will wrote:

We've moved into a house with a large garden that hasn't been
maintained for some years. The grass is in poor condition, and full of
weeds and couch grass. Part of our plan is to create some raised beds
and grow vegetables.

The plan is to strip the grass and import some top soil and manure to
build up the beds. Would it be OK to just invert the stripped grass ie
turn it upside down and put it back, and then dump the new topsoil on
top? Would the weeds just grow up through the new soil again, or would
this layer of old grass a few inches below the surface in any way
restrict the future growth of new plants?

Or would it be better just to dispose of the weedy old grass?


We've done a fair bit of turf stripping in our garden (for ponds and
seeding wildflower meadows) and built various clod walls (great for
planting stuff on top that likes it a bit drier as most of our garden is
very soggy in winter at least) and raised beds around the garden with the
turf. If you use the turf to build the beds up you will get grass growing
on the edges, but if you just put a layer or two in the middle of the bed
as you suggest, well surrounded by ordinary soil then it shouldn't be a
problem. The grass rots down quite well (although I would still try and get
the couch grass out first as its virtually indestructable and I can imagine
it coming up through quite a lot of overlying soil). If you have the time,
a fail-safe option is to stack it upside down in a shady place, or covered,
for a year until the grass has rotted down then use it.

Anita