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New flower bed, without pulling up the old sod

Lauren1123
12 years ago

Has anyone tried starting a new bed by laying down newspaper, then piling soil on top of that?

I want to start a new cutting bed, but I don't think my back can take pulling up the sod, we have extremly heavy clay soil that sticks to the roots, I use a garden knife and slice it out foot by foot, I've read that if you put a thick layer of newspaper down, then pile up to eight inches of soil on top, it will eventually kill the grass underneath.

Supposedly it can be done in the spring, but it seems to me it would take a long time for the newspaper and grass to decompose. I am planting zinnias cosmos etc, mostly annuals for cutting, their roots don't grow all that deep, so maybe it would be more of a raised bed, and the roots wont even reach the layer of newspaper/grass seems like I need a lot of dirt to actually smother the grass, and if the grass is decomposing, will it affect the soil chemistry above? Thanks!

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