Melinda’s Garden Moments is heard Mon.-Fri. at 7:45 and 10:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. on WHAV.
Add more planting space to your landscape by converting a portion of your lawn to a flower or vegetable garden.
Start by laying out the design of your new planting bed. Use a garden hose or rope to mark the borders. View the proposed bed from all sides and be sure to avoid tight corners or angles that make mowing difficult. Adjust the bed layout as needed.
Next, edge the borders of your new bed using a sharp spade or edger. Now comes the fun or should I say hard work. Slice off the grass with a sod cutter or shovel. Use these pieces of sod to repair bare spots in the lawn or add them to the compost pile – green side down.
Work several inches of compost, peat moss or other organic matter into the top 8 to 12 inches of soil. This improves drainage in clay soils and water holding ability in sandy and rocky soils.
Those creating a raised bed can just edge the garden, mow the grass short, cover with a few layers of newspaper and then add a blended topsoil to create the raised garden.
A bit more information: Use eco-friendly materials when creating raised beds. Interlocking stones are long lasting and easy to assemble. Or, consider plastic lumber made from 100% recycled plastic. Wood/plastic composites are usually made from 50% recycled plastic and 50% sawdust or other recycled fiber and are often made with a wood-grain texture. Fiber reinforced is a mix of plastic and chopped or strands of glass fiber. This is the most expensive, but strongest of the three. All three come in a variety of colors, sizes (similar to standard lumber), and never need staining.
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