Can I prepare a bed this way?

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lhaddix Berea, KY Mar 28, 2008

Hi,
I do most of my vegetable gardening in raised beds, but want to create a large bed for corn directly in the ground.

Our sod is former pasture and I have created non-raised beds less than 50 sqft by manually removing the sod and
then tilling in peat and compost. (the soil has a large clay content.) It is of course hard labor to remove the sod.

I want to create about 150 sqft of in grounbed bed for the corn and only have about a month so killing the sod with
plastic is not an option. I don't feel comfortable with using Roundup since I've never had to do anything else inorganic
and this is a food bed.

I had this brainstorm, but I'm not sure if it would work. I have a large rear tine tiller. Could I set the depth to just go through
the sod and a few inches beyond and then till the area till the sod is all chewed up, then remove all of this add the ammendments
then till to full depth? Like any shortcut there must be a catch.

I've tried just tilling the sod in on another project and the weeding was incredible at first. The grass left in the bed reeastablished
itself immediately. I'm wondering if I tilled it up the sod, removed the debris, and tilled what remained if I would only get whatever
weed seeds happened to be buried and not the grass.

Once the corn is established I will mulch between rows with newspaper.

Landrum

Post #4721110
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doccat5 Fredericksburg, VA(Zone 7b) Mar 28, 2008

I'm not sure I understand why you want to remove the sod. Just till it all in including your amendments. Tilling deep enough to work it in well. Corn is a heavy feeder, so the extra nitrogen will not hurt a bit. Go back in about 5-7 days later and "shallow" till. You'll get most of the weed seeds that way. Also go ahead and put down your wetted newspaper and plant directly thru the paper. Just use grass clipping/straw/leaves to hold the paper down until your corn gets up and coming. We have a Troybilt rear tine tiller and turn new beds like this all the time. No big deal with a rear tine.

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