srm@packard.UUCP (SR Marcovici) (06/12/84)
I'm planning to create some planting beds (not vegetables, but evergreen shrubs and other perennial plants) from well established lawn areas. These lawn areas include those which would extend existing beds, or would create beds around existing plantings. Thus, use of a rototiller may be too dangerous around the existing stuff, and my recent attempts to do it with hand tools have been VERY tedious (approx. 1 hour for 10 square feet!). Question: are there any techniques which any of you net.gardeners could recommend which would render this job easier. For example, would killing off the grass with an artificial mulch (plastic) be a good idea before trying to dig it up? Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Please send them via mail, if you can. Thanks. Steve Marcovici AT&T Bell Laboratories packard!srm