Advice on preparing a new garden plot... in the spring

[Bro. Williams]

We are looking at having to prepare an addition garden plot, to be used in a bout 4 weeks. I know it should have been done in the fall, but it wasn't.

In prepping the new site, should I:

1. remove the sod?
2. plow and then till the grass in as is?
3. other options?

[DavidUnderwood]

Depends on how tough the sod is.
Can you kill it by plowing? If so, it
should add nicely to the soil.

[coup]

not sure how big your garden is........ i would mow grass as close to the ground as i could get,shave even. then turn plow over and disk and wait and disk again if time allows.

if you are not against chem. then i would still mow and then spray with roundup as soon as your yard grass starts growing. wait as long as you can and then plow- till........

[Bro. Williams]

Originally Posted by DavidUnderwood

Depends on how tough the sod is.
Can you kill it by plowing? If so, it
should add nicely to the soil.

Good question. I do think it will die easily.

The original grass was killed last spring with round-up. The previous owner then planted a new crop of native grass and wild flower. This grew from June-October and then was cut down via tractor.

But, I don't know much about sod... so I may be wrong.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I totally believe in lasagna gardening. Much less work.

http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organ...Gardening.aspx

[mldrenen]

Originally Posted by DavidUnderwood

Depends on how tough the sod is.
Can you kill it by plowing? If so, it
should add nicely to the soil.

that's what i would do, and have done. i doubled the size of my garden last year, and just chopped the sod, then tilled it under.

[Big Dave]

Lotta Work. I do the Lasagna thing. It is cool and weed free.

[manygoatsnmore]

I'd go ahead and till it up, adding in as much well rotted manure as you have available, then cover it all with mulch to keep the weeds from growing. Pull back the mulch to plant your seeds, then after they are up and growing well, pull the mulch back around them. Lasagna gardening is great, too, but I prefer to have the chance to till in extra organics. I have really poor, sandy soil here.

[Tricky Grama]

Don't know if you have time for the lasagna thing. I'm trying that but laid down newpaper, mulch, composted manure, etc,etc, last fall.
I don't condone round up so another way to kill the grass would be scrape it off, esp if you have the tools/equipment to do this. Can put the scraped material in the compost pile.
If the soil is good, you're in biz. If not, you can amend w/dry molasses, lava sand, expanded shale, a little cornmeal, & compost.

Good luck-

Patty
PS-I've read that if you till the grass into the soil it will just come up w/vengence!

[wy_white_wolf]

Key points

to be used in 4 weeks
expansion of existing garden

Remove the sod and fill in with garden soil/compost. Tilling it in will not kill all the grass and you don't have time for plastic coverings to do the job for you. Unless the area is already low, trying to cover up the area in lasagna garden style creats problems of an uneven garden area

[greenmulberry]

I just lay several sheet of cardboard right on the sod, wet it with a hose, then cover with compost, leaves, and soil. Plant right in the stuff on top of the card board.

Plants that need to set deep roots will go through the cardboard, but the grass cannot grow up through it. It least not the type of grass I have here.

Makes a lovely bed.

[clovis]

Maybe I am missing something here.

How big is the garden? How are you preparing it? With a plow? A walk behind tiller? A hand shovel?

I would leave the sod, and plow it under.

[JMJones0424]

It all depends on what the sod is made of. If it is a grass that spreads by rhizomes (basically thick stems directly under the surface of the soil, like St. Augustine) then tilling it in is the worst thing you could do. If it is a grass that only spreads by seed, then tilling it in will kill all but those that remain near the surface. A thick layer of mulch (six inches or more) may cover these remaining grasses enough to keep them down. A several layer thick covering of newspaper or cardboard would do better. Keep in mind though, if the grass shoots can't penetrate the layer of paper, then neither can the roots of the plants you are planting(at least until it breaks down some).

You are working on a short time frame, so it's too late for all the easy alternatives. The best thing to do would be to remove the top 1.5 or 2 inches of sod, (especially if the grass has rhizomes). If this is too much work, make sure you build up the soil at least six inches on top of the existing sod and mulch heavily. Or, use roundup to kill off all the existing grass. I personally hate using chemicals, but round up is relatively benign if used correctly, and if it makes the difference between you having a garden this spring or not, then use it.

[MN Gardener]

use black plastic over it to kill all the sod. Then add your amendments and till it up.

[Welshmom]

I don't know about the tillling under the sod thing. I've done that in the past here in WI without the tillering types of grasses (except crabgrass, of course) and I NEVER got rid of the grass growing up all over in my garden! It was a major pain, and a much worse weed to deal with than other weeds.

I am in the same boat this Spring, need to expand my garden into existing lawn. I plan on renting a sod cutter, pulling up the sod, and then tilling in mulch, etc. I did try the lasagna thing last Fall, but I guess I wasn't as good as I should have been. My covering of cardboard was patchy, took a long time to kill the grasses, there were always spaces where I missed, and then sometimes my cardboard would blow around the yard looking like trash becuse I hadn't the compost to cover it with yet.... I finally pulled up all the cardboard, MOWED the six inch long grass under it, and then put some feeder pigs there. That worked!

[retire2$]

This is what I did last spring. I spread newspapers on the grass. This layer is a thick layer (I keep my two daily newspapers all year and this is the way I recycle). After laying down the newspapers I cover them with cardboard (I get it free from Walmart). I have free access to leaf muclh so a light coating of this goes on top of the cardboard. If I didn't have leaf mulch I would use straw (not hay). When it comes time to plant I use my portable drill with an old spade bit. I drill a hole down to the soil and drop in the seed. Cover with a little of the leaf mulch. For plants (tomato, pepper, etc) I wipe away the leaf mulch to expose the cardboard. I use a razor knive to make an X in the cardboard and newspaper. Trowel out a small amount of soil and insert the plant. Fold the cardboard back around the plant and put the leaf mulch around the plant. After the harvest last year I ran the lawnmower over the garden. This year I plan on repeating the same process.

[Bro. Williams]

As a follow-up:

I was able to check the land more closely and checked in with my extension agent as well. Turns out, where the grass was killed last year and then replanted as native grass and wild-flower, the replanting hasn't taken a strong stand yet. So we have a thin strand of the native stuff, but mostly moss covering, with no thick sod at all.

Extension agent said to plow and disc and give it two weeks. Hope it works!

[Cygnet]

Be sure to account for varmit control.

I planted a thousand square feet of garden last year, only to lose it all to grasshoppers, gophers (our "gophers" are a type of ground squirrel) and bunnies. I just picked my only beet ... I didn't get *anything* else, period, and I spent $$$ on seeds and plants.

I'm having much better luck this year by building wooden boxes to plant in. The plants are at ground level, but I've got boxes a couple feet high around them to keep the gophers out. The dang things go right over a fence if they can't get under it.

And if I have to, later in the year, I can cover the boxes with row covers to keep the grasshoppers out.

... So far so good.

So figure out what your local varmits are. In another area it might be raccoons or deer or people ...

[Bro. Williams]

Originally Posted by Cygnet

Be sure to account for varmit control.

I planted a thousand square feet of garden last year, only to lose it all to grasshoppers, gophers (our "gophers" are a type of ground squirrel) and bunnies. I just picked my only beet ... I didn't get *anything* else, period, and I spent $$$ on seeds and plants.

I'm having much better luck this year by building wooden boxes to plant in. The plants are at ground level, but I've got boxes a couple feet high around them to keep the gophers out. The dang things go right over a fence if they can't get under it.

And if I have to, later in the year, I can cover the boxes with row covers to keep the grasshoppers out.

... So far so good.

So figure out what your local varmits are. In another area it might be raccoons or deer or people ...

I had a lot of help from my lab keeping most stuff out last year, thankfully.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Bro. Williams

Good question. I do think it will die easily.

The original grass was killed last spring with round-up. The previous owner then planted a new crop of native grass and wild flower. This grew from June-October and then was cut down via tractor.

But, I don't know much about sod... so I may be wrong.

You should be able to kill that stuff fairly easy by plowing or tilling. It wouldn't be quack or any other grass which makes a big root network in one season. It would be just like opening the original prairies. One plowing pretty much took care of the grasses.

Martin