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I am preparing a new garden at home and instead of removing the grass that was present, we only used a rototiller to pierce the soil and rip the grass apart. I have been told that we would have a big problem with grass in our garden after doing that.

Is it true that we are in trouble and if so, what should I do now?

Niall C.
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mateoc
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  • Just to follow up I fought the weeds hand by hand and it wasnt that bad, there was/is a decent amount of grass but is not as bad as I thought after all these comments... I might do the lasagna thing in the next few weeks to stop it for good. Thanks to all for input – mateoc May 18 '14 at 14:15

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Grasses can resprout from a tiny piece of root so you are going to have a problem. One solution is to cover the soil for eight weeks with sheet plastic. This will sterilize the soil killing a majority of the remaining roots. You will need to prepare the bed as is you were going to plant, then water thoroughly before covering the soil with two layers of 4 mil polyethylene. Cover the edges of the plastic with dirt to create an air tight seal. Leave it alone for eight weeks. Remove the plastic and plant. If you don't have a problem with chemicals in the garden another approach is to water the patch thoroughly, allow the grass to sprout a few inches and blast it with roundup weed killer. You need to repeat this a few times at three week intervals to get the majority of the weed roots. This works best in the spring, of course.

Tim Quinn
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It is better to remove the grass, especially if it has gone to seed. You essentially would have been planting the seeds for further grass to be in your garden. However, if the grass is well-incorporated, it will eventually break down. Grass seed is very hardy though - I would recommend a thick layer of mulch over the area to reduce weeds or, even better, just in this case, stapled down black plastic mulch covered with a layer of mulch hay (only because I find that plastic in the landscape is so unsightly.)

Suzanne
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Yes you will have a big grass problem, you can use the lasagna method of putting down cardboard then more soil. Other than that you can tarp it for a few weeks to hopefully kill anything that pops up in time, but eventually you will want plants growing, and I suspect that using landscape fabric as row covering isn't a very appealing idea... You can probably just fight a good fight this year and a smaller fight next year...

Grady Player
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