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In this video we're going to build a garden bed. Garden beds are a great foundation for
vibrant plants.
There are three steps to building the garden bed. First, marking out the area of where
you want the garden bed to be. Second, we'll dig it up and prepare the soil. Third, pretty
up the edge with some nice garden edging.
The tools and materials you'll need in this video are, some marker dye to mark out the
area where you want your garden bed to be, shovels, mattocks to help you dig out the
area, a garden cultivator to help break up the big chunks of dirt, some compost. In some
cases, some gypsum and lime to help prepare your soil. Finally, your garden edging, to
pretty up the edge.
When choosing a location for your garden bed the possibilities are endless. There's only
a few things you have to take into consideration. If you want vibrant flowers you've got to
pick a sunny spot. Maximum sun for maximum greens.
Once you've found your location for your garden bed the first thing to do is to mark it up.
A good way to do that is with a garden hose. A garden hose is good to use to mark out a
garden bed because they're flexible. You can make any shape you like. They're easy to see.
Once you're happy with your location and your design we need to mark it up so we know where
to dig. For this you really only want to be taking off the grass off the top. You don't
need to go too deep at this stage.
Once you've got your edging done cut across it in small sections so that you can remove
the grass. Just use your shovel under the grass as you cut it out to lift the grass
in small sections.
Once you've dug it all out, just want to clean up the excess grass that's still stuck in
there. You really want to get rid of as much of that grass as possible to prevent it coming
up through your new garden bed.
OK. Once you've cleared your grass, you just want to go down about ten centimeters into
the soil. Break it up a bit so that you can incorporate some of the old soil with the
composting additives that you're going to add. As you're turning the soil, it's also
a good time to go around and just redefine and clean up your edge of the garden bed.
As you can see in this garden bed the soil is really, really good. However, if you're
digging down you come across a bit of clay which doesn't break up as easy. It's quite
sticky. For that gypsum is really good as a clay breaker. Just want to sprinkle that
on to give a nice light coverage over. Then afterwards cultivate that through being sure
to break up any lumps of clay that you come across.
Once you've added your gypsum you want to add a compost to help build up your garden
bed. Help with drainage. It's packed full of nutrients. What you need to do with the
compost is pour it on and mix with a cultivator.
To give your garden a little bit of an extra boost we're going to add some more organic
matter of blood and bone. Cultivate that through.
Now that you've finished your garden bed the only thing left is to do your edging. Roll
out your garden edging. Peg it in. Trim off your excess. Your edging is complete.
There you have it, your nice new garden bed. However, with everything that we've added,
it's best to leave it for about two weeks to allow it to settle.
Any further advice on building your garden bed, hop into your local Bunnings Warehouse,
where a team will be more than happy to give you some advice.