Polk County Master Gardeners
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New Beds
If you’ve been living and gardening in Polk County all your life, you know
about rocks in the garden. But coming from a Dallas suburb that had been a
cotton field before they built houses on it was poor preparation for dealing
with the mixture of three parts rock to two parts clay that I now live on. I
still don’t understand how this land produces such beautiful old trees, but I
have learned that it needs a bit of help if you want to grow carrots - or even
tomatoes and maybe roses.
I only wanted a small garden, so raised beds looked like the answer. But even
with imported topsoil, some preparation goes a long way toward reducing
maintenance down the line.
After you have marked out the space for your garden - choosing a spot that gets
at least five or six hours of full sun for most plants - the first step is to get
rid of most of the grass and weeds. A spray (such as Roundup that will kill all
sorts of plants) and a little patience will make it easier. It will take two to
three weeks and possibly a second spraying to kill the weeds.
The next step is to balance how much work you want to do against the damage
to your pocketbook. If you want to get rid of the rocks and retain whatever soil
you have, you can make a screen of half inch hardware cloth and toss the dirt
and rocks through it. That’s how I know the ratio of rocks to dirt in my garden.
If you want to avoid the strain on your back this chore entails, you can build a
retaining wall for your bed and fill it with topsoil. Landscape timbers or other
treated lumber are the least expensive, but you can use concrete blocks, bricks,
or whatever you have available. Be sure to make it deep enough to hold at least
12” of soil.
After the soil is in place, take samples and send them off to the Agriculture
Extension Service to find out what amendments your soil needs for the plants you
want to grow. You will probably need to add humus. This can be peat moss,
well-rotted compost, or very well aged manure. After you have worked this in
well, added whatever is needed to adjust the pH and the amount and type of
fertilizer your soil test results indicate, you’re about ready to set out those
plants.
Be sure to mulch the beds to retain water and keep the soil cooler in summer
and warmer in winter. Preparing good beds is a lot of up-front work, but keeping
the weeds out will be much easier if you do it.
By Barbara M. Tobias
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