What to do with this space???

[GREENTEAM]

I just received the go ahead to revive this School garden in my area.
The garden is definitely overgrown and needs a lot of work. How should I get rid of all the grass??? Any suggestions with what to do is appreciated....

[Kisal]

Are you in the San Fernando Valley? That area has mostly sandy soil, based on my memory of when I lived down there. The type of soil you're working with, i.e. sandy vs. heavy clay, will make a difference in how you might best approach the problem.

[hit or miss]

It looks like it is mostly laid out in beds so I'm thinking-

weedeat the grass down short
layer newspaper or cardboard on top, I would consider composted cow manure under the paper or cardboard to draw earthworms
layer on compost and mulch
let sit for a week or so
plant through it all

The other options are poisons or hard shovel work!

I do believe the work to ressurrect the garden will be very gratifying though! Especially if you post pics as you go!

[GREENTEAM]

Yes I am in the east san fernando valley. The soil is sandy but it is definitely healthy soil! Plenty of worms in the beds! I am going to try the composted cow manure and covering with cardboard and layering compost and mulch on top of that! Do you think i will need to leave it longer than one week or?.... I am by no means a master gardener but i do know that i love growing my own food! so any help is appreciated! I will post pictures as it progresses!

[JennieMig]

How about some student volunteers? Give them some gloves and put them to pulling weeds and turning the soil.

[orgoveg]

I know one thing for certain. Don't just till it and don't peel up the sod and flip it over. The grass will grow back. I learned that the hard way. When I originally started my garden, I tried the above method and ended up hand weeding everything. Later, when I expanded my garden space, I peeled up the sod and stacked it someplace to compost. Then, I layered compost and tilled it in. It never gets tilled again as I just add compost and loosen it with a fork every year.

The next time I will use the cardboard/newspaper/compost method. That sounds MUCH easier.

I know you can just spray Roundup on it and supposedly the chemicals don't stay in the soil. I would really hesitate to do that, personally. I'm not a chemist so I don't really know what is in Roundup. I have a neighbor who uses gasoline the same way and claims that it won't hurt the soil. That sounds even worse to me and I imagine it would contaminate the groundwater.

[GREENTEAM]

I know one thing for certain. Don't just till it and don't peel up the sod and flip it over. The grass will grow back. I learned that the hard way. When I originally started my garden, I tried the above method and ended up hand weeding everything. Later, when I expanded my garden space, I peeled up the sod and stacked it someplace to compost. Then, I layered compost and tilled it in. It never gets tilled again as I just add compost and loosen it with a fork every year.

The next time I will use the cardboard/newspaper/compost method. That sounds MUCH easier.

I know you can just spray Roundup on it and supposedly the chemicals don't stay in the soil. I would really hesitate to do that, personally. I'm not a chemist so I don't really know what is in Roundup. I have a neighbor who uses gasoline the same way and claims that it won't hurt the soil. That sounds even worse to me and I imagine it would contaminate the groundwater.

I am not going to spray any chemicals!
thanks for the advice orgoveg...

[garden5]

OK, are you looking to remove ALL of the grass, or just the grass in the beds? Do you want the grass completely gone, or just mowed to a reasonable condition.

If all of the grass, I'd say to get rid of the debris, mow it short, then string-trim the rest down to bare dirt. It might not be a bad idea to put some newspapers/cardboard down then spread a layer of rocks, wood-chips, or whatever else you want in place of the grass.

You could also mow it down, then disk off the sod. This is more work and requires you to have an area to put the sod, but it is more effective. You could actually take the sod and put it into a pile and use that as a compost pile .

[TheWaterbug]

I have a neighbor who uses gasoline the same way and claims that it won't hurt the soil. That sounds even worse to me and I imagine it would contaminate the groundwater.

It's also a good way to get dead.