Most gardeners struggle with weeds and grass in their garden beds. But what if I told you that there is a way to kill weeds naturally in garden beds…and grass too? Well there is and I’ve been using this method for years now with great success. Here’s how we got started killing weeds and grass naturally on the farm, and how we continue to do it each year.
How we got started
When I started building my garden here at the farm, my neighbor came by to help with a compost truck that was stuck in our yard. Our neighbors are in their 70’s and very sweet and kind. They’re the kind of people that would give you the shirt off your back if you needed it. They’ve also lived long lives and have ways of doing things at their home that work for them. Then this suburban Chicago girl moved in next door with her ideas and tricks to kill weeds naturally.
“Just use Round-up in these beds and it will kill all the weeds and grass before you put the dirt in,” my neighbor said as I was waiting as patiently as possible for the compost truck to be hauled away.
I smiled at her. There was no way I was going to use Round-up. While I know it is effective, I was actually shocked at how few people in Michigan seemed to know about the lawsuit in California pertaining to Round-up and its connection to cancer. When I was building the garden here, I didn’t want anything bad going into the ground. I wanted to be able to create a natural, organic landscape for us – especially in the soil where we were going to be growing our food.
Something to believe in
No matter what generation you’re from, I believe the best food – the safest food – is what everyone wants.
Whether you’re a gardener who has used a weed killer every day for 30 years, or a person who has eaten food sprayed with weed killer your entire life, I believe there is a better way to kill weeds naturally in the garden. For me, that means no Round-up. I want my children’s children to have clean dirt to plant in, clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.
So my goal for this farm is to do everything we can to help the planet. No one’s sustainability and planet loving actions are perfect. But many times, little steps matter. Even if it’s just our little seven acres, it’s better than nothing.
How to kill weeds naturally and grass too when starting raised beds
Instead of using weed killer, I was planning to kill grass and kill weeds naturally in my boxes and do it in a way that would add to the soil year-after-year.
My plan was simple: Cardboard.
If you’re planting in raised beds cardboard is a simple way to kill all the grass and weeds at the bottom without using chemical weed killers. It blocks the light and the grass dies without the light.
Step 1
First, you want to use a weed whacker to get the grass and weeds in your raised beds as short as possible. If you skip this step the cardboard will sort of float on top of the tall grass and lay funny. Besides, dead grass clippings help to nourish your soil.
Step 2
Next you want to cut your cardboard to fit your boxes and then layer it.
Cardboard doesn’t usually come in exact squares. Layering it allow you to make sure there’s no little spot where grass will sneak through.
Also, if your cardboard has tape or labels on it, take it off. And never use cardboard with staples in it.
You can find plain cardboard on Amazon here and it actually does come in helpful squares! Or you can be like me and have an online shopping problem which allows you to get boxes for FREE! 🙂
You can also find boxes at various hardware stores and moving companies. Lastly, if you want to try and get it for free – without shopping online – , check with big box stores and see if they’re willing to give you some.
2023 UPDATE: We no longer use boxes that have been shipped to us with goods in them – like boxes from Amazon. Instead we now prefer to buy cardboard boxes for all of our beds. Home Depot boxes are made out of 100 percent recycled material. Basically, we got tired of picking tape off and don’t want the glue in our soil. Buying boxes for our beds costs about $60 and today we have 26 beds.
Step 3
Third, wet it and add something heavy on top – wood, cinder blocks, mulch or even some of the dirt you will fill the boxes with to keep it from blowing away.
If you’re planning to add all your dirt right away, which is what I did since it was so late in the season before I could plant, you don’t have to add anything else on top of it.
You can then plant in your beds right away or wait a few days. Either way, the cardboard will be soft enough that if you need to dig through it to plant something with deep, stable roots you can easily break through it with a shovel.
To cut through my cardboard, I use a tool like this {HERE}. This is my favorite garden tool because it does everything.
Giving back to the soil
Throughout the season, the rain or water from your hose will help to break down the cardboard further. The grass and weeds below it will be dead. They should not create a huge issue for you throughout the season.
Additionally, the cardboard, plus your soil, plus mulch (which I always use to top off my garden beds) will start to create a rich foundation for future gardens. It will all breakdown together and naturally add to the soil.
You can repeat the cardboard process at the end of the season each and/or at the start of every new season. This will help you to create a weedless garden – that you don’t have to till! – year over year.
Update…
I originally wrote this article when we moved into the farmhouse four and a half years ago. We are now going into our fifth gardening season here on the farm and our garden has grown – A LOT. We went from the 10 boxes we made that first year to 32 boxes in year two! You can see it all {HERE}. And then this year we reduced and went to 26 boxes.
For all our raised boxes we used this cardboard method. We are always all prepped for the year and well on our way in growing season.
Will you never have grass or weeds in your raised beds? No. But each summer someone on Instagram always asks me why we don’t ” have any weeds or grass in the beds”. This is why, friends.
To prep the beds now, we pull all the weeds and grass that might have crept up during the off season. Then we lay the cardboard directly on top of the soil from the past season. No tilling. Last, we add more compost and/or soil back to the top. Our beds have flourished. The soil is healthy, loose and this method saves our backs throughout the entire growing season. You can see a snapshot below from the end of the 2020 season. There’s also one of me below from this season (2023) with the boxes this year.
Happy gardening season, friends! I hope we see you again soon.
Oh and P.S. You can find a tutorial for how we made our raised beds {HERE}.
I will keep this in mind. We do have some awful weeds that I want to get rid of, and I prefer to do it naturally. Your garden looks awesome!
I love all of your container beds. I can imagine how much of a PIA that would be to weed! I love the idea of using cardboard. It’s so much healthier for the ground than plastic.
The English Gardner uses plain newspaper not shiny magazine paper. Put your mulch over it
I am trying something similar in my yard this year. I am trying black plastic over the the areas.
Just be careful with the plastic. Water might not be able to get through either and it won’t bio-degrade in the beds.
This post is really helpful and informative. Thank you for sharing these tips!I have to make sure to try them with my fall garden.
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been telling my husband that I want a vegetable garden but I did not know how to start. You explained everything so nicely.
You’re welcome!
This is a fantastic way to kill grass and weeds without harming the environment or putting yourself at risk. The yard I have right now is very shady, but I’d love to have a sunny spot for a garden.
This is a great way to kill off all those weeds. I’m glad you posted about this. I didn’t do a garden this year, but I’m sure I will next year.
Your garden beds look so beautiful! I’ll keep this in mind for when we plant flowers in my front yard next year.
This is great! I love those beds! I am always looking for ways to eliminate my weeds!
I am so bad with plants I would probably be bad with the weed lol but this is great to know. HOpefully one day I will get my outside skills in order
That is genius! I had no idea there is a natural way to kill grass and weeds other than pulling it. Thank you for these tips!
This sounds so easy to make by ourselves! I should show this to my husband!
I need to try this on the garden, I keep getting weeds and not able to grow healthy vegetables, thanks for the tips
I love the idea of laying down cardboard, I have not thought about that. I used the newspaper but this makes much more sense. So cool! I will have to try it.
I SOOO need to do this to my yard. I am ready to create a raised bed for my plants.
I love those garden beds! I’m going to try this for our landscape too.
I never thought about using cardboard before. That is a great idea!
Your garden and property look so beautiful! Thanks for the tips!
I never thought about doing this in a garden! This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
I really need these helpful tips. Grass and weeds can really ruin your garden. Thanks for sharing!
Great tip! I had no idea that cardboard was a solution to weeds. I am trying to live with fewer chemicals so I will definitely try this. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this! I don’t know a lot about gardening and I’ve learned so much just by reading this post!
These are great tips for killing weeds without harming the plants you are trying to grow! Thanks for this informative post!
Love this! I don’t like to use chemicals if I don’t have to, so thank you!
Wonderful blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you propose starting with a free platform like Wordpress or
go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely
overwhelmed .. Any tips? Appreciate it!
I can’t even imagine using Roundup. That is crazy! This sounds like a great method to use. I pull a lot of weeds by hand, and never resort to chemicals.
I will try out your tips. My backyard has a TON of weeds and they are driving me nuts.
The garden is really taking great shape. You have some very useful tips for killing weeds and for tidying up a backyard garden.
These photos are stunning! How I wish I could have a green thumb like this 🌱! These are such great tips!
This is fantastic! There is nothing more annoying than constantly weeding. Love this idea.
This is such good information. Thank you very much!
This is fantastic! As I start my own raised garden bed, I can use all the tips I can get!
Loving your tips. It is very environment friendly and it saves you a lot of time too. I will try and do this in the small garden space we have in our back yard.
LOVE LOVE LOVE that you’re making responsible decisions for your garden and the planet! Thank you so much for sharing ways to be more environmentally conscious in the garden.
I LOVE your gardens! They are beautiful. I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but don’t have a green thumb. But this is definitely an inspiration!!!!!!
I had no idea about the lawsuit. Thanks for sharing this alternative method to dealing with weeds.
This is awesome! We have a lot of stuff in our grass from our tree that we need to kill!
Love this! You have all the best gardening advice!! Your beds look great!
I need to do this. I would love to have a clean looking garden space.
This was very useful and handy, I am having flatbeds installed in my bed for my veggies so this is insightful to read.
I couldn’t agree more.. I prefer cleaner and safer methods like this. Thanks.
I also say no to Round up and any other kind of chemical. Glad you shared about this easy and natural way to kill the weeds.
More than ever people are wanting to do things naturally. Some awesome ideas shared!
Such a smart and easy solution! My coworker was just talking about wanting an eco friendly way to garden, I will be passing this along to her!
These are great tips to kill grass and weeds naturally. I have never done it before.
I’ve seen that, blocking them with cardboard, a couple times lately and thought that was interesting. I hadnt seen that before.
We are hoping to start a garden this year. Would love to do things naturally so thanks for the great tips.
Gardening is so beautiful, especially when you have the right tips to make gardening easier. Thanks!
I was looking for a raised bed tutorial. Thank you!
Fabulous article – thank you for sharing natural methods for getting rid of weeds! It absolutely breaks my heart when I see my neighbors outside spraying the Round Up all over!
Weeds are a constant problem in our garden, too. I’ll definitely look into this method.
This is so clever. I’ll be doing this this year!
will definitely try this out for the weeds we have in our garden
You guys have green thumb. Yes weeds are grass too especially crab grass ones. We have started working on the garden. After the snow storm plants and trees are coming back now here.
This was really helpful, thank you very much.
Our flower beds can get out of control with weeds so easily. I will try your suggestions.
These are some wonderful tips, I keeps them in mind once I have my own garden hopefully.
The season has just started and ALREADY I feel like I’m fighting weeds all day every day.
Thank you so much for this! It’s such a struggle!
Wish this method worked on rose bushes. I rip my hands to shreds yanking grass out from all the woody roots and stalks. And the thistle weeds – yikes. The cardboard method would need to be cut up into itty bitty patches to surround each bush. Any thoughts?
I have container gardens that have been taken over by crab grass from the soil I used. Do you think the card board would work for crab grass too? How much soil do you put on top at the end of the season? Do think January is too late to do it?
Would you do add cardboard to a bed at the end of the season before snow or in the spring before right before planting? My garden beds are a mess this year and wondering. Thanks!
You could do it at the end of the season, but then I would just put mulch on top of it or stones to hold it in place. At that point it would be there to prevent anything from growing in the off season and help to build the soil for you in the next season.