Building a Bed

First I lay down a nice overlapping layer of cardboard & newspaper.  This allows no light to the sod below it and therefore kills the grass & dandelions and we get to retain the incredibly rich topsoil composition.  I wet the cardboard with the hose as I go so they will breakdown easier this also helps prevent them from blowing away in the breeze.

I put a thin layer of soil down on top of the cardboard to help with decomposition.  There's cardboard under our gravel pathways to help keep down the weeds and red ants.

Here's Rafi building our new bed out of rough cut 2x12.  He's so good at right angles, making things level.  I'm not, so I'm especially grateful for his skills!

We add a nice layer of seaweed down in our garden, this will decompose and add lots of nutrients to the soil over time.

Wheelbarrows of soil are added, and then a nice top layer of composted manure.  Love all that tasty organic matter in our garden!

And there you have it, planted!  A few rows of scallions, a bunch on onion sets and just a few red potatoes for new potatoes.

That's garlic in the bed to our right, the two beds behind it are roma canning tomatoes, cukes under the row cover and a whole bed of kale, chard & lettuces to our left.