If you don’t have deciduous trees in your yard, check with your city or local community gardens. They often offer free leaf delivery to gardeners.
It’s really important that you use grass that hasn’t been treated with herbicides or pesticides since these could leach into your garden soil.
You only need a single layer of cardboard to block weeds. Since it will break down after a season, you will need to replace the cardboard the next time you top up your raised bed’s soil.
Most newspapers are now printed with soy-based ink, so they’re not harmful when they break down. However, don’t use glossy, colorful printed inserts which might not use soy-based ink.
Wood chips, sticks, or branches break down really slowly, but they add bulk to your soil. This means you won’t have to fill up your raised beds with soil as often.
When you buy straw, ensure that it’s not hay, which contains seeds. You don’t want grain sprouting in your garden bed!
You can use straight compost without any soil mixed in if your compost is well-aged and no longer smells. The soil level in your raised bed garden will sink a few inches every year as the soil settles. Just add a few inches of compost every year to replace it and keep your soil healthy.
Purchase metal hardware cloth at your local hardware store, farming supply store, or online. If you’ve dealt with pests in the past, it’s also a good idea to put up a fence around the beds, so the gophers can’t climb over the barrier. Make your little garden fence at least 1 foot (0. 30 m) high.
Landscape fabric keeps the soil in place, but water can easily drain away from the soil. This is useful if you’ve got clay soil for instance. To keep the landscape fabric in place before you add the soil, staple the material to the sides of the raised bed.
You can easily cut burlap bags and lay the material flat in your beds.
Only use plastic sheeting if you’re concerned about toxic soil. The plastic sheeting does prevent adequate drainage, and moisture can get trapped between the plastic and the wood of the bed. This can cause it to rot faster.
