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Turning old lawn into garden space
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Author:  mskitty42 [ Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Turning old lawn into garden space

Greetings all. I'm in the process of buying a home in northwest Georgia which has about 1/4 acre of grass [unknown kind, but probably mix of bermuda, crab and weeds]. Eventually, I need to get rid of all of it because I simply DO NOT do grass.

But to begin with, I want to kill off a good-sized area for planting veggies, fruit trees and blueberry bushes. I'll be arriving toward the end of January and hope to get started right away to prep for April planting.

I've been doing a lot of reading and listing to The Dirt Doctor, still not quite sure the easiest, quickest, most effective and hopefully cheapest way to do this. Here's what I've gleaned so far -- I would love to have some advice so I can get this right the first time.

1) spray area with Vinegar Herbicide Formula
2) possibly top with layer of compost
3) top with newspaper and/or cardboard [I'll have plenty from moving!]

Do you think this will work? I've also read about scraping the ground first, but that may be beyond me. I'm no longer young!

I'd also put down frames for the raised veggie beds and put some kind of mulch around those and over other walkway areas, then add good stuff to those beds.

Thanks!

Author:  user_48634 [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Turning old lawn into garden space

Vinegar works best on a hot sunny day, so I think that might be out until spring or so.

Compost to mulch is good but expensive. Look for an inexpensive local mulch when you arrive. It should be little bits of stuff, not large pieces of bark. I would use at least 2 inches and preferably 4-10. That is a lot of mulch but it is going to be a garden anyway. You'll find a use for it.

Newspaper and cardboard are ugly but will help stop the penetration of light through the mulch.

Author:  northwesterner [ Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Turning old lawn into garden space

I've been hearing about people watering then anchoring down a sheet of clear plastic on a hot and bright sunny day and letting the sun cook the grass to kill it. I don't have more details than that.

The no-till method of putting down several sheets of newspaper (make it a section at a time, maybe 6-10 sheets per layer) and several inches of mulch over the top will kill it. And you can plant through it, though digging can sometimes be difficult and not ripping out all that you just laid down to kill the turf.

I also don't like to "do" grass. I've tried to kill it but Bermuda seems to thrive on benign neglect. And where I've managed to eradicate it from the lawn, it pops up next door in the garden bed. :-(

Author:  mskitty42 [ Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Turning old lawn into garden space

Thanks, all. I finally arrived and took possession of the house about a month ago, have been busily getting settled and preparing some raised beds for veggies. Whew! SO much to do!

For the small area of lawn I'm currently trying to turn into garden/walkway area, I used a bunch of cardboard leftover from moving boxes. I put down a small amount of compost [no way of getting more here] and some dry molasses, then the cardboard and 2-3 inches of pine straw atop that. Inside the raised beds I've put compost and top soil, plus a few other minor things. I had to borrow a pickup from a cousin to get the compost and topsoil.

I took a peek under the cardboard the other day, and everything seems to be thriving -- especially the broad-leaf weeds, of which there are many. The bermuda grass is just greening up a tad. I don't have high hopes for the success of this, although hopefully the raised beds will be ok. I dug a few holes in the area for planting blueberries the other day, and found that the sod is fairly easily stripped off. I'm curious to see how that works and lasts.

I still have about a quarter acre left to turn into something that doesn't need to be mowed. Any suggestions on the best way to do this are more than welcome!

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