Yes, I would definitely do it that way. You didn't say where you live--I'm in south Georgia--but this is the PERFECT planting time down here. My husband is tilling up as I write this. If you wait till it warms up it will be much harder to keep the plants alive. You'll water yourself to death. Get them in the ground (and rid of the grass!) while they are all dormant.

Unless you have a backhoe that can remove the soil down 6 feet and get all of the roots and then fill it back with certified BG free soil, wait until the devil grass is actively growing to hit it with ROundup. It actually likes Roundup, so you'll have to do it multiple times. Every single bit of live root left will sprout a plant that sends out runners. Tilling now won't make the garden of your dreams, but it will help to make the lawn of your dreams--right where you want your garden. Container garden the first spring season and focus on getting the garden beds in the shape they need to be before putting in your fall greens. YOu'll be glad you did.

I agree 100% with hollysprings about the BG, aka "Devil Grass". I have dug down to four feet and still found BG roots!! Horrible. A Gardeners nightmare.

I only use Round-up on BG and Poison Ivy. It is not necessary to cover for it to work, but I have animals, so I spray with the Round-up, then lay an old carpet over it. That keeps the heat in and my animals out of it and speeds things up. Black plastic or thick layers of newspaper will work, but you will have to weight it down with bricks or rocks or something.

You can go ahead and dig out the BG and garden there if you want to. I have done it for years and had good crops and flowers, but the BG always came back. It's like Bob in the movie, "What About Bob?" Its not gone! It's still there! Every tiny speck of root you missed when you dug it out will regrow into a monster root. Tilling it is a definite "no, no"!

Once you have BG, you will always have BG. I hate the stuff.

Annie

I have a neighbor who is obsessive about their grass..They had Bermuda grass...How they got rid of it is as follows..First they sprayed it with round up. left it sit for 3 days spraying it everyday with more round up..Then they burned it...Bermuda grass is difficult to get rid of..

They then planted a different grass...Which is lovely...Every Summer they still get patches of bermuda grass throughout their yard. They spray the patches with Round Up and burn it.

Someone told me that If you spray it and burn it and then cover it with 12 sheets of newspaper (with mulch on top) for about 30 days to 60 days that that will kill the bermuda. Since you are just making Beds instead of doing your whole yard the newspaper thing might work..

I have Bermuda invading my front planting beds right now. I am planning on moving all the plants out of those beds this spring and then trying the newspaper procedure...I am planning on leaving the front beds under newspaper and mulch for the whole season...to make sure all the bermuda is gone...

Then next spring I am going to plant something new in those beds.

I agree Bermuda is devil grass..