I am sure most people are already aware of the many benefits of Raised Bed Gardening and those of you who are still unconvinced look out your window right now.

The reality is that saturated, cold, anaerobic, compacted soils just do not grow good vegetables.[ I wrote this in winter ]
Another reality is that we really have to start doing this Right Now, because food prices, petrol prices and economic conditions are not going to wait for us to get going..
So go get a spade or a shovel and begin removing the sod off your lawn. Just remove the top few inches and make it into a pile so it can breakdown and turn into compost.
Next get a long handled digging spade or shovel, you can get digging shovels from Warehouse for $10 that have a LONG HANDLE. These are often called Ladies Shovels or Small Shovels and the smaller shovel blade has a more acute angle that is better for digging and it holds a smaller volume of soil than a “shoveling” shovel. Never use a short handled spade to dig your garden which requires you to work bent over and will quickly tire you out.
Dig over the whole area you have cleared to a depth of about six inches.
Now borrow or hire a rotary hoe and cultivate the soil till it is a fine texture and has no big lumps.
If you can not afford a rotary hoe buy a large heavy long handled hoe called a mattock, this is the most widely used farming tool in the world.
Use the mattock to cultivate the soil.
Next measure out 60cm pathways and 120cm beds. Use some sticks and strings to mark out the beds and paths.
Throw the soil from the paths onto the beds and rake the bed level, but allow a slight shoulder where the bed meets the path.
Now go buy from FruitFed, Horti-Centre or Ballance some bags of fertiliser.
I recommend you start with chemical fertiliser and go organic later as time is of the essence.
So buy a sack each of Ammonium Sulphate, Potassium Sulphate, Superphosphate, Ag Lime and Dolomite.
If you can get Limeflour which is also called XtraCal from Rd1 it will produce immediately available calcium and quickly raise soil ph.
Rock Phosphate will provide long term phosphate availabilty. The best Rock Phosphate comes from Quinphos and is low in cadmium.
Apply a small handful of Ammonium Sulphate, Potassium Sulphate and Superphosphate to every square metre of garden bed
Apply a large handful of Lime, Dolomite and Rock Phosphate to every square metre of garden bed.
Rake and shovel the fertilisers into the soil.
You now have a basic Raised Bed Garden from which you can feed your family.
It is really simple. Is it not ?