A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Grass in my Veggie Garden

As I have not used my raised vegetable garden for say 3 seasons, it is now pretty well grown over in grass.
((we are talking about a 8 ft by say 6 ft area here.))
last fall I added what leaves I could get, to it to help smother out said grass and it did do some good. however as we have no trees to speak of yet, I was only able to cover a portion of the area.
Now it is time to plant my potatoes, and I would like some advice as to how to proceed.

I have found several weed killer recipes online--
gin/cider vinegar/dish soap/water
vinegar/salt/dish soap--etc,
but as I really want to plant this year is there a simple, effective, yet safe way to rid myself of this grass?? none of these online recipes have any advice as to when the area would be safe to use again.
Please keep in mind me using a shovel and digging out all the grass is a last resort---I dont think my back would be too happy if I used a shovel for that length of time.

Thanks in advance

The only thing I can think of is lots of boiling water...I'm not sure if adding things so near to planting would affect it.....is it possible for DH to rent a small tiller?

we own a small tiller.
but the grass will just grow back. I guess I could cover up everything with newspaper after the seedings (sunflowers ya know) come up, huh???

thanks for answering me so quickly.

You could try this

Put the black plastic stuff down, they use to keep weeds down.
And just cut holes in the plastic where your planting potatoes.
Keep the rest whole.
I did that an added the red boney on top of black plastic thing.. for got the name.

b

thank you so much Barb.

I will let you all know what I end up doing.
right now it is far too wet to even walk back there to do anything (so DH says)

Barb, Here is an update:
today we were at Lowes looking for things, and Rod stopped and picked up this green "WeedFree" landscaping fabric. he said why not use this, instead of trying to put down grass, on your potatoes & such?? so I bought a roll, & we shall see how much trouble it is to handle. If it works out well, I can buy another roll later.
The bad part is I will have to wait for the potatoes, sunflowers & such to come up. I may also have to put in on in strips so I can dig up the potatoes easily?? what say you??? how did you do it???


The tomatoes & such I buy as plants so I can just cut them in where I want.

PS The one I bought is green because it was made with recycled material.

I have been using weed cloth too, Carol. I have a 15 ft wide 300 foot long roll to use up. (Tan and also recycled material) I bought it for a job but then my friend changed her mind. Today I 'carpeted' my outdoor bathroom with it.
Here is some of mine in the process of being laid out around my gnome home.


How far apart are your potato rows planted? I think I would stick to newspaper around those for the ease of pulling back to dig up taters. And maybe around the sunflowers as they peek out too. But if you put the cloth down before you plant your tomato and other plant starts it should work for you. You can still use your grass clippings on top of it after you get it laid out.
I cut an X into the cloth to add plants. I will also be covering the cloth in some type of mulch. The cloth does not stop the benefits that you get from adding mulch or other nutrients on top of it.

Thanks you for that Tina--I missed it unil now.

I may well cover the potatoes & apply it so that I can simply roll it back as I need to dig. I will take what you said about the sunflowers under advisement though.

I will be putting it on my Tomato, asperagus, and herb beds for sure.

Thanks for the photos, they always help one I think.