Creating a beautiful outdoor space is one of the privilege's of being a home owner and there is no better feeling then doing it with your own designs and hard work.
ACT Gardening Solutions have helped countless people across the Canberra region establish garden beds and design landscaping ideas. Our team thought there is no better way to help our community then by offering out our knowledge and experience to point you in the right direction to complete a great home improvement.
So let's look at the top tips we always like to achieve when completing minor landscaping projects such garden beds.
Here are our five simple tips:
Mark the area.
Remove existing lawn and plants
Work the soil
Do a soil test
Improve your soil composition
Marking Out the Garden Beds
When designing a garden bed always be mindful or time, resources, space and cost. There are great ways to monitor these considerations by drawing it up on a plan or even getting a hose our to mark the desired area. You can also buy at your local hardware shop some spot marker that will allow you to paint or trace markings onto your garden giving you the spatial awareness needed to confirm your design.
Removing Existing Lawn and Plants
There are several ways to clear away existing lawn and weeds; the decision comes down to budget and how willing you are to roll up the sleeves and do it yourself.
We recommend you start by hiring or buying a cultivator which will rip up all the unwanted plant and grass at the top of the desired garden bed. Once this is complete you will need to remove a depth of approx. 200-400mm for fresh soil and mulch. Please note: If you do wish to plant non established or established plants, please research planting depths for your desired plant species prior to planting.
At this point you can establish a new garden bed with fresh soil from your local soil provider or you can continue with the soil currently in the garden.
Want to work with what you have? Turn your soil over.
So your looking to work with what you have? That's great, now you need to look to turn the soil over and break the compacted soil. The reason we do this is help promote oxygen exposure to the soil and allows for easier root establishment. Don't get to fussy at this point your old soil doesn't need to be perfect.
Soil Testing
At ACT Gardening Solutions, we always conduct soil tests so we can look at soil pH levels so we know what our garden bed needs to promote growth. When we conduct a pH test we are looking for the nutrient breakdown of the soil and particularly pay attention to nutrient inefficiencies.
Depending on the results most new gardens in the Canberra and Queanbeyan region require hydrated lime or garden lime to increase and balance soil pH. The lime offers soil an enrichment of calcium and magnesium that the soil needs to promote fast acting growth.
If your looking to conduct a soil test, our team at ACT Gardening Solutions are happy to help. Contact our team for more information today.
Improving Soil Composition
Finally, look to always improve your gardens with organic matter giving it any final nutrients the garden bed may need. This is done by spreading mulch, compost or weathered manure throughout the new garden bed. Remember to always be generous at this point and the more you place down the better off your garden will be. You can always look to re test the soil in the following three months to see where the pH levels of the soil are at after conducting the following steps.
We hope that helps you get started with your new garden beds as always, if you found this piece of material helpful share it on or help promote it. ACT Gardening Solutions are very thankful for the great feedback we have had from our customers and we look forward to bringing you more valuable gardening knowledge in the future.