Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
ibarney5

Easiest/cheapest way to convert my grassy backyard into a garden?

ibarney5
11 years ago

I am planning on doing much more this upcoming year than the two rows I did for this year. This year was my first garden and I made my fair share of mistakes, but I did produce a little bit until I finally lost my battle with weeds. That's what I get for tilling grass and all.

Anyways, next year I want to go bigger, but I have no idea how to get rid of that pesky grass. I've been told some of it is crabgrass and maybe Bermuda. I would like to go as cheap as possible. I have access to large sheets of cardboard from the grocery store I work at. Other than that I have no clue about how to have success at this. I have attached a picture of my backyard. The soil seems good, we produced this year without doing anything to the soil besides two minimal applications of fertilizer. There is a little slope. I was standing downhill.

What should I do?

Comments (28)

  • fruitmaven_wiz5
    11 years ago

    I would say lasagna gardening (google it), but I'm in WI and don't have to deal with Bermuda grass. Cardboard on the bottom, some compost or manure, hay/straw on top. Depending on your location, these things may be easy to get or really hard to find. But it's definitely the easiest way to smother grass and get a garden started.

    Oh, I did read about one more way. Buy bags of topsoil (or compost) and just leave them where you want your garden. Over time, the plastic and weight kills the grass underneath, and you can plant directly in the bag if you want. (poke holes in the bottom and then cut a square out of the top to plant in.). Not the cheapest method though, if you're doing a large area.

  • RpR_
    11 years ago

    If you have crab grass then either you chemically address the problem or you will always have crab grass.

    I have pulled it by hand but that does not get the seeds so a pre-emergent is necessary to stop the seeds.

    Other wise do not till the grass under, that merely spread it out, take a shovel and turn it under in the fall; i.e. a shovel makes a hole six to eight inches deep, most grass cannot come up through that much soil.
    You will have some survivors but as there are far, far fewer they are easier to get rid of by pulling or spraying.

    If you have quack grass there is nothing beside grass killer to get rid of it, period.
    I have decades of dealing with it to learn that.

    As the one poster above said putting enough inches of soil or what ever on top of the grass will do similar to what turning with a shovel does with the exception the ground will not be loosened.

    Easy does not exist, except in books for people who get paid to write books.

  • glib
    11 years ago

    The least painful is cardboard and wood chips IMHO. It does have a bunch of drawbacks. First, you will have to plant through the chips for two years, meaning you grow everything from transplants and you have to physically punch a hole through chips and cardboard. Second, it will not improve the soil as much as leaves or manure, though it will improve it over time.

    OTOH, it is free, it eliminates weeding for two years, and it is applied very quickly. Best kill ratio is obtained, probably, by laying down cardboard in late winter, and by using at least 6 inches of chips. You would have to have grass barriers surrounding your beds, otherwise grass will creep in from the sides. A trencher and thick plastic are probably enough, though my cinder blocks do block grass except where they join.

    Why do I like this? Because I spend more time weeding, at a time when it is unpleasant to work (midsummer), than I spend seeding in the spring. You can do some beds in other ways, so as to have them ready sooner for direct seeding of small seeds, arugula, kale, turnip, lettuce, celery, parsley, carrots. Garlic, beans, favas and potatoes will come up through the chips, no problem. As a matter of fact, my garden is a mixture of wood chipped and unchipped beds. It takes about three years for a bed that has been chipped to be ready for direct seeding.

  • mandolls
    11 years ago

    I wish I had a nice big flat sunny area like that to work with!.

    Last year I had one smallish (6x8)area that I didnt want to deal with de-sodding-digging etc. I dug 4 holes for the zucchini that I wanted to put there and amended the holes with composted manure. Then covered the rest of the space with cardboard, and topped that with wood chips. This year, I raked off the wood chips and the cardboard had disappeared/compsted, and the grass/weeds were completely gone. It made it very easy to deal with replanting the area.

    So.......I would recommend cardboard and mulch or compost this Fall, and then till it all in the spring.

  • gardenlen
    11 years ago

    g'day barney,

    here is what i would consider the easiest and cheapest.

    think outside the square.

    len

    Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden

  • soilent_green
    11 years ago

    Easiest: Herbicide. Will not solve weed seed issues, though. Residues will remain in the soil until they break down, if they break down. Not against using it, just inform yourself of the potential negatives.

    Cheapest: Lay down a black tarp, old carpet, cardboard, or whatever to kill the grass and weeds over time. Will not solve the weed seeds issues, though.

    Wisest: Rent a sod cutter such as this one from your local rental center. You will be removing the layer that has all the most recent weed seeds in it. When you add compost and till the soil, the aeration will bring the garden soil level up to the level of the lawn surrounding the garden.

    You will never eliminate weeds. Weeding is part of garden maintenance and it is the price one pays for the bounty one receives. Nothing in life comes free.

    Best wishes on success.
    -Tom

  • RpR_
    11 years ago

    Soilent is correct, I forgot that one.

    Do not throw away the sod rolls. Pile them up and cover them with a black cover of some kind and you will have pretty good extra dirt for later use after the heat and a natural process reduces it to dirt.

  • fruitmaven_wiz5
    11 years ago

    Though mulching (with straw, wood chips, leaves, or whatever) does reduce the amount of weeding you have to do. I spend perhaps 15 minutes per week weeding four 4'x4' veggie plots.

  • fruitmaven_wiz5
    11 years ago

    Also, I love gardenlen's straw bale garden. I don't have access to that much straw and compost (until we buy a truck, it all needs to go in my Honda Fit. With the seats up, since I'm hauling two kids too.)

  • pnbrown
    11 years ago

    That looks like more than a little slope. Slope is a major factor, don't underestimate it.

    Also, please do not allow anything said here to persuade you that there are weeds that can only be dealt with by using herbicides. That is simply nonsense, spread by those that have only ever fought weeds but never made an effort to learn about the weed/soil system. Grass weeds can be greatly controlled by bringing calcium, magnesium, and potassium into balance. If grass is dominating a garden then it's pretty likely that calcium can be increased. The best investment you can make in your gardening future is to buy Charles Walter's book "Controlling Weeds without Poisons". It's a priceless collection of knowledge.

    Regarding your OP, easiest and cheapest may be at odds. It's pretty easy to hire someone to turn over the sod in your backyard, but not cheap perhaps. It also isn't cheap to buy many yards of good compost, have it delivered, nor necessarily easy to spread it out over the winter to rot out the sod and add a great deal of fertility and tilth. So maybe just go at it as you have time, energy and money. Don't attempt too much.

  • jodikay
    11 years ago

    We sprayed roundup x2, sod cutter, tilled, leveled and then built raised beds. Underneath our mulch is housewrap (not underneath the boxes). Lets the water thru but is keeping the weeds out. Its is working for us. Its not for everyone. There are lots of options as you can see. Just need to pick the one that works for you. Who knows, might be a combination of a little bit from everyone!

    Good luck with whatever you decide on.

    Jodi

    {{gwi:100961}}

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    11 years ago

    When ever I am breaking up new ground for a new garden spot, I wait until early spring. However, I start the previous fall. First I mow off the area, then drop the mower to the lowest setting and "Scalp" the grass. I do this every week in the fall (or sooner). Then I continue to do this during the winter, if it is mild.

    Early in the year, I use a tractor mounted tiller and till up the area I had been scalping. Then I deal with the few grass plants that try to come up. I really haven't had much of a problem doing it this way.

    Here is a spot I did this to last year and planted this spring to melons.

    {{gwi:100962}}

    Just need to till between the rows and the weeds and grass are gone. Here is a picture of the same spot from two nights ago. The melons were done, there were no blooms so I tore them out. Getting ready to replant something into the plastic mulch.

    {{gwi:100963}}
    Here is a spot I did this to two years ago.

    {{gwi:36900}}

    Another spot, same time.

    {{gwi:36901}}

    I am tearing up "pasture" and not a yard, but it works for me.

    Jay

  • 4hleader
    11 years ago

    Do you have access to manure? Will your neighbors hate you if your yard looks ugly for a while? If you can get the manure and you have tolerant neighbors, you might want to consider what I did.

    When I went from a slightly sloped grass and weed yard to a garden, it was because a good portion of that part of the yard got torn up every early spring with plowing late snows. In the fall, I had some relatives use a pick/mattock tear up the rows but they weren't terribly long - 18 to 20 feet. I then spread about one and a half large trash bags of fresh manure on each row, turned it in, and raked leaves over it. I then covered the rows up with landscape cloth, weighted it down on the edges and let it sit until May. (7 months) That year I didn't plant anything it that grew quickly - everything was ready in July or later.

    So aside from the landscape cloth bought at a discount store for $5 a roll, it was free to do the transition. Since you have time now, you might get a soil sample test done at your local extension office. It shouldn't be too expensive. That should tell you what you'll need to do to bring the soil up to a good level.

  • glib
    11 years ago

    Amazed at what Jay has done. Do you not have a seed bank in there, sprouting every year?

  • gardenlen
    11 years ago

    anyhow all i can say is soilentgreen is quiet incorrect, see our presentation and for us weeding is not a fixture of gardening, for anyone to suggest that doing what we do has no experience. we mulch heavily around the plants, here is little opportunity for volunteer growth let alone weeds.

    all that tilling work you can have that. all i can see is no mulch and landscape or similar fabric which goes against the soil structure.

    len

  • soilent_green
    11 years ago

    gardenlen - I do not recall ever criticizing you or your methods in any way. I do not know you, I never heard of you, I didn't read your post in this thread, I did not click on your link. After going back now and reading it I must tell you quite frankly that I already know about the straw bale method, it is not a new idea, and even if it was I have no interest in it. If you do, then that is fine with me and it is none of my business. I was responding to the OP.

    Now, I ask you to clarify what you consider that I stated "incorrectly" please, and tell me how I "suggested that doing what we do has no experience" please.

    Claim that you have never had a single weed in any of your gardens and I will tell you that you are either exaggerating, lying, or putting down massive amounts of PREEN.

    I mulch with straw. I put man-made weed barriers down. I still have weeds, but they are not out of control by any means. They would never dissuade me from gardening anyway. I was trying to tell the OP that they are not alone, we all deal with these kinds of issues. As I stated, weeds are a fact of life for gardeners. Are you telling me that you dispute that statement?

    I do not put up with unwarranted criticism borne out of misinterpretation, misunderstanding, ignorance, or someone just plain having a bad day or something. I understand this is OT so feel free to correspond with me via email if you wish to discuss this further. Out of respect for the OP I will not post in this thread again.

    -Tom

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    11 years ago

    Glib-

    In these newer beds, our weed bank is small. I am trying to keep it that way. However, other parts of our farm have enough weed seeds to keep me weeding for another century.

    Gardenlen, I do try mulching and build soil structure with covercrops, however, I can't manage all the hand weeding without the plastic mulch. When you are "Farming" 1.75 acres by hand and a tiller, you have to start looking at ways to make your life easier.

    Jay

  • art_1
    11 years ago

    Here is what I did (about 1/2 way down the page on the linked thread).

    Here is a link that might be useful: Neat frameless raised beds: how to?

  • pnbrown
    11 years ago

    Weeds are a fact, that's a fact. Tom makes a good point that some weeds here and there are nothing to worry about.

    Those who say (over and over) that all weeds can be controlled by enough mulch are correct, but a constant heavy layer of mulch is plenty of work to maintain and really is only practical for quite small gardens. In my case, where I want to grow enough crops to provide all my pulse and some grain, maintaining a foot of mulch on over a half-acre is not going to happen. Other ways to keep weeds controlled must be utilized, and fortunately the lore to do so exists and it works.

    IME, grassy weeds are the main problem, and a heavy continual presence of those despite periodic tillage indicates a mineral balance in the soil that is not close to optimum for crop production. What you want to see is the "fertility" weeds, which are easier to control be mechanical means and are much less onerous for the crops. This is achieved mainly by raising calcium.

  • grandad_2003
    11 years ago

    Regarding weed control... My approach is to use bagged leaves & black plastic, depending on the vegetable/fruit to which it is applied. Melons, strawberries & squash typically do well for me with black plastic; however, most everything else seems to do better with the leaf mulch. I collect bagged leaves placed at curbside in the fall, place them into a large pile, and use them throughout the spring & summer for mulch. For many of you the fall collection period is not too far from now. My collection period begins at the end of November. Unused bags on the bottom of the pile will be well composted after about 12 months. They will also typically be loaded with earthworms.

  • glib
    11 years ago

    I don't know about calcium. My clay garden soil is 0.4% calcium, and I get plenty of grasses of various types.

  • pnbrown
    11 years ago

    Do they dominate over broad-leaf weeds?

  • ibarney5
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for all of the responses. The slope does worry me. My dad doesn't seem to think it will be a problem, but I have been collecting Heat Treated pallets I could possibly re-purpose into retaining walls. I will just have to see I guess. I don't really know at what slope you should plan on doing erosion control on.

    In terms of the grass, I like the idea of a sod cutter, but I think that would hit heavy on my budget. What do you think about covering the area with 2-3 layers of cardboard/newspaper. Then topping it off with straw. Leave it through the fall/winter. Or would I need to manually turn the soil before I did this for it to be successful. Like I said the cardboard is free and I can get bales of straw for very inexpensive. What do ya think?

  • fruitmaven_wiz5
    11 years ago

    It doesn't seem like you have too much of a slope. It's about what I have in the backyard. If you keep it mulched, I don't think you'll have a problem with soil washing away.

    I don't think you'll need to turn the soil, it would probably be counter-productive because it would encourage the weeds. Smother it all, like you've planned (perhaps 6 to 12 inch layer of straw on the cardboard), and plant in the spring. The first year you might have to add compost where you want to put seeds, depending on how active the earthworms have been, chewing up the dead grass and cardboard.

    A sod cutter rental doesn't cost too much from Ace Hardware, but it would be a lot of work and not completely neccessary I think.

  • gardenlen
    11 years ago

    sorry soilentgree,

    the trouble with the written word and no chance of reading body language, but we did not lie about not having a weed issues we mulch heavily that looks after that so well we barely get volunteers happening and should some weedy thing sprout it gets pulled with no major drama, and tucked under the mulch and those garden rows that make a carbon footprint with tilling use artificial weed barrier and looks like lots of work and noise too for the neighbours. i'm again sorry but our way is not new we don't own it we adapt to suit our needs it takes no digging ever and minimum water.

    tilling/ploughing messes up the soil structure and allow moisture to escape and creates erosion by wind and water.

    the slope does not appear excessive we have had raised beds on 6% slopes no worries.

    take care when judging from the written word, at the end of the day the choice is with the original poster.

    take care

    len

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    11 years ago

    My whole "Farm" sits on a hill. In this picture, it drops 3 to 4 feet from the east side to the west side.

    {{gwi:100962}}

    Here is a better picture to give you a better idea on how much it drops.

    {{gwi:100964}}

    I just work across it. Using raised beds, it isn't a problem. I pile the dirt up 6 to 12 inches or I use my disc hiller that I built last spring to use behind a tractor. It is really easy now.

    Here is the disc hiller, not my tractor. I was testing it out at my parents real farm.

    {{gwi:100965}}

    Have fun!

    Jay

  • pnbrown
    11 years ago

    As Jay says, be sure to work across the slope with ridges. Mulch will help too, of course, mulch always helps.

  • glib
    11 years ago

    PN, grass does not dominate in the beds, I do get dock, dandelion, sorrel, purslane, nettle and other weeds. It does dominate in the paths, same soil of course.

Sponsored
Arete Construction Services
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars1 Review
Experienced Craftsman & Top Quality Masonry in Frederick County