Paul James, host of HGTV's
Gardening By the Yard, takes viewers on a tour of his new vegetable garden. His gardening space is a single raised bed, walled by a limestone border and mortared for durability. Creating paths through the garden makes it possible to plant and tend without compacting the soil. He provides the following steps and tips for creating a new vegetable garden:
- First select the site, then draw the garden design and shape on paper. Decide what materials to use for edging the garden, then outline the garden with spray paint until the desired shape is achieved. James's choice for edging his garden is limestone. If your garden is large, he suggests hiring someone to lay the stone.
- James and the crew dig out the outline of the garden. They dig down several inches to prevent Bermuda grass from growing under the stones, then begin hauling tons of limestone to the garden site. After positioning the stones without mortar to make sure they fit well and look good, they remove the stones and begin stacking them again, this time securing them with mortar. James mortars the rock so the wall will match the rest of the rock walls in the landscape; however, the rocks could also be left dry-stacked.
- James zaps the existing turf grass with a herbicide and waits 10 days for the product to take effect. Then he brings in 12 cubic yards of soil. He specifies a soil mix containing 2 parts black topsoil, 1 part mushroom compost, 1 part composted cotton burrs and 1 part builder's sand. He also prefers coarse organic matter, ideally in the form of shredded leaves; if leaves are hard to come by, wait until fall to do any further soil amending. After working the soil with a spading fork to incorporate the components, let it rest for a couple of weeks. Pull any weeds that germinate.
- The next step is to define the growing areas and create paths. With paths, the gardener can work without compacting the soil. If the perimeter of the garden is curved, you'll want to create curved planting beds of various sizes within the garden. Use a border spade to define the borders, which you might want to outline with more stone. Use a shovel to create the paths, digging out roughly four inches of soil and tossing it onto the growing beds. Tamp down the soil in the paths to compact it, and lay down a four-inch layer of shredded-bark mulch.
- Now it's time to plant. James starts with two mini-gardens he designed in front of the main garden. He decided to add these to enhance the look of the entrance, and he'll fill them with some of his favorite perennials, which will not only look great but also attract beneficial insects and bug-eating birds. He spaces the plants about one foot apart: eventually they'll fill the area. He mulches to maintain even soil moisture and temperature and to hold down weed growth.
- In a couple of the beds James broadcasts a purple-hull variety of black-eyed peas. He creates shallow furrows with a metal rake and scatters seeds over the bed. He presses the seeds down to get good soil-to-seed contact and covers them with a little soil. Then he adds some bush beans, a French variety known as filet beans.
