Dig up the grass?

supercraftygirl 4/11/2010, 11:43 am

We're going to build out box today - but I have one dumb question first - Do I need to dig up the grass where I'm going to place my box? Or can I go the newspaper/cardboard/weed mat route?

Lavender Debs 4/11/2010, 11:59 am

We stapled weed mat under ours and so far so good. But you should probably know that this is my first year, you will get better advice as the day goes on.

Deborah .....welcome to the squares world.

ralitaco 4/11/2010, 7:22 pm

I am brand new to this, but page 55 of the ANSFG book says to "remove grass or weeds".
hope that helps.

Toastie 4/11/2010, 7:45 pm

I tilled the area where my boxes up to help draining and trying to lvl it. If you can remove teh grass you can put it in your compose heap also

**camprn** 4/11/2010, 8:38 pm

I lifted and removed the sod before I put my boxes down. If you use the search feature you can find several threads that speak to this. Good luck! All the work will be worth it! flower

**timwardell** 4/11/2010, 9:38 pm

It really depends on how invasive / tough the grass in question is. If it's VERY invasive you can't loose by removing it. Yes, it's a lot of labor but once it's done you can feel fairly confident that your SFG will be safe. If you do opt for newspapers or cardboard you'll want to lay it thick enough so that it will smother the grass completely - don't leave any gaps! Scalping the area with a weedeater or lawn mower first also helps.

Little Thumb 4/15/2010, 3:40 pm

Well, I guess I messed up on that one. We will see if my plants grow or the weeds.

elliephant 4/17/2010, 3:21 pm

I wrapped flattened cardboard boxes in landscape fabric and set it directly on the grass (mostly weeds, Laughing

). I've only had a few puny weeds and I'm well into the growing season here in south Texas.

quiltbea 4/18/2010, 12:02 pm

The grass in my perennial flower beds is so invasive that when I started my SFG last year, I made sure we removed all the sod before we started.
Its been 6 years and I still fight grass each and every year in those 2 beds.

I don't want any more trials of fighting grass in another garden so a sod-cutter was rented and my son did the job, thank goodness.

I was able to put in nine raised beds here and 4 mounded beds as well, and no more grassy battles.

**camprn** 4/18/2010, 12:39 pm

quiltbea wrote:The grass in my perennial flower beds is so invasive that when I started my SFG last year, I made sure we removed all the sod before we started. no more grassy battles.

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