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Start by laying a garden hose as a guide for edges of your curving beds and borders. Basic stakes and string can be sued to outline a beds and borders with straight edges. Whichever method you use, mark the outline with a thin trail of flour or chalk dust. You could also a cut line with a square-nose shovel. Move your hose or stakes and string out of the way. Remove existing sod from the planting area.

You’ll want to dig a trench one foot wide and one foot deep inside one edge of your bed or border. As you dig, use a wheelbarrow to hold the excavated soil in a wheelbarrow, or toss it onto a tarp next to your planting area. Clear your trench of any large rocks, roots, and weeds. Use a hoe or garden fork to break up the subsoil about 12 inches deep. Cover with 2 or 3 inches of organic material.

Move over about a foot, and start your next trench. You can throw the excavated dirt into your first trench. Keep up with the trench digging until your entire bed has been dug. Spread an additional 2 or 3 inches of organic material over the entire bed, including any fertilizer you want to use. Mix this material into the top six inches of loose soil. (A rotary tiller, which can be rented at landscaping equipment companies and home improvement stores, will help with the entire process.) Use a rake to smooth over the soil.

You are now ready for planting.

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