Before you plant anything, tend to the health of the soil. Does it have stuff growing in it now? Does it drain well or are there wet spots where water stands? If you can work in a few soil amendments to boost the vigor of the soil's biological activity you'll do yourself and your plants a huge favor.

If it has had commercial fertilizer or pesticide or herbicide sprays, that could compromise your efforts also - this is why the answer to the first question (does anything grow in it now?) is so important.

Here are some organic gardening bed preparation basics. If you're going to the trouble to start this as a good garden, don't let anyone convince you to use MiracleGro or Scotts or other pestilential products. If it needs fertlizer, look for one of the granular organic ones or simply broadcast an animal feed called dry molasses (bits of chopped up straw that is coated with dried molasses). If you don't have a healthy community in micro-biological part of the garden, your plants will fail to thrive. Sugar stimulates that. There are other products I can name for you, though mail order may be the only way to find them, though I just queried the dirt doctor database of businesses that carry organic products in Alaska and came up with a few. A food grade of diatomaceous earth for general pest control and a bottle of Bt (for application to soil, not broadcast) for worms and caterpillars would be a good start in that product category.

You might warm the soil for a little earlier planting by putting a layer of plastic over the top of the bed for a few days before you plant, or if you have enough of a lip (a few inches) around the bed you could even plant and leave clear plastic over the top for a couple of weeks to boost the early growth of the plants. You DON'T want to "solarize" it and kill everything - keeping plastic off the ground and some ventilation would be necessary.

SRS