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To: hoosiermama
You put a thick layer of wet newspapers down first (On top of grass).

That's sort of what I'm doing, building my Square Foot boxes on top of 2 laysers of thick cardboard right on top of unused (but mowed) pasture. Eventually that cardboard will disintegrate, but hpefully that grass and any weeds will be thoroughly dead by then. I tried to kill it by putting a black tarp (dark brown actuallly) over it and leaving it for a month. Ha! It just became a mini green house. The grass grew just fine underneath, it just was a paler grean. Since we were in a drought at that time, the grass seemed to like having the black tarp over it -- held in the moisture!

I gathered up the tarp and moved the garden to a more convenient location (nearer the gate -- I'm not totally stupid) and tried the cardboard/weed barrier method. Since there is no planting mix in the boxes yet, I may add newspaper at the bottom too. In any case, the grass in my previous location bounced back and, within a week, looked like nothing had been there at all!

I even have cardboard under the "plastic mulch" that will be the aisles. I do not want these beds to be contaminated by grass clippings when I mow, as much as I would like to have grass aisles. That would not be possible for me to maintain.

113 posted on 10/24/2009 8:23:13 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Just went out and “dug the potatoes”....took less than five minutes, just pulled back the straw and put them in a basket....Nice part about it there were no damaged ones from a spade or shovel. Will use the same technique next year .....only larger. Start saving those papers/cardboard now!


116 posted on 10/24/2009 8:56:15 AM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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