Before planting it'd be a good idea to run a water line with at least one hose bib to the area so that you're not having to drag hoses all over the place. Then you might use either soaker hoses or a drip irrigation system for watering once you put plants in the ground. With an acre there's lots of things you could plant. One of the first that come to mind is corn. And maybe melons and potatoes. A nice patch of pineapple plants. A few fruit trees. The list is endless! Tom MacCubbin has written some good reference books named "The Edible Landscape" and "Florida Home Grown 2: The Edible Landscape" which could help you to decide what to plant.

Novice Gardener: You don't have to wait a season to plant. Your kids can plant today if you do the lasagna method. ;O) We've done the layering over grass many times. Just be vigilant for any grass coming through the mulch. We did it last year for several new beds & early spring we expanded and created more planting space right on top of grass. We mound it up 6-18" than the grass & once it decomposes underneath your bed won't be so high. Depends on how large of rootballs you have to plant. We moved our large rhodie last year, so needed a big hole for that & layered around it. So far, so good & the bed is so soft in spots you sink if you step into it to cut flowers or take close up photos. I've continued to add mulch to keep a 2" layer. No huge weed problems even though we used lots of hay. Use what you have for mulch and layers. Try to get a few different sources. -Compost might be best for your vegetable garden concentrating that in your planting holes & use the mulch materials between them to fill it up. -I wouldn't use bark for a vegetable garden though -used coffee grounds from St*rbucks or other shops (call ahead & ask them to save for you to pick up later in the day or the next day if you want a lot of them) -we use partially composted horse manure/bedding because it's free & nearby as the bulk of our layers for ornamental beds. Usually, full of worms & really gets the bed looking nice quickly. -sweepings from a feed store -- a mix of their hay, straw & alfalfa...coarse and you'll have to either shake out the hay seeds or cover up that top layer of hay to reduce sprouting. Del's in Auburn has a separate dumpster. Wear a mask because it's dusty, gloves, & bring your own garden fork to pull it out to put into garbage bags or cans. -use the PEP soil preparation bagged material from Home Depot for about $4 a bag. Mixed with the other mulch materials it will decompose nicely into good soil Just last week at in-laws we gave up trying to remove the thick grass & sod from one bed and removed the plants instead setting them inside cardboard boxes in shade. -mowed the grass as short as possible -covered with overlapping layers of wet cardboard -replaced plants with root balls right on the cardboard to group them together instead of the checkerboard pattern previously planted -added lots of coffee grounds (cleaned out the stash at a local coffee company that keeps it available for customers to come scoop) + soil from other beds in those spots lifting plants up just a bit off the cardboard -filled in the rest with Whidbey's $9 cu yd mulch (shredded wood debris that has dirt mixed in from the piles) + our kitchen compost scraps from the week. Neighbors enjoyed watching & came out to comment several times. One asked, "Where did you get all the plants?" By removing the high grass, you could actually see the plants. We did add a few from home & some from other beds around the property, but not many. Enjoy the easy way to garden!

IF your lawn is like mine it is not grass at all but a collection of weeds that spread a variety of ways. Such as from pieces of root, rhizomes, etc. Did you know that weed seeds can survive below the soil for 40+ yrs.? And when brought up to the soil surface need only a flash of sunlight and some water to germinate. Wish our veggies were that hardy. I learned not to till any longer for that reason alone. You will likely have to use a multi-pronged approach - beginning with manual removal of any plant matter followed by soil sterilization to kill any surface weed seeds not visible to the eye. When planting use cardboard or newspapers (3-4 layers) held down with couple inches of mulch. Even shredded papers from the home or office can be used as a mulch. All these things will break down eventually but will also feed the soil. I don't know if you are open to trellising from a raised bed rather than a fence. Fences and walls normally inhibit access to all side of a garden and sometimes block sunlight. When making a bed I don't mean raised up off the ground (really) but a frame placed on the ground to contain the growing soil and give the idea that soil should not be walked on for any reason - so no wider than you can reach to the middle of the bed (3 or 4ft). Sometimes against a wall or fence it might be 2 or 3ft wide. Even a foot depending on what you are growing and the location. HTH

We found a provider for bulk mulch and compost. We're going to focus primarily on one 500 sq ft plot for the next season due to $$. Here's what we settled for: We made a trip around town and hit up all the big stores and begged for cardboard which was quite successful (and free!) Next up we're purchasing about 4.5 yards of compost which we're going to haul on our trailer ourselves. We'll add a 3" layer of compost on top of one of the 500 sq ft plots on top of the card board. The price of the compost will run us $150 Finally we're ordering a delivery of 20 yards of mulch which will cover the above mentioned 500 plot and another one adjacent to it. This will cover two 500 sq ft plots plus walk ways with 3" of wood chip mulch. The cost for 20 yards of wood chips/shavings will be $200 plus $75 for delivery. We would love to cover the entire 2000 sq ft area but it's simply too expensive and since we're not planning on using the full garden right away any way we settled for developing it down the road. Thanks for the help every one!!