Beds

[Userzzzzz]

We’ve got a blank canvas and basically just a lawn with a fence. I want to start putting in flowerbeds but don’t really know where to start. Is it something that we could do ourselves or would it be better to pay someone to do some digging? If so, what sort of price would we be looking at?

It all depends what sort of beds you want to make - raised beds are quite good for controlling plants and veg. We made ours out of scaffold boards which I then coated with Ronseal. We then put trellis panels at the back of them, so that we could grow roses and clematis. Doing the work yourself could save a lot of money and you only need a basic tool kit.
The best way to start, would be to use a large sheet of graph paper, make a scale plan of your garden, then play around with designs.

Then use a piece of rope or a hosepipe or any sort of marker to transfer your design to the ground and see what it looks like.

To make a bed: Use a spade to score the edge of the bed - just ram it in about 10cm. A fast jab should cut through the grass. Then do another line a spade-width inside. Start at one end of the double line, do a cross cut in front of you and another 30cm further in front. Insert your spade under the grass and lift the rectangle of turf - you'll know if you're deep enough because the turf you remove will be kept intact by the roots, but your spade will be going through pure soil without having to cut through roots. And repeat until the area is clear.

You can then dig the bed over. The soil won't be great, so you'll want to improve it. The hard work way is to "double dig" - two spade depths, and put the turf upside down at the bottom of the trench before putting the soil back in. The easier route is to apply some soil conditioner - ask other people what to use, I always use my own compost.

The turf you've removed can be stacked upside down and in about 6months to a year will have rotted down enough to be used as soil conditioner on the flower bed (it's hard to apply too much soil conditioner, or too often).

Before you decide on where the beds are to go plot the direction of the sun at different times of the day. That will give you some indication of the type of plants that will thrive in those beds and where to position them

3 years ago I had a blank canvass and decided that raised beds would be for vegetables and ground dug beds for flowering plants.
I started digging the ground beds at this time of year to allow the frost to break up the soil and kill any nasties. It was mostly ‘scratty’ lawn, so I just turned it over, removing as many clumps of grass and weed that I could. In early spring I revisited the beds and removed any weeds/grass that had survived and then turned the soil over again.
Later in Spring I began improving the soil with bags of compost/ soil improver/ grow bags and anything cheap at the garden centre. I also relocated worms to the new beds.
In one area where the grass was thicker I used the cardboard cover method before adding compost. That has worked well.
It’s a lot of effort, but very satisfying.