Jack wrote:
Question re building raised beds.

I am going to contour the yard a bit with raised beds and berms. When you
all do this, do you kill and/or remove the turf underneath first? The
beds will be about 10"+ high in the middle.

I thought about ripping up the turf, composting it, tilling the base soil,
then building the berm.
Thank you for your time.


What I usually do is scalp the turf, and then do some deep edging around the
area. I then cover what's left with newspaper (at least 8 layers thick, and
overlapping) or corrugated cardboard. On top of that goes the new soil, and
a heavy layer of mulch. But I should also mention that I've only done this
in areas that I didn't replant for at least six months.

In the much smaller areas that I wanted to plant sooner, I removed the turf
and the soil down as far as the roots go, and replaced it all with fresh
soil. Then I stored the turf upside down while it dried-out, and later
sifted it, and composted the remaining organic material, and used the soil
as fill in an area where it didn't matter if anything grew out of it.

--
Warren H.

==========
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Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
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response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
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