Probably getting a flush of nutrients from the char. I prefer turning the sod over with a shovel in the fall and cover with leaves, hay, cardboard etc to rot out over the winter. Long term it builds a lot more OM in the soil. If you have heavy soil OM loss is less of a concern.

Yep, but that takes planning. I have to create beds in the blink of an eye. You know how it is with us compulsive gardeners!

Have not done a bed this way but the BURN is a fantastic method of weed control!!!!!! Could not get a weed torch but DH has a torch he uses for plumbing work and it works just fine on weeds as well.

DL

I realize that we are a bogglingly profligate culture and there are so many other more significant wastages to nit-pick, but torching up fossil fuel to save a little weeding could be the poster-worthy example.

Couldn't have said it better pnbrown.

Lasagna method requires no digging at all, just put cardboard/newspaper over the ground...weeds/grass gone!

agree with lonmower

"Lasagna method requires no digging at all, just put cardboard/newspaper over the ground...weeds/grass gone!"

Yes, but you have to put dirt on top of the lasagna.

I tried killing grass wirth black palstic. Worked fair and takes months.

Ill stick with the torch.

Forgot to add...if you got a sod cutter they are the fastest!

Using 50 cents of propane doesn't bother me in the least. Fossil fuel is how I do all my weeding...with torches. Got 30 something beds to manage. So I save time as I can.

Fossil fuels is not doubt how most of you are on the web. Fossil fuels are what you are typing on. Fossil fuels is what makes synthetic fertilizers and you bug sprays. Fossil fuels gets your seeds to you. Most of what you wear from China is fossil fuels..so don't be hypocrites.

Not that I want to get embroiled in some big 'ol debate, but the way I see it is this: the gas/fossil fuel saved by not having to drive to the grocery store to purchase produce that was probably trucked or flown in from thousands of miles away, thereby consuming even MORE fuel indirectly, is far less than what was used to torch a small patch of grass. Could it be done without it? Sure, but if that's the means to an end, there are far worse uses for precious fossil fuels than clearing some land to plant and grow one's own food.

Just my $0.02

How you started your garden, IN A HURRY,is beside the point of how you will maintain soil fertility. I don't know if it applies to lawns, but the first year of tilling grasslands usually has a high-production-fertility rate, which falls off, as OM is consumed and not replaced.

Your expanse of flat garden space looks great for gardening. And that is a never ending enterprise. We feed the soil-web critters, they feed the plants, and the beat goes on.