Ask people you know for newspapers or cardboard to smother your weeds. Worms love cardboard so they would move in and help you in the long run. You might do a search on lasagna gardening and you will be amazed at what info comes up. A very econimical way to do a bed. By using newspaper also you wouldn't necessarily have to dig up what you want to keep. I've many times just laid the paper up close and moved on.
After you cover the top of this bed you can do your composting right on top and you will end up with rich rich soil... But please ceheckout the lasagna gardening search and some of your ideas will mesh wonderfully.

Thank you - I will look lasanya up.

In terms of newspapering closely - not going to work. I can't even see what I have - it literally takes 5-10 minutes sometimes just to weed one flower. You cannot see what is under all that binding weed. But thanks for the idea anyway!

Are we talkin 4 beds, each 4ft by 100ft.? Yeeow, not gonna be to cheap or fast. Fast not gonna be cheap. Cheap not gonna be fast. Or just pay a landscaper to do it. Again NOT cheap.

1st I think projects like this are better begun in the spring and will NOT be a short term project. I too have an area, much smaller, I plan to just run the lawnmower thru, lay down some cardboard covering with mulch. I like to use leaves. You could use whatever you have access to - shredded paper, leaves, compost, whatever. Look at the things you throw in the trash. Will it suppress weeds, then decompose? Then use it.

Personally, I would AVOID LANDSCAPE FABRIC, at ALL cost. Weeds will just grow thru it, their roots get tangled in it, making them hard to pull. The fabric does not decompose at lingers for years. I have a few rolls left I am using to cover garbage cans I use to collect rain water. It helps to keep the mosquiotes from laying eggs.

My thought is that many weeds will be suppressed. When you see a sprout, if you see it is a weed, it can easily be pulled. If it is a flower you can mark it or otherwise ID it. I somethimes just use a twig pressed in the ground.

If you can't ID it, just wait til you can. Each year you will see more & more improvement. Fewer weeds. Better soil.

Of course you could just til it in and begin anew. Or lasagna as suggested.

Good Luck,
Gumby_CT

Why level the lawn if your going to build raised beds? Just rototill where you want the garden to be and use 2x4's or whatever to mark off the area.

-lumber: 2x8s or 12's can be cheap if you go to home depo or whatever and ask where their scrap lumber is. It will take years for them to rot enough whered you'll notice. You can also get old wood pallets and tear them apart for the individual pieces. Left over bricks work to.

- weed smothering material: one word-Preen. Unless you need to go 100% organic, this stuff will save your life. the small container is fine. Apply in the spring. I havent had to weed barely at all this year.
As for now? I'd agree with Gumby_ct: avoid landscape fabric. Its expensive and not worth it. I'd just use black garbage bags, cut the seams, and put that over the whole site. you can cut holes for where you need plants to poke through.
If you dont wanna plant anything this year, and just prepare for next, you could solorize the soil. Its harsh, but it will kill all weeds & their seeds (and worms, good bugs, beneficial bacteria etc). all you need is a clear plastic drop cloth, put it over the area you want to plant in, weigh the edges down with bricks, and walk away. Its worth a google search.

- compost: This fall, use your lawnmower to pick up the leaves, then dump them on your garden site. They decompose faster when shredded. Do it all season. By the spring, it should have decomposed enough to till into the soil. Leaf mold is the poor mans compost.It can be a good substitution for peat moss as well, since its purpose is to help hold moisture and clay soils.

-vermiculite: I used sand instead on vermiculite/pearlite. We had bags of left over from when we used them for winter traction in an old car. the best drainage is from sand anyway.

sand + compost/leaf mold = plant nirvana.

Hope that is helpful!
-Ali

hehe, plant nirvana!

Leveling the lawn because it goes up, up, up right next to where the flower bed is, then down, down, down into a pit where the bed is. Looks ridiculous, really ruins the look of the property.

I'll definitely look into scrap lumber.

Unfortunately, I do want to go organic here. I'm really afraid of that bind weed, though - it is EVERYWHERE! I actually wanted to put the landscape fabric under the beds and soil to keep the weed from coming up from down under. I intended to mulch the top. Would that be ok? 8-12 inches below?

If I solarize, can I somehow add beneficial bacteria and stuff? Like a gallon of yogurt? (just kidding).

I have several planting beds. All but one are lined with weed block. The other I lined with several layers of thick cardboard... that nasty bindweed has come up in that bed. The others remain weed free. I would highly recommend the weed block fabric! I actually stapled it to the bottom of my boxes before I placed the boxes in my yard.

Since gardening is typically a spring project, I would budget for it now. What I have done in the past is purchase some of the materials I've needed each month so that by the time spring rolls around, I have everything and the costs were spread out over the winter months.

Good luck!

I hope it's not too late to tell you NOT to rototill this area. You will never eradicate the bindweed in doing so, you will only see it come up later.. mutiplied.

I prefer natural and/or organic means in the garden but with bindweed I had to rethink after two years now of pulling and weeding and only watching it not only continue to reappear, but move further and further into my yard. The root system on this weed is huge and deep. Covering with plastic and or newspaper isn't even a true answer to the problem. I tried it in a flowerbed. I tried landscape fabric under flagstone for a patio.. the weed continues to grow and soon finds light around the edges. At a friends house who has a crawl space, I saw it come up by a coldair exchange duct. Anyway, so what to do?

The best thing I have seen is the following suggestion.

First, remove your flowers since this is something you were planning to do anyway. Take some small, plastic containers, yogurt contianers work well, stuff the bindweed into the container, pour in half-strength roundup. Half strength so that it doesn't kill the top layer of the weed before it absorbs down to the root. Plastic baggies will also work.. roll up the bindweed into the baggy and spray with round up. and then wait. Word of caution, if your area is open to kids or animals, this method may not work. I can only do this to the parts of my yard that is enclosed as I have a big dog that can't keep his snout out of things.

Good luck with this nasty plant.. it is truly invasive. What is tough is to see how many people allow this weed to remain in their garden. The amount of seeds one flower head can produce is enough to make a gardener cry!!!

In other parts of my yard, the best I can hope for is that some brush application will work on this weed and that pulling and digging will eventually weaken and kill the root.

I agree with gardengal, that roundup is really the only effective way of getting rid of bindweed. Solarizing first will probably help but I can't imagine it all being killed that way. I generally prefer organic methods but bindweed and cananda thistle are two weeds that I haven't found an effective organic control. Another thing you can use to control weed seeds is corn gluten meal. It's an organic germination inhibitor. Preen is rather controversial as there are reports of harm to amphibians and possible carcinogens. Just remember that you can't so directly into areas that have been treated with either. The packaging should tell you how long to wait.