Mp Mason

What do you think is the best way to remove the grass though?

I am worried about doing the cardboard and wood chip method as I will still be left with grubs that will eat the roots of my perrebials.  Do you think this will be an issue.

I am looking at getting beneficial nemetoads

Thanks for the response, I will try to answer your questions the best I can.

I am in south eastern NH, zone 5a/b depending on who you ask

I abutt a pond so my soil is sandy about 1-2 ft down depending where you dig

The front yard is about 180 ft long and up to 80 ft wide. There is a relatively steady slope for the first 100ft then it is level.  The slope is coming down from the street, so that is where my runoff comes from

We are in the process of designing swails to make the best use of the water

At this time we do not plan on having animals, at least not on this part of the yard.

The sun exposure is good, it is on the north side of the house, however it gets morning and afternoon sun. Enough that the previous owners had full sun plants in the area that seemed to do well.

The area is not fenced and I do not plan on fencing at this point in time.

Ideally this will be a no grass area that I re mulch with wood chip as needed annually or bi annually.  I understand that this is a large endeavor so I also plan to have creeping thyme as groundcover for the time being.

I want to have fruit trees, some bushes (flowering and fruit) with pollinating perennials and some annuals where there is space

Their used to be 3 large crab apples. They were overgrown and had carpenter ants so I cut them down myself.

Any thoughts on what to do with the stumps? I'd like to plant around them next year

I also want to add that I have 8 yards of loam that I can put to use here

I have the goal of turning my sloped front yard into the foundation of a food forest this spring.  My wife and I k ow where we want to swail and have started acquiring some hardy and diverse perennial flowers and shrubs.

My lawn has grubs that I am am thinking to use nemetoads to deal with.  Can anyone speak to their effectiveness?

If I am going to plant out onto the swails this year, what method of yard treatment (or maybe a mixture) is recommended.  For the swails I was going to flip the sod, add top soil and then mulch with wood chip.  For other parts of the yard I was going to put down cardboard and a couple inches of wood chip to kill/compost the grass.  My neighbor also approached me and said I could borrow his rototiller to turn over the lawn and then just mulch on top.

I'm basically in a state of analysis paralysis here and would appreciate any guidance.

Cheers, Mike

That's really cool! I hope the fruits are rewarding.  I just got some cuttings that's I am trying to root myself.

Thank you Jonah, your the best

I have some seedlings with orange mushrooms in the dirt is this on to put in my raised beds

Thank you everyone for your responses, it's close to 30/32" tall on the beds. I am using solid core doors that I'm wrapping in 6 mil plastic. I hope to get 3 years out of them.

In the mean time I want to collect free metal so that I can replace the beds as the doors break down due to the elements

Hi,

I tried to get an answer doing my own research first, however I found conflicting answers.

I had 5 pine trees cut down at the beginning of January.  I am building 5 tall raised beds right now and I thought it would be a good idea to rot the stumps down (and capture their nutrients) by placing the beds over these stumps. With the added benefit of removing the "eyesore" of having a bunch of stumps in my backyard.

I read that coniferous stumps will rot quickly, and it should be fine. However I also read that it should be avoided unless desiging a hugelkultur bed.

Is this a reasonable idea to try or should I make other plans for my beds (though my area between these stumps is limiting to where the beds can go)/

on another note, I cut down crab apple trees in my front yard very recently, if I split the logs, can I even out the bottom layer of the bed with this new wood?  Currently half of the "floor" of the bed would be stump, and half would be the ground, I can also use the smaller brush if that would be a good fill as well.

Thanks for your time!
Mike

Thanks for the responses, I did make sure to get solid core doors.

My wife and I ended up getting a large painters drop cloth to wrap the doors in for about $30.

I imagine this will only lay me two or three growing seasons until I can get some nicer beds.

The other purpose of the site was to get waist high beds cheap

Mike