Whether you want to plant vegetables or create a new flower bed, there are several different ways to convert lawn into gardening space. I’m going to share with you the various methods I have used. What works and what doesn’t, and tips for creating your new garden bed.
Before you even begin to start the process of converting lawn grass into gardening space, you need to choose a location for your new garden bed. Unless, you’re just going to grow shade plants, it’s important to find the sunniest place in your yard and plan your new garden bed there.
If you want to grow vegetables, flowers or a mix, you’ll have the best harvest if the designated area gets full sun. Full sun means more than 6 hours of direct sunlight a day.
It’s also important to think about convenience in maintaining your new garden. Think about the water needs of your new space, and whether or not you want to install drip irrigation. In other words, your new planting area will need to be close to a water source. Although I don’t always heed my own advice, if this is your first garden, start with just a small area for your new planting bed. You can always add on later if you decide you’re really into gardening.
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Converting part of your lawn into a garden bed allows you to grow flowers, herbs, vegetables, and more. But getting rid of the grass first is an important step. Digging a new garden bed by hand from an existing lawn may seem daunting, but it just takes a bit of labor and the right techniques.
Follow this beginner’s guide to learn how to easily dig garden beds right out of your grassy yard. With a little sweat equity and planning you’ll have thriving gardens in no time!
Why Dig Beds vs. In-Ground Planting
Digging designated garden beds has some nice advantages over simply planting into open ground
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Beds allow you to improve soil quality by mixing in amendments like compost This gives plants nutrients and better drainage
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Beds help contain and define your garden area, keeping it neat. Grass and weeds won’t encroach from the sides.
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In beds, you can intensively plant crops close together without compacting the whole yard.
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Beds warm up and dry out faster in spring, allowing for earlier planting.
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You’ll only need to maintain mulch, fertilize, and water the beds, not the entire lawn.
When to Dig New Beds
The best time to dig and create new garden beds is in early spring or fall. Cooler temperatures make the work more pleasant and beds will have time to settle before planting season. Having new beds ready to go by spring lets you get plants in the ground early.
If you’re eager to get gardening, you can also dig beds during the summer. Just be sure to water the bed well and protect the bare soil with mulch until you’re ready to plant.
Bed Location Tips
When selecting the spot for your new bed, keep these tips in mind:
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Pick a sunny spot. Most vegetables, fruits, and flowers need at least 6 hours of direct sun daily.
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Avoid low, wet areas that collect water and remain soggy after rains.
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Call to have underground utility lines marked before digging to avoid damaging pipes or cables.
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Leave a 2-foot buffer around structures and fences for easy access.
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Consider how the bed shape and layout will complement your landscape design. Curved, rounded beds often look more natural.
Tools Needed for Digging Garden Beds
Having the right tools on hand makes digging up grass and soil much easier. Essential items include:
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Shovel or spade – Choose a short-handled, sturdy one for leverage.
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Garden rake – For smoothing and leveling the soil.
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Wheelbarrow or buckets – To hold soil as you dig and amend it.
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Tarp – To hold discarded grass and keep soil contained.
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Landscape fabric or cardboard – To line the bottom of the empty bed.
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Compost/manure – To mix in and improve soil quality.
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Mulch – To cover the bed once dug and amended.
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Edging material – To border the bed perimeter.
How to Dig a Garden Bed From Grass Step-by-Step
Digging up the grass and soil to form a new bed isn’t extremely hard work, but it does take some physical labor. Follow these steps:
1. Mark the Bed Area
Use a garden hose or string to outline the shape and size of your bed. For beginners, a 4×8-foot rectangular bed is a good starting point. Remove any existing vegetation inside the marked area.
2. Cut Out the Grass Layer
Lay a tarp next to the bed area. Using a sharp shovel, cut the grass into strips, rolling and lifting it onto the tarp to dispose of. Dig down about 4-6 inches to get all the grass roots up.
3. Loosen the Soil
Next, break up and churn the underlying soil about 8-12 inches deep using your shovel or garden fork. Pick out rocks, sticks, and roots as you go.
4. Add Compost and Amendments
To enrich the soil, mix 2-3 inches of compost, manure, peat moss or other amendments into the loosened soil. Turn and mix thoroughly with a shovel.
5. Return Soil to Bed
Shovel the soil back into the bed, continuing to remove debris and mix in amendments. Mound the amended soil a few inches above ground level to allow for settling.
6. Shape and Smooth the Bed
Use a rake to shape the bed and smooth the soil, contouring any slopes or edges how you desire. Aim for evenly distributed, fluffy soil about 12 inches deep.
7. Edge Around Bed Perimeter
Edge your new bed with bricks, rocks, or lumber to define it. You can also dig a 6-inch deep trench around the perimeter. This will help keep surrounding grass and weeds out.
8. Water Bed Well
Give your newly dug garden bed a thorough watering to settle the soil. Add more soil if needed after watering to fill dipped areas.
9. Top with Mulch Layer
Spread 2-4 inches of organic mulch over the bed to conserve moisture, inhibit weeds, and feed the soil as it breaks down. Pull mulch away from plant bases when sowing seeds or transplanting.
10. Start Planting!
Your DIY garden bed is now ready for flowers, vegetables, herbs, and more! Focus on gently loosening transplants’ root balls and spreading roots outward when planting.
Tips for Easier Digging
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Loosen soil before digging by watering area the day before.
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Take breaks often and stretch to prevent sore muscles.
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Wear sturdy gloves to protect your hands.
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Invest in quality tools that won’t bend or break.
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Cover bare soil with tarps or mulch at end of each day.
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Recruit a friend to help – digging is more fun together!
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Break up the work over multiple days instead of tackling it all at once.
Maintaining Your New Garden Bed
With a proper foundation from the start, your new DIY garden bed will be productive for years to come. Here are some tips for ongoing care:
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Replenish compost and organic matter each spring and fall.
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Use crop rotation to prevent pest and disease buildup.
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Weed early and often. It’s easiest when weeds are small.
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Use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to maintain consistent moisture 1-2 inches per week.
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Avoid walking on bed when soil is wet to prevent compaction.
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Fertilize mid-season for heavy feeders like tomatoes.
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Edge bed each year to keep surrounding grass out.
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Mulch annually, replacing mulch when it becomes thin.
Creative Uses for Dug-Up Grass and Soil
As you dig up your new bed, you’ll end up with excess grass and soil. Here are some beneficial ways to put those materials to use:
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Spread on the lawn to fill low spots or level.
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Use for potting up containers and window boxes.
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Shape into small garden hills, raised areas, or berms.
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Fill holes, ruts, or other problem spots in the yard.
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Make DIY garden trails or stepping stones.
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Build an outdoor oven, fire pit, or pizza kiln.
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Donate to community gardens or urban farms.
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Use as healthy fill for compost piles.
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Plant cover crops to boost soil nutrition before tilling back in.
FAQs About Digging Garden Beds From Grass
How deep should a new garden bed be?
For most plants, aim for a soil depth of 8-12 inches in your bed. Roots crops like potatoes need deeper soil, around 18 inches.
When is the best time to prep new beds?
The ideal times are early spring or fall, so beds can settle before planting. But summer digging works too – just irrigate and mulch the bed after.
Should I remove all the grass before digging?
It’s best to remove the entire grass layer first, whether by hand or herbicide treatment. Otherwise, remaining grass will regrow up into your garden bed.
Do I need to add anything to the native soil?
Mixing 2-3 inches of compost or other organic amendments into the top 6-8 inches of native soil will create an ideal planting medium.
Is a tiller better than hand-digging beds?
You can till initially to chop up sod and loosen compacted soil. But finish shaping beds by hand to prevent over-tilling.
Achieve Gardening Success!
With proper site preparation by hand-digging your beds, you can achieve gardening success! Follow this beginner’s guide and soon you’ll have thriving flowers, vegetables, and herbs right in your own yard.
Here’s how you convert your lawn into a raised bed garden area:
If you simply want to plant some vegetables for your family, I would recommend starting with a simple raised bed. This one is very appealing to me and if I were starting over with my raised vegetable beds, I would go with this.
Although the thought of building your own raised garden beds is novel, for the time and money, these vinyl beds are easy to assemble and will last a very long time. It’s important to note here that you want a least a depth of at least 8 inches with a raised bed, and 12 or more inches is even better.
To convert lawn into a raised bed gardening space, first run over the area with you lawn mower cutting the existing lawn as short as you can get it. Next, use landscape fabric to place over the ground where your raised bed will sit. A layer of cardboard or landscape fabric will smother grass and weeds, and eliminate rogue weeds or grass from growing up through the soil.
Once you have your raised bed in place, fill it to the top with a good garden soil and/or compost. One of my pet peeves is to see someone gardening with raised beds with only a few inches of soil in them. That kind of defeats the purpose of a raised bed. It’s a good idea to let your newly filled garden bed sit for a few days, so the soil can settle.
We have raised beds for our vegetable garden area. We just threw something together quickly and the beds are very crude looking, but they serve the purpose. Some day we will replace them, probably with the vinyl ones I mention above, or these galvanized steel ones.
How to Remove Grass for a Garden Bed
First, there’s the age-old method of simply digging. I’ve done it and it’s a lot of hard work and sweaty manual labor. Digging is the best way, if you want your garden space simply cut into the ground. Here’s what you do:
Use a garden hose or a rope and lay it out in the shape of your new garden bed.
Then, simply start digging up the sod. Some will tell you to just turn the sod over, but I don’t recommend doing that. The sod doesn’t usually die just from being turned over. If you do it right, you won’t have to contend with weeds and grass growing back up in your new garden bed.
To dig up the sod, you can rent a professional sod cutter, but I really love my trusty shovel. It’s a lightweight and sharp spade. If you have lots of sod to remove, you might want to consider a sod cutter knife like this one. I’ve started many, many garden areas simply by digging.
Once you have all the sod cut up, it will need to be removed. Pick up the sod and shake the excess soil off of it and then dispose of the sod or replant it in another area of your yard. Don’t toss your sod into a compost bin either. Our local compost place will take sod, because their high temperature compost piles will break the sod down.
If you aren’t going to plant your new area right away, be sure to cover the exposed soil with plastic or cardboard, so weed seeds can’t germinate and it doesn’t become a weed pit before you get to plant.
If you decide to dig up your lawn to make a new garden space, be sure to use some type of edging so that you don’t have grass creeping back into your garden area.
It’s also a good idea to amend the existing soil by mixing in organic matter (a/k/a compost). Check with the county you live in to see if they have a free compost site. If not, bags of compost can be purchased at most big box stores very reasonably. If you’re going to have a garden, it’s a good idea to create a compost pile somewhere in your back yard too.