Keen to turn your lawn into a vegetable garden? I’ve transformed 700 square meters of lawn into thriving vegetable gardens on a budget – but the process has been far from easy.
In this episode, as Maddy and I get our patch at Nonna’s place ready for winter, I’ll share the journey to transform the lawn here into no-dig vegetable beds, and how I eventually kill the Kikuyu grass. I’ll also give my 4 essential tips and mistakes to avoid to save you a lot of frustration if you’re embarking on your own journey to grow food, not lawns.
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0:00 Intro: My Mission to Grow Food, Not Lawns
0:47 Nonna’s Lawn: Kikuyu Grass
1:08 Options to Kill the Lawn (Digging, Tilling, Herbicides, Tarping)
1:32 Tarping the Lawn with Builders’ Plastic
1:54 Preparing the Vegetable Beds and Paths
2:08 The Lawn After 10 Weeks of Tarping
2:22 No-dig Method for Establishing Vegetable Beds
2:47 The Lawn’s Return (the Aggressive Vigour of the Kikuyu Grass)
3:04 Tarping the Lawn for Longer to Finally Kill the Grass
3:23 Progress at Nonna’s: A Thriving Vegetable Garden
3:37 Tips to Grow Food Not Lawns
3:45 Tip 1 | Consider Your Options Wisely (Time vs. Money)
4:07 Tip 2 | Know Your Enemy (Understand the Grass & the Best Time to Tarp)
4:32 Tip 3 | Ward Off Creepers (Strategies to Prevent Lawn Re-establishing)
4:57 Tip 4 | Rejuvenate the Soil (Strategies to Address Soil Issues)
5:26 Nonna’s Vegetable Garden: Now Ready for Winter
26 Comments
I've only just started my journey and have 3 raised beds (second hand) and I'm loving seeing what I can grow. Keenly watching to soak up your gardening wisdom.
I'm just starting Year 2 of growing my 40 sq/m allotment in the SE suburbs of Melbourne. I'm still digging out potatoes that the previous owner had for 30-odd years. Still, I guess it's free food, right? 🤣
Four years ago we went the money route: hired men to dig out the grass, then my husband built raised beds and we put in soil and gravel around the beds. We are in year 5 and still loving it. We live in California.
Thanks for watching! This is a brand new channel so if you enjoyed this vid I’d love it if you gave it a like and subscribed! ❤
lil' buddy doesn't like the brassica either
I appreciate you making this video. I know it's a lot of hard work! I'm in the process of reducing lawn myself, and seem to be in an eternal battle with bermuda grass.. haha. Excellent video, though, man! Keep up the good work!
nice music =)
I have been trying to fight against creeping charlie with cardboard, mulch and sweet potatoes planted in holes in the cardboard. The sweet potatoes seem to have barely grown, just little clumps of leaves, and the creeping charlie is taking over.
Great vid mate, I've run into similar difficulties in our garden spaces here in Hawaii as well. The weeds are an endless fight, especially when you are trying to keep your soils long term health as your top priority.
Hats off to you guys! That's an impressive achievement in just two years. I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress in this journey.
Great video! I recently did the same except I planted a native flower garden to go along with my vegetable and fruit garden! Love the way you film and edit your videos as well. Keep up the good work.
I have a mix of Kikuyu and Cape Royal grass (it has seeds), so I started my veggie patches by digging it out and sifting the soil. Used concrete slabs to form barriers between the patches and the grass, then I dug in some compost, covered the soil with cardboard, cut holes and planted my veggies. Now after starting 3 years ago, I slowly switch to minimal dig and square foot gardening, as I continue to dig out the grass to enlarge my veggie patch as I remove the concrete slabs as I expand it. Hard work, but also good exercise. Even put in one patch (survival patch) where the slabs will stay as I planted sweet potatoes in it. I am going to have a second patch for more "survival" crops.
Yes yes yes! The video we ALL needed!!! 8 months?!!! 😢 but ok! Let’s do this 👍👍👍👍
the key to tarping imo is rotting and smothering not "solerizing" / dehydrating, this means a thick mulch (leaves are best) works as well as plastic – then become pathway mulch and mulch around plants. a note: make sure soil can warm for stuff like tomatoes before mulching.
What a transformation! Such determination to beat the dull grass and grow beautiful organic produce. Such patience with the missus 😎🍅🍆🧄🌰
New subscriber! Awesome! Yes I am clearing out my backyard lawn little by little.
Meanwhile, Americans: "and I took offense to that…"
Great job! I m in year one and went with landscape fabric left over autumn and winter before setting in small raised beds with cardboard below. Cheers from France 😊
good stuff mate. I am slowly transforming my backyard also but not with a veggie garden but a mini fruit tree orchard. I also have kikuyu and its been a struggle. you have given me some helpful ideas.
Great watch, big tip.
Socks and sandals aren’t a good look.😂😂
What suburb are you in?
Love your videos! 🙂
Ben these have been the most helpful videos ever for a starter like me. Thank you so much and please do not ever stop teaching us. Thank you.
I've done several lawns now Ben – and my method is quite different. The tarp provides a lot of air and space for the grass to continue to grow – so it doesn't die.
I wood chip garden as I mentioned on another video – so basically I lay down wet news paper this "sticks" to the grass and suffocates it, then a thick layer of horse manure, then the overlapping cardboard, then I lasagna garden. I start with lots of leaves, then layer it up alternating with nitrogen, carbon etc. I finish with a good 3 inches of wood chips. Done. Finished in a single day.
You can plant immediately and create holes for each plant below the level of the woodchips and fill it with composted soil – I generally buy this in large trailer loads, cheap. There may occasionally be some grass on the edges. But the great thing about wood chips is VERY little weeding and it will come out with the slightest yank.
I should cover a large portion of my backyard now so it’s ready in a year haha!
Super informative! And looks like it was well worth the hard work!!
great work mate