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Sat, Mar 31, 12 at 12:53
| I ran out of beds for spring gardening.
I planted garlic in 3 beds & 2 perennial vegetable beds. Spring has come 4-6 weeks early, so I made new beds. No time to smother the grass or use a herbicide, so I tilled the grass under & raked the loose grass out. I added wet crumbly old compost, & tilled it in. My plan is to pick the grass out as it turns green, the brown stuff can rot.We shall see what happens. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Good luck! Let us know how it turns out. I'm in a similar boat this year--all my garden beds are overrun with weeds, and I don't know WHAT to do. I've been planting exclusively in the hoophouse so far, but I'm going to eventually have to face doing something about all the overrun garden areas. :( |
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| Eh, you'll be fine. I have started many beds in my life by turning under grass with a shovel (not even "double digging -- just "single digging") and then planting. My grandmother started all of her beds this way. Maybe there are better ways, but this way does work. These days I remove the sod with a shovel, shake out the dirt (sometimes letting it sit dirt-side-up for a day so it can dry out, because dry dirt shakes off more easily), and toss the sod into the compost bin. |
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| leira, that works really well with Annual grasses, but Perennial grasses can come back stronger then before. But you are right, I will be fine.I often pray in my garden for easier weed control. I get the same answer every time:"While you are down there praying, pull up those weeds." My problem came from the fact I remove fall/winter plants in time for spring planting. This is the first year I planted garlic(5 Kinds)& I planted it in the winter crops. Now I have to wait till May/June to pull the onions & garlic. But I may just put in 4 new beds this summer & pile on the horse manure & coffee waste, leaves, so I will be ready for next years garlic & onions. Someone gave me same asparagus crowns too. So my garden is growing as well as my plants in the garden. |
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- Posted by novascapes none (My Page) on Sun, Apr 1, 12 at 4:06
| Thick cardboard makes for a good mulch and weed barrier in this situation. |
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| The obvious problem is the breakdown of the sod turned under. A little soluble organic N like well broken down compost or rotted manure will counter act that, or even dilute urine as the new plants are growing. Or sometime I add undiluted aged urine to the sod before turning it under. |
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| novascape, my tomatoes are in rimed nest, with soil mountain range to hold water. So cardboard will not work. The corn or beans could use it or the burlap bags from last year. I will not use any mulch for 1 week to give the grass sunlight. As it starts to grow I will pull it out, the beds are in a 12 X 12 till plot. After a week the grass will have rooted again & need to be cut out or covered with mulch. I will have pics. We will see if this was a mistake or not. I am thinking of making up spare beds this summer for fall garlic. Looks like I will be growing onions & garlic every year. I have a deer problem, so the urine may help two fold. |
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- Posted by tn_gardening (My Page) on Mon, Apr 2, 12 at 9:12
| I'd cover the bed with mulch, newspaper, landscape fabric, plastic, and/or cardboard and simply cut holes in the spots I wanted to put my plants (my thought being that this might cut the sunlight off and keep the grass from sprouting)
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| Well the grass is coming up in the bed, I just dig it out & water everything.I have not mulched yet, so I can get all the perennial grass, it will live under heavy mulch, putting down new root system. But no mulch, I just dig up any brown roots or green grass. leira you were right & this fall when all the harvesting is done, I am going to put in two spare beds. I never want to rush a bed again, need a few months with compost , so the bed will be ready for next season. |
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 60 days later Grass turned under & compost tilled in, young tomatoes,peppers & a egg plant.   Added pine straw & burlap bags to keep weed seeds down. |
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