I’ve tilled grass in before I planted blackberries and raspberries, went over it about 6 times with my BCS hand tractor, and did that again a few weeks later and I didn’t really care for the outcome in the end… and mulching heavily will return organic matter. But that’s just my take.
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I think the ‘perscriptions’ for dealing with Centipede, St. Augustine or Bermuda grass in zone 8 or 9 are going to be a lot different than what would work best in zones, 4, 5, 6.
Lawn fescues, bluegrass and creeping red fescue are much tamer animals to conquer.
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Very true! 
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I have had good results with converting lawn “grass” to a mulched area around trees and for a strawberry bed with ram board from the hardware store. I have to admit the scale of your project is larger but it should still work. Lay the ram board down and cover with mulch. The grass dies in no time and the board breaks down leaving nothing but mulched over dirt. No sod cutter or machinery needed of any kind.
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pm me early may and ill send you some cuttings. berries are better than most blackberries ive tasted.
like i said, till the hell out of that grass and amend with some blood/ bone meal which will help the tilled under grass rot, by spring it will be ready to plant in. wether you use landscape fabric or not its up to you. i like woodchips myself but on a larger scale its not as easy as heavy duty landscaping fabric. you can use any organic mulch but it should be covered by something to hold it in place…
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Well I will! Thanks! I have am extra Ponca Blackberry plant coming. Although probably not a good fit for zone 4 and it’s upright. Best of the Arkansas series.
I’m looking for Columbia Giant too. If anybody has one? I put one in last year, but it looked weak and I may need to replace it.
I decided to add some manure compost to raise beds as well as adding some nutrients since my phosphorus and potassium is low as well. Should I add the compost when tilling the grass in the beds or should I till the grass now and wait until planting in February to till the compost in? Will the manure compost raise my pH or lower it? If it raises it from a 5.7 that would be fine but I don’t want it going lower could I add lime at the same time to raise it?
id till it now and add just a little lime. manure can lower ph some. the manure will help break down any sod that is buried.
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I used a tractor with a subsoiler to break up the ground first then went over it a few times with a disk. I would disk it up and a couple weeks later I would run the disk through again and kept doing it until I killed off the grass. It is fairly easy to keep clean now. I planted 30 blackberries yesterday
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