My mother, who instilled in me a love of gardening, creates pristine, lush landscaping worthy of a botanical garden using by the book methodology and sweat equity.  I, on the other hand, achieve positive results cultivating more naturalized, informal gardens with techniques involving the least amount of energy, time and money feasible.  Both of our methods will be the focus of The Lazy Gardener, updated throughout the month online beginning with this entry on preparing new beds.

In designing a bed, mother taught me use curves rather than straight lines to soften the hard edges of structures like buildings, driveways, walks and patios.  She uses a long hose to outline the bed and visualize the curve that looks best.  

A major factor for me in choosing the placement of beds and plants is to accommodate the neighborhood critters.  While many gardeners chase off dogs and other animals, one reason we live in the county is to avoid leash laws.  My little water pond seems to draw every dog, cat and bird in the area for a refreshing drink or dip throughout the summer. Our dog, who is particularly social, has a number of friends who will actually scratch on our door or bark for him to come out and play.  Over time, I’ve noticed that all of these animals have remarkably consistent habits as far as where they cut through coming and going and where they like to relax or nap.  I watch their habits and add paths, move plants or place more durable specimens accordingly, thus experiencing very little damage to my plantings from their wanderings.

If you are adding a new bed that is not up against a structure of some kind, start small, leaving room to mow completely around it the first year.  This allows easy access for maintenance and staggers the workload for establishing a new bed.  My vegetable garden is a series of strips I can mow between instead of a large plot.  There is no point in weeding and feeding between rows.  Also it makes it unnecessary to step in the beds which compacts the soil and slows plant growth.

Next, my mother would spend many hours amending and preparing the entire bed by putting (in order of her preference) chicken, cow or horse manure or Peat Moss over the area.  Horse manure, she cautions, contains the most weeds.  These can be purchased or many local farmers allow gardeners to help themselves to their piles.  Be sure to choose the oldest end of the pile.  Once you load on your enrichers, take a large spade, stomp it down as far as it will go then turn the dirt and break up the new top soil to mix it and eliminate the clumps. The result is a loosely packed, rich soil conducive to optimium growth for plants.  It is also optimium for weed germination and growth, so planting should take place right away, followed by mulching.

This is too much back breaking work for me.  I simply cover the area with newspapers in the winter and by spring it is ready to go – no digging, tilling or weeding necessary!  This can be done in the spring too and actually, if I have particular weed or drought problems I will add papers between plants throughout the growing season.  They will smother the vast majority of weeds so leaving the weeds adds a green layer to my self-composting beds.  Be sure to use papers with soy based ink and avoid any glossy inserts, ad circulars or magazine as these are not “green” publications. If you don’t consume your news via a dead wood edition, check the neighbor’s recycle bin or ask your local paper about end rolls.

As you stack on papers, pull them apart and overlap multiple layers, otherwise weeds will pop up between them.   In the winter you can layer them very thickly, but if you are starting this spring you may want to make thinner layers where you plan to put plants as they are hard to cut through until they break down.   If you have tall or particularly sturdy stemmed weeds you may want to cut them down or bend them over and step on them so the papers lay flat.  I  pull any Johnson grass as it’s tough enough to survive and eventually poke its way through, though it’s about the only thing that can.  

Next, top the papers with mulch taking care to cover the edges of the papers particularly thick so that the wind will not flip them up.  Unless you have put some type of edging around the beds, go extra thick on the outside edge too so your lawn mower won’t grab them.   I do not use edging as I do not like to weed eat. Finally, weigh them down with a good dowsing of water.  Either drag your hose over and soak them completely or use my method of checking the weather and laying your papers on a day that has a high chance of afternoon or nighttime rain or snow.  You sometimes have to battle the wind a bit in this scenario, but can do so by putting a small clump of mulch in the center of each group of papers as you lay them.

You can first dig holes and plant, doing the above around the plants.  However for best results, the lazy gardener is a patient garden and it’s better to let the papers and mulch break down for a while before planting.  As you plant and add more layers you will be inadvertently enriching your bed.  For a bigger jump start on the self composting process you could add a layer of nutritional matter under your papers, but this would involve a longer wait as too much heat might be given off during the decomposition for the plants to survive.

Easy as pie!  The next move for the lazy gardener is to spend the time you would have spent turning, amending and weeding these beds sipping a tall glass of ice water (insert your beverage of choice) and brainstorming all the great plants that can be added to the new garden area.  I allow a significant amount of time for this practice every time I garden!

About the author: Kim’s love of gardening was instilled in her by her mother who creates pristine, lush landscaping worthy of a botanical garden using by the book methodology and sweat equity.  Kim achieves positive results cultivating more naturalized, informal gardens with techniques involving the least amount of energy, time and money feasible.  Learn about both their techniques throughout the month in the Lifestyle section at www.Amplifier.BGDailyNews.com