Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
chueh_gw

How to turn lawn into garden bed?

chueh
15 years ago

I am going to use some lawn spaces and convert them into garden beds. I just bought a magic auger, about 2.5" diameter. I thought that it would be sort of labor free to dig holes. However, since the Georgia has hard red clay soil, my drill which was attached to the auger smoked last time when using it even on bare soil.

What's the best way to take off a piece of lawn? Is shoveling the best way? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Comments (33)

  • stompede
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    First, mark off the area you want to create into a bed. I would recommend doing a soil analysis to see how the nutrients and pH are in that area. While waiting for the results, you can apply glyphosate to the vegetation in that area to kill all of it. After the vegetation begins to die-back, you can scrape up the grass or leave it. Add what is recommended from the soil test. Till to a depth of 8 to 12 inches then add a couple of inches of compost then till that in.

    When doing beds, unless your soil is already amended or fine to begin with, the soil in the whole area should be loosened. This will not only help plants establish quicker, but will also provide drainage. When individual holes are dug in beds without tilling/loosening, this usually results in the drainage of water into the loosened planting holes, keeping the plants too wet. This is especially true with an auger, which keeps holes with vertical sides (slightly sloping sides, much like a small saucer, are usually recommended) and usually a lot of glazing on the sides, too. Also, augers tend to go too deep, resulting in ponding of water and eventual settling, often resulting in plants that are too deep.

  • bpgreen
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Some people use raised beds.

    Some use lasagna gardening (variations of lasagna gardening are sheet composting and Interbay Mulch).

    With these approaches, you basically pile stuff on top of the garden and let it cold compost over the winter and plant directly in what remains in the spring.

    I'm not an expert, but here's my understanding of these three techniques.

    What I do is probably closest to sheet composting. I just pile leaves, garden waste, unfinished compost, leftover Halloween pumpkins, coffee grounds and so forth on the garden area and plant in whatever is left in the spring. I usually pile it on to a depth of 3 or 4 feet, and it's usually down to 6-12 inches by spring. Usually by fall, it's nearly down to bare dirt. This year I still have about a foot of stuff, probably because many of the leaves I got last year were shredded and I started with a thicker than usual layer.

    With lasagna gardening, you start with a layer of newspaper or cardboard to smother the grass. Then you add a layer of high nitrogen matter such as coffee grounds, manure, grass clippings (greens), followed by a layer of high carbon matter such as sawdust, shredded paper, leaves (browns), then alternate layers of browns and greens.

    With Interbay Mulch, you mix the materials instead of layering them, then cover with damp burlap. The use of burlap is supposed to speed the process and also result in more humus in the end.

    You could probably use a combination of methods, too. Since you're starting in an area with grass, the cardboard or newspaper layer would probably be a good idea even if you decided to use the Interbay Mulch approach after that.

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The best way to convert a lawn into a garden bed is to cover the existing lawn with newspaper or cardboard and cover that with a mulch material, compost, shredded leaves, etc. which will kill the grass growing there (unless you have a really invasive grass) while allowing the soil bacteria to convert that into plant food and needed organic matter. Mostly what you Georgia clay needs is organic matter, lots.
    Contacting your local office of the University of Georgia USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil done is a good idea.

    Here is a link that might be useful: UG CES

  • gatormomx2
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have also seen people first weed whack the area down to nubs and then do the layering on top .
    Glycophosphate will kill everything . It works over time so an application may not show immediate results but a week or two later you may see dramatic results .
    Rent , borrow or have someone use a tiller machine to loosen the soil and turn in the compost in the Spring .
    The overall initial effort will be well worth it . As in painting , prep is everything .

  • chueh
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you all very much for your suggestions. How long do I let the newspaper and other organic stuff sit on the lawn to make the grass turn into nutrients to the bed? Am I too late now... I am planting in late September.

  • careyj
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I agree that you should cut the grass down and put down cardboard and newspapers, then cover with organic matter. make sure you wet the paper down real good.

    I have planted in mine a couple weeks after creating and everything did fine. You dont want to remove the cardboard and paper, just cut holes in it where you want to plant. By spring the paper and cardboard will have broken down.

    Good luck with everything and let us know how it went!

    Carey

  • gardenlen
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    g'day chueh,

    too easy raised garden beds, see our pic's on how we do ours.

    len

    Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

  • paulns
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've used three different methods, 1) Smother the grass under newspaper then top with a soil/compost mix. Wetting the whole business helps to speed decomposition. 2) Rototill the lawn, then plant two and if possible three crops of buckwheat in succession, tilling each one under. Buckwheat suppresses regrowth of lawn and feeds the soil. This has to be started the year before you plant your garden. 3) Use a square shovel to turn the lawn over sod by sod, add soil/compost and plant. All three methods worked, but I now lean toward the no-till, no-fuel, more passive method of smothering the lawn and letting it rot, turning it into better soil. I don't like the idea of vegetables growing over newspapers - even soy ink has many chemical additives - but I've used the newspaper method for flower beds.

  • joepyeweed
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    IMHO, Smothering as described by others, is the least labor intensive way to start a new garden bed.

    I've tilled and I've used a sod cutter to remove the top layer, but since I've learned about smothering, I'll never go back to the other ways...

  • tiffy_z5_6_can
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yep. Smothering.

  • kqcrna
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Me too, I'd smother. Digging sod is hard work- none of that for me.

    I prefer think, corrugated cardboard to newspaper. It seems to rot and disappear much faster than newspaper for me (I've tried both). Also, soaking the cardboard very well and adding some moisture as you add the OM helps is break down better and faster too.

    Karen

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There is no need to cut the grass short. There is no need to spend money on plant killers of any kind. Just spread the newspaper and cover that with a mulch. How long it will take will depend on sevral factors, but usually this process needs 6 to 8 weeks. However, this process feeds your soil whereas spraying with plant killers does not. Tilling the sod in does put organic matter into the soil, but it also disrupts the Soil Food Web and can bring up long dormant "weed" seeds that are buried in the soil.
    Many people have done this, spreading newspaper, and then planted in the area in a week or so with good results. This method is quite easy and saves on petroleum resources if a mechanical tiller was to be used. It is very environmentally friendly.

  • rj_hythloday
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    -tilling - kills beneficial in the process.

    + lasagna, smothering,

  • chueh
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great advice!!! I prefer anything that's the least labor intense :-) Is the square shovel better than the pointed one when I define the border between the lawn and the beds?

  • tiffy_z5_6_can
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I use a lawn edger. Like a shovel but it's shaped like a halfmoon and is flat. It also has a small surface at the top of the blade so you can easily push it in the soil. It makes a great cut and normally I don't have to 'edge' the gardens more than once a season. I will shove it straight down and form a 2 to 3 inch deep moat around the garden.

    If you purchase, don't go cheap. They will bend on you in no time. I have lots of rocks and have learned my lesson.

    My best one is from my father. He wasn't using his and it's a tough one he bought in the '70s.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn Edger

  • coonx
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Chueh, what kind of grass do you have?
    That's going to be the biggest thing as to how to kill the grass.
    If you have Bermuda grass, smothering WILL NOT work unless you use concrete.
    You'll either have to dig it out or use Round-Up. And after you do that, if you want to keep the Bermuda out, you'll have to bury some type of solid physical barrier for it.

  • chueh
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LOL, Karen....I would love to do that, but my husband is lazy enough that he does not even want to use the riding mower.

    Oh no.... Coonx...oh no.... Bad news!!! I felt like shocked... I felt so happy that I could use an easy way to do the work, smothering the grass..... Now, I learned that Bermuda grass cannot be smothered well. Yes, I noticed that. I have one bed already surrounded by the lawn. I think I put enough mulch, yet the bermuda grass keeps creeping underneath up...... OH... what do I do with the invasive grass lawn. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

  • rj_hythloday
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How about solarizing w/ clear plastic, then heavy cardboard for the bottom layers. Seems like it would work to me. It would take longer than being able to plant in September though. I'd avoid the round up or anything like that.

  • tiffy_z5_6_can
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Karen,

    May I borrow your husband since you've already trained him?

    Mine is the type that yesterday as he painted the bathroom, hit his knee on a sharp corner despite the fact that he knows he has to be careful with them as both caps were replaced in operations years ago. Today he is barely walking. Do I hear Tim the Toolman Taylor?? :O)

    He is also the type which grows great flowering broccoli and is lethal with a whipper snipper unless things are clearly marked.

    But he does a lot of housework so he's a keeper!!!

    Nope, I think I'll do my own trench digging. :O)

  • kqcrna
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ouch!

    But any guy who helps with the housework definitely is a keeper. Mine does dishes and often does the grocery shopping, which makes him worth his weight in gold. He's not allowed to do laundry.

    My husband never used to be so anxious to do yard work. But since I was so very ill a couple of years ago and developed this neuropathy in one leg he seems to fear I will hurt myself doing heavy lifting, digging, hauling, etc. I really am capable of much more than he gives me credit for, though.

    Karen

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Like spraying the area with a plant killer, solarizing can leave you with dead plant material that will then need to be dug in (a lot of very hard work), or dug out (also a lot of very hard work, and means that the organic matter you would have gained by allowing the soil bacteria to digest that green plant material will not be there and you will need to add even more to get the level of OM where it needs to be. Covering the grass, and "weeds" growing in the area now, with newspaper deprives those plants of the light they need to continue growing so they die, and it provides the moist environment that the soil bacteria need to digest those plants and feed the soil which adds organic matter to your soil, and eliminates the hard labor needed to remove all of the material that would be unnecessarily removed via the poisoning process, and it is just about as quick, maybe taking another 2 weeks.

  • chueh
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I definitely will prefer no chemicals and smothering. It sounds like a winner. Thank you all

  • bpgreen
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I thought you said you have Bermuda and the consensus is that it can't really be smothered.

    I have no direct experience with Bermuda grass, but David52 posted this link on the Rocky Mountain forum and it doesn't look promising for smothering. They joke that the best approach is to use asphalt, then admit that Bermuda will grow through asphalt and thrive. If it can grow through asphalt, I would not expect newspaper or cardboard to be able to stop it.

  • chueh
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yes, I have Bermuda grass, but I will try smothering it anyway. I guess my next experiment, if smothering is not successful, will be rototilling. Some bermuda roots are pretty tough and long and entangled; I wonder if even a commercial tiller can do the trick! It will probably all tangled up around the blades

  • bpgreen
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I would think tilling would be counterproductive. Wouldn't that just break up the Bermuda into lots of little plants that will start growing?

  • rj_hythloday
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    wow, reading that link it seems that cutting it out would be easier than the 3 applications of round up and waiting several weeks in between.

    Here is a link that might be useful: USU How to kill bermuda

  • chueh
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    what you all said is true.... Hm....well.... hm.... well....

  • paulns
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    One source I've read says buckwheat will outfox even bermuda grass, ie. doing the till, then plant and turn under three buckwheat crops in succession thing.

    Turning sod over is also a kind of smothering.

    What if you turned the sod over, THEN covered with newspaper and compost etc? If you had the energy, and some helpers...

  • rj_hythloday
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm feeling better about the work I did to cut out my bermuda when planting my garden. It went to the city compost pile. I do have one area where I covered bermuda w/ cardboard have a planted strawbale and a container as well as my worm bin dug into a pit. I did plant some sunflowers into the cardboard over the bermuda. I have to remove everything at the end of the season. I'll post back my results of bermuda under lasagna.

    {{gwi:305189}}

  • spiced_ham
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "Over" tilling screws up the soil microbial community, but you can't over till the first time you do it. The need for notill-farming came about because repeated tilling (20 years) oxygenated the soil so much that even the recalcitrant soil organic matter decayed- no organic matter = no microbes. Tilling the dead grass in deep will actually help the soil community because organic material gets down to the accumulated mineral nutrient layer and composting can occur. It will also loosen the soil for better root penetration. Construction compacts the heck out of the subsurface soil of a yard. The grass is usually planted-sidded on top of a thin layer of trucked in designer soil so vegetable roots, which can go down 3-4 ft, won't be able to penetrate. Deeper loose soil means less watering.

  • gnomey
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    By no means should you consider tilling bermuda grass. That just isn't an option because every little root fragment will grow and it will be a nightmare. Take it from me, I made that mistake.. ohhh.. about 8 years ago.. and I'm still paying for it.

  • chickencoupe
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bermuda grass is an alien species bent on ruling the earth. Outside of "I say we nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." even round up doesn't kill it all. I like to make compost but I cannot make enough compost to alter my clay soil in any reasonable amount of time. I still use it, but starting a new garden bed in my Oklahoma clay needs some help and the help of the local lifeforms already in the soils.

    I dig in raw kitchen scraps. If I'm up to it, I wet cardboard and strip it down to pieces and add it with the compost. I haven't done anything with the grass at this point. I'm only diggin into the soil about one foot to place the compost (or as far as my strength will allow). Each week I dig out a new spot to empty my small kitchen compost into. At this time I toss in molasses either mixed in with my worm tea or just drizzle it over the compost pile. The soil microbes and life forms cannot resist molasses. Try it once and you'll see.

    When compost is in the ground I take the loosened dirt clods and bury the compost. Ignore the bermuda. Then, I moisten the soil in that area above the compost. Next, I place wet cardboard atop this area. Finally, if I have some mulch, I will place mulch above the top surface of cardboard to help keep it damp.

    I continually moisten the area if decomposition takes a long time (like in cooler weather). If it is warm spring or summer, the grubs and life forms will work that soil softening it. In no more than 3 days, the soil will be easier to work. I uncover the mound and begin pulling the bermuda - stolons and all - right out of the ground. Then, I take a shovel and dig down further sifting as the soil is more pliable and takes less work, pulling the bermuda grass and stolons along the way The life forms are not only decomposing the compost but working the soil deep beneath the new plot. The compost and molasses is the bait. I dig around the outer perimeter of this mound pulling the sod/soil up on top of the mound, stopping occasionally to remove bermuda. I work through the entire pile in this fashion where the compost is no longer icky. The icky factor depends on what I buried. I go back to those areas later. Veggies and such will be GONE in only a few days. Worms should be present at this point.

    The key is to attract and spring the life forms into the area to do the work for me.

    Then, I continue to pluck weeds and grass out of it over the course of the next few weeks. Each time the soil is softer and softer. By fall, it's ready for a good dig-till and adding rich organic materials or manure and to be overwintered with a cover crop or covered with cardboard and mulch (as described above). By fall, the bermuda is severely manageable or not present at all.

    Nothing can stop growth in those plots I fashioned in these areas. Expansion is slow, though. I'm not able to throw money at gardening, but this is a sure-fire method of building a wonderful compost/garden mound in my Oklahoma clay soils. By the following spring worms of enormous size should be present. If not, add more organic materials.

    Another way to draw the lifeforms (in addition to molasses) is laying down fresh alfalfa hay and moistening it. I discovered this accidentally. It's also a nitrogen source so don't use too much of it around your growies, lest they get burned. Aged or rotted alfalfa doesn't harm and makes a great compost additive.

    Use cover crops generously on these very plots to replenish. Always have something growing in them so the clay will not harden again but be selected of what you grow and when. Use dynamic accumulators, when you can. Clay has nutrients and minerals. Certain plant roots go down deep and fish these out in a superb fashion. Many of your native grasses and weeds already perform this duty and the soil would be perfect if someone had not planted bermuda or grass amongst them.

    Buckwheat is a good weed and grass deterrent. Alfalfa is not a good fighter of weeds, but is a good dynamic accumulator. There's nothing wrong with throwing alfalfa and buckwheat in the ground together.