Part 7: prepping the space
Prepping the area
Remember that the placement of your garden depends almost entirely on the sun (read previous section on “where”) and things that might cast shadows. You want as much sun as possible; if we need to provide some plants shade (rarity) we can do so artificially with shade cover but by having the sunlight available you have maximum flexibility.
Here is how to prep:
Mark the areas where your raised bed will be (I just lay some boards down to show me what a rough 8*4 rectangle would be (or 4*4 if that’s what you’re using)). You can use string and mark things out and this makes for neater and straighter rows.
I try to make sure my garden beds are far enough apart that I can get my (1) lawnmower in between them to cut the grass and (2) get a wheelbarrow between the beds. If you don’t need to get a lawn mower between them then go with this: 24 inches is a big working area and should provide plenty of space; 18 inches is a standard on small organic farms and works fine especially if the beds are only 6 inches high. Anything less than 18 inches and it gets tricky because it’s hard to fit between them and squat down and work. But measure things out and figure out what you like/and what works for your space.
Once you know where you want it, you need to get digging into the soil that is already there. I like to dig up and put all the sod (grass) on the side (should stay in clumps); and then dig down one extra shovel depth (assuming the shovel spade is about 7 inches (make sure you do not have electric, water, gas lines etc around). Dig and loosen, but don’t step on the soil you just dug up because that just compacts it back down. Then put the sod back on top but upside down so the grass will point down and will die. Then I just break up as much of the sod clumps as I can and dig around some more to get the soil loose. Don’t worry too much… you’re just getting this as loose as you can but don’t expect it to feel like sawdust.
That’s it; don’t put weed blocker down because that is going to prevent your roots from going into the native soil. Weed seeds are going to germinate if they are in the top 2 inches of your soil so please don’t worry about the seeds that are 6-8 inches underground.
Some folks put down cardboard or newspaper but I’ve found this also unnecessary since you’ve already turned over the sod. And I also don’t like the glues and inks in these products. I just have never experienced grass growing up through six inches of soil to spring back to life after it was turned over and buried.
Do think about what plants were there before you put your garden beds in though; I put beds over a patch of day lilies five years ago and even today I’ll get a few day lilies pushing their way through 9 inches of soil. But even this is fine-- I just have to pull a few out every year. No sweat.
Do I really need to dig down, it sounds like a lot of work? If you are building 5.5 or 7 inch high beds I really think you do need to dig down a bit. If you are building the higher type (10.5 or 11 inch) I would still recommend it because the soil in your yard is probably heavily compacted, but I have built high beds over soil that I didn’t double-dig and things are going fine. I just think your drainage and overall soil health will be better if its loose underneath.