In the raised bed, I would pull the weeds and test the soil to find out what amendments it will need. (I have been using a home test kit for NPK and pH.) Then maybe plant a cover crop to give the soil something living to work with. Research cover crops for ideas. I have buckwheat that I'll be using in a new bed.

Likewise, you might want to till the other bed and sow a cover crop to start to improve its fertility.

Pulling the weeds and raising the cover crop is lovely, but probably takes more time than you have. Depends on what kind of weeds there are. Where I live there is a lot of quack grass, and I have spent at least 20 hours weeding a few beds (mostly raised) in the past two weeks.

I would suggest something easier, and more environmentally friendly than black plastic, also cheaper. Break down cardboard boxes, cover all the vegie garden space well and let sit several months. That will do in most but not all weeds, and keep new ones from coming along. Also worms are keen on cardboard for some reason.

Marcia

I agree w/ led zep. Cover all beds with cardboard or a thick layer of newspaper. Then build lasagna over that. You will have lovely soil by fall, even better by next spring. Be very generous with the lasagna materials. Twelve to fifteen inches thick is best. Contact a local yard service & ask them to deliver grass clippings & chopped leaves. Look for other materials, too, to make the best lasagna. If you have an established flower bed you are trying to save, you can build piles of lasagna around existing plants & over weed patches. It will all even out as the lasagna rots.

I think I can do this!
But if I cover the bed with cardboard and add 15 inches of stuff, won't the soil be overflowing the edges of the raised bed?

It's not clear to me how building a lasagna bed is less work than sowing a cover crop, but if you've got the time for it, go ahead.

I have a pamphlet from Johnny's Seeds that talks about green manures. One idea is to sow a mix of 60% field peas, 25% oats, 15% hairy vetch at 5 lb./1000 sf for weed supression, improvement of soil life, and the addition of nitrogen. Till this under next spring prior to planting.

Good luck.

Whether you choose a cover crop or a batch of lasagna is up to you. My reasons for choosing lasagna: the ingredients are free, the ingredients are locally available in abundance, I get some of my ingredients delivered to me by the truckload (again, free). Also: I am a no-till gardener and do not want a cover crop that has to be mowed down & tilled in. I simply can not handle the machinery, due to health problems & do not want to spend the money on gasoline, motor oil & cover crop seed. A great lasagna will be heaped up kind of like a souffle. It will stay stacked up if you moisten each layer & will quickly start rotting down. Choose whatever method suits you & your garden will be fine.

Should I be testing the soil for lead before I do any of this? The bed is right next to the house, and it is an old victorian--I'm assuming that it had lead paint on it at some point.... and if I want to plant vegetables, I'd guess that was a bad combination. (or does the lasagna approach make that an unneeded step?)

Hi, Making a lasagna bed is possibly easier than weeding and planting a cover crop, possibly not. (No tiller or digging required.) But what I said is that covering the existing beds with cardboard, to smother the weeds while the renovations are going on, is the easiest thing to do. Later on the cardboard can just be removed or left in place, and gardening can commence in whatever form you prefer.

If you build a lasagna bed up out of materials like wood chips, grass clippings, old produce, manure, leaves, straw, whatever you have, then of course you don't have lead paint in there. The lasagna layers break down over time and get smaller. What I try to do is heap them up in the center, so that as they break down they are never actually falling over the edges.

Of course what is below the lasagna layers eventually gets mixed into the soil. A soil test should help with that, tell them to check specifically for lead.

Marcia