I would like to start a small vegetable garden for the first time in my backyard. Currently, there is weedkiller in the soil throughout our entire lawn though.
How do I go about preparing the gardening area for planting? Do we dig out the soil to a certain depth and replace it with store-bought soil or do we create a raised bed? or something else? Please advise. Thanks!
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pixelphoto
- Senior Member
- Posts: 155
- Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:13 pm
- Location: Middle Georgia USA
digging out all the soil and replacing it is very expensive and time consuming. A raised bed would be the cheap alternative for this year then don't put any more chemicals on it this year or next. To be organic you have to have a time period of 3 years straight with no chemicals before you can plant in the soil according to NOP standards.
I would do a raised bed high enough that your roots wont make it down into the old soil.
I would do a raised bed high enough that your roots wont make it down into the old soil.
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pixelphoto
- Senior Member
- Posts: 155
- Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:13 pm
- Location: Middle Georgia USA
depending on what you grow will depend on how deep the raised beds should be. Carrots have a long tap root and would obviously need a higher raised bed than say bush beans.
I am currently using a regular concrete block the kind with the two holes in them. THey are commonly used to build walls out of. I don't mortor them I just place them in a rectangle on the ground to form the raised beds and then put good aged compost in. Goat manue, chicken manure and horse manure with stall shavings and hay are what are usually in my compost. Along with grass clippings and food scraps. Once this is aged I can use it for the raised beds. If you don't have any aged compost you can buy "Black Cow" its in the yellow bag, and some good topsoil, this will make a good start for you and should get you off and running really fast. Black Cow is good cow manure from florida some of the best. I would mix in and leaves around the yard and you should be good for your first year.
I am currently using a regular concrete block the kind with the two holes in them. THey are commonly used to build walls out of. I don't mortor them I just place them in a rectangle on the ground to form the raised beds and then put good aged compost in. Goat manue, chicken manure and horse manure with stall shavings and hay are what are usually in my compost. Along with grass clippings and food scraps. Once this is aged I can use it for the raised beds. If you don't have any aged compost you can buy "Black Cow" its in the yellow bag, and some good topsoil, this will make a good start for you and should get you off and running really fast. Black Cow is good cow manure from florida some of the best. I would mix in and leaves around the yard and you should be good for your first year.