New Garden question

[fourwheeler431]

We picked out a spot in the yard today for a small 10x20 garden. I have a question about getting it ready to plow up though. What is the best way to get rid of the grass? This spot has never had a garden,so anything you can suggest would be appreciated.

This will be more for myself and the kids to have something to do in the evenings and to learn while we're at it.

 

[wlf89]

spray it with roundup or some other poison then burn it off and plow it

 

[Sako]

I used round up.... left it, plowed it and planted

 

[catman529]

I would not spray round up on grass over a future garden, you can get residue in there that wouldn't do any good to your plants.... black plastic is an option, also the grunt work of skimming the grass out of the soil with a flat shovel, that's kind of how I did it by the house.

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

It won't be hard to get rid of weeds in a small 10X20. You are going to need to till the ground several times.The ground will be pretty hard in most new gardens. The 1st time you run the tiller don't try to go too deep.Just 2 or 3 inches will be enough to dig up the weeds.I usally like to let them lay for a day. Then when I rake them out the top soil will fall off the roots easier.
Most people don't realize there are 1,000's of weed seeds in the 1st 6 to 10 inches of ground.With a new garden if you have the time till then wait a week or 2 for the weeds to sprout then till again and wait a week or 2.If you can do this it will save alot of time weeding this summer.
Burning the ground 1st will help if it is possible where you live.Be sure to get a burn permit.Have a water hose handy,and watch the wind !!!

 

[Poor redneck]

I do not use chemicals of any sort in my garden. On a garden that size I would spend about a half a day tilling and picking up root masses and toss them out till and toss some more. A little at a time increasing depth with each pass. I am not good at covering and waiting, a lot of those weed seeds don't care either, they can darn sure out wait me. My garden was a handfull the first couple of years, but after a few moons it is simple to keep the weeds out. For me the biggest part of getting my garden weed free was persistance, I was out there every afternoon pulling weeds. Now I still get a few stray weeds but the biggest help to me was just getting out there in it every afternoon.

 

[catman529]

I like what poor redneck said. The tough labor will pay off the best. Chemicals are an easy fix, but they can have negative effect on your plants, plus I would not want to eat anything from a garden that had been covered in roundup or any weed killer prior to planting. Last year I didn't do enough weeding out at the community garden, and paid for it. Got very overgrown, but at least I still got a decent harvest of tomatoes, cukes, small cantaloupes, sunflowers, butternut squash, and peppers.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

round up

 

[WRbowhunter]

shovel, tiller and some elbow grease like Redneck said.

 

[WTM]

roundup or touchdown. they both become inert when they hit the dirt. wont hurt a thing.

 

[catman529]

roundup or touchdown. they both become inert when they hit the dirt. wont hurt a thing.

I still wouldn't eat plants that grew out of roundup dirt. May not kill the plants at that point but I wouldn't trust what kind of chemicals would be absorbed into the food I was eating.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

roundup or touchdown. they both become inert when they hit the dirt. wont hurt a thing.

I still wouldn't eat plants that grew out of roundup dirt. May not kill the plants at that point but I wouldn't trust what kind of chemicals would be absorbed into the food I was eating.

Do you ever eat any corn products from the store? lol Glyphosate is a contact killer, only killing actively growing plants. Around 100 million pounds are put into the U.S every year.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Back on topic, do some research on the term "soil solarization" if you are interested in being organic.