Do you have pretty good top soil? tree roots? shade from a neighbor's tree? If you have good top soil directly into the soil is fine. Push a shovel into your soil and see what it is like. I have Bermuda grass, tree roots, and rocks. So I have to work gradually and improve places to put in tomato plants. I think most gardeners add compost or something to improve their soils. Raised beds also require hauling in good stuff. If your soil is OK you can get big cardboard to smother the grass. I get cardboard from Sam's Club and cover it with leaves and straw. After a while the grass and weeds die if they aren't Bermuda. If this is a new yard you might be surprised what pops up in spring.

Thanks,
I can add top soil, no tree roots and no shade .

I am planning to dig current soil abt 6 inch and will prepare soil with 3 mix (Compost, TopSoil etc)

Currently its lot of snow (Toronto), may be after 15 days will try and check soil level.

Planting in the ground beats a container hands down. I've dug a hole in the grass and planted a tomato and had it grow 6 feet tall. Just make the best of what you've got. It will be growing in a bucket by a mile.

Helenh,

What do you do about the Bermuda grass? I would really like to get my hands on whoever talked the previous owner of my property into planting that demongrass. I dig, dig, dig.

Lynn

I try to avoid chemicals but for Bermuda, Round Up and generic Round Up is all that works. I have had Bermuda come up through a big pile of wood chip mulch from the electric utility. You can't smother it, the runners creep in. Someone on a thread said you could smother it if you used Round Up on the edges so it can't creep in.

You can mulch heavily with hay - it smothers everything and enriches the soil as it decomposes. When you see a grass blade sprout up, cover it with hay. In the fall, I heavily mulched (3-6") a brand new bed so it would be easy to plant in the spring without having to do any digging. It definitely is an easy way of gardening.

Ruth Stout (deceased) wrote books about gardening this way. She also touted covering areas with old carpeting to smother everything. Problem with that was that today's carpeting tends to be polyester instead of wool and those little polyesters don't decompose. If you don't take up that stuff before the roots grow into it, you have a real mess. (experience!!!)

Yes, in- ground will give you a much better yield than containers and 3-4 hrs. of sun wasn't enough. Your full sun yard should be wonderful.

My mother read Ruth Stout's books and I found one at a flea market book store. I love her ideas. Hugelkultur is another idea I just read about that sounds interesting but not close to your house in a small yard.

The electric utility was trimming all the trees back 15 feet back from the line in my mother's area. I asked for the wood chips and they left a small mountain. After the calves played king of the mountain on the pile it was still two feet deep over a large area and bermuda was growing into that pile from the edges. When I hauled some to my house I had to get the runners out of it.

I doubt that jay has Bermuda in Canada though so yes get a Ruth Stout book and you will be motivated to work on your area.

I have too much Bermuda in my lawn to be able to get rid of it all (and I'm sure seeds would blow in from neighbors or be brought in on the lawn guy's equipment).

But I have two large flowerbeds which used to be lawn. Both had a sizeable area which was Bermuda (about 75% and 60%, the rest being too shady). I dug down below the Bermuda and removed it by hand, to the point where the beds were completely free of it (except for a few bits which were easily removed). Yes, it creeps in from the edges and must be monitored, particularly after a heavy rain.

But it can be done.

Thanks everyone for your valuable suggestions.

I live just north of Toronto (Markham). I get better tomato yields in raised beds. Not too much compost however. When you see the flowers form, feed them with a high phosphorous and potash solution. Home Hardware has a good, reasonably-priced vegetable fertilizer. 9kg 5-10-10 Vegetable Food. About 20 lbs for 14 bucks (good deal).

http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Outdoor-Living/Yard-Maintenance/Fertilizers/Flowers-Vegetables/Granular/9kg-5-10-10-Vegetable-Food/_/N-2pqfZ67l/Ne-67n/No-96/Ntk-All_EN/R-I5024289?Ntt=Fertilizers&Num=0

I use my containers for peppers, eggplant and basil.

Thanks uncle_t,
I live in Mississauga-Brampton border, can you suggest me which type of Tomato you grow in Markham? what is the right time to sow seeds? I usually let seedling grow to 8-10 inches and then transplant. To grow upto 8 inch it can take 45-60 days, once temp goes above 20 c in daytime, it grows faster.

This year I'm growing Early Girl, Red and Yellow Brandywines and McKenzie seed's "Sweet Cherry Hybrid". The Cherry tom is amazingly prolific. I usually start seeding indoors around March 27th and plant between May 15 and 21st (depends on forecast).