Joseph Byrns wrote:

Do I plough the lawn into the soil?

You have to decide if you want a raised bed or not. Since you live in a
rainy place, probably a raised bed has only pluses for you. With a
raised bed, eliminating the grass is as simple as laying down
cardboard. You do need to dig the grass around the perimeter of the
bed, and establish a mowing strip (a strip around the bed where nothing
grows and which will allow you to mow the grass). If you don't do that,
grass will creep into the beds, and grass is the worst weed you can
have in a vegeetable garden. Instructions for no till/organic:

0) if you have moles or voles, lay down chicken wire on the selected
spot. This will save you many a crisis
1) Lay down cardboard or multiple layers of newspapers on top of the
chicken wire and lawn, making sure it overlaps completely
2) lay down cinder blocks or wood beams to define the perimeter of the
garden. Make sure that the cardboard is under the cinder blocks
3) dig up the grass all around the bed, one foot width, don't throw it
in the bed or it may resprout
4) lay down a one foot strip of plastic ( cut up garbage bag is fine)
at the bottom and fill with gravel or crushed limestone. do not fill
with mulch or over time grass will come in. make sure the plasitc is
under the cinder blocks
5) fill the bed with manure and dead leaves (start saving dead leaves
now), to about one foot height (it will come down to about two to three
inches. You will have to add more as the years go by). you have to do
this before winter to begin breakdown. If you use wood chips, they will
render your garden too acidic for the first few years (you can still
plant potatoes and a number of other acid-tolerant veggies), though on
the long run they provide the same neutral, quality soil that regular
compost does. Wood chips are free of weed seeds, leaves almost seed
free, manure varies. topsoil has 75 years of seeds in it
6) in spring plant only transplants, as the soil is still coarse for
seeds. Starting the year after you can plant from seed



Or is there something else I should do?

Also I live in the North of England and summer is over, is there a preferred
time of year to prepare the patch?

fine lawn or not, it is best to start with a good manuring. And the
time to do it is in the next two months.


Thanks.