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How am I supposed to prepare a garden bed for planting a small flower garden?

I'm trying to rehabilitate a small strip of soil in front of our house that had been overgrown with weeds, and "decorated" with those little white decorative stones that haven't been popular since the 60s. I've spent two days getting all the weeds out, digging down to the roots for the bigger ones. Now I just have some mounds of dirt peppered with those damn white stones. What should I do from here? I was thinking to just cut my losses, and shovel the stones, dirt and all, into a bucket and buy new soil. (It's only about a 12 ft by 3 ft strip). If there's something else I should do, what is it? Also, I just want it to be something very simple, just a few annuals with some mulch on top. Nothing high maintenance (lest it turn into a weed garden again! :) Thanks!

Public Comments

1. are you gay dude?
2. the mulch will cover the stones. i would leave them, they 're good drainage.
3. If you cant seperate the dirt from the rock, which it sounds like you cant without a HUGE amount of work, then keep your eyes peeled for free clean fill dirt giveaway in your neighborhood. Check your local craigslist.com to see if someone has posted any dirt. While you are looking, try to find some manure too, for fertilizing the plot. otherwise, you may have to buckle under and buy some dirt. Go to a rock/dirt/shaving place tho and fill the back of a truck, it is MUCH cheaper. And you are right, go with annuals. They will come back every year, and keep the maintainence on your garden to a minimum. Good Luck!
4. if the stones are just an inch or two on the top, they shouldn't bother anything - just turn them in with the soil. After all weeds have been removed, dig down 8-12 inches at least, and break up all the soil. Add about 3-4 sacks of compost (better than topsoil, and usually cheaper) and mix in with the shovel. Level, add plants. If you want real low maintenance, i'd recommend some perennials like daisies and hostas - because they choke out everything else, and look good year after year. After planting, the most important thing is to water the bed regularly and deeply, especially until the plants are established (as evidenced by new growth). have fun. and remember to cheerfully greet the people walking by - comes with the territory.
5. Annuals do NOT come back every year--perennials do. If it's shady, plant Impatience there. If sunny, try some dwarf bushes. Put down lanscape fiber to keep weeds from growing.
6. when you have cleaned up the roots and all, and some sand and some bags of potting soil, mix well, let stand 1 week, add fertilizer mixture of 13-13-13(normal mix), and spray with "roundup or other weed killer (all plant killer) ground is full of seeds from other weeds, and will grow if not sprayed after germination. DO NOT spray after planting your plants or seeds.
7. where you only have 36 sq.feet of space here i would recommend removing the stones and soil as it would only require 1.33 yards of soil to replace it at a full 12" deep ...and you can sometimes buy loam that is weed seed free if you have any dealers in your area, though its really not necessary....i would mix your soil with a little sand(if needed) for drainage and then add some bone meal or super phosphate 0-20-0 right into the mix at a rate of about 5 to 7lbs per 50 sq. feet which will help initiate root growth on whatever it is you decide to plant there...... if you plant perennials i would suggest using a lighter mulch like buckwheat hulls or cocoa mulch as its not as thick and heavy as bark would be--and what you do is plant your plants first then if your not needing to be totally organic put down a product named Preen which is a pre emergence that will prevent any new seed from germinating which means 98% of the weeds in your area would not come up---its a safe product but IS NOT organic...good luck and go see your local garden center for more ideas--you can do something pretty nice in even that small area---------------blanco