Preparing a "Weed
Free",
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Preparing a "Weed
Free",
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| So much for the basics. Now let's get on to preparing "weed
free" raised planting beds.
The first thing you must do is mark out the shape of your planting bed. Keep in mind that most people make their planting beds too small. Don't be afraid to make a nice big planting bed. As you mark out your bed, make sure you the curves are nice and gentle, and can be easily maneuvered with a lawn mower. You certainly don't want any hand trimming that is not necessary. There are a lot ways to mark out your planting bed, but the easiest is to buy a can of "Inverted Marking Paint" from your local hardware store. Inverted paint actually sprays upside down unlike most other spray paints. It's available in a permanent paint formula, and there is also a chalk formula that washes right off. If you can't find the chalk, the paint formula is perfectly fine. Once you have the outline of your bed marked out, take a good nursery spade and make a vertical cut along the outside edge of your mark like this:
A good nursery spade is one of the best investments you will make as a gardener. Most people tell me they have a good spade, but when I ask them how much they paid for it I know it's not a good spade. A good spade will cost at least $80.00, but is worth every penny.
Once you've made a vertical cut along your line, you can start stripping the sod back along the edge of your new bed. You should completely remove a strip of sod at least 12" wide along the edge of your bed.
Stripping sod with a spade is a lot easier than you might think. Notice how low I am holding the handle of the spade. This allows me to just peel off the sod while only going about 3/4" into the soil. I will also point out that a good quality nursery spade is made in such a way that the blade can be sharpened. You don't want it razor sharp, but you want to sharpen it enough so the edge tapers down to a point and is not blunt. Working with a sharp tool makes all the difference in the world.
As you strip the sod in pieces, you can take those pieces and lay them upside down inside of your planting bed as I am doing in the above photo. There is no need to haul them away. They will decompose into good rich topsoil. Once you have removed 12" of sod all the way around your planting bed and turned it upside down on the inside area of your bed, you can fill the bed with good rich topsoil to a depth of 6 to 10 inches. Once the topsoil is in the planting bed, you can start laying layers of newspaper over the topsoil. The newspaper should be about 8 pages thick so it holds up while you are working with it. The purpose of the newspaper is to completely block out the sunlight so the grass and weeds you are covering up will completely die. Of course you have to cover the newspaper with something organic to hold it in place. I prefer mulch. The newspaper will remain in the bed forever. After the newspaper has been in the bed for a while it will get wet and decompose, and when you are ready to plant you will be able to dig through it easily. You don't have to, and really shouldn't remove it. Most newspapers today are printed with a soy based ink, so the ink is harmless.
As you can see in the above photo I am covering the newspaper with soil for this demonstration. But the correct sequence of events is as follows: 1. Mark out the bed. 2. Make a vertical cut along the edge of your bed. 3. Strip the sod back 12" along the edge of your bed. 4. Take the sod you stripped and lay it in your planting bed, just make sure it's upside down. 5. Fill your raised bed with topsoil, raising the bed at least 6 to 10 inches. 6. Cover the topsoil with newspaper, 8 layers thick. 7. Cover the newspaper with 2 to 4 inches of any type of organic mulch. Here in northern Ohio we use shredded hardwood bark mulch. 8. Let the bed sit as is for at least two weeks, but several weeks or months would be ideal because the sod will be completely decomposed by the time you are ready to start planting. By then there will be little left of the newspaper. That's all there is to it. By the way, I didn't mention those weed barrier fabrics because in my experience they don't work in the long run because the weeds end up growing in the mulch on top of the weed barrier cloth. Keep in mind that as mulch decomposes it becomes topsoil, and you end up with an excellent environment for weed seed germination on top of your weed barrier cloth. The wind blows in a few thousand weed seeds, and you have a mess. Taking out weed barrier cloths once you realize they didn't work is no easy job. My advice is to keep the foreign objects out of your beds. Newspaper is not a foreign object. It's organic and will completely decompose. Click
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