SRS,

4 or 5 years ago, when I installed most of the beds in my front yard, I tilled it up(or rather my hubby and Dani's hubby did), and then raked out as many of the clods of sod and roots as I could. I put down layers of cardboard until I ran out, and then used newspaper for some of the beds. I bought a couple of dumptruck loads of topsoil (the frontyard was mostly a shallow layer of red clay over hardpan) to put on top of the cardboard/newspaper, and then mulched heavily with shredded bark. Boy, did I have the arm muscles that year! Within a year the Bermuda grass had come up through the newspaper. Until this spring the beds where I used large sheets of cardboard were pretty clear of the grass. Where I had smaller sheets, and therefore more overlapping pieces of cardboard, the grass wended its way pretty successfully up through the overlapping layers after two years. I also have trouble excluding it at the edges of the beds, even with an edging barrier that goes about 3 inches deep. because my yard slopes but I raised the beds up to be nearly level, the depth of the topsoil I brought in varies from 6 to 18 inches. I have noticed that the deeper the topsoil, the less the bermuda grass has made it up through the cardboard or newspaper layers.

The first bed (and the smallest) I installed from scratch was about 8 years ago. It did not have fill-dirt in that spot and though the topsoil was heavy clay, the hardpan was down 9 to 12 inches. I lifted the top 5 inches of sod and soil, double-dug the area, hauled in topsoil and compost, and edged it with a barrier to 6 inches deep. Every year I lay down a few layers of newspaper and shredded bark. That has worked the best, but it was by far the most work to install.

The large bed that I have to lift for the grading was there when we bought the house, but had been untended for many years. It had good dirt. I tilled it up and enriched it with compost. After I replanted it I laid down 3 layers of newspaper and 4 inches of shredded bark. It took 3 years for the bermuda grass to extensively reinvade that area.

I think I have concluded that however I create the beds, mulching yearly with several layers of newspaper covered with shredded bark is what will do the best job of controlling the bermuda grass. As I get older, and my back gets more fragile, I am thinking about goats:-).

Janie