"AuralFeast" wrote in message
...
What's the easiest way of converting lawn into planting beds? I'd like to
build beds along 30 feet of fence line - maybe about 2 feet wide.

Do I just roto till the lawn? Do I remove the sod and roto till? Use
grass
killer and roto till?

Thanks in advance for your input.


I did a bed about thirty feet by six feet last year. I used my Lee Valley
Sod Lifter (from Lee Valley Tools) to remove the sod. You could also rent a
sod cutter from a rental store. I gave the sod to a neighbor who used it to
patch some areas. After I removed the sod I used a fork to turn the soil,
then I used a tiller to break up the heavy clay. I spread about 5 yards of
mushroom compost on the bed and then tilled that in. It was a lot of work,
but definitely worth the effort. I haven't been happy with the results when
I used Round-Up and then tried to till the sod into the soil.

Two feet isn't very wide for a bed. I have always regretted making my beds
too narrow because it restricts the planting scheme to rows of plants lined
up like soldiers. Things don't have much room to grow before they are too
crowded and spilling out into the lawn. I think that six or eight feet wide
is about ideal.