Making a Lazy bed
If you want to convert a patch of grassland into a vegetable patch, there are several options available. Double digging, rotavating and skimming off the grass sods are all possible, but I would always recommend the aptly named "Lazy beds" as the easiest option.
Lazy beds are most commonly planted with potatoes, which grow rapidly and suppress weeds and are able to break
through the sod, and create new ground.
Step 1. Cut down any tall growth, ideally mowing the grass if possible. Once your site is clear, it can be helpful to peg out the bed with string. It’s important that the beds follow any slope in the land, allowing water to drain away.
Step 2. Lay a thick layer of manure or compost, in a line, straight onto the ground. Lazy beds can be made in any width, but in practice, 90cm (3 feet) is a comfortable width to work around. Allow 45cm (18inches) of clear ground at either side of the manure.
Step 3. The potatoes can be either tucked under the manure - 12 inches apart for earlies and 15 in. apart for main crop - or they can be placed on top of the manure. Both ways will work but if you are planting in an area exposed to frost it’s safer to tuck them underneath. Make sure the potatoes are 4 inches in from the edge of the line of manure, as you
don’t want the potatoes poking through the side of the bed and turning green. You will fit two rows of potatoes into a bed of this size.
Step 4. Starting with one side of the bed, cut a straight line with a spade, 18 inches away from the edge of the row of manure and parallel to it.
Step 5. Starting at the top of the bed, make 2 parallel cuts at right angles to the straight line you’ve just cut in step 4,
starting at the line and finishing at the manure to form the first sod. Don’t cut the along the edge closest to the manure, instead use this as a hinge to fold the sod over half of the manure. Keep cutting and folding until you have
covered one side of the row of manure, then do the same on the other side.
Step 6. Dig the newly exposed soil from each side of the lazy bed, putting it on top of the turned sods. These beds are an ideal size for my garden but a large continuous area can be dug this way.
Step 7. As the potatoes grow, you will need to dig up more soil from between the beds, to earth up the growing plants. Where there is only a thin layer of topsoil, the potatoes can be earthed up with grass cuttings or straw to incorporate more organic matter, rather than pulling large amounts of subsoil to the surface.
When you lift the crop, the soil from the beds can be turned back into the hollows between the ridges. The grass and manure will have rotted down leaving a plot of cultivated soil that next year will grow a wide selection of vegetables.
Lazy beds are most commonly planted with potatoes, which grow rapidly and suppress weeds and are able to break
through the sod, and create new ground.
Step 1. Cut down any tall growth, ideally mowing the grass if possible. Once your site is clear, it can be helpful to peg out the bed with string. It’s important that the beds follow any slope in the land, allowing water to drain away.
Step 2. Lay a thick layer of manure or compost, in a line, straight onto the ground. Lazy beds can be made in any width, but in practice, 90cm (3 feet) is a comfortable width to work around. Allow 45cm (18inches) of clear ground at either side of the manure.
Step 3. The potatoes can be either tucked under the manure - 12 inches apart for earlies and 15 in. apart for main crop - or they can be placed on top of the manure. Both ways will work but if you are planting in an area exposed to frost it’s safer to tuck them underneath. Make sure the potatoes are 4 inches in from the edge of the line of manure, as you
don’t want the potatoes poking through the side of the bed and turning green. You will fit two rows of potatoes into a bed of this size.
Step 4. Starting with one side of the bed, cut a straight line with a spade, 18 inches away from the edge of the row of manure and parallel to it.
Step 5. Starting at the top of the bed, make 2 parallel cuts at right angles to the straight line you’ve just cut in step 4,
starting at the line and finishing at the manure to form the first sod. Don’t cut the along the edge closest to the manure, instead use this as a hinge to fold the sod over half of the manure. Keep cutting and folding until you have
covered one side of the row of manure, then do the same on the other side.
Step 6. Dig the newly exposed soil from each side of the lazy bed, putting it on top of the turned sods. These beds are an ideal size for my garden but a large continuous area can be dug this way.
Step 7. As the potatoes grow, you will need to dig up more soil from between the beds, to earth up the growing plants. Where there is only a thin layer of topsoil, the potatoes can be earthed up with grass cuttings or straw to incorporate more organic matter, rather than pulling large amounts of subsoil to the surface.
When you lift the crop, the soil from the beds can be turned back into the hollows between the ridges. The grass and manure will have rotted down leaving a plot of cultivated soil that next year will grow a wide selection of vegetables.
