How do you prepare your garden beds?

[Rhondi]

This year I did a combination of hand tilling for some areas, and smothering the existing grass with newspaper and adding my compost/topsoil mixture on top of that for other areas. No raised beds this year. Even though breaking up the sod by hand is a pain, my plants in those areas are fairing better with that method. I'm thinking, however, that my smother/cover with compost areas were just not deep enough. How did you prepare your land for planting this year?

 

[Jewell]

My garden beds are all no till. I am blessed with great soil and have added lots of mulch during our decades on the property. They were originally smothered with multiple layers of cardboard and a very light topping of mulch. (Originally I used to double dig beds) Because of shade from neighbors trees am moving veggie beds using same cardboard method and have started a Huglekultur. Think the other bed will be made into a modified Huglekultur this fall. In my temperate climate I am hoping to warm up the soil more and solve the problems related to rain most of the year and very dry summers.

 

[Martin]

I generally dig in lots of well composted manure around November, and then the following spring I add a layer of top soil to plant the new years crop in. When the new plants are big enough I mulch around them.

 

[titohunter]

I prefer to get some container fruit plants. I don't want to dig any holes, if i move i don't want to leave them. lol