Cardboard or hard work?

[Bigmallly]

My present raised beds were built straight on top of clay soil so was pretty straight forward. Anyways I'm gonna claim another 50 sq ft of grassed area of the garden for more beds. The boards are on order but I'm not sure about the preparation of the ground. Do I turn the turf, dig it up & put to one side to decompose or just cover the grass with wet cardboard / newspaper.........I'm tempted to go for the latter..............Your advice as always is gratefully received.

[DarkCrow]

My present raised beds were built straight on top of clay soil so was pretty straight forward. Anyways I'm gonna claim another 20 sq ft of grassed area of the garden for more beds. The boards are on order but I'm not sure about the preparation of the ground. Do I turn the turf, dig it up & put to one side to decompose or just cover the grass with wet cardboard / newspaper.........I'm tempted to go for the latter..............Your advice as always is gratefully received.

Hi BM

Does Cardboard really "do the do?" PB is always saying use cardboard to stop weed invasions and give the soil some nutrients but i always (in the whole year i've been growing) thought it abit... well .. odd

[zazen999]

Yes, it does work!

Best I've found is:
grass
layer of manure if you have some
cardboard
layer of soil or manure

then plant through using a bulb planter

then mulch once the plant is in place, afterwatering - straw or sawdust works for me.

*the sandier the soil the more you need manure or something to add nutrients under the cardboard.

[Bigmallly]

Brilliant, makes mental note to get some manure. I was just contemplating using MPC initially

[Kristen]

I think digging the substrate is good if you can - you don't actually need to turn-it-over, just open-it-up to assist drainage and make it easy for roots to penetrate.

[Florence Fennel]

I've done this (as Zaz has described) to create another bed this year BM, but the cardboard went on in October. I couldn't physically dig it anyway, so it's my first go at potatoes-in-the-ground through the cardboard.

[Two_Sheds]

I think you should fork over the lawn even if you don't dig it ... it's probably been compacted after years of use?

However, I'm lazy so I just did the cardboard on top of grass at school Let the worms do the digging

[Bigmallly]

I think you should fork over the lawn even if you don't dig it ... it's probably been compacted after years of use?

However, I'm lazy so I just did the cardboard on top of grass at school Let the worms do the digging

Now there's a first........TS contridicting herself................now I don't know what to do........

[Alison]

It works to some extent, I had 3 beds I just put card over last summer and planted squashes through the card (added some manure also). Have started digging them over properly in the last couple of weeks and they're a lot easier to dig than if the card hadn't been there but I still need to go over them to get more of the couch grass out (that stuff will spread everywhere) and open up the soil a bit although the latter bit depends on the soil type / compaction etc. Summing up, I don't think it will do the job totally for you but it will do have the work and make it easier next year so definitely worth a go.

[sarahspatch]

Last year I put card on top of a weedy area on my plot, mainly to keep control of it. I don't then have to worry about constantly weeding it.

I didn't have any manure last year so it was bare card- not very nice to look at, but it did rot down a bit then it went on the compost heap.

I've just had manure delivered so I will definately put this on top of card on the same couch/dandy weedy area I have! (Does couch grass ever die out...I'm beginning to think it doesn't )

[elsie-scot]

Shame to remove the turf and have to fill the beds with something else in it's place. I did the remove and pile turf once and it took ages to be ready to reuse.

Haven't used cardboard, but think I will next time, depending what I will plant. On the raised beds I did last year I skimmed the turf, turned, layer seaweed, layer soil. In the one I grew early tatties, it worked well, but then I did keep adding soil/grass cutting to earth up. Another one I grew courgettes/squash, and the grass kept fighting it's way through.

[FionaH]

It does work. My dads soil was so heavy we had to "turn it over" with a mattock! I put down card and muck and planted spuds through it last year. Going to do beans this year. The soil is so much easier to work now. Pics are on my profile here

[Bigmallly]

Thanks guys. As it's such a small area (20'x4'), I think I may turn the turf over to play safe then make a manure cardboard manure lasagne on top of the inverted turf. Thanks again.

[Two_Sheds]

I just did the cardboard on top of grass at school

TS contridicting herself.

I did it the lazy way because
a) it's not my garden & I don't know how long this gardening fad will last so I'm not going to b0gger myself double digging if I don't have to

b) although it was grass, it wasn't a heavily used (& therefore compacted) bit of lawn

c) our soil is sandy and free draining, so no danger of a hard pan forming under the plants

[Bigmallly]

Thanks for clearing that up TS..............When I read your post I also wondered if I would do things differently if it wasn't my garden.