Here are some pictures from us building our 3rd herb bed. As you can see, the plot is initially filled with various weeds as well as incredibly rocking soil. The first job is to cut all the plant growth back and then remove the roots and rocks with a pickaxe and a hoe.
This next picture is of a two volunteers using the level and some fishing line to create a straight line that will be used to build the stone wall. The basic idea is that w want the wall to be even along the top so that all soil is retained within the wall and there are no leakage or drainage points, which remove soil fertility from runoff and leeching.
This is a picture of myself and Jorge standing over th pile of rocks we pulled from the soil. Ridiculous. We are now selecting rocks to be used in the retaining wall that will be built next.
We note that not as much effort went towards soil improvement as did in the vegetable bed. Due to the location of the herb beds, making charcoal is not possible and double digging is not really necessary. We do plan to add charcoal, but as for now, we only added compost and a heavy layer of mulch.
This is the end result. Note the retaining wall and the stone path in the middle of the bed. This path is so that the soil is never compacted by people feet. From this path, all points of the bed can be reached easily for cleaning, harvesting and other jobs.
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