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kellyabobbyc

Completely new, several questions

kellyabobbyc
12 years ago

Hello everyone! I just found this website today, and it seems like everyone is very helpful! I'm from New Jersey, in USA. We bought our house a little over a year ago, and we previously lived in apartments, which didn't allow planting. I was very excited to be able to have a beautiful garden, and as soon as fall/spring rolled around, I bought myself some gloves, a shovel, and a roto-tiller attachment for our weed-wacker. The entire perimeter of the house has a 3-4ft. garden bed circling it, and it was completely covered in various plants/flowers/and probably lots of weeds. There's a beautiful 4ft Japanese Maple tree in the front section of the bed, and a baby Japanese Maple just starting its growth at about 1ft tall. Problem is, the previous owner was very elderly, and it appears she didn't care for the garden for years, considering all of the overgrowth. My plan was to remove everything (besides the maple trees) and plant various flowers in the front and side of the house, and plant vegetables/fruit in the back section of the house. However, as I started to dig things up, I found the dreaded landscaping fabric, that was basicall sewn to the ground, probably had been there for atleast 10yrs if not more... We've gotten the whole front bed cleared out (in removing the fabric, I accidently tore up the baby Japanese Maple, and I replanted it - just dug a 1ft deep hole and dropped its roots in there...), but it's a pain in the butt, because there are weeds popping up everywhere around the sides and back.. So my questions are:

1) I'm thinking about just planting in the soil once I get all the fabric up, will I have a problem with weeds?

2) To save $, I was considering bordering the garden bed around the house with river rocks (literally going to the river, grabbing various rocks, and putting them down around the border) is that an option?

3) In planting edibles (vegetables/fruit), do I need to test the soil, to make sure it doesn't contain lead, or anything poisonous?

4) Any tips are welcome, because I'm really just guessing at everything here, and finding random articles online to help me.

Thanks so much for your time & help! God Bless!

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