Hi,
I have an overgrown grassed area, which I would like rid of, to make way for a veg patch. What is the best way to do this. The soil underneath is poor, and dry. What is the best advice on getting rid of the grass etc? It's about a 12ft square area, so I need it to be as little hard work as possible on my back(which I know is impossible)
Thanks
Milly
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
One very easy way, which will help with the poor soil issue too is not to get rid of the grass. Just lay a whole bunch of cardboard/newspaper over it, a couple layers of cardboard or many layers of newsprint. Water the ground well first. Lay down the cardboard and water well again. Then pile good topsoil and compost on top of the cardboard, at least three inches depth. Water the new soil and plant in to it immediately. You can put seeds directly in to the new soil. For large plants, you may have to cut a hole in the cardboard, so the roots can go down into the old soil.
The cardboard will smother out the grass and eventually you will just have a nice deep bed of loose soil. If this patch is in your lawn, I.e with grass next to it, then it will help to use an edging, the kind that you pound down in to the soil, helps contain your new soil and also helps keep the grass from outside the bed from coming in.
If your soil is really bad and you want to invest a little more time and energy, you could build a little frame around your plot, with landscaping timbers, fence posts, 2x12" boards, concrete blocks or whatever is ready to hand. Then inside the frame, lay down the cardboard and proceed as above. The advantage of this is just that then you can pile new soil deeper inside the frame without it washing away, to really have a nice deep soil bed for your veggies and not have to worry about what the native soil is like.
But 12 sq feet (3x4'? 2x6'?) is tiny (way too small a patch to think about roto-tilling, not even room to turn the tiller around), hardly room to grow much veggies. That would be about room for 1 tomato plant and 1 pepper plant. As long as you are laying down cardboard, why not do a little more? A very common bed size is 4x8, which is still quite manageable, but would give you nearly 3 times the room for veggies.
The cardboard will smother out the grass and eventually you will just have a nice deep bed of loose soil. If this patch is in your lawn, I.e with grass next to it, then it will help to use an edging, the kind that you pound down in to the soil, helps contain your new soil and also helps keep the grass from outside the bed from coming in.
If your soil is really bad and you want to invest a little more time and energy, you could build a little frame around your plot, with landscaping timbers, fence posts, 2x12" boards, concrete blocks or whatever is ready to hand. Then inside the frame, lay down the cardboard and proceed as above. The advantage of this is just that then you can pile new soil deeper inside the frame without it washing away, to really have a nice deep soil bed for your veggies and not have to worry about what the native soil is like.
But 12 sq feet (3x4'? 2x6'?) is tiny (way too small a patch to think about roto-tilling, not even room to turn the tiller around), hardly room to grow much veggies. That would be about room for 1 tomato plant and 1 pepper plant. As long as you are laying down cardboard, why not do a little more? A very common bed size is 4x8, which is still quite manageable, but would give you nearly 3 times the room for veggies.