It’s time for us to begin moving our test garden to a new location. This means we need to remove this 18 ft. garden “row” or “bed” and our additional 8 ft. of raised bed and turn the space back into lawn.
When leasing space for a garden, it is important to be clear with the owner about what you plan on doing with the space and how you will leave the space when the lease ends. In our case, the property owner asked that we return the space to grass rather than leave it as a garden. Fortunately, this is a relatively easy thing to do. First, we need to harvest all of our vegetables.
Next, we need to remove the extra soil and flatten out the bed, making it even with the rest of the lawn. This way, the fertile top layer can be removed and that material can be used to start a new garden in a new location.
After smoothing out the soil so that the surface is even with the surrounding lawn, sprinkle the surface evenly with grass seed. Using a small cup as a scoop makes this a little easier. After the grass seed, lightly cover the surface in some kind of mulch. Coco coir is perfect for this purpose. It will keep the seed covered and moist until it sprouts.
Keep the area well watered until the grass sprouts and the space starts to look green. This may mean watering it every day for the first few days, but once it starts growing and becomes established (~3 weeks), you can go on watering and mowing it like you would a normal lawn.
You might never guess that it used to be a productive garden bed, producing almost 30 lbs. of fresh produce in about 40 days this spring.
