Raised garden beds

by margo bourgoise
(napean, canada)

We want to make a large perennial shrub bed on existing lawn...our question: can we leave the lawn in and apply topsoil to a dept of a foot? If we leave the lawn in will the new plants be able to root through the turf?
Thanks, Margo

Doug says that the shrubs and plants will have no difficulty rooting through the old turf. That grass will rot off and disappear. The point I'll make though is that if you don't bury the grass 12" deep, you're going to find it will survive under there and poke up into your new garden.

If this was mine, I'd lay cardboard down to smother out the grass and cover that over with the topsoil. The cardboard will smother out the grass and then rot away in a year so you definitely won't have a grass problem.