Somehow I forgot to mention that once you've got the bed full of yard debris, cover it all with several layers of newspapers/cardboard before adding the soil.

I have been doing these for growing vegetables for a few years now. As I add more compost and soil, I will add another layer of landscape timbers so the bed becomes taller and easier for me to work.

The only drawback I have found is tree roots (even from trees farther away) seem to find their way to the good soil and moisture. I have since been lining the bottoms of the bed with a weed cloth barrier.

Anyway, I concur ~ it is easy peasy and will recommend it highly. Thanks for sharing the idea!

It was my pleasure

so one layer on the grass and another over the twigs etc?

Nah...I just did the cardboard/newspaper as the very top layer of what I put in the bed. The grass and whatever weren't necessarily even throughout -- it was just wherever it landed when I tossed it in. I wound up with 2-3 inches of soil over the newspaper/cardboard, but the roots of the plants can push through the paper/cardboard and find plenty of room to grow deeper if they want. I have daylilies in my bed, and this is one that I bought in Feb, planted in the bed in late Feb/early March, and dug up to relocate in late May. I'm thinking it had no complaints about the soil only being 2-3 inches deep.

canadanna said:so one layer on the grass and another over the twigs etc?

@Canadanna .... I was just re-reading this thread and the comments, and realized I might have misinterpreted your question when I answered it last fall.

If I have enough cardboard/newspaper, I will cover the ground before I start adding any kind of yard-waste to the bed, as a weed-blocker. Then, once the bed is full of yard-waste and I'm ready to add soil and plant in it, I cover the twigs, etc with newspaper/cardboard so that I have a platform of sorts to hold the soil. Otherwise, the soil would sift between all the yard-waste, and it would take more bags of it to fill the bed.

Thanks for the clarification!