PREPARING A QUICK GARDEN BED

We are extremely excited about our garden this year as we have taken the plunge and decided to make some changes in the garden. I will be posting more on our garden and what we are doing there this year but for today, it is about one of our garden bed preparations and a very useful tip on it. 

The sides of our backyard along with the fence (perhaps a few meters from the fence) have some small rocks and we can't really use our lawn mower there properly. We have also been quite busy (as usual) recently and as a result of it all, we have just let go of the grass and have ended up with something like this in the first picture on the sides of our garden. 

One day only a couple of weeks ago, we decided to make a vegie patch there and we wanted to make it immediately. Mr. Hubby borrowed a van from a family member and bought some untreated wood (sleepers) after work the day before we made this garden bed. The next morning was a Saturday and we went out for some grocery shopping. On the way to the shops, we visited a few local garden suppliers and ordered 2 cubic meters of dirt with some organic matter in it (Note: The price for the same amount of the same or a very similar quality soil varied from $53AUD to $67AUD per cubic meter in three different but physically close-by places!). We did our shopping and came back home in the early afternoon. After we put our two little fruits of love to bed for a nap, the delivery truck arrived with the soil. We surely didn't have the time to clean all the grass on the ground but there was no reason to stress about it. Here is how we went about it and what made it stress-free for us:

All we did was that after we placed our sleepers, we put some thick cardboard boxes that we were happily given at a local hardware store on the ground, on top of the grass (even though initially, we did try to pull the grass off and take the small rocks from there to use them elsewhere. However, the rock collecting method that we used was not practical enough and did not work there, so, we gave up on that).

You don't need to cut your grass as after you put your cardboard boxes and the dirt on it, your grass will die anyway (since there is pretty much no oxygen, no food, no drink).

It surely took longer for the four of us (of course with the little helpers when they woke up) to carry all that soil from the front yard to the garden bed than preparing the foundation and the frame of the garden bed. However, it was all worth it and we all felt a great sense of accomplishment at the end. No whingeing from any of us at all and it only took an afternoon to have this:

Not too bad, ha?

Have a great time with some loved ones today!