Hi everyone,
I have an east facing spot currently occupied by agiapanthas in the front lawn of my place in Canberra. The soil is pretty poor, with lots of clay.
I’m struggling to find guidance online about how to set up a nice garden bed for a spot like this. I don’t have the means or equipment to make a raised bed unfortunately. Not really interested in planting fruit or veg, more just natives and the like.
Does anyone have any ideas or advice? Or resources they’ve found online that have some clear steps? I have no idea how deep to dig, how to create a boundary for the garden bed, what kind of soil to use etc.
Thanks!!
by mileton1
5 Comments
Start with improving your soil. The easiest and cheapest method to improving soil is putting heaps of mulch on top and waiting.
It’s a really visually boring method, but is the best and cheapest method for any types of future development, much like foundations for building are the least obvious, but most important part of building a house.
Really poor clay soil is an advantage when planting natives that are endemic to your area. Please research.
I made on ground garden beds (not raised/edged) in Gowrie, Tuggeranong, using no dig method in around 2008. Much easier and better for the soil to not dig, except I think you’re going to have to dig out those agapanthus (nightmare plants!). For my native beds I laid down a few layers of cardboard to smother the grass, wetting each layer well as I went, topped with about a foot depth of woodchips free from tree loppers. I made small cutouts in the cardboard to dig holes slightly larger than pots into soil to plant seedlings. They grew really well without much maintenance/effort, apart from regular watering for the first year, tip pruning/shaping and annual topping with mulch
Amend your soil. Compost compost compost. I have clay soil, I’ve used home made compost from lawn clippings/garden waste and when I ran out I bought in mushroom compost.
Dig up those agapanthus, pot them up and either keep them or sell them on facebook marketplace.
If you’re going to plant native plants, some are sensitive to phosphorus so be careful what fertiliser or soils you add. If you use local species, you probably don’t need to do much to the soil, but you do need to stop the grass from taking over the bed. Cardboard with mulch on top is a good way to kill the grass. If you search the sub for “cardboard” there is heaps of stuff on it.