Creating a Garden

The first step in planting a vegetable garden is to prepare the soil. This area of my garden was originally used as a compost heap. Garden waste has been piled up here for around 5 years. I cleared the top of the pile away (it had not decomposed) and dug down at least 15cms using a mattock.

Once the soil had been loosened up the soil needed to cleared of a multitude of tiny roots. All the larger twigs, rocks and clumps of clay were also removed at this time.

The next step in preparing the garden is to provide a border around the garden to keep the soil in and the weeds out. This bed uses pre-made sections of half-round treated pine logs.


Once the border has been constructed, the next step is to improve the soil in preparation for planting out.


I use a combination of garden soil, cow manure and chicken manure to enrich the soil. I also put some slow release fertiliser in the bed to provide additional nutrients.

The bed is now ready to be planted out.