If it were me I would till.........lasagna gardening is for a new garden and people who can't or won't till or remove the grass/weeds. No matter how careful you are, you will have weeds in your garden. I weed some every day and by the end of fall, the weeds are trying to take over.

Till the ground and do the best you can to remove all of the bits and pieces. You keep doing that year after year and it does get better. As the weeds come up, you chop them back and keep them chopped as best you can. Weeds are easier to get rid of than grass.....

My vote is to till. I have boxes so I don't or can't really do much tilling but my dirt doesn't get walked on or packed down.

Gardening is a wonderful hobby....Hope they enjoy it.

I could never find enough stuff to do lasagna gardening on even a relatively large scale, though I've tried it in small areas with success.

I've also tried covering with layers (10+) of newspaper and then planting right through the stuff. This works great for larger plants, but wouldn't work at all for seeds. It's an amazingly simple way to kill off weeds or unwanted grass, though, though it's hard to poke the holes. I have done this with several areas of turf that I wanted to cover with other plants.

With a garden your size, I know I would go the Rototiller route. I'm sure you'd amend the soil as you go, and end up with a nice, fertile starting point. Or could you divide the space and make a raised bed to lasagna, then Rototill the rest?

About the weeds, I know they're a problem, but from what I've been reading recently, you don't have to eradicate all of them. Apparently, they help to bring up water from deeper down, which benefits your garden. Anyway, a thick layer of mulch (I'm big on leaf mold) takes care of most of them.

Good luck. It sounds like such fun!

I too vote to till and then mulch as much as you can to help control the weeds.

Sue

We tried the no-till method for about three years. We found that destructive insects, such as squash and cucumber beetles, were carried over from year to year. So now we till either in the fall or in both the fall and spring with the roto-tiller, and there are much fewer garden pests in the summer.

My hubby tills the garden. He worked a little each day and kept the weeds under control.. Sadly, they alway come back. We had not had a garden in many years and enjoyed it so much last summer. We always had one when the kids were growing up and canned and froze everything.. Now our 2 daughters have taken over the canning part. They enjoy it like I used to.

When our garden was larger we used cardboard, or newspaper and grass clippings. You needed the grass to keep the newspaper from drying up and blowing away. But your area is much larger.

Do you think the local Extension Agency would have any helpful advice?

Thanks, everyone! When it comes to my own gardening efforts, I am the Queen of Cardboard. I have it weighed down with rocks, and used to top it with horse manure until I ran out. The cardboard isn't pretty in the winter (until snow covers it), but it sure works well.

My DS has decided to till and then mulch as much as possible, perhaps using black plastic between the rows. Of course, I'd prefer cardboard, but I'm only his mother, so what do I know? LOL

It's good to know weeds have some benefit!

Such an interesting discussion. When you use newspaper to mulch, is there any concern about the printers' ink?

What worked here my son in law put down some old stuff from a barnyard, put weed killer on that turns into furtilizer then rototilled it in and let it set for a period of time. Then when he plants it, in some of the rows, he raises them and puts grass clippings in the rows. That holds the moisture in and does help in some weed control.
We don't use the paper method--not sure why, but our local Ag Extention Dept does not recomend it.

In February each year I till my rows adding fertilizer and cotton seed meal. I then cover them with a black plastic mulch made for weed control that I purchase by the roll in Wall-Mart. Water can penetrate but weeds do not grow through it. I plant around March 15. I cut a big x where I want to put my plants, tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc and tuck the ends under. in fact my tomatoes are now about 18 inches tall with blooms. I won't fertilize any more only water when necessary.
After everything has quit producing in the fall I pull up the plants and cover the holes with leaves. I never have a problem with weeds. I can really enjoy my garden without all the work.

I have a book by Ruth Stout praising the no-till lasagna method. I tried it one year but the wind blew newspapers and cardboard all over. Now we till every spring. And I control weeds by ho-ho-hoing, if you know what I mean!

I would till.
Next year, maybe try a cover crop?

here is some info...
http://www.humeseeds.com/covcrop.htm

and this....
COVER CROPS - GREEN MANURES
Even though a portion of your acreage or garden lies idle for a time, the soil can be built up by growing cover crops. Cover crops are fast growing green plants that can be chopped up and spaded, plowed, or tilled into the soil, adding green organic matter that then composts into humus. Plants of the Legume family also add nitrogen to the soil. Some cover crops can be spaded into your garden and with others it is better to cut off the green tops, add them to the compost pile, and spade only the roots left behind into the soil.

In the Fall, sow the following cover crops to turn into the soil in Spring: Alfalfa, Austrian Field Pea, White Clover, Alsike Clover, Crimson Clover, Red Clover, Purple Vetch, Hairy Vetch, Woolly Vetch, Common Vetch, Fava Beans, Wheat, Oats, Cereal Rye, Winter Rape, and Lupines.

The following are some Warm Winter Cover Crops: Cowpeas (Southern peas), Hairy Indigo, Bell Beans (a small Fava Bean) Lana Vetch, Winter Peas, Lupines, and Purple Clover. See Also: Cover crops

Here is a link that might be useful: at the bottom of the page...

I use raised beds and mulch and have very few weeds, but it is not a big space. 2,500 is a big garden.
My thought is that you have space to experiment. Why not till some of it and try to lasagna garden part of it?
If I had to choose one, I would till. You could use corn gluten to repress weed seed germination, but then you would have to plant transplants for at least a season afterward.

Since the ground has been undisturbed fo 10 years, it is probably compacted. I vote for a good Tilling to get initial preparation. This will loosen the soil and cut up and mix in the matted humas matter. One problem may exist: weed seeds. Since there has been no weed control for 10 years, likely, there are plenty of weed seed present to make trouble. I'd till, plant the garden and at first show of the new plants, cover all soil except the desired plants to slow or stop germination of weeds. The ground cover can be black plastic ventilated with a few holes (to let rain water through) or covering straw.

About manure: When I was kid on the farm, we used untreated manure because it was readily available and we did not know better. What we were doing was planting a new crop of weeds to hoe. Untreated cow and horse manure is filled with viable seeds. We were supposed to compost the manure before using or heat it to at least 140 F to kill seeds.

I love lasagna method for my flower beds and have had great success with it. But I don't think I'd try it for my main vegetable garden. I might try a little area lasagna method and do plants like tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, that sort of thing, but for the most part I'd go ahead and till.

With that said, I've had really good luck with a tilled garden, heavily mulching the area around all of the plants and rows with grass clippings, which I tilled into the garden soil at the end of the year. This worked great on a small garden. I think it would be hard to come up with enough clippings for a large garden though.

When you use newspaper to mulch, is there any concern about the printers' ink?

No, it's fine. I think most inks are soy-based these days, but apparently it was fine before that, too. Glossy printed paper, such as magazines and magazine sections of newspapers, shouldn't be used, though.

We were supposed to compost the manure before using or heat it to at least 140 F to kill seeds.

The stuff I had here was ancient--not a weed seed to be had.

I think it would be hard to come up with enough clippings for a large garden though.

Yes, I think that will be a problem--unless I can convince my son to mow our big hayfield (with a walk-behind mower). But this is not likely to happen. :-)

It's great having this discussion with all you gardeners!

Tilling can break down the structure of the soil as well as both pushing weed seeds down & pulling them up from the depths.

It's like it just gets the weeds excited...

Even if I used week killer, I wouldn't eat vegetables that had been grown in it.

The soil feeds the plants, & paper & cardboard are good for the soil.

weeD killer, not week killer.

My fingers are faster than my brain!