Anna, great job!
Looks great.
It may have been you who told me about using cardboard under the mulch.Well, my son,Jeremy is an electrician
and has been bringing me cardboards from his job sites.
I have been using them in similar way as you shown above.
I love the tips we get,makes gardening easy.
Thanks Anna!
Felix

That looks beautiful Anna! I love the last picture, it looks like a botanical garden.
Thanks for the great advice! Your shovel must be super sharp to get through the cardboard though?

What a great tutorial Anna, thanks.

I love how sharp your edges are. Mine don't look that neat because my cardboard curls up at the edge, probably because I am covering thicker grass, a St. Augustine hybrid I inherited.
I've had to put random bricks down to keep the edges from getting caught in the mower.

I also have trouble digging a hole through the cardboard without dislodging everything, what's your secret?

Looks wonderful and thanks for taking the time to post this. For myself I use newspaper in the garden beds as it is easier to dig through. Really thick maybe 10 layers. But where ever I don't want to plant, like a path or around my potting bench I use the cardboard. The cardboard last much longer and the weeds don't come through. I often rake back the mulch and put newspaper down and then remulch just to keep the weeds a bay, a bit anyway. ;o)

I never though about putting down the garden debris first, that is a good idea. Just a reminder though, don't use frangipani leaves or canna leaves with rust or you'll deposit the rust spores in the new bed. ;o)

Thank-you all. All the beds in our yard are made this way and we don't have many weeds, tho 90% of our yard is beds.

Wanda and Denise, after the cardboard gets wet once or twice, it is not difficult to get through it with a good swift blow with a shovel. After it gets wet a few times, it starts degrading and it becomes no problem at all. Katkin, I use newspaper also, especially in existing beds, but I prefer the cardboard for a new bed. Overlapping is essential for a long-lasting result, also.

Anna

Denise, I think laying the hose down as an edge, and the hard edge of the cardboard makes it easier to get a sharp edge. Usually when we finish the bed, my DH edges it. This one has only been edged once, but after a couple of times it will look better and smoother. This grass was not real thick (although one of the areas we did was very thick), but after putting all the garden prunings down, it was quite thick. What helps is adding a thick layer of mulch. Also, having the large pieces of cardboard, they get heavy with the mulch on top and tend to stay put. I guess smaller pieces would tend to dislodge much more easily. The more we do this, the more we try to refine the method. Subzero boxes are the best. We got these from a bicycle shop. They were pretty good, but not as good as appliance boxes. However, they had no metal clips and no tape, so it went faster!

What's so great about this method is that it involves no digging or roundup to make a bed. It is very fast in comparison, much less labor intensive, and because no dirt is disturbed, and there is such a good barrier, no weeds. Even after the cardboard degrades, for some reason the weeds still don't come up unless the soil is disturbed. I find that cardboard really attracts earthworms and softens the soil underneath, which is great for plants and for planting.

BTW, I mean to ask before what palm tree are those? Are they self cleaning? I love the look of them. And your garden looks simply georgous, some day I'd love to visit it. ;o) I keep going back to the picture to look at it again and again. I can see lots of bromeliads under those palms.

wow! when my yard grows up it wants to look like yours!

Awesome

Evelyn

Katkin, the two palms you see are coconuts. Behind them is a small arenga engleri. In the last pic, the trunk you see belongs to a floss silk tree. It is deceiving, but the palm fronds you see over it actually belong to the coconuts, not the FST. None are self-heading unfortunately. I love having visitors, so if you are up this way, please do come see me! I don't get to swaps anymore since we travel so much on the weekends.

Evelyn, thanks for the compliment. It is a work in progress. Lots of areas don't look good. Others are taking shape now. That's the way gardening is, tho, right?!

Anna

Wow! Thank you for sharing! Anna, I was wondering about the length of time you leave the cardboard on before starting your planting and mulching. Your garden is beautiful!

Katkin, Wanda, Naples, I love my heart hoe for digging, dividing and weeding. I use it more than any implement except bypass pruners. It is very sharp and just the right size. Check out http://www.hearthoe.com/ Anyone I've lent it to has absolutely loved it too! (And if I don't get my heart hoe back the day after I lend it, I go and collect it!)

Thanks again for the post, Anna!

Wow, what a nice yard, great idea! Tons of broms would look great there.

Excellent and inspiring. Think I will have to give it a try.

A way to use my yard clippings! Thanks Anna. I've been doing beds with newpaper, and having to redo them, just tried cardboard in one area (after a lot of tape pulling, man, my mom can tape up a box!)

But I totally hadn't thought of throwing stuff I pruned down in a to-be bed. I hate throwing out good nutrients, but so much of what I prune just doesn't fit in the composters (which need to be switched, and one dumped on the veggie garden, as we speak... there's no end to gardening.)

I'm doing a new bed in the front yard, and will definitely use cardboard, hoping it will be the thing that kills zoysia. And now, I guess I'll just start tossing some clipped stuff there. Not sure how the neighbors will feel about it, but they've learned to trust me that I won't leave whatever project in its project stage forever.

Thanks for the pix!

Susannah

Anna, for some reason they didn't look like coconut palms to me with such a short trunk. Did you do something to them to make them grow that way?

I read in your profile that you are by the bay, so I assume that's the west coast. I am on the east coast and don't get that way often. Too bad as I would really love to see your garden. If you are ever this way let me know. :o)

I saw some one mention needing a sharp shovel. Yes, get a file (just a simple hand file for sharpening metal blades will do, less than $10 at a big box hardware store.) and sharpen all your garden tools, especially shovels and hoes. If they are high quality metal, it might be slow going but the edge will last longer. If it is really quick and easy to sharpen, the metal is soft and you will need to sharpen often. Tools don't come from the store properly sharpened and most places won't sharpen them for you.

I like the new bed. I've been known to use the yard trimmings on top of the cardboard to help hold it down until I get a good thick layer of mulch over it.

I've also used this method to make veggie garden beds. We lay out the cardboard and put down a really thin layer of chip mulch to keep the cardboard from blowing away and then get a load of mushroom compost piled on thick and plant in that. So far this has worked well for me for everything but corn.

Great pictures, showed the process very well!

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

Susannah, before I mow each week, I go around pruning stuff that doesn't have hard stems and is not diseased, and mow right over the prunings. I usually am able to diminish my yard trash by one or two trashcans weekly. Inbetween mowings, I put stuff in my compost pile. Unfortunately, I still put out trash cans of yard trash weekly. Things that will take too long to compost, are diseased, or any palm refuse. I wish I had a chipper shredder.

Katkin, the coconuts were on the small side when we planted them about two years ago. We planted them leaning so they would develop that sway. It took about a year for the top to straighten, but I like the way they look. I think they look like the wind did that to them. We live close to the bay in Sarasota on the gulf coast. You never know what circumstances will arise, tho. Last May we were in PSL for a basketball tournament. Maybe we will travel there again! I would love to see your beautiful garden if I do go your way.

Thanks, TCLynx.

Anna

Anna,

That's a great trick with the pruning/mowing. I don't actually prune that often - my yard's pretty wild, as in out of control, not as in cool. But I'm certainly going to try that when I do prune.

And I so wish I had a chipper/shredder too. It would be a silly extravagance for my little postage stamp yard, but I hate to throw so much into the landfill. Even with two composters, I can only recycle so much of my yard stuff, and can't recycle many of the palm fronds. Though I've found they're great weed control on the side yard where we never go and our only concern is keeping the neighbors weeds from taking the a/c unit. Think thatch huts. No water gets through. Weeds die.

susannah

I do a lot of paper shredding and I toss the shredded paper on the grass along with clippings and then I use wet newspaper and then cardboard. I sometimes place a layer of mushroom compost beore the mulch and then plant deep for large objects and shallow rooted objects and veggies go on top. Cirrently waiting to get well and back to work so I have money to make a new bed. I sharpen garden tools on my husband's grinder. Anna would love to take a trip your way once finances settle down. Maybe I can get your way after the first of the year. Have a friend who works at the Selby gardens and he has offered to get me in free and get me some clippings fom things I want there. Oneed to get out and visit some of my close GWers here in the Orlando area. Now that I am working mornings it gives me a little more time to visit. Love the tutoral and glimpses of your beautiful and peaceful yard. Linda