allotment from grass

[riaswayze]

I was advised to turn over grass to dig my allotment, which I have, am starting to worry if this was a bad idea. I have managed to plan potatoes but cant see me managing much else yet. I was told the grass would eventually mush to compost. have I made a big mistake? thank you

[Bigmallly]

Welcome to the vine riaswayze. The grass will rot down over time but what some folks do is lift the turf and pile it up somewhere to rot down, you then can concentrate on getting the soil as you want it. I'm not speaking from experience but am sure other grapes will come along to advise.

[Peppermint]

We are turning a large lawn and paddock into vegetable and fruit plots. Bit by bit. The majority of the plots we have taken the turf off, piled up (grass side down) and covered in plastic (should nicely rot down in a couple of years). We dig over the beds and had a great range of crops last year.

This year I wanted some bigger areas (fast) so we covered an areas in cardboard, soaked it and topped this off with a mix of soil and well rotted manure. I've planted potatoes directly into them in the hope they'll help turn over the ground and I can concentrate on getting the soil in better shape next year. The cardboard is supposed to kill off the perennial weeds. That's the idea anyway We did have a lot top soil spare from where we had dug out some footings for sheds etc.

OH also built a raised bed last year - directly onto grass with cardboard in the bottom - and that has been a real success.

[zazen999]

You can do lazy beds, work really well with spuds.

Take a long strip of your grass plot, and put down a metre wide strip of manure, compost, shredded paper, straw, anything you have to hand. Pop your spuds on top, and again, cover with any of all of the above list. Maybe a sprinkle of potato fertiliser if you have any.

Then, cut the turf around the beds, in squares, leaving the side next to the strip as a hinge, and turn the turf over onto the spud strip. Do this all round. You can pop another layer of turf over the top of you have any spare.

When you harvest the spuds, the grass will have rotted nicely and you will have a 2m wide strip of loamy soil.

You could do the same but not put the spuds in, and just plant stuff into the upturned strip.

[Two_Sheds]

I've turned over my front lawn at home, and I turned over the school's gardens.

car park strip before & after | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Some of the grass will regrow, but it's been easier to dig out the odd lump rather than the whole lot.

I trod it all over roughly to get it "kinda level", then planted straight away.

You can't turn in couch grass though: it will simply all regrow if buried shallow (one spit is shallow)

[riaswayze]

thank you so much for your advice!

[Abdel]

Thanks everyone for the interesting post.

i would be very grateful to Zezen if he/she can explain a bit more about the lazy beds. I have a new allotment and I am really lost, don't know were to start and spent 4 weeks just to clean it up as it was in mess (and still is!). Is there any video I can watch regarding the lazy bed?

Many thanks.

[zazen999]

Thanks everyone for the interesting post.

i would be very grateful to Zezen if he/she can explain a bit more about the lazy beds. I have a new allotment and I am really lost, don't know were to start and spent 4 weeks just to clean it up as it was in mess (and still is!). Is there any video I can watch regarding the lazy bed?

Many thanks.

Sure

[Abdel]

thank you very much!

[Abdel]

We are turning a large lawn and paddock into vegetable and fruit plots. Bit by bit. The majority of the plots we have taken the turf off, piled up (grass side down) and covered in plastic (should nicely rot down in a couple of years). We dig over the beds and had a great range of crops last year.

This year I wanted some bigger areas (fast) so we covered an areas in cardboard, soaked it and topped this off with a mix of soil and well rotted manure. I've planted potatoes directly into them in the hope they'll help turn over the ground and I can concentrate on getting the soil in better shape next year. The cardboard is supposed to kill off the perennial weeds. That's the idea anyway We did have a lot top soil spare from where we had dug out some footings for sheds etc.

OH also built a raised bed last year - directly onto grass with cardboard in the bottom - and that has been a real success.

Hi Pepermint. Could you please tell me with what you filled the beds on top of the cardboard. Also can i use newspaper instead?
Many thanks.

[Peppermint]

Helo Abdel

The raised bed we built last year was a great success. We had the best crop of Charlotte potatoes of any of the potato beds.

OH built a frame in timber. Just four sides. We placed thick cardboard on the base. Then we put in a thick layer of farmyard manure (a local farmer dropped of trailerful). We then filled it with seived topsoil that was in pile in the corner of the garden when we bought the place. We love this particular bed as it is at a comfortable height and we know that it has a good deep soil level. This year I have a well established plot of garlic in one half, and two varieties of carrots have been sown in the other half.

The the new beds (not raised beds) have a cardboard base (soaked) and layers of farmyard manure, soil and over the next few weeks some soil improver from the council recyling centre. I've been watching these youtube videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZugARiOJCQ and reading around the grapevine on no-dig beds.

I would certainly look at using newspaper layered on the base. Though cardboard is better as it is supposed to provide a decent barrier against the perennial weeds - apparently they rot away because they cannot penetrate the cardboard. (I tend to buy a lot from Amazon as we can get free supersaver delivery, even in Orkney - so we get plenty of cardboard. We also went round some of the local diy/agricultural merchants and they gave us cardboard boxes). We haven't seen a single perennial in the bed we built last year.

[Abdel]

Thank you ever so much Pepermint!
Been looking for such a clear and simple explanation for a long while.
I can have all the ingredients and I am starting this next week 
Will let you know.
Good night and the very best wishes

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Two_Sheds]

I would certainly look at using newspaper layered on the base. Though cardboard is better as it is supposed to provide a decent barrier against the perennial weeds - apparently they rot away because they cannot penetrate the cardboard.

It's lack of light that kills the weeds, and layers of wet newspaper are just as good as cardboard. Whole newspapers, soaked in a bucket of water.

Abdel, look at lasagne beds: it's a different name for the same method. I did it with the school's veg beds: killing weeds for the raised veg beds | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

lasagne bed 1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Abdel]

Thank you very much for all these information. I am having a delivery of the bed frames and compost this Tues and Wed. So I will be starting very soon.

All the best.