Starting to raised beds from scratch- Weeds!
rorsheridan
Posts: 2
Hi all, I have got round to sorting out my house garden for the first time hooray! We bought it already with two nicely raised flower beds/wooden beams on each side of the grass. I have ripped out all the weeds in sight and as deep and as many roots etc as possible. I have noticed that after 3 days or so tiny little surface clover like weeds are appearing! where are they coming from after everything has been removed!
My question is how do I start from scratch?
I have put down weed killer, covered both beds in newspaper and removed all weeds, vegetation, the beds are about half full with soil,(roughly 20 cm depth at the mo and 60cm wooden beams) what should I do now to stop weeds growing back and grow successful beds?
I was thinking of putting weed matting over the newspaper and then buying loads of new compost from lidl to fill up the beds to a decent level now they are only half full of soil. Will this be sufficient, and then I will be getting as many cheap and cheerful colourful plants as possible to fill both sides.
Does this sound like a good plan in order to stop future weeds and have two nice pretty raised beds? Any other suggestions or things I need to look at while starting from scratch?
Chee for the help
Last edited: 31 May 2016 16:03:50
Posts
weeds are always there, weeding is a major part of gardening. pull them up, use a hoe. Weedkillers aren't the way forward, once you get plants in they'll kill the plants as well.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Am I right in thinking that the more plants I grow the less weed sthere will be also as there will be more competition for nutirients, light and water etc?
Also I have a literally barron 'lawn' with loads of dandelions and other heavy weeds, ive gone over it with lawn weed killer and dug up most of the roots and weeds from underneath with a spade. Shall I just whack a load of poundland grass seed down and spike it in and water, or is there something else I need to do?
Once again the same applies does it, the more grass there si the less likely weeds will grow as more competition etc
Yes to the first, fill a bed up with plants and unless you've got deep rooted perennial weeds in there it will do the job, smother the annuals and the seedlings. This only really works for good perennial leafy plants. Not so good for the annual bedding regime
I don't do 'lawn' I have grass and mow the weeds. Grass not so effective as a weed smotherer because it's not allowed to smother, it gets beheaded
In the sticks near Peterborough
You may have compacted soil under the lawn (you can tell I speak from experience!) in which case you would be well advised to plough the whole thing up and follow guidelines for laying turf. If, like many of us, you just want some usable grass then follow guidelines for oversewing your barren turf to get an acceptable balance of grass to weeds.
I spent years perfecting my lawn and am now introducing plugs of daisies and buttercups to turn part of it into a wildflower meadow.
I would buy topsoil rather than compost. There's not much body to compost and it'll be done in six months.
Before putting it in, I'd put a nice big bag of manure in the bottom and mix it in with your soil that's already there, then top it with the topsoil.
Just my method, others vary.
Ok great so the neds are 60cm deep, shall I put any barrier in or plastic/weed matting sheeting. Or shall I just add topsoil to what is there, weed and get planting?
Can you post a pic - struggling to visualise what you're describing rory