Raised Garden Bed

If using field stone or another type of stone that doesn't fit tightly together when creating a raised garden bed, line the inside of the new wall with landscaper's cloth to keep soil and moisture from escaping through the raised border.

• Creating a raised garden bed is a great way to overcome poor soil and drainage situations. Rather than removing bad soil and replacing it, existing soil can be amended right on the spot.
  
  
• Raised beds make it easier to grow vegetables and flowers because the beds drain so well.
  
  
• Gardeners in colder climates get an earlier start in the spring, since raised beds warm quicker.
  
  
• Raised flowerbeds look great and are more visually interesting because the flowers are at a different height than the lawn.

Creating a Raised Garden Bed

Steps:

1. Begin by removing the sod. Water the sod heavily a few hours before removal, and rent a sod cutter to make the job easier. If not using a sod cutter, use a flat shovel.
   
   
2. Roll up the sod for use elsewhere in the yard, anywhere the grass needs replacing, or place it grass-side-down in the compost pile. Sod is great for composting.
   
   
3. Using a tiller, till the entire area to a depth of eight to 10 inches. Shovel six inches of the loosened soil out of the bed and onto a tarp on the lawn to make it easier to pour the soil back into the raised bed.
   
   
4. Once a layer of soil has been removed, it will be easier to install plastic edging to block out lawn grasses.
   
   
5. Add six inches of organic matter, using coarse sand or pea gravel if the soil is really heavy or a clay. Always add the sand last so that it will sift down through the soil during tilling. Till the entire bed and it should be about level with the original lawn.
   
   
6. Ring the bed with rocks or other appropriate material, up to a height of about eight inches.
   
   
7. Next add the soil on the tarp back into the garden bed. When most of the soil has been shoveled back into the bed, it should be easy to lift the tarp up and dump the rest of the soil, leaving no remnants of the pile on the lawn.
   
   
8. Add another four inches of organic matter, then till the garden one more time. Rake the bed smooth with a landscape rake, and it's time to plant the new raised bed.