Beginner Gardening: new landscape challenge!?, 1 by zenpotter

zenpotter wrote:
Another photo. I put in an L shaped garden just where the slope gets steeper. At the far end of the hill where the garage is I have started to put in shrubs. These are going in by cutting a hole in the lawn and mowing around them.

When I put a new garden area in I do not take the grass out to avoid erosion and let the grass decompose into the soil.

I work two various ways. If it is not to steep an area I lay 5-6 layers of newspaper down in the shape of the garden cover it with farmpost (an aged mixture of horse manure and bedding straw) and plant right into that by moving the farmpost aside, cutting a spot in the newspaper, planting and tucking the stuff back around it.

On a very steep hill the newspaper won't stay in place so I cover the garden area with black plastic and leave it there for several weeks until the grass is dead, I then put 3-4 " of farmpost down, a layer of burlap gets staked over that and a 1" layer of farmpost to cover the burlap and the do the planting.