[paula953]

We are starting from scratch in my sons garden and will be making vegetable beds of 6ftx3ft for ease of getting around them and ease of planting. We will be able to walk all around the beds as we are not putting them close to the fence.
My son is getting the boards we will need for making the raised beds he does not want tall raised beds ( 2 feet tall) just the normal ones that go on an allotment.
Two reasons for that is
a) cost of filling them and
b) it is in his garden not ours and he will eventually take over the veg plots himself.

We thought about doing this:
Taking off the grass first and then digging the plot out and adding some top soil along with manure. Then covering the whole plot with weed suppresant material pegging it down well and planting through that.
We thought this would help stop their cats from deciding to use the plots as litter trays and help keep weeds at bay.

Question:
Could we use the grass that is cut out in the border if it was dug in well?
Using the black weed suppresant material we thought it may be ok to do this what do you think?

[WG.]

You could try making loam potting compost the old-fashioned way: Stack cut turf upside down, under a cover, for 6-12 months until all grass is dead and roots have decomposed. Sieve before use and pasteurise for seed sowing.  (from gardenorganic.org.uk)

I'd be tempted to put a little manure between the layers.  Give it a full 12 months and I certainly wouldn't bother pasteurising.

[paula953]

Great thanks I will do that. I do not want to waste anything, I want this project to be as  eco friendly as possible.

[muntjac]

id not bother id turn the grass in as i dug making sure it was in the bottom of the trench leave it till end march and then plant it after raking and forking any clumps off. come back end year redig and add manure your off to a full start andf the grass will rot off anyways    you can manure  parts that are not going to have roots on them this year if needed  

[paula953]

Hmm that makes sense the grass at the bottom of the trench will not interfere with the roots of the plants that are growing. Must let hubby know so we can do that. Thanks.