Gardening is a favorite hobby of many of our fellow citizens. In other years, only having your own personal plot allowed you to keep the family budget afloat, and today the garden can be considered as a source of fresh and environmentally friendly products for the family table.
But in order to get a rich harvest, it is very important to master competent soil cultivation technology, because otherwise you will not be able to provide a normal vegetation process for the crops you grow. In particular, it is very important to know how to properly make beds in the garden. This article is devoted to consideration of this issue.
Initial soil preparation
If you intend to use some area for beds, it is necessary to process and dig it as carefully as possible, simultaneously freeing from debris, plant roots and trees. If you plan to make beds in the area on which some household buildings previously stood, you will have to spend a lot of time cleaning it from construction waste. As a rule, in this case a lot of glass, grapes and the remains of boards remain in the ground. All this must be removed.
In addition, after this it is advisable to bring a layer of normal soil there, from which the beds will be formed. Of course, you can try to grow plants on the remaining soil, but its fertility will be a big question.
What should you pay special attention to?
Before you make the beds in the garden, it is very important to prepare the bottom layer of soil. The fact is that with its strong compaction, moisture will constantly be retained on the beds. In dry years, this is good, but the rest of the time, the risk to the plants will constantly remain, since their roots can simply rot.
For cultivation, it is advisable to use a cultivator, since manually manually loosening the soil will be very difficult. Important! If you are making garden beds for the first time, it is advisable to give the soil for examination: it may be too acidic or alkaline. It is better to immediately add the appropriate additives to it, since otherwise it will not work to grow a rich harvest.
Among other things, we would recommend planting green manure on newly cultivated lands. In their quality it is best to use alfalfa or other legumes. No need to sow rye, as it makes the soil very acidic. An exception can be made only for highly alkaline soils. Of course, in this case, all agricultural activities take much more time, but all costs pay off.
When the issue with the soil is completely resolved, you can start marking the beds.
Location Tips
Of course, the creation of beds always begins with the delineation of boundaries and digging, but it is important to remember that high crop yields can largely depend on other factors. Before you make the beds in the garden, it is also important to choose their location in relation to the cardinal points. You should not take this issue lightly, since the productivity of plants depends on the correct choice of place.
Let's give some generally accepted rules that should be followed when creating platforms for growing various crops. So, ridges for vegetables are located in the direction from north to south. It’s best to make them rectangular. It is believed that it is more convenient to process the ridges if they have a width of 1.2 m. The length can be any, it all depends on your preferences and the size of the site.
The paths between the ridges are made at least 40 cm wide, but it is preferable to provide even wider passages, since in this case it is possible to strengthen the edges of the ridges with the help of boards or slate.
About the same requirements apply to the breakdown of flower beds or discounts. Of course, their angles are much better to make rounded, since those look much better. Before you make the beds in the garden, it is most preferable to outline their future borders with twine and a few pegs. Do not forget to indent, as otherwise you will not have room for aisles.
What to do if you arrange a bed in a former meadow?
Important. In this case, carefully remove the turf. Make compost out of it: this fertilizer contains a huge amount of nutrients that contribute to a significant increase in soil fertility. Here's how to make a nice garden with which you get a great crop!
Digging Tips
Digging the soil should begin from the edge of the string stretched along the border. With a shovel, you need to work so that you get a neat and well-defined line. In this way, we dig the entire border of the bed. Be sure to pay attention to how dense the earth is at the depth of the bayonet of a shovel. If there is a lot of clay, you will have to dig two or three bayonets of a shovel inland. Or use a cultivator or even a tractor.
Use a hoe or a hoe!
Removing the layer of turf, you will find that under it there is quite decent, but still somewhat dense soil. If the earth is caked too tightly, it will be preferable to process it with a hoe, since in this case you tear the roots of the plants, and the soil structure becomes much better. Since it is not easy to make a garden with your own hands, you need to purchase all the necessary tools for tillage in advance.
In a word, the creation of beds is a rather troublesome and laborious affair. Therefore, it is worth taking care of preserving the results of your work, strengthening the resulting ridges. The easiest way to use the boards, scoring pegs to maintain them. But much more durable is the blind area made of bricks or natural stone. In addition, she looks much more beautiful.
Doing a garden with your own hands (including beds), do not forget about the accuracy of your work. Such a personal plot will bring you a lot of positive emotions!
We advise you to do the lining not immediately, but after the second or third season, since before that the soil will have to be shaken more than once. Facing will interfere with the performance of this work with due care.
And how to make beds in the garden, if you want to receive crops from them as early as possible, starting from April-May?
We make warm beds
In order to get a rich harvest of
melons and cucumbers in our middle zone, the natural vegetation period is not enough, because the earth heats up too late and freezes quickly. Since it is not difficult to make a warm bed, you can correct this annoying misunderstanding without spending money on building a greenhouse or even a greenhouse.
By the way, what is it? In this case, before starting the development of the site, you need to dig a ditch 40-50 cm deep, which completely repeats the contours of the future beds. Layers of manure are laid there, which must be alternated with the remains of tops, rotten wood and similar organic residues. It is also allowed to use kitchen waste.
Before you make a warm bed, you can also buy horse manure. It heats up best. Having thrown a layer of waste flush with the edges of the ditch, we lay fertile soil on top of it, and the thickness of its layer should be at least 40 cm, since otherwise the roots of the plants can burn out.
Further actions
After that, we cover the finished garden bed with film and leave it for a couple of days. When the earth warms up significantly, you can plant seedlings. It is better to combine this method with the installation of a film shelter. In this case, planting can begin almost immediately after the snow melts and the disappearance of severe morning frosts.
Here's how to make beds in the garden. There are some difficulties with this, but as a result, you will get an excellent harvest of your own vegetables.