Whether you want to plant vegetables or create a new flower bed, there are several different ways to convert lawn into gardening space. I’m going to share with you the various methods I have used. What works and what doesn’t, and tips for creating your new garden bed.
Before you even begin to start the process of converting lawn grass into gardening space, you need to choose a location for your new garden bed. Unless, you’re just going to grow shade plants, it’s important to find the sunniest place in your yard and plan your new garden bed there.
If you want to grow vegetables, flowers or a mix, you’ll have the best harvest if the designated area gets full sun. Full sun means more than 6 hours of direct sunlight a day.
It’s also important to think about convenience in maintaining your new garden. Think about the water needs of your new space, and whether or not you want to install drip irrigation. In other words, your new planting area will need to be close to a water source. Although I don’t always heed my own advice, if this is your first garden, start with just a small area for your new planting bed. You can always add on later if you decide you’re really into gardening.
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How to Dig a Garden Bed: A Step-by-Step Guide for Preparing Healthy Soil
Digging a new garden bed can seem like an intimidating task, but with the right tools and some elbow grease, it is very doable for any gardening enthusiast. The work you put in upfront will pay off for years to come with a thriving, productive garden space.
In this step-by-step guide, we will walk through the entire process of planning, preparing, and digging a brand new garden bed from scratch. Whether you want to grow flowers, vegetables, or a mix of plants, these tips will help you create the ideal foundation. Let’s get digging!
Choosing the Perfect Location
When selecting where to place your new garden bed, consider these key factors
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Sunlight – Most plants need at least 6 hours of direct sun daily, so choose the sunniest spot in your yard. Vegetables and fruiting plants especially need full sun.
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Access – Pick a site near a water source and clear of obstacles for convenience. Make sure you can easily reach all areas of the bed.
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Soil – Good drainage is essential, so avoid low wet spots. Raised beds can improve drainage in problem areas. Test soil and amend if needed.
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Size – Beds for vegetables can be 4×8 feet or larger. Smaller beds around 3×3 feet work for flowers. Adjust based on your space and needs.
Preparing the Area
Proper preparation sets your garden bed up for success:
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Remove any grass, weeds, or debris thoroughly from the area. Dig out roots or use herbicide weeks ahead to allow existing vegetation to die off.
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Mark the outline with stakes, rope, or a hose. Make sure edges are straight and accessible. For curves, use a flexible material.
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Call utility companies to identify any buried cables or lines before digging, especially if going down more than a few inches.
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Check soil drainage and amend soil if needed. Clay soil benefits from compost or other organic matter to improve texture.
Selecting the Right Garden Tools
These essential tools will make digging your bed much easier:
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Spade or shovel – Choose ones with short handles for better leverage when digging and moving soil.
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Garden fork – Use to loosen and break up compacted soil as you dig.
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Rake – Helps smooth out soil and remove debris once digging is complete.
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Trowel – Ideal for working soil in small spaces and digging holes for bulbs or transplants.
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Wheelbarrow or buckets – Provide an easy way to move soil out of the bed and amendments into the bed.
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Garden hose – Useful for moistening hard, dry soil prior to digging.
How to Dig Your Garden Bed Step-by-Step
Follow these steps for digging a flawless bed from start to finish:
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Remove grass, weeds, turf, and vegetation thoroughly from the outlined area using a spade or sod cutter. Discard plant material.
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Loosen the underlying topsoil using your shovel or garden fork, digging down 8-12 inches. Break up any large clumps.
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Add 2-3 inches of compost or other amendments like manure evenly across the bed. Mix into loosened soil to enrich it.
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Place soil back in the bed on top of amendments. Mound slightly to allow for settling. Mix in more compost as you rebuild layers.
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Use a rake to smooth out and level the bed. Beds work best with loose, evenly distributed soil about 12 inches deep.
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Shape any contours or edges. Consider edging with stone, bricks, or landscape borders to define the bed.
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Water thoroughly to settle the soil. Let bed sit for 2-3 days, then plant!
Digging Tips for Common Obstacles
You may encounter challenges like rocky soil, tree roots, or poor drainage. Here are some solutions:
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Pick out rocks and stones as you dig. Use a garden fork to loosen packed soil caused by rocks.
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Carefully dig around any large roots and try gently loosening them rather than tearing them out.
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For drainage issues, create a raised bed or mound using imported topsoil and compost.
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Dry, compacted soil can be soaked with water a day or two before digging to soften it up.
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Avoid walking on freshly dug beds to prevent recompacting the soil. Standing in an adjacent pathway is better.
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Call in rototilling equipment for renovating areas with excessive rocks, roots, or stubborn vegetation.
When to Dig Your Garden Bed
Spring is the optimal time to dig new beds so the soil has time to settle before planting. However, fall digging also works well. Here are some tips:
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Cooler temperatures in spring and fall make digging easier than summer.
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Morning hours after any dew has dried but before the afternoon heat are ideal.
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Allow 2-3 weeks between digging and planting. This lets soil stabilize and amendments activate.
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If digging in fall, plant a cover crop like clover or ryegrass to protect the soil over winter.
Maintaining Your Garden Bed
With proper care, your new garden bed will be ready for many years of abundant harvests:
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Replenish compost or manure annually to enrich soil nutrients and organic matter.
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Use crop rotation when planting vegetables to prevent pest and disease issues.
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Weed weekly to prevent unwanted plants from taking root. It’s easier when weeds are small.
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Water plants 1-2 inches per week, adjusting for rainfall. Consistent moisture is key.
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Avoid walking on wet garden bed soil to protect soil structure. Use designated paths whenever possible.
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Edge along the bed perimeter seasonally to keep surrounding grass from encroaching.
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Test soil pH every 2-3 years and amend with lime if too acidic or sulfur if too alkaline.
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Protect soil structure in winter by leaving roots and stubble of spent plants to hold soil in place.
Alternative Methods for Removing Grass
If digging up sod by hand sounds unappealing, consider these options:
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Cover grass with cardboard or layered newspaper to smother it (sheet mulching).
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Spray herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup) for grass removal prior to digging. Use caution and read all labels.
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Rent or hire a sod cutter machine to mechanically remove grass and easily cut through roots.
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Place new garden beds directly on grass by building raised beds. The grass underneath will die off over time.
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Solarize the lawn using clear plastic sheeting to trap heat and kill grass and weeds. Best done in hot weather.
The Satisfaction of DIY Digging
While preparing a brand new garden bed requires effort, the satisfaction of creating an ideal growing space with your own hands is extremely rewarding. Use these step-by-step instructions to tackle the project with confidence. Proper digging provides the ideal foundation for gardening success. Before long, you’ll be harvesting armloads of vibrant flowers and fresh vegetables from your new garden bed.
Here’s how you convert your lawn into a raised bed garden area:
If you simply want to plant some vegetables for your family, I would recommend starting with a simple raised bed. This one is very appealing to me and if I were starting over with my raised vegetable beds, I would go with this.
Although the thought of building your own raised garden beds is novel, for the time and money, these vinyl beds are easy to assemble and will last a very long time. It’s important to note here that you want a least a depth of at least 8 inches with a raised bed, and 12 or more inches is even better.
To convert lawn into a raised bed gardening space, first run over the area with you lawn mower cutting the existing lawn as short as you can get it. Next, use landscape fabric to place over the ground where your raised bed will sit. A layer of cardboard or landscape fabric will smother grass and weeds, and eliminate rogue weeds or grass from growing up through the soil.
Once you have your raised bed in place, fill it to the top with a good garden soil and/or compost. One of my pet peeves is to see someone gardening with raised beds with only a few inches of soil in them. That kind of defeats the purpose of a raised bed. It’s a good idea to let your newly filled garden bed sit for a few days, so the soil can settle.
We have raised beds for our vegetable garden area. We just threw something together quickly and the beds are very crude looking, but they serve the purpose. Some day we will replace them, probably with the vinyl ones I mention above, or these galvanized steel ones.
Building Your Own Raised Garden Beds
If you decide you still want to build your own raised garden beds, here are a few tips to remember:
- Make your raised garden beds at least 8 inches deep, 12+ inches is even better. If your raised beds are too shallow, plants will become crowded and won’t have the soil depth to mature and produce.
- Cedar is the best wood for raised garden beds. You can get cheaper wood like pine, but it won’t hold up like cedar will.
- To keep your garden bed sturdy and to finish off the corners, use garden bed corner brackets. For deeper garden beds, these corner brackets are a very good choice.
- To learn more about building your own raised beds, check out Erin’s post at Impatient Gardener. Her raised bed garden is gorgeous!
How to Create a New Garden Bed: Removing Grass, Planting, Watering, and Mulch! | Joshua’s Garden
FAQ
How deep should you dig a garden bed?
Double dig to 12 inches – As before, you can use a tiller, shovel or garden fork to do this. I prefer to use a shovel so I can get at least 12 inches deep.
What is the best tool to dig up a garden bed?
Garden Forks and Rakes
Digging forks or garden forks are the best digging tools for breaking up rocky or hard soil. With their long, sharp-edged tines, these gardening tools are also good for aerating soil and digging up potatoes or other root vegetables. Ground rakes or garden rakes have several short, metal tines.
How to start a garden bed for beginners?
- Choose a location: Pick a spot in your yard that gets at least 6–8 hours of sunlight per day. Avoid low areas that may flood.
- Prepare the soil: Remove existing plants and lawn, then loosen the soil. You can also test the soil.
- Add compost: Turn 2–3 inches of compost into the soil.
- Add a barrier: To prevent weeds, you can add a weed barrier cloth, burlap, or cardboard to the bottom of the bed.
- Fill the bed: Fill the bed with good-quality garden soil and compost.
- Add mulch: Mulch helps retain moisture and keep weeds down. Organic mulch, like compost, straw, or bark, can also nourish the soil.
- Choose plants: Pick a few of your favorite vegetables or flowers.
- Plant: Place plants before putting them in the ground so you can get the spacing right.
- Water: Use a hose and long-handled watering wand to direct water to the roots.
How to break ground for a new garden?
There are several ways to till a garden. For small garden plots, you can use a hand tiller to turn the soil, but a powered cultivator or tiller makes a tough job a lot more manageable. Cultivators and tillers use an engine or electric motor to turn blades (known as tines) that dig into the ground.