Preparing Your Organic Garden Bed
Now that you have tested your soil to determine what type of soil you have in your garden and how to improve it, it is now time to prepare your organic garden bed. The amount of garden space you have will of course be the deciding factor in what type of garden you can design. You will then need to create a garden bed that will maximise the number of plants in the available space and the time you have available to manage your garden. My advice would be to start on a small scale and gradually expand if you do have space.
Having decided on the area for your organic garden bed you will need to clear the area of any weeds or grass and there are a number of methods you can use to do this such as Double Digging, Sheet Mulching and Raise Bedding. I will discuss each method below.
Double Digging
Double digging is a fairly quick method of creating plant beds as well as an effective way of preparing and improving the soil in your garden, this will however require some manual labour with a spade. Garden beds created with this method will have efficient drainage and be more fertile.
To begin you should start by digging a trench the length of your garden about 10- 12 inches deep. Remove the topsoil and lay it one side. Continue to dig and turn the soil at the bottom of the trench with a pitchfork, and add compost. Then dig a similar trench parallel to your first one, then add the topsoil from your second trench to the first trench.
Dig a third trench similar to the other two and follow this process until you have worked through all the soil in your garden bed. For the last trench you should fill the topsoil you had put aside from the first trench into this trench This whole process will allows for soil aeration and an even distribution of organic matter throughout the bed.
Sheet Mulching
Sheet Mulching is another method of preparing your garden bed, this does not involve any manual labour such as double digging and it allows you to plant directly into the ground. In order to do this you will need to place several layers of different organic material on top of your garden bed until you have a sheet mulch of at least 12 to 18 inches in height.
Wood fiber in newspapers and cardboard is another source of sheet mulching which can be done by placing a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard on your garden bed then cover with leaves, grass cuttings and other organic materials such as compost. The best time of the year to do sheet mulching is in the autumn when the organic material will easily break down before the sowing period in spring.
Raised Bed
The advantages of raised bed gardening is that it suitable if you have limited space, poor or contaminated soil, soil suffering from poor drainage. Raised bed gardening is the easiest soil to work with because it is usually free from stones or roots from other plants.
A raised bed garden can be any height you prefer ranging from eight inches in height to waist-high. With the latter if you have difficulties bending due to back or knee problems then having your raised beds at waist height is ideal. You can also decide what type of frame you prefer for your raised bed, this can be wooden, stones or brick enclose. You may also need to consider installing a barrier such as thick cardboard, weed suppressant sheeting at the bottom of your raised beds if you have trees near by to prevent weeds or tree roots from growing into your raised beds. There should also be no need to walk on any part of your raised bed because you should build it so that you can reach every part of the bed without having to stand in it.
Unlike ordinary garden beds raised beds dries out earlier in spring which will allow you to start planting much earlier, however in hot whether they tend to dry out very quickly so you will need to water more often. Similar to planting in containers the soil in your raised bed will become depleted over time and will therefore require improvement as you would in your ordinary garden bed. You can top this up with two or three inches of organic compost or manure during the spring before you start planting.
In the autumn at the end of the growing season you will also need to protect your raised bed before the winter to prevent damaging your soil, this can be done by spreading organic mulch.
More on raised garden beds or sheet mulching can be found on the following website :
- https://www.wikihow.com/wikiHowTo?search=raised+garden+beds+
- https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/advice/g2104/organic-gardening-tips-460309/