• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sustain My Cooking Habit

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Salads
    • Desserts
  • Gardening
You are here: Home / Gardening / Beginning Gardener Series – Part 3 : How to Prepare a Garden Bed for Planting

Beginning Gardener Series – Part 3 : How to Prepare a Garden Bed for Planting

April 6, 2020 by Jane and Sonja Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Yummly
  • Mix

Welcome back to our Beginner Gardening Series. Over the next few weeks we’ll go through the process of making a 5’x7’ backyard vegetable garden, step-by-step. Last week we covered the supplies needed for backyard vegetable gardening. If you haven’t yet, visit that post and download the printable shopping list. This week we’re going to start getting our hands dirty and go through how to prepare a garden bed for planting.

If you’d like to jump to a previous week, here is what we’ve covered (and will be covering):

Planning Your Backyard Garden
Supplies to Get for Making a Small Backyard Garden
Preparing the Backyard Garden for Planting (we are here)
Planting Vegetable (Pepper) Seeds Indoors
Weeks 1-3: How to Plant Lettuce Seeds Outdoors
Weeks 1-3: Planting Cold Crop Bulbs (we are here)
Weeks 2-4: Planting Beets and Herb Seeds Outdoors (coming soon)
Garden Maintenance (coming soon)
Weeks 6-8: Planting Seedlings to the Garden (coming soon)
Troubleshooting (coming soon)
First Harvest! (coming soon)

And be sure to join our Facebook group where we’re we’ll be answering each others’ questions, sharing our gardens as they grow and troubleshooting along the way.

How to Prepare a Garden Bed

If you recall, we are working toward this sample garden layout, or whichever you planned out in Part 1.

Next we’ll cover the steps needed to get your garden ready for planting. Download the Garden Prep Checklist to help guide you and track your progress.

Let’s get digging!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. You can find our full disclosure here.

Step 1: Mark off the Space

After Part 1’s planning exercise you should have decided where to place your 5’x7’ garden. Grab a measuring tape and physically mark off the garden. You can place some stakes or branches in the corners or even larger rocks, just to indicate where your garden will be.

If you have a bit more time and materials, you could border the area with 2”x6” wood planks, build a simple raised garden bed or even buy one that requires no tools to assemble. But this is not at all necessary – keep it simple if you are just starting out!

Step 2: Clear the Area

If you’re like most of us, the space that you’ve set aside may be covered in grass, shrubs or other plants. If you do have shrubs or larger plants, you’ll want to dig them up with a shovel and either relocate or dispose of them.

Next you’ll want to kill off any of the grass in the space you have marked off. Here is the simplest way to do so:

  1. As you are raking up your yard from the winter collect all of the yard clippings (i.e. leaves, branches even shredded newspaper) and place it in your new garden space;
  2. If you have it, dump a bag of soil in the space;
  3. Cover the entire area with some plastic (large garbage bags work great as you can still use them afterwards) or planks of wood;
  4. Leave the area covered for 2-3 weeks to let the grass fully decompose.

Step 3: Till the Soil

In the meantime, buy:

  • several bags of garden soil
  • 1/3 the amount of sheep or cow manure
  • small bag of peat moss (helps to retain moisture and adds acidity to soil)

After 2-3 weeks, uncover the garden patch. Use the spade to turn the decomposed grass, yard waste and soil underneath over (ie. till it). This is a great time to add dry leaves and other yard waste (if you have it) and till it in.

Add soil, manure and peat moss. Work the area well with a shovel, mixing together all the added and soil underneath. In the end you are aiming for about 1 foot of good growing soil.

Your new garden is ready for planting!

We’ve created this Preparing Your Garden Checklist for our reference.

What comes next?

If you have your onion seeds, now’s a great time to plant them in the first row. We’ll have a post shortly on planting onion and lettuce seeds with all the details. And next week we’ll share a tutorial on planting seeds indoors, addressing questions about what types of seeds to plant and how to care for them until they are ready for transplanting.

We hope you’ve found this tutorial on how to prepare a garden bed helpful. Be sure to share a picture of your new garden space in the Happy Homecooks and Gardeners Facebook Group. We can’t wait to see what you’ve built!

Like it? Pin it for later!

Filed Under: Gardening, Homestyle Recipes Tagged With: garden, gardening, spring

Additional Recipe Ideas you Might Enjoy:

loaf of moist banana bread recipe
delicious swiss chard and potatoes

Follow us on Pinterest for more delicious recipes ideas!

Previous Post: « Beginner Gardening Series – Part 2: Supplies Needed for a Backyard Garden
Next Post: Easy Garlic Shrimp Scampi Recipe »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Hello!

We're Jane & Sonja, sisters who've grown up learning our mom Branka's traditional ways in cooking, gardening and homemaking. We are happy to bring this modern homesteading lifestyle to you!

Recent Posts to Explore

how to plant garlic

Like us on Facebook for additional yummy ideas!

Sustain My Cooking Habit - Feeding Your Inner Homecook

Let’s Pin together!

Footer

You’ll be amazed at how simple it is to whip up You’ll be amazed at how simple it is to whip up a batch of this sweet treat with our delicious apple cinnamon bun recipe. 🍏🍎 Link is in the profile!⠀
⠀
#cinnamonbuns #sweettreat #appledessert #sustainmycookinghabit #freshfoods #yummymummy #thefeedfeed #breakfastrecipe #livethelittlethings #potluckfood #appleseason #cinnamonrolls #pastry #eeeeats #comfortfood #foodblogger #foodstagram #eatrealfood
Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean not enjoying Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean not enjoying it! 🍒 This vegan chocolate-cherry smoothie bowl is a delicious and nutritious way to start the day. Recipe is on the blog (link in profile). #smoothierecipes #smoothiebowl #vegan #plantbased #thefeedfeed #healthyfood #newyearsresolution
2019 was a wonderful year and starting Sustain My 2019 was a wonderful year and starting Sustain My Cooking Habit was one of the highlights! To celebrate 2020 we are offering something fun: a free printable calendar. With watercolor illustrations of our favorite kitchen goodies we hope the calendar inspires a whole year of cooking for you!⠀
⠀
January's page is available for download on the blog - or sign up to receive the entire calendar at once. Happy New Year friends!⠀
#happynewyears #2020calendar #printablecalendar #printables #foodie #sustainmycookinghabit #calendar2020 #wallcalendar #printdesign #calendardesign #calender #feedfeed #foodblog #foodpics #foodblogger #thekitchn #eeeeeats #instafood #instayum #buzzfeast #todayfood #thabakefeed #beautifulcuisines
These ladies and gent are enjoying a day outdoors! These ladies and gent are enjoying a day outdoors! We typically have snow by now, so it’s great that they can still be roaming around. 🐔 #bakbak #brood #chickensofinstagram #rustytherooster
Cheers friends! Wishing you a wonderful Christmas Cheers friends! Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and holidays from our families to yours. ⠀
#merrychristmas #seasonsgreetings #cheers #happyholidays #christmasgreetings
These bite-sized sweet waffle cookies may look lik These bite-sized sweet waffle cookies may look like your typical breakfast staple, but don’t be fooled! The chewy texture and sweetness make them a perfect, simple dessert cookie the family is sure to love. 
Recipe is on the blog! (Link’s in our profile)
#wafflecookies #belgianwaffles #christmastreat #sustainmycookinghabit
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Disclosures

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy & effectiveness of the information displayed on this website, Sustain My Cooking Habit makes no guarantee as to the procedures & information contained here. The publisher will not be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with or arising from the use of the information displayed on SustainMyCookingHabit.com. This website is not intended to substitute the advice of a professional.

Copyright © 2021 Sustain My Cooking Habit on the Foodie Pro Theme