Lawn to Garden Convert - Removing Grass
colliwobbles
17 years ago
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Embothrium
17 years agolast modified: 9 years agolilydude
17 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Converting St. Augustine Grass into a Veggie Garden
Comments (9)NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT TILLING UNDER ! You have to pick every shred of roots that you can find in the soil. If I were you, here is how I would do it: 1- till it very very shallow first, to get most of the roots loosened.The reason you do it shallow is because you don't want to bury and hide the roots. 2 - with rake and hand pick any piece of root()big and small)that you can find. 3- till second time, normal depth. 4- Again, pick any piec of root you can find. This time you will have less roots. The Those grasses have tough roots, like cats with seven lives. After doing all that go ahead and all the compost and topsoile, manure.. you want and till one more time. Even with being so deligient, you may find some grass growing in your garden later, which you have to eraticate them soon as you see them....See MoreConverting lawn to veggies; bermuda grass question
Comments (6)Sheet mulching is my favourite way to suppress grass and weeds and start a new bed. My approach is: first, a layer of cardboard, overlapping such that there is nowhere for grass to penetrate; next a layer of well-rotted manure; then a layer of straw--NOT HAY, (you'd be amazed how many people mistakenly use hay, as opposed to straw!); finally a layer of good topsoil, or my favourite, SeaSoil. You can then plant directly into this top layer. Not only do you avoid all the work of tilling, but you promote a much healthier soil ecology, and subsequently better plants. Be careful of your topsoil sources--I have seen a lot of properties unwittingly import horsetail, morning glory, and other nasty beasts by purchasing cheap material. That will leave you longing for bermuda grass! There is a lot of info on the web about sheet mulching, or 'lasagne gardening', as it sometimes called. A soil test is always a good idea. It will inform you of any deficient or toxic mineral levels, and if you need to adjust your soil pH. Personally, I think you will never make a better investment in your garden. I would mention that using pressure treated lumber for a vegetable garden is not advisable. I would replace it with rough cedar, which is relatively cheap, and will last years....See MoreConverting lawn to vegetable garden, suggestions.
Comments (15)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........See MoreHas anyone converted their lawn into a succulent garden?
Comments (118)Thank you. I have been shy posting here because I kill more than I buy these days. Bad winter , bad wet years. I guess I might have posted in the wrong thread since I did not get rid of a lawn, but started out with raw hill country marl. I guess I was supposed to put a lawn in but I never got the memo. I wondered why I was supposed to make my beautiful hill country look like some place in North Carolina or Pennsylvania when I moved out here, because I thought it was beautiful the way it was. Things have to live in my conditions.. I had no choice with the water use and me living on Rainwater. Texas is a hard place to garden . It is either TOO hot TOO cold, TOO dry, TOO wet and it can go from too dry (right now my cistern is 1/4 full) to TOO wet (please I need the water ). Don't get me started on the soil. I have no soil so I have been bringing yards of Decomposed granite sand , gravel and compost in . The limey marl is about 1" under the soil in the area of this garden. Nothing really grew here very tall. It is ongoing. We are too hot for northern opuntias , too cold for southern cactus. I have learned to collect from southern New mexico and the northern Big bend area. I like their Eastern grasslands over the dryer points to the west, but mountainous Arizona has plants I can use. I also look for limestone soiled lands and not sandstone based lands. It isn't totally hill country. I guess I am not a purist about anything....See Moreazehav
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