Turning lawn into a bed...what prep do I need?

Hi there, second thread tonight! I'm a total novice...

I'm keen to turn some of my grass lawn into a bed to plant shrubs, plants and more. I'm wondering what prep do I need to do?
I'm assuming that I need to remove (and throw away?) the turf, which is in poor condition. Should I then apply weed killer to the soil underneath?
The soil itself isnt too bad, the house is only 8 yrs old, but I dont think the garden got affected by building process and the site was Green Field before being built on. It's very flinty/chalky soil. Should I get some topsoil in bulk to mix in, or some organic material?

Would really really appreciate any help.

thanks
Julian

 

Hi Juliang and welcome.

Some time ago I turned part of my lawn into a flower bed. I kept all the old turf - just lifted it and turned it upside down and laid it back on the (now) bed. I certainly didn't put any weed killer on it. I did mine in the late autumn, and then left it fallow over the winter - simply because I hadn't got any plants to put in it. I was going to grow them from seed the next spring.

I am on clay - which is a different problem from you. As my drainage was bad I put a lot of gravel and sharp sand onto the bed, as well as quite a bit of organic material - compost and manure. If I was doing it again I would do exactly the same but put a lot more of everything on. Its easy to add large quantities of material to an empty bed and an opportunity that you won't get again. If your drainage is OK, you don't need the gravel and sand but you do need plenty of organic material.

I then dug the sand gravel and compost into the bed, and the act of digging broke up the old turf as well (remember old turf is good organic material). As the bed was fallow I kept raking it, which killed off anything that tried to grow.

I would do essentially the same today. But a varient might be to put the turf upside down, then cover it with a layer of cardboard and/or newspapers and then put the organic matter on top and leave to simmer for a while. The paper layer will cut out the light and kill any seedlings. But it is also organic material that will rot down. Once it is reasonably rotted I would then do the digging to mix it all up.

 

Thanks very much PeterS
I guess one of the problems I have is timing... with winter over I dont have the chance to use frost as a way to kill things off. Also, I was sort of hoping that I could plant a few things in the new beds this Spring. Am I being too impatient do you think?

 

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]I have a largish back garden. Most of it was grass and nothing else. However, in some areas the grass was so poor and full of very large divots (the ankle snapping kind) and in others great, but just in the wrong place. In places it was very wild and not tended for over two years.

In the area where I planted a small orchard I needed to level the ground to get rid of the worse holes. I dug over the ground (heavy going), tilled it and then raked it level. I then planted the trees and left the grass to re-grow helping with some re-seeding.

In areas I wanted to put paths and flower beds I stripped the turf off in big sods. I did this by hand with a spade and it was back breaking. The sods then were buried upside in large pits I had dug in the soil. This worked quite well, but for the first year or so I had to weed to get rid of grass and roots. I also placed the weed suppressant mesh under the gravel paths to help keep the weeds down. This method seemed to work the best. I am lucky to have very, very good soil so everything grows really well - including the grass growing back and weeds!

In the area I wanted a vegi-plot we hired a large rotovator and got rid of the grass this way. This was unbelievably difficult. I am what you would call a strapping lass and very strong and my husband is also a big guy and we really struggled to get the rotovator to even move (and it was a motor powered one too). In the end I dug over by hand and then my husband followed with the rotavotor, but we still had to rotorvate each area about three times. Then to stop the grass re-growing I have covered the vegi patch area with black, polythene sheeting for a year to kill off everything. I know the plastic sheeting is not very environmentally friendly, but I will be re-using it again over the next few years in a few different areas and so it was the best way for me to do this. I have problems with some very pernicious weeds which would grow through cardboard mulch so using this was not an option. I am just about to move the plastic to cover a new area and what will be the new vegi patch is currently weed free (after having knee high weeds).

It is possible to do and well worth the effort, but it was hard work.

If you are interested here are some pics of the before and after.

Before (2007)

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg54/knittingspider/Backgarden.jpg

After (March & May 2009) - still needs more plants yet
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg54/knittingspider/IMG_0281.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg54/knittingspider/IMG_0299.jpg

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg54/knittingspider/IMG_0283.jpg

You can just see the corner of the vegi patch in the last photo and the area behind the seating which will be sheeted this year.

Cath.

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Lots more digging and hard work required now then!

I've created a new bed out of lawn at this time of year. It's hard work and like Peter, I too am on clay so lots and lots of digging. But it can be done.

 

I'm in the process of doing one now, again on clay. Turf was stripped and stacked away in the corner of the garden to rot down, it was then dug over roughly and broken down. I've added a lot of 5 year old horse manure and that will be dug in as I dig it over again in this next week, when I add some grit.

Then I'm growing early potatoes in it, this then means that the whole bed will be dug/turned over again in early July to get the spuds out to allow for more crops to go into, and again at the end of the season. It should be just about right come Spring next year.

Steve...

 

Spider - that was a huge effort - looks marvellous - well done.

Juliang - as its now spring I hought you might want to get on with it. In which case I would agree with the others. Keep the turf upside down in a different area - it will make good loam. Apply lots of manure and dig and keep on digging for a while. Once a plot has been dug properly its very easy to dig it over again. And each time you are burying anything that is trying to grow. I would still be inclined to leave it fallow for a month to allow any new growth to appear and to get dug in. I would keep away from weed killers - you don't know how long they will effect the area - and even then they may not kill all the seeds.

There is no reason why you can't grow your new plants in pots by the side. But you can never get away from weeding. Even the application of manure could add a few weed seeds depending on how well rotted it was.

 

Thanks a lot. Many hours a hard work have gone into the garden.