The next steps involve working on the other side of your "defined border": the garden-bed side.
You can proceed at this point, as I did, to remove the sod and loosen the soil with a shovel (see picture above). Alternatively, you could put off the extra work and just start smothering the grass, for now, with newspaper, as follows:
- Lay down the newspaper, several sheets thick (overlap)
- Spray the newspaper with water, to wet it
- Spread a few inches of bark mulch on top of the newspaper, to hold it down
Read my FAQ if you're wondering whether newspaper mulch is safe.
Of course, it will take a while to kill the grass, using this method. I wanted to install shrubs in the garden beds immediately -- that's why I undertook the extra work of opening up the garden beds with a shovel.
On Page 9 we'll deal with the plastic garden edging....
