happy for those who get great results—this is just my experience. For my use the value just isn't there - the product is expensive, the mix (and filling beds yourself from a soil delivery) is clearly highly variable, and the soil is hard to work with and seems to behave very differently than what...

I’ve known about Earth Care Farm for awhile, and love that it’s a local, independent, family-owned and -run place.

Our new house only had a few hydrangeas in the yard and the rest was a blank slate for our future gardening adventures. We spent the winter months mapping out our plans and this spring purchased 5 cubic yards of raised bed mix and 2 yards of compost. It was literally a mountain in our driveway, but we were so excited to get started and use a locally made, organic product to nourish our gardens and family.

We’re transitioning to fall planting now, but this summer’s growing season has been absolutely remarkable!!! Our gardens have produced so much fruit and veg that we collected nearly 30 pounds per week for 6 weeks straight! The soil quality is incredible and to which we owe all our thanks! Our place was barren and without pollinators, with poor quality top soil, so we thought being able to amend with Earth Care compost and a little bit of extra organic fertilizer would be a start - turns out it’s the best thing we did and we don’t need to spend a lot more money rebuilding the soil. We add our household compost and make seaweed fertilizer to amend the soil, but it’s already so rich in nutrients, that it’s not necessary to add a ton more right now.

Earth Care products are high quality products. Their models on compost and business are both mindful of local and environmental conditions and needs. We highly recommend their products and are so happy to have worked with them to start our gardens! Thank you Earth...

We were looking for compost for our lawn. This place’s website says their compost is screened & good for lawns, as well as flower beds, etc. we had it delivered and didn’t notice at first, until it rained, and a large amount of shell fragments, many on the quite large size, were in the compost. When I called Earthcare about this, the woman I spoke with thought it was quite fine. However, it really isn’t. We needed to put the compost down last fall, and are now trying to rake up all these big shell fragments. It’s a lot of extra work. If you’re looking for compost for flower beds or vegetable patches, it’s probably fine. But for lawns, beware. I wish I...