New garden bed- In which there is much digging

This project really started some time ago, before the new fence was put in. The pile of grass in this photo actually has a raised garden bed under it.

In clearing the fence line to allow the new fence to be built, my parents helped me to remove the grass, plus the sleepers that made this a raised bed.



When I decided I wanted to put in a lemon tree, I decided that this would be a good spot. To remove the Kikuyu (the really hard to get rid of grass), I decided to dig out the garden bed, and sift the soil to get rid of the grass roots ( and also the large amount of broken glass I was finding in the garden).


Once I dug down about 200mm (to below the level of the grass roots), I discovered that the underlying soil was pretty much solid clay. Lemon trees require good drainage, so the best option seemed to be to build up the garden bed, and fill it with non-clay soil.

I decided that I wanted the raised garden bed to be deeper than the existing area. So I dug out a section in front of the original space. This required a lot of work with the mattock, as the spade wouldn't cut through the Kikuyu roots. I was able to reuse the sleepers that had been removed from the area during the fence clean up. I also bought a couple of redwood sleepers, to accommodate the larger space. I used a bow saw to cut the sleepers into the required lengths.


It took several weekends of hard work to dig out the existing root infested soil, sift it, and put the soil back in place with roots, broken glass and general rubbish removed.

I was finished with that piece of work eventually, but then discovered that I didn't have enough soil to fill the new enclosure, even after mixing in a large amount of composted lawn clippings. I decided to mix the lawn clippings, the sifted soil, and a bag full of fertiliser through to make the bottom layer of soil in the garden bed. Then I ordered a delivery of topsoil from a local garden supply place. I decided to get 2 cubic meters of soil, as I will need to build up garden beds elsewhere in the garden as well.

Here is the big pile of dirt that was delivered.

And here is the remaining dirt, once I had filled up the garden bed with a section. Still a lot there!

I watered the topsoil in thoroughly, using grey water from the washing machine (with Planet Ark washing powder) and left it for a week. Then, this weekend, it was finally time to buy the lemon tree, plus some garden herbs to plant. I bought a Eureka lemon, because they have strongly flavoured lemons, and are supposed to fruit year round.

I dug out the hole for the lemon tree, and filled the base of it with citrus planting mix. I used citrus planting mix to fill in the hole around the lemon tree roots. I made a kind of basin around the tree, to hold water, and watered the tree thoroughly. I then topped up the soil in a few places, from my big pile of dirt. Next step was to plant the herbs. I planted oregano, lemon thyme, marjoram and feverfew. I had wanted basil, but the weather is not warm enough yet, so I will add that in a month or so. Finally, I added some pine bark mulch, to keep the water in the soil, and the weeds down.

I am very happy with the outcome :)