Click below to listen to my Garden Bite radio show: Garden bed renewal
Sometimes you just have to start over. I know, it can be painful but pulling out plants that have become overgrown and loaded with weeds is sometimes easier than trying to pick through it. That’s what I did at my new home in July of 2012. [tomorrow you’ll see what it looks like in 2017!]
First I hand pulled as much as I could. I never did use a total vegetation killer , although I pondered it! Instead I shoveled and dug stuff out. You can see that I used a tarp to pile on the weeds and soil that came with it. I dug a trench to differentiate the lawn from the garden bed. It’s about 5 inches deep. You can dig this as deep or as shallow as you’d like.
I did a quick soil test and found the soil lacking nitrogen. I bought straight compost to mix into the top 8 inches of soil using a tiller. (I recommend this only once to start the process). In the meantime, I selected plants. I’ll have more on that tomorrow. I then arranged and rearranged where I wanted them.
I don’t like plastic AT ALL, I’m not keen on landscape fabric either. Instead, I used 6 to 8 layers of newspaper as a weed barrier. What I like about the newspaper is that it biodegrades right into the soil. Then I placed red mulch. Tomorrow you’ll see the completed bed. [and how it’s changed since then!!!]
I also bought garden sculptures and my husband added a very simple box built from 4×4’s. It was inexpensive but added a nice division and accent.
We also had some limestone left over from the previous bed and used that at the end.