Bed building: Quick, Cheap, Easy?

Sounds like everyday decisions at my last job, because you only get two of the three.  Anyway.   Here are a few of the different kinds of garden bed building I know of; will be doing research on this and will likely find more methods shortly.  :) Most of them involve putting together things that, when they compost, create excellent soil for growing gardens in.  Please note that this is talking about raised or bermed beds -- building boxes is for another post.

Ruth Stout's method: Very basically, you whangle some nice yard maintenance companies (baked goods are helpful) to dump a load of leaves on your property.  Then you push it together until it's a bed.  Wet it down and wait a couple of months, or through winter, until it's crumbly deliciousness and plant in it.  This is basically what nature does anyway when all the leaves fall.  Mulchy goodness.  Since most of Ruth Stout's books are out of print (link to ridiculously expensive used book below), here is an excellent story on "The Mother of No-Till Gardening" at Mother Earth News. 

Lasagna method: Kind of the same as Ruth's, only you layer things carefully.  The microherd needs a few different things to get to work.  It has to be warm enough for them to party down, they need water because it's not BYOB, and they need both types of munchies: carbon and nitrogen.  The Lasagna method aims to provide a good buffet along with everything else, and takes a stab at creating good texture and nutrient content as one goes along.  Here's Patricia Lanza's definitive book.

Delivered method: Pay oodles of cash to have finished compost/soil/what-have-you delivered right to your front lawn.  Fill in your beds with the delivery, add amendments and you're ready to go.

Hugelkulture ("mound method") method: Find a downed tree that's been rotting for a while.  Haul it into your bed.  Cover with native soil and Bob's your Uncle.  As the already-crumbly tree breaks down all the stored nutrients will be slowly added to your beds. 

Sheet bed building: Stare contemplatively at lawn while amassing material.  Measure out your planned bed space, mark and soak.  Pile on newspapers or cardboard.  Soak.  Pile on garden clippings.  Soak.  Pile on hay, last year's leaves, coconut coir or other dry fluffy material.  Soak.  Pile on whatever soil you have to hand.  Soak. Cover with a mulch such as bark, cocoa hulls, or whatever heavy comes to hand.  Leave this bit dry. If there's enough soil, you can cut through the mulch to plant in that last layer.  Otherwise, wait a couple of weeks for the soaked pile to break down a bit and then plant. 

I'll be trialing these methods.  A new Venn diagram will follow with the much more useful "Yield, inputs needed, Renovation needs"

Fun Fact: Renovating crap soil is pretty easy with any of the methods above.  As long as you have the ingrediants for a microherd party-down, you can make beautiful fluffy soil under wherever you put your beds.