[Russell Atterbury]

I'm eyeing a patch of poor quality lawn up as a potential veggie garden. I can't be sure, but have I read that it's not just a case of digging it over etc, that because it was lawn it causes problems or something? Any advise on the matter would be great.

[Aunt Sally]

Click beetles are a problem where there has been grass. 

Their larvae (called wire worms) eat into potato tubers leaving tunnels.  I think it takes about 3 years for them to disappear.

[Russell Atterbury]

OK, Aunt Sally. So wire worms, never heard of the things, or the beetle. Next question would logically have to be; does any veg grow in the first years under these circumstances?

[Aunt Sally]

John has some information here

https://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/potatoes/wireworm-potatoes-control/

Not sure how much of this applies to Russia though.

[Russell Atterbury]

It might be interesting to just give it a go and see what happens. The patch I was thinking about is to the side of a larger lawn, so from what I have learned in the last hour or so, it's possibly a futile exercise, ain't this gardening fun?

[Aunt Sally]

I think it takes about 3 years for wire worm to give up.

Potatoes are really good at breaking the soil up.  Give it a go next season.

[hasbeans]

All of my veg beds are on old lawn and I didn't get a problem.  I just dug up the turf and threw it on the compost pile.  In some areas I just turned the sods over, dumped six inch of compost on top and planted (not root crops though).  I'd just go for it and get something hardy like kale and other brassicas in straight away.

[Russell Atterbury]

That's a boost hasbeans. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of kale anyway. The potatoes here in Kaliningrad are excellent from the shops, I don't know what variety they are, but the skins are thick, like they used to be when i was a youngster. Baked ones give that thick crunchy skin that is long forgotten in the UK.

[snowdrops]

Take a look at no dig, you just cover the cut short grass with brown cardboard,water it really well, then cover it with as much compost/well rotted manure, as you can muster, trample it down well & then plant, seeds as well .

[Nobbie]

I think it takes about 3 years for wire worm to give up.

Potatoes are really good at breaking the soil up.  Give it a go next season.

I hear that said about potatoes, but surely it’s the digging out the trench to plant them, earthing them up and then digging them up that breaks the soil up? You make it sound like it’s the potatoes doing all the hard work

[Aunt Sally]

In my experience they break the soil up better than digging alone.

[basketcase]

I've read that a sowing of mustard as a green manure helps with wire worm.  Never done it, but worth a shot?

[jezza]

Hello as Basketcase says a sowing of mustard  dug in will kill wire worm,its thread it gives off   jezza

[al78]

I think it takes about 3 years for wire worm to give up.

Potatoes are really good at breaking the soil up.  Give it a go next season.

I hear that said about potatoes, but surely it’s the digging out the trench to plant them, earthing them up and then digging them up that breaks the soil up? You make it sound like it’s the potatoes doing all the hard work

Yes it is down to the cultivation, you are still effectively digging if you are growing them conventially, they do little to break up soil on their own. I know because my allotment is on heavy clay.

[New shoot]

In my experience they break the soil up better than digging alone.

I found the same.  My plot is clay soil and they were great at breaking it up, but you need the right spuds.  I found the really vigorous varieties did well, even when the soil was still pretty rough - Kestrel and Sarpo mira would be my recommendations for a crop not matter what