John M. Barr

Native Cottage Gardens

Austin, Texas

(512) 469-0121

john at NativeCottageGardens dot com

How to install a planting bed.

Once you plant an area, it will be difficult to remove weeds, add soil amendments, add paths, and add watering systems, so I highly recommend that you do the prep work before you plant, and that you do it thoroughly.

Here’s my method:

Draw a plan of the hardscape (Grass areas, bedding areas, paths, sitting areas, utility areas etc.).  Plan for drainage issues.  Draw in the plants starting with shade trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, and then perennials.  Watch where the sun hits the ground.

Trace the design using a string trimmer to cut the design into the existing grass, dirt or whatever.  Start lightly so you can make small changes as you go along.

Remove any undesired trees, shrubs, and saplings.  Do lots of digging and get as much of the root as possible.  Usually, if a root is more that 8-12 inches under the ground it will not resprout, but do not cheat---do the job correctly now while you do not have to worry about other plants.

For areas of exclusively turf grass, scalp the grass with a string trimmer removing all leaves leaving nothing but bare runners on the ground.

For all other areas, spray with Round Up brand plant killer.  Follow all label directions, please.  (See below for alternatives to Round Up.)

Till the bed areas.  For small areas a shovel or garden fork is ok.  With a tiller, you will think you have gone down 6-8 inches, but it really only works on the top 2-4 inches!

Add 2-4 inches of good quality compost.  You may have a soil test done; however, the best thing you can add to any type soil is compost.  I like compost with visible twigs or small plant pieces that will continue to break down over the next year or so. (Dillo Dirt and other fine sludge based material are not the same as compost.  They are too concentrated and can “burn” plants.  Dillo Dirt is a good fertilizer for turf areas and perennial beds after they are established.)

Till the compost into the beds.

Sculpt.  Move the soil out of the walkways, paths, etc. and mound it and rake it to get some topography.  All beds should slope away from building so you do not have water problems.

Install hardscape (walkways, paths, brickwork, walls, drainpipe, dry creeks etc.)

Install watering system if needed.  They sure are nice, and they are difficult to install after the planting.

Install edging.  Edging is used to keep one material or plant from another.  It is not necessary along concrete curbs, sidewalks, or driveways   Steel edging or mortared rock/brick is recommended when edging turf grass.  Be careful that you do not create a 'maintenance nightmare' by using loose rock to edge turf grass where weeds and grass runners can hide from string trimmers.

Purchase plants.  Be careful to choose plants for your type soil, water, and sun light (part shade means 4-6 hours of direct sun per day!  (Here’s a trick: Stand in the area where you want to plant with your arms over your head like the hands of a clock to estimate the number of hours the area will get sun.)   In Austin, we have alkaline soil and alkaline water, so acid or neutral loving plants will not do well, no matter how much peat moss or soil conditioners you use!  Every time you water the plant, you will be applying a mild poison.  Lay the plants in the expected locations.  Shuffle them around.  Finalize placement.  Plant them starting with the largest pots first, moving down in size to 4” pots then bulbs.

Mulch with 2-4 inches of coarse cedar or 1-2 inches of fine hardwood mulch.  The coarser mulch will hold up to heavy rain, lasts longer, and is less likely to form an impermeable mat.  Do not use pine bark or other floating mulches.  Cedar will not inhibit the growth of your plants.

Enjoy.

Alternatives to Round Up.  I do not like Round Up, but it is quick and effective.  It is reportedly the least toxic of the toxic plant killers.  It breaks down quickly to “harmless” constituents when it comes in contact with soil microbes, but it must be used on actively photosynthesizing plants (it only works when applied to leaves not stems or roots).  It can be toxic to fish and birds, and it puts money into the hands of Monsanto.  If you ate non-organic corn or soybeans in the last 3 years, you almost certainly have eaten Round Up and Round Up Ready genetically engineered plants made by Monsanto!  About 80% of all corn and over 50% of all soybeans are Round Up Ready.   I do not recommend any other commercial plant killer as they are apparently even more toxic and may leave residual material in the soil.

Lazy method:

Plant your plants.  Cover the areas around them with 2-4 overlapping layers of newspaper.  (Small rocks work well to temporarily hold the newspaper.)   Cover the newspaper with cedar mulch.  Water directly on each plant until it is established.  The newspaper will kill or retard the growth of weeds and then decompose.  You may need to pull some weeds that get past the newspaper, and this may not be easy because of your plants, the newspaper, and the mulch.  Permanent weed barriers, in my experience, do not work.  In the past, newspapers used lead-based ink, but today most use soy based ink and are probably fine to leave in the soil.

The newspaper can also be used under walkways and paths instead of “permanent weed barriers” to slow the regrowth of weeds. 

You can also place 1-2 inches of compost on the soil before planting, then newspaper and mulch as above.

You may combine any of the following methods to increase their effectiveness.

See the Lazy method above.

If the area is not too heavily over-grown, you can scrape the soil clean with a hoe, till the soil and pick out as many roots as you see, then till in compost, and continue picking out any weeds that pop up over the next month or so.  The compost will help by breaking down some of the roots before they have a chance to resprout.  This works, but it is time consuming and it is only minimally effective with Bermuda grass.

Full strength vinegar will kill most plants.  Spray on plants on a sunny day using a pump sprayer.  The vinegar at the supermarket is diluted to 5% and may work.  The Natural Gardener and some other folks carry 10% vinegar that may work better, but it costs lots more!  Our soil and water are alkaline so they will neutralize the acidic vinegar on contact.

You can dig up the soil from all garden beds and pass it through a ¼ inch screen to remove all plants and roots.  This is very labor intensive and back breaking, but it really works especially for Bermuda grass.

Solarizing the beds with plastic sheeting can be effective.  Some folks like black plastic to heat the soil to “sterilization” temperature.  Other folks prefer clear plastic to heat the soil and to promote seed germination.  The plastic must be sealed around the edges and left in place for at least 3 weeks of full sun and hot weather...it does not work in the winter.  I have found this method to be only marginally successful.  Also, the plastic is made from petrochemicals, breaks down in the sun, and it is not easily recycled when you are done.