Making your bed and lying in it

June 23, 2009 · Filed under design · Tagged new beds, sod

Finally a nice weekend and I convinced Ian to get a lot done.  While he stained the screen porch, and the new slats for the black bench, I spent the whole day building a new bed around the serviceberry and witch hazel. 

 

                                        Before

I had outlined the bed while cutting the grass the previous weekend so I could see how it would look.  Then I took the stack of newspapers we had been saving and laid them an inch thick, weighing them down with the bricks I was using to outline the bed 

The first layer

 

 Finally, there was a good use for the sod that had been piled up against the side of the garage.  These were turned upside down and placed over the newspapers.

The Second Layer

 

 Some loose fresh soil was piled on top.  This still has to be mulched to keep out the weeds, while I wait for the sod to break down so it can be planted.

 This is the easiest way I know to make a new bed. I used to lift all the sod and dig up the topsoil and add manure and compost, actually whatever I had on hand, but it was backbreaking labour.  And I am getting older, so this is the way I do it now. You have to give it a bit of time to see if anything is adventurous to make it all the way to the top, but this is easily pulled out, just make sure that your mulch is a couple inches thick.  If I had enough soil on top and hadn’t used sod, I could have planted right away, but the sod takes a while to break down, so I will wait till autumn to plant.

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