building a raised row for planting

Jim and Mary at Old World Garden Farms use a raised row method of planting in their garden.  A link to their blog is found on the right side of my site under "inspiration".  I decided to try implementing a similar method. 

Because of our late spring and uncooperative weather I plan on  gradually converting the south half of the cornfield to raised rows.  The rows of potatoes will be made into raised rows in the fall when the potatoes come out.  I have laid out the rows and begun to make the permanent walkways with grass clippings from the yard.  A few raised rows will be created as I plant the garden but it is getting late and there is a lot to be planted. 

Here is the process that I used to build my first raised row.

First I dug a trench.

Here is the soil that was removed from the trench.

Then I filled the trench with straw.  The straw will hold moisture.

Then I covered the straw with compost to feed the plants.

Then I replaced the soil on top of the compost.

Here i have added a length of fencing to use a s trellis.  

 

In this last picture you can see newly planted corn in the back of the picture.  The sweet potato slips are planted in the black plastic and the grass clippings marking the walkways between the rows.  To the left of the plastic there are five rows of potatoes, three were planted earlier and are up and two more rows are newly planted.