Preparing a vegetable patch

The best way would be to double dig the area you intend to grow vegetables on. Mark out your vegetable patch. Divide it notionally into strips about 9in wide. Dig out one strip to the depth of a shovel or spade, and put the soil to one side. Turn over the sub soil in the bottom of the trench to the depth of the spade or fork. You don't want to dig out this sub soil, just open it up to improve drainage. Now turn the soil in the next trench into the trench you have just dug burying the grassy sod upside down in the bottom. Work your way across the patch until you come to the last trench. Fill it with the soil you dug from the first. The advantages of this method are that you work the soil and open it up, and you bury the grass at a depth where it will decompose into a compost. If you have any organic material like manure, peat or home made compost this could also be incorporated into the bottom of each trench. Remove weeds, roots, stones and debris as you go along. This should give you a nice workable and well drained soil into which you can sow or plant your vegetables or on which you can make raised beds.