Start a Bed

Preparing low-maintenance garden beds.

Details, details. Is it possible to just till up the ground, and start planting? Of course you can. However, disappointment can rear its ugly head after a lot of work yields less than satisfactory results. 

By thinking ahead, you can prepare a garden bed that best fits your situation and is also low maintenance, which allows you to enjoy a bountiful garden and not be overwhelmed by too much work.

Before discussing soil preparation, this post will discuss the design of your garden beds and soil conditioning, key factors to consider before you start. 

 

Structural Garden Bed Design

Consider first how you want to approach your garden. Are you ok with bending down to work at soil level? How about watering? How wide do you want your paths? How much are you willing to spend on soil amendments and garden structure? What kind of tools are you going to use in your garden?

Generally, restricting beds to 4’ wide means that you do not have to reach uncomfortably to weed or harvest from your plants. 

If you have the space, wider paths also allow the gardener to push a wheelbarrow conveniently along a garden row but require more maintenance. For those not wanting to bend over, the gardener can construct waist-high raised beds.  

Consider the overall size of your garden as well. Enthusiastic gardeners may wish to prepare large gardens but then get overwhelmed soon after planting. They end up with a bed of weeds. 

A conventional garden requires 2 hours of work per week for every 100 square feet¹. That means a 10 ft x10 ft square garden is the perfect size for the weekend gardener. 

Proximity to your house or a water hose are other important factors for the low maintenance gardener. A garden closer to the house allows the gardener to easily get to the garden to maintain it. Plants that need to be watered regularly should be grouped close to the water source, while those beds further away from the water source should be drought tolerant. 

Sunlight and wind will also dictate the position of your garden. A vegetable garden should be placed in an area that gets 6-8 hours of sunlight, daily, and is protected from prevailing winds.  

Finally consider the cost. While raised beds may be easy in the long run, there are significant upfront cost in materials and labor, soil and fertilizers that go into that project. 

 

Weeds

Another consideration for the low-maintenance gardener is how to manage weeds in the garden bed. 

While conventional gardeners may till the top layer of the soil periodically or use chemical weed killers in their flower bed, there are other options mentioned in this article which keep the soil ecology intact, giving your plants a microbial rich environment which assists in root development.

One way to prevent weeds is to add a weed barrier under the garden bed using landscaping fabric or cardboard. 

On top of this, weeds are further restricted through mulch, which suppresses seedling growth.  Lay down shredded leaves in the fall and pesticide-free dried grass clippings or straw in the summer. This has the added benefit of adding organic matter to the soil and maintaining soil moisture.  

Using transplants gives your garden a head start over the weeds after the garden bed has been prepared. 

Especially with tillage, if you choose not to mulch, remove seedlings right away before they get out of control using a small tiller or hoe. 

 

Soil composition

First, consider the structure of the soil where you intend to plant. Porous soil allows roots to grow freely and also to pull oxygen from the soil into the plant. 

Soil types that are not porous, such as clay soil, also have poor water drainage, which can lead to the plant roots rotting. At the other end of the spectrum, when overly porous soil, such as sand, drains too quickly, this can dehydrate plants. 

Both clay and sand benefit from organic matter amendments to improve proper drainage.

The pH of the soil is also important, as it dictates what plants can live in your soil. Some plants thrive in acidic soils, while others prefer a more alkaline environment. Most gardeners prefer a pH around 6 or 7 for the ideal garden. Acidic soil can be amended with lime, while alkaline soil can be amended with sulfur.  To correct this soil, amendments added may amount to 25 – 50% of the garden’s original volume².

Natural amendments add to soil structure and give long-lasting benefits. Compost, manure, cover crops, and rock dust are all valuable inputs which can be used to build soil fertility. Soluble fertilizers, on the other hand, are fast acting, but do nothing to build on the soil fertility of previous season³. 

Organic farmer, Eliot Coleman recommends 4.5 K of compost or manure every 2 years, as well as rock phosphate and sand every four years⁴. To bring nitrogen into the soil from the air, a cover crop of legumes can be used. A soil test can be used to determine if other micronutrients are lacking.

When soil composition is really poor, the gardener should consider the no dig method or raised beds, as described below, rather than spending time and money each year testing and re-amending. 

With these factors in mind, you can move on to consider how to prepare your garden bed. Since I prefer the lazy methods to more intensive ones, I will start with the easy ones first. 

Just Add Mulch

Popularized by Ruth Stout, in this method, the gardener simply adds 6-8 inches of mulch over top the garden bed. 

If weeds appear, top them with mulch. In the fall, do not remove the plants. Simply bend the plants over and mulch over top of them. 

To get started simply purchase or otherwise acquire enough mulch to cover your bed. Ruth Stout preferred to use hay.  Mulch will have to be removed where seeds are directly sown on the ground.  

Other than acquiring enough mulch, and distributing it on the garden bed in spring, there is not much else to this method. 

If you are planning to set up a mulched bed, see this post I wrote about The Only Tools You'll Need for a High-Mulch, Low-Maintenance Bed.

No Dig method

Crafted by Charles Dowding⁵ the No Dig method is really simple, and it can be started at any time in the year, so long as snow is not on the ground. According to Dowding, one simply places cardboard over the desired garden area, removing woody material or tap roots as far as 6 inches beneath the soil. Then add 4-6 inches of compost overtop. Each year add an additional 1-2 inches of compost overtop in the fall, providing new nutrition and structure to the soil.

While few weeds may make an appearance in the first year, they eventually die with consistent weeding and additional layers of compost. Most of the maintenance with this method occurs at the edges of the beds, where weeds need to be closely monitored. 

Preventing growth into the bed using a standard edger should keep weeds at bay.  Dowding also recommends paths between beds are maintained with a layer of woodchips to prevent path weeds from entering into the garden beds. 

The one difficulty with this method is procuring enough high-quality compost, especially for larger gardens. Home-made composting materials, such as cow manure and straw, need to be properly sourced ensuring they are free of pesticides. 

Otherwise, this method creates good soil and a weed-free environment for the garden bed, perfect for the low-maintenance gardener. 

 

Raised beds 

Raised beds are valuable for gardeners who have very poor soil, but they can be used for those who like the convenience of a higher gardener bed. Invasive plants, such as those from the mint family, may also be kept in order. Where pest pressure is an issue, some gardeners may also use a raised bed to prevent ground dwelling insects from finding the crop.

Raised beds are often very fancy these days. There are many options to choose from. Determine a convenient height for ease of maintenance. For example, for gardeners wishing to stand, build the beds to waist height. If using a stool, adjust the height accordingly.

Keep in mind, if the beds are to be used for vegetable production, the materials you choose affect soil quality. For example, while lead based paints have been largely eliminated from the market, the gardener should carefully consider the use of “antique” painted windows or boards for their vegetable gardens. 

To construct a long-lasting wood structure, purchase pressure-treated wood; those boards touching the ground should be labeled “ground contact⁶.”

As for the soil mixture, the vegetables only need the top 12” of soil to grow. Fill the bottom of your raised beds with any free organic materials you can find, such as leaves, brush, grass clippings, wood, etc., leaving the top 12-14 inches free for the soil layer. Add a layer of cardboard at the top of the base layer to ensure that the soil above will not initially sink into the bed below. Fill the top layer with well-rotted compost or a soil mixture.

One recipe for soil mixture is from the Square Foot Grdener, Mel Bartholomew. For a 4’ x 4’ block, he incorporates 6 ft³ peat moss, 4 ft³ course vermiculite, 3 ft³ sand, about 2/3 ft³ wood ashes and charcoal, 1 quart lime, and 1 quart organic fertilizer⁷.  

 

Tilling

Tilling the soil is another option to begin your garden. Cultivation aerates the soil and removes weeds. For the first year, deep tilling may be necessary to aerate the subsoil, especially in clay soils. 

Be sure to add proper amendments, such as organic matter and rock dust, when tilling to ensure fertile soil. 

Weeds also grow readily in tilled soil, so have a plan in place on how you will keep the weeds out of the garden using the strategies listed previously. A small garden tiller can be used to get close to the rows. 

1.  Mel Bartholomew, “Square Foot Garden” (Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1981), 28
2.  Low Maintenance Gardening. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 66.
3.  Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018), p. 85.
4. Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018), p. 84-85.
5. Charles Dowding, “No Dig” (New York, New York: DK Publishing, 2022), 42 -47.
6.  Low Maintenance Gardening. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 68-69.
7. Mel Bartholomew, “Square Foot Garden” (Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1981), 65.