garden bedding

[RICHARD77]

I moved into a new house and am creating a garden bedding on part of where the lawn used to be.

As this garden was left neglected for many years, does this mean the earth is good and I do not need to add huge amounts of anything to it? There are quite a few worms in there. I saw a video where gardeners put a few spades of soil improver on the top when putting new plants in bedding, but I am not sure such a small amount would make much of a difference.

Is is ok to plough up the earth with fork and spade (as in photo) and then just put the plants in?
Also, there are lots of stones in there. Should they be taken out?

thanks,

 

[Tetters]

You can just dig it up, removing the grass (or else it will just keep growing through) and plant. Unless you have a pile of builders rubble underneath, leave the stones where they are - why make work?
I have been doing exactly the same on rather a big scale...
Digging up the grass wasn`t so bad, and neither was the flint too much problem. When it came to planting however, all seemed to be going well until the rabbits, voles, pheasants and those horrible red legged partridges moved in, causing devastation

If you don`t remove all the grass first, it will creep back and suffocate your plants.

 

[lifegardener]

I moved into a new house and am creating a garden bedding on part of where the lawn used to be.

As this garden was left neglected for many years, does this mean the earth is good and I do not need to add huge amounts of anything to it? There are quite a few worms in there. I saw a video where gardeners put a few spades of soil improver on the top when putting new plants in bedding, but I am not sure such a small amount would make much of a difference.

Is is ok to plough up the earth with fork and spade (as in photo) and then just put the plants in?
Also, there are lots of stones in there. Should they be taken out?

thanks,

Had a similar situation awhile back, and instead of ripping up the sod, just mulched and planted right over it. The grass - San-Augustine - rotted and provided additional nutrition for added soil life.

 

[Tetters]

We have proper grass here in the UK, and unless the mulch is about 6 ft deep the grass will grow through and strangle the plants

 

[Mr_Yan]

@Tetters - can you show me how to grow proper grass? My grass is terrible.

I have done the smother with mulch thing in several places - including an old grassland in Illinois.

Mow it as short as you possibly can. Cover with a layer of corrugated cardboard, over lap the edges. Then cover with mulch about 100 mm thick (4 inches for you imperialists). Water it. The mulch will slide around for a week or two. This was able to smother things that generally can't be killed like ivy and wild morning glory (aka binder vine).

 

[Tetters]

Oh dear, I`m afraid I can`t really compare. I really think it is much to do with weather conditions and the condition of the soil - also the grass seed used. I believe that Kent UK and W. Michigan USA might be very different in these things.

when it comes to making beds where there was once grass, I have tried more than one method. The ground cover and mulch method was the first I used here when I grew a mixed hedge over a 4 acre plot. It took a whole year to get rid of all the grass, but I got there in the end.
More recently, in fact in the last year we used the ''dig it up'' method which was jolly hard graft (I`m getting too old for that) and then the careful use of herbicide. That worked in two weeks. It made turning the sod over much easier, and the weather and worms did the rest.

 

[Jewell]

I have found the cardboard method works well for me but it is important to use multiple layers of cardboard (4 plus) and then I place a layer of bark on top. Wet each layer as applied and wait a year. If in a hurry, dig. I have a climate similar to UK. DO NOT use over bind weed. Bind weed in my area can run 25 feet underground and will follow mole runs. I use this method for walkways in my berry patch and under my highbush blueberries. Was very useful in turning a 30x100 foot shady area into a woodland garden. If you are patient you get the nicest soil ever when the cardboard, plants underneath and bark decay. It will be full of life and microorganisms.