I have dug up my front lawn to make a veg patch....

[eviletc]

dh is not happy

how do i now get rid of the grass? and how long will it take to go?

have to dash, am cooking roast dinner but will be back later if anyone has any pearls of wisdom....

bump

come on!!!please!!!

how much have you dug? you must be done in didn't you dig the grass off anyway?

If you take the turf off and flip it over so the roots are on top then they will dry out fairly quickly and the grass without sunlight to the blades ,will yellow and die. I guess a week to do the job.
Of course if you have little pockets of grass poking out you will have to pull out or bury each one.
What are you intending to grow?

have done maybe a 3x4 foot lot? with just under the same again to go? took me couple of hours but pretended to be barbara from the good life and it was ok

have tried to flip the grass over so it will die moya, but there are still some bits poking out - do i need to cover it or anything? am going to do carrots, leeks, courgettes, beans and spuds. and spinach

much appreciated ladies

How many chickens are you going to have, babs?

20. and a goat

would actually like a few chickadees but dh and the council might have something to say about it...

There's something about growing spuds in soil that has been converted from grass land for less than 3 years. I think its that you should stick to earlies as there will be quite alot of a certain type of pest which lives in the grass but is equally happy to burrow through your spuds. Will look it up as home tonight if no-one else has managed to fill you in.

really? ooh any info greatly appreciated...am an amateur to say the least....

I would go with the advice about the early spuds because then you don't have to store them either - earlies you can just pull and eat and thats what its all about. Potatos are a good first crop though because they help to break up the soil.

According to my HDRA poster the closer you plant leeks, carrots etc then the smaller they end up so make sure you do thin them properly - something I'm never good at.

If I were you I would cover over what you have done so far. Old carpet, layer of plastic sheeting or ever cardboard. This will help kill off any weeds which are germinating before you get started.

The Courgettes will like it really rich so dig a hole for each plant and fill with manure or similar then plant into that.

Nothing wrong with the idea of chickens. You need to keep them pended or they will trash your veg. One of those little portable coops would be perfect for a couple of birds. The manure they produce will do wonders for your plot. In fact set them up on your undug bit and they will have it sorted for you in no time. You can give them all your kitchen scraps and get lovely eggs as a bonus. You don't need much space and council won't mind as long as you don't have a cockeral. Once you've made DH a few friend egg sandwiches he'll be happy too.

Wouldn't bother with the goat though. Far too much effort and all that milking.....
Now pigs on the other hand.......

That should be FRIED! egg sandwiches

wow thanks! have done carrots and leeks in pots a couple of years ago - thinned them out and they were still incredibly spindly - thought it was because they were in pots....also have a feeling there may be something in the deeds of the house about not keeping hens ...? wil anyone tell on me do you think? ( apart from dh probably!)

will come to this later....havegot bedtime to do.

The grass - you can make a loam stack by stacking the chunks of grass you dug up earth to earth, and grass to grass iykwim? In a years time it will make for beautiful potting compost or soil enricher. With the 'hole' left top with multipurpose compost (or home-made compost if you have a composter).

Try companion growing. Dont do too many potatoes. You dont have a huge plot and they take up quite alot of space (considering they are pretty cheap to buy in the supermarket). Grow things that are more expensive to buy, and full of flavour when freshly picked.

Try a few of the following, depending on your taste: Courgettes, sweet peppers/chillis, basil, thyme, parsley, chives, mint, rocket, cut and come again lettuce/niche mixed leaves, little gem lettuce (small and gorgeous), rhubarb, squashes, beetroot (absolutely gorgeous), dwarf beans, Broccoli, spinach (so easy), cherry tomatoes, aubergine. Dont forget fruit - figs, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries (absolute must), strawberries. Fruit are, in fact lower maintenance. Once planted they stay there.

Carrots are cheap to buy in the supermarket, but the flavour of freshly grown is sooo intense its worth growing some of those.

OK, finally got around to looking to looking it up.

Potatoes planted in recently converted grassland are more prone to Wire worm damage, main crop varieties are particularly prone to this.

In my garden I just cannot get peas or any type of bean to germinate in the ground so I start off all beans, peas etc off on pots, either in the cold frame or on the kitchen window sil.

Dwarf french beans always seem to give a good return for the effort put in, however I always find the pea yield disappointing. Runner beans are good too. Sweetcorn looks impressive - plant in blocks not rows for polination.

thanks everybody for all your kind advice. amd really excited about this!

LOL, i get ridiculously excited just talking about it

I have been thinking of growing veg for a long time now, we live in the country and I have plenty of back garden to section off and dig up, but is it not too early and frosty right now?

Not too early, but, you might find it hard going in this cold weather.

Once dug over, frost is really good for breaking up clods of earth. It helps to break the soil down to a finer grade.

Dont dig over in wet weather, you will compress it too much, and it wont be very productive.

obv if the ground is very frozen will be too hard to dig up, but if it's light frost, I find it quite easy and satisfying. Really wet ground is the pits to dig up and will kancekr you...

Dig your plot well now and it will be ready for the fun bits in a couple of months' time! Also you can plan where you will plant what.

Also gives you time to dig in some Growmore or similar, as it is possibly too late for full on manure. You need to spade dig, remove the roots of pr#ernnial weeds like docks and dandelions, then fork over, smashing any large clumps of earth with the back of your fork, to break down the soil. Rain will do the rest for you. Come late spring you will be aiming for really nice, well prepared soil, with no stones - especially for carrots .

May I recommend an MP3 player to help with the 'tedium' (though having said that, I love the physical hard work - gives me time and spcae to think.

Yes, I agree FMF, I enjoyed double digging my small plot a few weeks back.

i found digging up my lawn was actually not too hard going - ground was nice and soft and the grass turned over easily. still have about 1/3 of it to go though...while snow would be nice this weekend, i will not be found digging my way through it i can tell you !

VVV - what is companion growing btw?
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Well, basically, its growing plants together that help to naturally deter pests. Like growing onions/chives next to or around Carrots to help deter carrot fly, and growing Marigolds next to tomatoes to deter aphids/whitefly, and growing summer savoury next to broad beans to deter black fly. Etc etc.

If you get yourself a basic book on Vegetable/Kitchen gardens it should cover it. Although any seed catologue will usually list what that particular plant is good for/companioned with.