Last week I tore up my garden. Not exactly how I hoped the season would end, but sometimes you have to start over to get it right.
Going from raised beds to in-ground
Last year I grew everything in raised boxes. This year I wanted to go bigger with a full in-ground garden. I tilled up an overgrown grass field, put all my seeds in, and figured we were off and running.
What I didn’t realize was how hard that grass would fight back. It came back with a vengeance, took over the whole field, and smothered out all of the crops. Lesson learned: tilling grass under doesn’t get rid of it.
Tilling it all back down
So this fall we tilled the field back down. That was a chore. The ground was covered in rocks, and I believe the field used to be an old calving barn pasture, because the tiller kept catching on random chunks of fence, wire, and rope buried in the dirt. Every few feet it seemed like I was stopping to untangle something.
It was tough, but we got it done.
The plan to beat the grass
This time we’re not giving the grass a chance. Over the winter we’re covering the field with a silage tarp to block out the light and keep the grass and weeds from coming back. Then in the spring we’ll lay down landscape fabric to keep the weeds down while the crops get going.
Going bigger on garlic
Not everything was a loss. Our garlic did really well last year, so we’re going even bigger this year. It’ll be growing in a separate field, covered in straw for the winter.
Here’s hoping for a better spring. If you’ve ever turned a grass field into a garden, I’d love to hear what worked for you.
