g'day frosty-gardener,

nah just lay thick news paper and build raised beds no need for edging right up front but you can use anything for that job. see our web page in the garedening section there will be some ideas there for you. any questions just ask.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

try peter cundles page on the abc web site - shows you how to do it from scratch

do you want raised beds or just a vegie patch where the lawn is?

raised beds are fairly easy = put in a border (tho not really necessary)

cover the area you want as a vegie patch with paper - use a broadsheet like the SMH - three or four pages thick and overlap each page by about a quarter. Pile up something for your vegie patch to grow in - straw mixed with some manure or good quality soil from a soil merchant. and go from there

if you don't want a raised bed - use something like zero - mark out the size of the bed by cutting with a spade (so you don't kill of all of your lawn) and spray with zero - I think you have to leave it for a week or two. after that you can start digging and improving your soil ready for vegies - add manure, or grow a geen manure crop such as beans and peas (when they gat about 20-30cm tall you dig them in)

or if all of that digging gets you down, try planting spuds after you've zeroed and let the spuds "dig" the garden for you for the first growing season

do read peter cuundles page or try and get a permaculture book fom the library or a book on no dig gardening. My local library has all of the peter cundle videos on how to prepare a garden

have fun

OK - to quote the builder's mate (I was laying a no dig garden on grass while our renovations were being done) :
"You put it on THAT thick? Maybe that's why mine didn't work?"
He was referring to the fact that I was putting 10 to 12 pages thickness of newspaper underneath the lucerne pads. He had put only 4 or 5 pages thickness and had the weeds grow straight through it, eeven with good overlap. Put it on thick, water it thoroughly, lay 10 to 15 cm pads of lucerne hay (tight pads straight from the bale, not loosened up) and water it all thoroughly. Add plenty of manure, compost, lime, blood and bone. The lucerne should not be visible through the manure and compost. Water again, and top up with fluffed up wheaten or oaten straw, or used stable straw if you can get it.
All the watering is so that the lucerne bales start to rot immediately. They make a wonderful medium for the roots of plants to grow into, and the worms start working the lucerne, manure, and newspaper into the soil underneath.
There is no digging at all with this method, except for maybe emptying the wheelbarrow of manure and compost.
Give the whole thing a few weeks so the layers start to meld together, then place 1/2 bucket of good quality soil per plant ofr tomatoes, zucchinis, cabbages, etc, or a row about 10cm wide, and 15 cm deep to plant seeds into.
Spuds grow exceptionally well in a no dig garden - you put them at the bottom on the newspaper, and skip the lucerne layer. Good if you have a reasonable depth of soil underneath for the spud roots to work for you, BUT it's hard to completely get rid of the spuds.
Edna Walling popularised the method in Australia and her book is titled simply "No Dig Gardening".

Thanks to all who responded. That gives me something to go on with. I may get back to you experts when I am ready to plant.
Thanks again, Ron (Frosty)