Are you in a hurry to make the beds?

Check the Soil, Compost, Mulch forum on interbay mulch/lasangna beds/sheet composting.

This is how I make a new flower/shrub bed:
Outline the spot, lay several sheets of newspaper or cardboard over the area, wet it down, pile all kinds of organic materials: leaves, shredded paper, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, manure, compost, straws, grass clippings, etc. any organic materials you have on hands will do, except meat. I then top off with soil and start planting into pocket of soil in the cooking compost.

Very simple and not much expense involved. Please, do check the FAQ on the Soil, Compost, Mulch forum. You'll get a lot of practical and interesting ideas on how to improve your soil condition.

Have fun. :-)

Another vote for the lasagne method.
Worked great for me.

I would suggest that you make your beds wider. You won't be able to plant much in 1.5 to 3 foot wide beds. I have a long fence across the backyard like you and my beds go from 4 feet deep to 12 feet deep. I used long sweeping curves and it looks awesome. Originally, I was a bit worried about the 12 foot deep part of the bed but it has worked out beautifully. I put stepping stones through the bed so I can walk through it and tend the plants without compacting the soil.

Here is a shot of the yard. The depth of the curve in front of the plum tree is 12 feet deep.

In this picture you can just see the stepping stones in the bed.

Hope this helps,

Danni

That looks really nice. May I ask how you made those beds? Did you have clay underneath?

I don't think we have clay although the neighbour says we have clay. Whatever we have, everything grows quite nicely in it.

Anyhow, we hauled in 20 cubic yards of topsoil and spread it over the whole yard. The yard was grass/weeds and one narrow bed along the fence. We covered everything with the topsoil (had to move a few perennials around and buried a few others but it all worked out). Where we live, the ground sinks due to the uneven decomposition of the subsoil which is muskeg. We have to redo the whole yard every 10 years or so. Once the topsoil was spread and pretty well leveled, we laid the sod and cut out the beds. I used spray paint to outline the beds before we put the sod down and then cut the sod to fit with a knife. Winter came so we took a break.

In the spring, we added manure and peatmoss to improve the topsoil and dug in the whole thing by hand. We then planted the perennials. To keep the soil from compacting, I don't walk in the beds themselves, just on the stepping stones.

This past fall, we shredded the leaves from our trees and put them down as mulch. I am going to leave the leaves there over the summer to feed the soil and serve as mulch. So far, most of my perennials seem to have survived as most are peeking out of the ground.

Hope that my ramblings answered your questions.