how to best prepare garden from grass covered sod and weed seeds

[Lineman North Florida]

You can have the best grass field, weed free and the very minute you break that ground you have unleashed weed seeds that that have layed dormant since the last time that piece of ground was broke 25, 35, 40 years ago, etc, and everytime you break it in the future. Large scale row crop farming operations have to use chemicals and pesticides but for your application with a small garden I like the black plastic idea with a drip system for watering, good luck.

 

[jyoutz]

You could try using the metal tanks form TS and set them
on the cement blocks a lot quicker and not so hard on the
back plus its a lot faster to do

willy

I know a guy who does bag gardening. He buys bags of fertilized potting soil, throws them on the ground , pokes drainage holes on the bottom and cuts out hole on top to plant shallow rooted veggies like peppers and greens.

 

[CalG]

You can have the best grass field, weed free and the very minute you break that ground you have unleashed weed seeds that that have layed dormant since the last time that piece of ground was broke 25, 35, 40 years ago, etc, and everytime you break it in the future. Large scale row crop farming operations have to use chemicals and pesticides but for your application with a small garden I like the black plastic idea with a drip system for watering, good luck.

Right! DO NOT DISTURB the top two inches of soil lest the weed seeds find air and light. COVER IT ALL OVER with MULCH! Organic sheeting (card board) works also!

 

[CalG]

Raised beds make no sense to me at all. It's a matter of time till the weeds discover the "elevation", then you are back to square one. And the soil you put IN the raised beds is the entire picture. GIGO!

 

[super55]

As others said black plastic is your friend for a seed free bed. You are going to have to break up the soil with your tiller first and essentially get all your soil prep done before apply the plastic. You will then have to wait about 2-3 weeks before removing the plastic.

Preferably do this right after a rain because you want the weeds to germinate and then have them die out from lack of sunlight. Weed seeds are all throughout the strata of the topsoil but you focusing on the ones in what they call the goldilocks zone. Not too shallow/not too deep to germinate to kill off.

If you end up tilling the next year you have to do the whole process over again because you will have reintroduced seeds to this zone.

 

[tstex]

Like KennyG said, lay out some black plastic and let it cook the soil for a couple of months.
Then I'd do some "strip" tillage, flip the plastic back with the white side up, cut slots or holes and plant through it.

KG, how does watering the soil work? We also receive frequent "gusty days w 25-30mph winds and that wreaks havoc on keeping down the plastic or anything similar.

 

[EddieWalker]

Raised beds make no sense to me at all. It's a matter of time till the weeds discover the "elevation", then you are back to square one. And the soil you put IN the raised beds is the entire picture. GIGO!

Raised beds have completely changed our success in gardening. It allows us to have good dirt instead of red clay to grow our plants. Red clay turns to concrete when it gets hot outside, it's very hard to pull weeds out of red clay when it's hot outside, no matter how much you water it. The dirt that we buy remains workable until the garden is done in Summer. Weeds are easy to deal with. The other issue is maintaining the walkways around the garden. We put plastic down and red mulch over it, so the weeds that do come up are just growing in the mulch. Those weeds are super easy to pull, or spot spray with roundup.

 

[tstex]

On the lighter side (not really, this is a dead serious issue)

Introduce Asian Jumping Worms to the garden spot. They will "consume" the top three inches of organic rich soil and leave crumbly castings that allow weeds to be pulled with just a tug of the fingers.

Ask me how I know this.

Never heard of asian jumping worms, but everything from this region when it gets here, becomes invasive, except for spring rolls...

 

[Sonny580]

all plastic does is harbor bugs/worms under it and the ground gets/stays slimy cause air/light cant get under it! -- Its the WORST stuff on planet earth for gardens! It kills the soil!
ONLY way to keep weeds out is a good pre-emerge herbicide early and a LOT of hand weeding during growing season.
I do 4.5 acre garden here every year and to cultivate between rows I use TB Horse tillers til rows close in then I use the little TB Tuffy tiller the rest of the season.

 

[tstex]

Please realize this was (hopefully) a facetious comment. They also destroy the soil, and supposedly are almost impossible to get rid off.

I would first run the tiller across the garden spot, going down about 4 inches. Then have your daughters rake the sod off and put it into the compost pile.
You can also use the plastic mentioned about to plant on. Not only will it keep the weeds away but it warms the soil sooner in the spring. You also can get a porous fabric mulch. This fall I spread sawdust in the rows between my strawberries. I realize it will affect the pH and nutrient composition but I can address that when I have to.

Thanks...just spread some cottonseed meal on that sawdust and it turns the organic material into slow-releasing Nitrogen..