Beginner's Guide to Fertile Soil and Raised Garden Beds

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Healthy soil is a critical component of any successful garden. By establishing a permanent garden layout in which beds and walking paths remain in place, from year to year, you can minimize soil compaction and create a great garden that's healthy and easy to maintain. Soil needs air and water to function, and compaction from foot traffic robs it of both.

Permanent beds can be any size or shape, as long as you can reach into the center while standing in the paths. Edging is optional, although many gardeners like the look of borders such as logs, boards or stones.

Raised beds are a good idea for sites with clay soil or areas with poor drainage. Gardeners who want to extend their growing season to early spring and late fall also benefit from the warming effect produced by raised beds.

Your new permanent garden structure will naturally raise the beds a little higher than the compacted soil of the paths, but you can till the paths and shovel the loose soil onto the beds to raise them even more. Note that your plants will require more water during dry periods if you add more than a few extra inches of soil.

To get started, try one of these three simple bed-building techniques:

Plan A: Till, compost, till. First till the area to kill the grass, then add a few inches of compost or grass clippings and till again. There's bound to be remaining weed seeds in the mix; you can eliminate them by watering the area, then hoeing sprouts as they appear after a week or two. If possible, repeat the water/hoe sequence several times prior to planting.

Plan B: No till. Prep the garden area simply by covering it with cardboard or a few layers of wet newspaper under several inches of grass clippings, leaves, or hay or straw. You can cut holes in the mulch and set out transplants with a little organic fertilizer immediately. You'll want to wait several months to plant seeds, however, to allow the sod to die and the paper to decompose. (For more information on alternatives to tilling, read '21st Century Homesteading: Build Better Garden Soil,' April/May 2007.)