Watch How to Make a Quick and Easy Garden Bed on YouTube.

In the latest edition of Homestead Hangout we put in a no-till garden bed! I’ll walk you through the first steps of how to start turning lawns into food and medicine.

The Method

We had extra supplies left from our big veggie garden build, and we took advantage of a nice stretch of weather to build a simple garden bed.

Our master plan is to remove nearly all of our acre of lawn and have mostly garden beds (with chickens and goats too). As we move away from the house, we want the beds to be more rustic and blend with the natural surroundings.

We used rocks dug out of post holes from our other projects as the edge. Inside, we put down layers of cardboard over the grass. Then we layered in lots of good soil - this was leftover too. On top of that we put crimson clover seed, more soil, and a layer of straw for mulch. We watered it deeply and will continue to do so as needed.

This bed should be ready for a more permanent planting in the spring, but the great thing about the crimson clover is that it’s got beautiful flowers that pollinators like. So it’s ok if hangs around a bit longer while we decided what else to put in.

What do you think the final planting should be?