Getting rid of grass

[tremone]

I have a section that I would like to extend my veg plot, it is currently grass, i've been told i need to get rid of the grass before going at it with a rotovator. Do i need to apply a chemical or will simply covering it over the winter allow me in with my rotovator in spring time.

Rgds,
Tremone

[theabsinthefairy]

Hi

We ploughed our field that had been untouched by human hand for over 15 years in order to get through the root system - for a large scale that is probably appropriate.

However, to create the smaller herb beds and soft fruit areas, I put down cardboard - this allows moisture through so does not dry out the earth but obviously blocks the light and prevents growth. I did this in December and could turn the earth easily by April to start planting - some rotavated and some with a fork depending on the size of the bed. My daughter followed behind pulling up the root balls as I turned the earth and that worked really well as a clearing system, whilst I get some seed weeds not very many root weeds came up this year.

The herb beds, I also laid a layer of old manure down under the cardboard and turned that in, in one go to make life a little easier.

Monika

[possum]

Old carpet will kill it also.
I would just dig it in myself, then rake it over and remove all the roots that you can and chuck the roots on the compost heep (some people will now doubt tell you not to put them on the compost heap)

[Millymollymandy]

We take off the turf. You can turn that upside down and stack it and it is supposed to turn into nice loam eventually.

Actually it totally depends on what grass you have. If you have horrible creeping grass then the worst thing you can do is dig it in, or rotavate it in! And if your grass has bindweed in it then it is even worse.

[blathanna]

Cover it with cardboard until the spring then you will have no bother rotavating it. I would not cover with carpet as the dye may well seep into the soil over the wet winter.

[baldowrie]

MMM

Actually it totally depends on what grass you have. If you have horrible creeping grass then the worst thing you can do is dig it in, or rotavate it in! And if your grass has bindweed in it then it is even worse.

Yep and covering it won't kill it either. It creeps out or stays dormant. You need to burn it, dig and burn it again. Or use weed killer for this kind of grass.

[Thomzo]

For a smallish area, I'd strip off the turf like MMM says. It doesn't actually take all that long and you can either re-use it somewhere else or compost it. I took up some recently to plant a hedge and chucked it in the chicken run. They loved it.

For a large area then go for the cardboard/carpet option.

I've done both and have had about the same amount of grass and weed regrowth with both options. The only thing I would say is that if you use the cardboard put a really thick layer of compost etc over it (about 6 inches) otherwise the grass will re-grow once the cardboard starts to break down.

Cheers
Zoe

[colhut]

If you can I would double dig it. I have done this a lot this year in a field that has been uncultivated for decades. Simply put, take a strip of turf off and set aside, now dig a trench a spade deep and set the soil aside. take the turf off of the next row on put upside down in the trench of the first, dig the second trench and put the soil on the first. Repeat to the end of the bed where you can put the turf and then the soil you took out of the first row in. Obviously if there is just too much you can't do this, but where I have done this I have not had the grass come up again.

[tremone]

Dare I ask is there a safe chemical i can put on that will kill off the grass, as digging is too labour intensive.

Rgds,
Tremone

[possum]

If you are wanting to plant veggies then you will have to dig it over at some point.
However, just to kill the grass, for an environmentally friendly solution try boiling water, but you are going to need fair bit. Or you could just burn it. Or chuck any old weed killer on it, not necesarily good for it but effective.

[Bonniegirl]

Also by using weed killer chances are you wouldn't be able to grow too much for a while, the plants might not grow.

Oh yeah and if your planning to grow your own veg, it's all quite labour intensive work!

Best do it properly to begin with otherwise it's hardly worth starting really!

[tremone]

I'm not sado-masochistic either, we're talking aboyt a good length of digging here, what i hope to do is kill off grass so i can rotovate to work the soil. You lot don't just do your digging in the garden, you've been throwing a few digs at me about my work shy tactics

Rgds,
Tremone

[baldowrie]

round up can be used to weed kill and plant after...buy the generic one as it's cheaper. Although after killing it off I would still burn the roots if it's couch grass.

Tremone we can't all dig and have to use other methods

[Stonehead]

A flame gun, then cardboard, then flame again after a few months before bringing in the rotary hoe. That works fairly well on soft or loose soils.

However, you may still need to dig by hand or get a plough in on harder soils or clay. We have a big BCS rotary hoe for working the fields, but in severely impacted areas it just bounces off while sticky clay can bring it to a halt even with 6hp under the bonnet.

And if the rotary hoe won't do it, then I'm afraid it's mattock, crowbar and pick time. I've had to do that more than a few times and it's extremely hard work - even for someone who's both fit and used to long spells of hard, manual labour.

I've also found it faster to break harder soils for the first time with an agricultural hand hoe than a rotary hoe, although the rotary hoe is much faster once the soil is broken into largish lumps.

If you can't dig by hand and have difficult soils, then you're better off going for raised beds.

Oh, and when using a flame gun do bear in mind that it's even more destructive than herbicides. That means flame weeding is fine on a vegetable bed you plan to use regularly, along a fence line or to clear a path, but elsewhere it simply wipes out too much. (It also uses fossil fuels.)

Of course, flame weeding doesn't have the poison implications of weedkillers and is currently regarded as organic.

My personal preference is flame weeding to clear couch grass and the like, to only use chemicals as a very last resort for getting rid of persistent tree stumps and thick concentrations of ragwort, and to otherwise use manual labour to clear weeds and grass. But I'm fit, have the time to do this and am bloody mad!

[tremone]

Nice to see Stonehead back in the fold, sorry to give the impression that i am somehow infirmed, i just have an irrational fear of a hard day's work. I've sat behind a desk all my working days(about 10 yrs) so digging when there is an easier solution bring me out in beads of sweat. I think i'll get the wife to do it....

p.s. they used to sow potatoes in this patch and then a cow who'd just calved was given this wee section so the ground shouldn't be too bad

Rgds,
Tremone