Reclaiming Neglected Garden Bed

8 years ago

I purchased a home late last summer. It had a nice little garden in the back. The back yards here slope in the back, and my "slope" is reinforced with a cement wall where homemade wooden steps going up to the top. So it's a separate, raised area. Within that area are 3 garden 3x4 beds wood. The house sat empty for a few months in the California desert heat and the garden was neglected by the time we moved in. Since everything appeared to be destroyed by the sun aside from weeds and we were busy getting the inside ready (new carpet, gutted the kitchen), it stayed neglected even longer. My plan was to just start over.

We went up a few weeks ago to do some cleaning and we found one red onion growing, probably from the rain we've had in the last month. While clearing the weeds in that bed, we also noticed what looked like a chili pepper sitting in the dirt and what may have been a tomato vine. We found a few onions on top of the ground, very soggy and one had black spots on it. When we dug a little bit, we noticed some black dirt on top of harder dirt.

My first plan was to till, add some more soil, and plant. Now I'm wondering if we should lay cardboard wet after digging what's there up, fill, plant a few things, and use mulch around the plants. For sure I'm going to just cover 2 of the beds and plant next year, but I'd like to get something started in one of them.

What would be the best course? Also, I live in a small town so my options for soil are going to Walmart or Home Depot, haven't found an alternative source. The beds are 8 inches deep. I was going to add "raised bed soil". Then I saw some people just using a mix of potting soil and top soil. I was also given vegetable garden soil for "in ground use", I'm just worried about mixing it with what's already out there. Just want to make sure I'm using the best option.

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Comments (4)

Embothrium
8 years ago
Why do you have to raise the level?
ptykty thanked Embothrium
ptykty
Original Author
8 years ago
There's 8 inches of space between the hardened dirt (there's a bit of black dirt, then it's hard under that) and the top of where the bed ends. It looks like a lot of what was there washed away, in the top right corner there is a little pile of soil still there. A lot of videos I've seen have the top of the soil close to the top of the bed, so I was wondering if I needed to do the same? And if so, should I mix it with what's there or put a layer of wet cardboard first.

This is after we did some cleaning,
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 years ago
Yep, there's room for quite a bit more soil! How much you might need to add is dependent on what you might want to grow - you need to match the soil depth to the type of plants and what they require rather than some nebulous video recommendations (and most of the gardening videos I see online are just cr*p anyway).

Deep rooted crops - potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc. - need deep loose soil conditions. Greens and radishes can take much shallower soils but most other veggies like a medium depth. I;d consider 8" a minimum....deeper is better :-)

Ideally, raised bed soil should incorporate some of the inground soil - at least loosen it up sufficiently so that deeper root plants can access easily without stunting growth. Raised bed or garden planting soil that you can purchase bagged will work, but bulk soil will be significantly cheaper if you can get it. I'd also consider adding a bag or two of compost or composted manure to get the soil biology working actively.

And be sure to clear out everything before mixing in new soil or planting anything, otherwise you will be dealing with weeds in those beds from now on. I would do so manually rather than smothering as a) it is much faster; b) more thorough; and c) you will be able to loosen the underlying soil as well. Wet the bed throughly first - it will make the grubbing out of weeds and grasses much easier.
ptykty
Original Author
8 years ago
"and most of the gardening videos I see online are just cr*p anyway"

LOL, this was my biggest issue. I'd watch a view detailed video, and then most of the comments would be arguing if the advice was good or not so I couldn't decide to take it or leave it. I would think I had a plan and then further research made me question everything I thought I knew, LOL.

You're awesome. Now I feel like I'm moving in the right direction. We're going to finish clearing it out and loosen the soil today, and I'll look more into bulk soil.

Thank you!