Beginner Gardening: Preferred method(s) for building new flower bed, 1 by warriorswisdomkathy

warriorswisdomkathy wrote:
I'm getting ready to begin redoing my backyard (from what nature did), currently it is wild grasses and some weeds. I began by rototilling everything around the perimeter, (thought I'd have enough room to get the first layer of shrubs in but>>>>>, lol. I have rototilled 3 or 4 times now and is almost weed free. I started rototilling the first round, then pulled the larger weeds that lay on top and let the grasses dry out, ( a week or so), some weed seed began sprouting and so rototilled again. Everything that started to sprout after a few weeks got rototilled and the origional grasses were dried enough to add humus. Now the ground is nearly weed free, so the process will start again with the rest of it. It would have been finished already but we have had record breaking temps and little or no moisture this summer. Our rains have begun so the ground is soft enough to begin tilling again....I'm hoping to begin planting this fall..and no weed barrier will be used,(it's a weed seed trap!!! I know I worked with it in other peoples yards and detest it, is not a strong enough word.).

My first section of flower garden was done this way (45feet wide X 100feet long).

Pix 1: is the backyard that i had begun to rototill, ( a work in progress)
Pix 2: what the flower garden looked like when I began
Pix3: the flower garden took me a few years to complete, actually still filling in a few gaps with flowers to complete my borders
Pix 4 &5: what the border looked like early this spring before much was in bloom