Guest Author - Diana Pederson

Previous articles have discussed choosing a garden site, analyzing your soil, soil fertility, and pH. If you chose to use a soil-testing laboratory, you should have a report back within a few weeks. If you are like most gardeners, you can’t wait to get your hands dirty. Here are some tasks you can take care of while waiting for that soil testing report.

Determine the garden’s shape
You’ve already determined the best spot for your garden. The next task is to determine its shape. Will its shape be determined by your house or garage foundation? Is it confined to an area between a driveway and sidewalk? Does it surround a patio? Is it in the middle of your lawn where you could use a freeform shape?

Mark the garden border
The next step is to mark the border of your new garden bed. You can use a flexible hose, string, yarn, or even flour. It is much easier to change your mind about the shape of the bed when you can just adjust the hose or other marker than it is once you begin digging.

Remove sod and weeds
Using a straight-edged shovel, create a series of rectangles of any convenient size until your entire garden bed is divided into rectangles. Then use your shovel edge to slice off the pieces of sod. These can be put in your compost pile. Also remove any rocks you notice as you perform this step.

Dig the bed.
Depending on the size of your bed and your energy level, you may choose to manually dig up your bed to a depth of 12 inches; or, you may choose to rent a rototiller to help you do the job.

Outline your paths
Determine where your paths will be. Purchase edging (heavy-duty, landscape quality is the wisest choice). Install the edging around the outside of your garden bed and on the path sides. Determine if you will use wood chips, brick, patio pavers, gravel, or some other material to create your paths. If you decide to use brick or patio pavers, take advantage of the free classes offered by some garden centers to learn how to install these properly.

Set heavy benches (or other seating) and any heavy garden ornaments (such as cement animals, etc.) in place now. It is much easier to do this before you have actually planted your garden.

Amend Your Soil

I assume your soil test results have arrived. Determine which of the amendments mentioned in previous articles you will be using. Spread the amendments and rake them into the prepared soil.

The next article will present detailed information on creating your own landscape plan. You may want to read that article before carrying out the tasks involved in this article. See you there.