[alnick]

Instead of landscape fabric at the bottom, use cardboard or several layers of newspaper. There are a couple of advantages over LF.

You do not have to till or remove the grass. Just plop it right on top of the grass.

Also, the LF will prevent earthworms from accessing your garden from beneath. The NP or CB will allow the worms to till the soil for you by working their way from below.

Less work and a better garden. :-)

[orsonwb]

I’ll try the newspaper. Less work is always good. Thanks for the tip.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I used several layers of cardboard/newspapers right over the grass, and then heaped with compost, to make raised bed. Worked great, few or no weeds, and so easy.

[Lee'sGhost]

How does newspaper keep the deer out?

[afraidfortherepublic]

I used several layers of cardboard under my raised beds and also under the paths between. The cardboard was from shipping boxes left at our plant by a customer that has gone out of business. The boxes were too large to be used for anything else.

The garden is in its third year and doing fine. Weeds have not been a problem in my beds, although I get them in the paths a little bit. I have mats made out of recycled tires rolled out to cover the paths between the beds. What weeds do come up are easily pulled.

I have a 6 foot wire fence around the garden. The deer broke in the first winter -- not over the fence, right through the gate. (The latch had rusted). They damaged the fence trying to get out. My husband straightened it up, and I tied flourescent streamers around the top. We've had no more trouble with those varmints. Woodchucks have not bothered the garden, although we have them here. I do have a layer of rabbit fencing around the bottom.

This is a picture taken last year at the height of the growing season.

You can see the crimps in the fence used to straighten the wire where the deer bent the fence trying to get out. In the first picture, you can see the gate "latch" I constructed to keep the gate closed after the deer broke the latch on the arbor gate. Actually the latch rusted through and broke right off allowing the deer access. They did the damage to the fence trying to get out.

[Bigg Red]

I have successfully used newspaper and cardboard instead of landscape fabric. I just wet it, put it on top of the grass and assorted lawn greens in my raised beds and added soil.