Your thoughts ....

Found this very interesting. From Canada

August 16, 2013
This is a great time of year to make a no-dig garden using old newspapers.

The mere mention of removing turf grass for new flower beds is enough to give me a backache, so I've taken a particular interest in an increasingly popular, easier way to eliminate grass. It's been dubbed everything from “turf recapturing” to “lawn-busting.” The concept is simple: smother turf grass using newspapers, composted manure and mulch, and be ready to plant new beds within 60 days. An environmentally sound technique, it will also save countless visits to the chiropractor.

The best times for making a newspaper garden
Late summer or early autumn: Decomposition will start before freeze-up and resume as soon as the soil warms up in early spring. Plan to install plants in late spring or early summer.

Early spring (as soon as the frost leaves the ground): Under normal conditions, the bed should be ready to plant within 60 days.

Step 1: Begin by determining the perimeter and shape of your new bed, then mow the grass within the area to a uniform height of five centimetres. Next, spread newspapers over the mown grass (be sure to use newsprint-glossy paper doesn't break down nearly as quickly). It's essential to wet the newspapers thoroughly to hasten decomposition, so hose down each layer as it's applied until it becomes a soggy mat, two to three centimetres thick.

Step 2: To further speed up decomposition, cover the soggy paper with materials high in nitrogen, such as blood meal and composted manure. Dust the wet newsprint with blood meal, just enough to make it adhere, then add a layer of composted manure about four centimetres deep. The manure helps retain moisture, weighs down the newspapers and supplies the beneficial micro-organisms vital for healthy, productive soil.

Step 3: To “seal” the concoction, finish off the area with five to seven centimetres of chunky hardwood mulch. This will hold the bottom layers in place and discourage weed seeds from germinating while the plot remains fallow. Some gardeners recommend using black plastic instead, but I find that it inhibits air circulation, which causes the layers to decay and putrefy rather than decompose naturally. Once sealed, thoroughly re-water the entire area.

Step 4: For the next 45 to 60 days, keep the area moist by spraying the mulch with water; if it's allowed to dry out completely, decomposition comes to a crashing halt. After about a month and a half, test the soil: Use a trowel to dig several small holes in different places in the bed. If the newspaper has disappeared and the grass below has been suffocated, then it's time to plant.

Step 5: When planting the bed, try not to disturb the soil; it's best to scoop out a plug of earth just large enough to slip in a plant, then gently replace the mulch around it. Within two to three years, the reclaimed newspaper bed will look as if it's been there for decades—and without having removed a single blade of grass.

Away with weeds
Most lawns have a significant number of weeds, some of which are more tenacious than the grass itself. If you find yourself dealing with particularly tough customers (such as quack grass, horsetail or wild buckwheat), increase the depth of each layer of newspaper, manure and mulch by several centimetres, and leave the area fallow for one full growing season

 

Ah, "lasagne gardening".

Came across this concept a number of years ago and I have certainly tried it: digging first and then layering; layering without digging.

 

I've heard of this technique before. While I certainly wouldn't dismiss the idea, it does sound like more work than the conventional way of doing things.

Its a while since I last dug over a section of lawn to make a new bed, but last time I did, it was quite a big one (well, relative to the size of the garden at least), and it was a success. All I did was marked where I was going to dig, then dug. I turned the turf into the ground. As preparation is everything (a nugget of wisdom that only came to me in recent years ), I did this in autumn under the guidance of the very knowledgeable old boy next door. I dug it a couple more times over the winter, and then in spring, added some rotted manure (except being naive at the time I paid extra from 'soil conditioner', which is farmyard manure rebranded). By then, the grass I'd turned under had rotted, or at least there was no sign of it when I dug the ground, and all my plants grew just fine. Of course weeds came too, but not in great numbers and it was easy enough to keep on top of it all.

The idea of simply smother a lawn and then planting straight into it seems like more effort than reward. I personally couldn't be bothered with all the messing about mixing newspaper with nitrogen rich fertiliser, laying it all out, chasing it when the wind has other ideas, trampling it and knocking it everywhere while trying to get the mulch over it evenly etc, then you've still got compacted soil a couple of inches down so planting is going to be hard work.

 

On thinking about it some more, I might actually have a bash at this idea.

Every time I trim the hedge between me and next door, I have the same idea. Always I intend to one day get some of the broken paving slabs from out the back and make a path along in front of the freshly trimmed hedge. I figure it will make it easier for me to work with the rest of the garden if I don't have to walk on garden to trim the hedge.

I would deliberately leave gaps between the slabs with the intention of planting low growing, hard wearing rockery plants in said gaps, but I don't want the grass to invade. In fact, there's a plan I think. I'm going to put a thick layer of newpaper down, then the broken slabs over the top. Who knows, in a few years I might sell the house, someone else might buy it, and they might then join GC and ask something like this

(http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...abs-bricks-etc-underground.53848/#post-717426)