[spongebob]

hi all

we are new to forum

my family and me

we are thinking of growing veg in garden

we have only have lawn in back garden (i liked the stripe look)i no sad but all it took was cut grass trim edges dig odd weed out took of 20mins
then sit back with beer  

thats gone out the window now  

so any ideas of the best way to start

can i just dig the grass over and brake it up or use a friends petrol triller run that up and down to turn it over or cut top layer of grass of then dig it over ready for next year or wait till feb then start it(he say hoping)

thankyou for any ideas

[corynsboy]

Welcome aboard.  

Get it down on paper first.  Make a plan and decide when you want to start.

Get a good book (Type in "The Vegetable Expert" on Amazon) so you can plan your sowing and what you want to plant (and when).  This way you can make sure that your plot is ready when you want to start palnting.  John Harrison's book is pretty useful too.  I think I heard that you can now buy it on this site!

Find an area for your compost first.  Then skim the turfs off the area you want to cultivate.  Put the sods in a pile so that the first sod is face up and the next goes grass down on top of the first.  Continue like this and cover.  Next year you'll have some lovely soil to dig in.  

I guess you can use a rotivator after that so long as there are no nasty weeds.

Mark out before you start.  String and sticks will do the trick.  Nip upstairs and take a look at it from your bedroom window.  It's still your garden after all so make sure it's still pretty and suitably balanced for the rest of your garden.  
Actually you'd better get the Mrs to do that!  You get to do the left a bit right a bit thing!

You may get to keep some of your grass.  You don't want to get too agricultural too quickly.  You can always cultivate more as you feel you need it.

You might find that the soil is a bit compacted under the grass so you might have to rotivate a few times to get a bit of depth.  Brassicas like hard ground so don’t rotivate that bit at all.  Roots need finer soil so spend some time on that area.  Don't forget your herb patch and a space for some sunflowers and other cut flowers for the house.  It's not all dirt and turnips.

Good luck.

[paintedlady]

Hi spongebob - sorry to hear you have to dig up your lovely lawn, but hopefully all the fruit & veg you will harvest will make up for it.

I'm presuming you don't have couch grass but a well tended lawn.  First, may I suggest you at least prepare some of the ground now because early next year you'll be trying to do too much and highly likely give it up as a bad idea.  

Next, find the sunniest part of the garden & mark out the proposed vegetable garden.  Lawn grass (not couch grass!) dies very quickly when light is excluded, and breaks down to give lovely soil.  If you lift up the turf (roots & sod) and turn it over, let nature do the rest and come spring it'll only need loosening up and keeping weed free.

I'm a spade digger, but others who have rotavators may have other ideas of how to go about this.

Even if you have used lawn care in the past (that is, feed & weed), by next year it shouldn't affect your vegetable patch, I wouldn't have thought.  Best of luck with the new project  

[mumofstig]

well, i made same choice last autumn as still no lottie.
Got alan titchmarsh book out and followed instructions...

remove grass like lifting turves with about 2 inches of earth attached and make pile somewhere else to use as loam when rotted down in a few years. Then dig over, as deeply as you can manage, and leave rough. This way the weather can break up any heavy clods and the birds have a chance to eat all the grubs and bugs you expose. This is when you find you have a friendly robin, there always seems to be 1
Turn over now and again when weather is kind to get rid of more pests. Apparantly there are more beasties under grass than i was ever aware of :shock:
Then in the spring you can dig in some compost if you have it  and rake over for your seed bed.

Gonna be a bit more work to do if you want to make  raised beds.. but only the frames, inside the beds are just the same unless you want to buy in soil or compost to raise the level a bit.

Think thats all but plenty more advice will be on it's way, no doubt

[Brambles]

Hi Spongebob..  Oh how I envy you being able to dig up your lawn!  (My Man loves a lawn.. but it is me that mows it!) I have a very large veg plot at home, but it still isn't big enough.  I HATE mowing the lawn and think it would be MUCH better with veggies on it!  Then I could also enlarge my already good sized chicken run and get some more girlies     And if my neighbours would let me use some of their lawn..............  We could have an orchard!   and it goes on and on and on!!

[spongebob]

thanks for the advice

well i said to wife if we going to do the veg growing bit we should go all out
and do it

so plan is my lovely grass lawn gose  :cry: and work out what and where to plant

had a bit of a dig to see what the soil is like (got to say had little cry as i cut in to lawn but i can always grow it back :?
the soil its not to bad a bit sandy (but so is blackpool) light soil

Painedlady
 i never used weed and feed good old water butt with a bag of cow s**t of a farm near me in it yes it dose stink but when it rains water can comes out water lawn rain waters it in end up with a very dark green lawn

[paintedlady]

 i never used weed and feed good old water butt with a bag of cow s**t of a farm near me in

Even better - try & get loads more manure for the veg garden! (except the bed where/if you grow carrots & parsnips!)  It sounds like you are half way there  

[compostqueen]

I have a lawn but I keep my chickens on it. Waste of space otherwise  

You won't regret growing veggies on a bit of it.  You can make it look pretty with flowers and herbs as has been suggested.

The turfs stacked upside down rot down suprisingly quickly. You can cover them up with something if you don't like the look of them  

Good luck with it

[PinkTequila]

I would strip the turf off, then place face down in the bottom of a trench then cover this with topsoil creating another trench, work your way systematically through the lawn like this. It will then be perfect for planting in the Spring. UNless you are a talking about a huge area I really don't see the need for a rotavator that ubless it cost a few thousand pounds will not do a good enough job compared with a spade.

[LucasAndRichard]

I have a lawn but I keep my chickens on it. Waste of space otherwise  

And it still looks like a lawn?  

[richyrich7]

Hi Spongebob and welcome     I agree with what pink T has wrote above.

[spongebob]

thankyou for the warm welcome

i been doing some plans (see pic)as you can see the size plot i have to work  :shock:
not to sure about other veg yet got to work out what we are going to grow
 :?

[compostqueen]

sorry to hear about bunny  

My lawn has a big hole in it this afternoon  :shock:  Oops  chooks being over zealous in their search for worms  

Good job it gets dark early    

[Rampant_Weasel]

when u get up and running spongedbob u will be surprised how much work u DONT have to do by not having to cut the grass every week.