In Scotland , where I am , Spring is hint at its presence with light mornings , daffodil in bloom and tulip bud swelling on wax stems . But weather impudent , wintertime ’s clasp is still quite strong – with snow storms the week just passed and keep on firm jazz .
Nevertheless , thelure of the garden , is proving resistless .
I ’ve been trying to create some additional garden beds . In some cases I have been removing turf by hand . The best thing I can say for this Book of Job is that it is serious exercise . The bad part is that you ’re left with piles of turf to mete out with .
Even Otis the cat is interested in this method
This is n’t much of a problemin a great garden . you may get hold a sheltered corner where you may store the turf for a year or two , whilst it breaks down into a useable and valuable topsoil . But it is a problem in a small space , because there is so much less room to spare .
One coming I could have judge , is a variation on the double dig method acting , where you effectively bury the sod late enough for it to be bolt down off . But this is believably even harder study than just removing the greensward . It also relies on the area being fairly costless of sizeabletreeand shrub roots , which mine is n’t .
Anyway , because of the grow cumulation of turf I was gather , in another area of the garden I ’ve decided to try out with a variation of the no - dig method .
Even Otis the cat is interested in this method
This is involve laying down a two or three inch heavyset subsequently of compost / soil on top of the sod and then covering this with sheet of weed surpress cloth . This was a piece whoremonger in gamy winds , but I weighted it down with rock and banged in some hoop pins that are made for the business , and so far everything is holding in place .
This means I want to be patient , as it is likely to take a pair of month for thegrassto exit off . I expect I will take to do a fair second of loosening of the grime as well when it comes to planting , as the deadened forage origin will still be bind together .
Nevertheless , this was a mess easy than removing about 20 square metres of sod and should ultimately be better for thesoil . This is because all the organic material in the sod is continue , and adding the level ofcompostbetween the Gunter Grass and the sheeting is also likely to attract worm and other soil fauna . Their activity will help oneself improve thesoil structure .
Update
I ’m writing this update a year later and I can account that basically it worked a treat . This is what the country above looked like around 4 calendar month later :
Someperennial weedsdid survive , even after about 8 weeks under cardboard and compost , which is a undecomposed illustration of the tenacity that prepare some plants weeds . But all Ineeded to do was keep on top of the weeding .
One other point to notice is that although the eatage was dead , what was left was a layer of tightly wander utter root material . So it was a bit of a job to dig this over andbreak up the soil . Nevertheless , it was easier than move out turf by hand . If I had been growingvegetables , like zucchini , I might have been tempt to take a totally no dig approaching and stack up more compost and organic matter on top to plant germ into , then allowing the antecedent bed to break down naturally over prison term . But because I want to grownperennialplants , I needed to dig the soil over to allow the plant to put down their solution .
So , if you have time and you plan ahead , this is emphatically the better way to make a garden bed from an area oflawn
Martin Cole has been an avid plant lover and nurseryman for more than 20 year and loves to spill the beans and compose about gardening . In 2006 he was a finalist in the BBC Gardener of the Year challenger . He is a member of the National dahlia Society .
He antecedently lived in London and Sydney , Australia , where he consume a diploma trend in Horticultural study and is now based in North Berwick in Scotland . He founded GardeningStepbyStep.com in 2012 . The web site is aim at everybody who loves plants or has been bitten by the gardening bug and need to know more .
garden Step by Step has beencited by Thompson and Morgan , the UK ’s tumid chain armour order plant retailer , as a website that publishes practiced gardening substance .
Even Otis the cat is interested in this method
