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Organic Gardening

Converting 'lawn' into organic garden

13 years ago

I have about an .75 of an acre of a backyard that only served as a lawn. We owned our land since 2007 and have neer sprayed anything on it. The "lawn" is grass and a lot of weeds. I want to start a large garden and was wondering what the best way to get rid of the weed is. I am in South Florida, the rain season is approaching and I am perfectly happy planing in September but I thought I could start the "war on weeds" pretty soon... Any green, organic methods of ripping out or destroying the weeds on such a large area?

Thanks!

Ognen

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Comments (7)

markmein
13 years ago
A contractor with a small backhoe. He can peel off the sod layer in a day.
ognend
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes but taking the top layer of your soil would be a mistake - the topsoil is usually the most fertile. Any other suggestions?
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You can get used carpet and lay on the area you want for the garden and by spring it may me grass free. I cut strips of used carpet and put in paths between growing beds to keep out weeds. You could till the soil up and form raised beds and sort of bend the carpet up on edges to hold the soil.
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Having broken a good bit of bahia pasture, culled out the grass, mixed in a lot of well-rotted cow manure and/or mushroom compost, I can report: the heavily enriched sand grows super crops for a short time, and the amendments waste away quickly and the nemotodes will come with any kind of typical weekend garden assortment of plant species, as mentioned above. Not being here most of the year makes the necessary rotation plan difficult to enact, so most of y'all have the advantage in that regard. However probably most do not have the necessary space. I am beginning to think that five to ten times the square footage in veggies at any given time needs to be in various stages of rotation, including back into grass. I think the lasanga method is a good choice if one has the materials, though one could also make use of the sod itself. Take a sharpened shovel and shear off the sod mass from an area the size of a desired planting bed and place it upside-down on top of the grass where another planting bed will be. Soak it down good and cover that with cardboard or something to exclude light but allow moisture through, keep it damp for several months and there will be the second bed ready for planting and moderately rich from the double amount of rotted sod. The first area that the sod was taken from can be used right away if there is some compost enough on hand to boost it up. After the first crop of vegetables it could be put into legume, then chop down the crop residue and cover and keep moist. And so on. It'll surely work long term with little outside input, especially with irrigation, but a fair amount of space is required to produce fresh produce for several people.....
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If waiting till spring is not a problem, I'd go with the lasagna method as well, having used it and several others. It doesn't require as much heavy labor as the other methods, doesn't encourage as much weed growth, and improves the soil. Unless your soil is extremely compacted, you can plant right in the lasagna without tilling. Alternate method is to use a non-selective herbicide like Roundup to kill the grass, then till and amend. You'll turn up a lot of weed seeds, so mulch well and weed carefully until they're under control. Another method, most labor intensive, is to rent a sod-cutter, cut the sod, remove it the compost pile, amend and till. You will be removing some good topsoil in the process, but you can return it when the sod breaks down as compost. Most labor intensive is to remove the sod with a spade, a back-breaking job, I don't recommend it.
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Hello, We are looking for a small piece of land to use for growing an organic garden. We would like to either rent or work for trade.
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dicot
13 years ago
I'd agree with peeling off the sod, then laying out the beds how you would like them. Lay down cardboard under the new beds to prevent grass from re-emerging. Mulch between the beds with wood chips afterward. A weed torch can be useful for de-weeding patchy regrowth, as can strong hydrogen peroxide (hairdressing peroxide is usually 20%, the normal 3% won't do anything).

Also, check out GW's lasagna gardening section for tips on how to build a good garden bed on top of lawns.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
13 years ago
Sod can be removed with very little soil. The roots will be left in the ground; only the thatch layer, crown, and blades will be removed.

Add plenty of organic material, even just as mulch, and let it work its way into the soil system over the summer.
dicot
13 years ago
My apologies, not sure why I thought there's a GW lasagna gardening section, maybe just because I see it discussed here so much. Another way to describe cardboard/lasagna-style weed smothering is no till. Here's that GW link.

Here is a link that might be useful: no till
ognend
Original Author
13 years ago
dicot: thank you, that link will do! :)
Kimmsr
13 years ago
There is no good reason to remove the sod which also removes your topsoil. The grass and "weeds" that are there will provide a food source for the Soil Food Web if the grass and "weeds" are covered with newspaper, cardboard, builders paper, etc. with that being covered with mulch to hold it in place and hide it. When deprived of light the plants growing under that cover will die and the Soil Food Web will find a food source and get busy converting that organic matter into nutrients other plants can use to grow strong and healthy. With your sand you will need all the organic matter you can get.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening 101

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