Preparing the bed.

Before I planted anything, I had to make a bed. Gardening books will tell you that to prepare a bed you have to remove all weeds, roots and all, and add this rake that ya-de-ya-ya. I'm sure this is good common sense in most places but this is how weeding occurs in my garden:

Text-book version: Pull weeds from ground taking care to not to snap roots off in the ground as these will re-grow. Shake off excess soil.
My version: Pull weed. Root snaps off and stays in soggy clay ground. Dig weeds out of ground. Try to shake off excess soil (think wet plasticine here). Plant snaps, leaving root in soggy lump of clay soil.

Another way of course is to use weed killers. But this blog is about how do garden in sync with nature not in war against it. I DO NOT like using weed killers. I feel bad enough when I accidentally wash a spider down the plug hole. Anyway, I personally think that some of the "weeds" look very pretty and deserve to be there in their own right. Also weed killers kill plants that can be useful in your garden, such as clover for the bees in your lawn. I have a cat too, and I just know he would go and eat whatever I weed killered because he always just wants to join in! If you want to use weed killers you'll have to go and look it up somewhere else, but I urge you not to.

If you have planned in advance, you can put a black plastic sheet down (the weed control ones that you get at the garden centre) and leave it. I think I remember reading that a less ugly way is to turf over the area you want weed free and then keep the grass cut really short so any taller weeds will eventually die. Both of these methods can take a long time though as some plants have underground root systems that can keep them alive for a long time after you have covered them - sometimes up to two years. But they DO both avoid using poisons :-)

In the end I just dug everything up, kept the plants I wanted (remember, not all plants that plant themselves are weeds. I had buddlia, columbine, and even a elder tree growing around the edge of my fence! Try to find out what they are first before you yank them all out!) and put everything else upside down out of the way. Later, it was made into part of the bed and covered in bark chippings and whenever I see a weed sneaking through I dig it out with my fingers. It seems to be working quite well so far!

If you have poor soil like I do, you will have to add organic material such as compost or soil improver. Old manure is good for this but I'm not sure where you get it from. Try garden centres or farms. I bought something from the garden centre that was simply "Soil improver". Again, if you are organised and are planning in advance, you can start making your own compost. I've added a link to the relevant bit on the Gardener's world website that will tell you how to do this

My brother did all the hard work digging the soil improver into the soil and mixing it in and then it was time for the fun part - putting the plants in!


Ash, the cat, helping out. Or is he just practising his hunting? He is still a kitten really at six months and only learning - just like me!