I did ask on the Friday allotment thread but have no answers as yet.

Yesterday we dug up the lawn for 2 more raised beds. I heard a few weeks on 'Gardeners world' that you can turn the turf back over and it'll compost itself below the soil, compost and manure layers. Did I imagine I heard this, or will all the weeds in the lawn start to grow back through?

Last year we just took the whole turf out and dug in the soil.

Hi Bunnyhop, I'm not a pro gardener or anything, probably more in the ignorant but interested category. However I believe that your premise is correct, in so much as, your covering over the upturned turf with a decent depth of soil (one foot minimum)and you've removed all the pernicious weeds and rank grass from the turf, before inversion. Best of luck 'dig for victory'.

i did the very same for mine… broke the sod up into small chunks and buried it under other soil and manure… never saw any grass or weeds again 😀

Hey mr_whacky sounds like your talking about the father in-law referencing "broke the sod up". Should the police be told about this – they'll turn your garden over? LOL

We built a 3mx2.5m bed earlier in the summer. After building the box we were told to do the following (and its worked).

Bottom layer of newspaper – 5cm worth to stop weeds getting through.
Layer of pea straw 10cm
Sheep pellets
Layer of pea straw 10cm
sheep pellets
Topsoil/compost/potting mix layer on top 10-15cm.

Or veg has gone nuts this summer and still producing like a beast. Now that its packed down you simply keep adding a layer of pea straw, some sheep pellets and a new layer of soil. All good.

Any tips on how to keep the bloody cats off !

Used teabag soaked in bleach. Seriously. Just do a few and dot them round.

Keeping cats away either a shotgun or some people say orange peel is smelly enough.
There are some people that advise against combining the lawn turf into a raised bed because of the pests that can be found in it leather jackets etc.

Tea bags soaked in jeyes fluid seems to keep the vermin off.

NZCol – I can see how a trip to the great outdoors would be suitable for collecting sheep pellets but where would I find (and what is) pea straw?

nosherduke996, a good way to get the cats to burger orf is half fill a 2ltr bottle with water and lay it on its side near the offending patch.
doesnt look like good garden design but works for some reason.

NZCol, thanks for rubbing it in that your currently enjoying summer, itll soon be over 😉

What advantages do raised beds give?

Raised beds are so much easier to work on. You can kneel around the edges and not break your back, easier to manage a rotation system. Fruit and veg is easier to gather too imo. It all looks neater.

In our last house we had a veggie plot. It was harder to hoe the weeds out and I kept walking on things. Being a bit clumsy too doesn't help.

Although you can bury normal grass, don't bury couch grass (the stuff with the thicker long white roots) as this does not die when buried.

i made these out of some old decking last year and was suprised how much we got out of them, only took a couple of hour, since the pic i've screwed some 1×2 about 2ft long round the sides and put some plastic mesh hooked on the 1×2 like a fence to keep the cats (we have 3) out wich seems to work and some pea netting over the top to keep birds away
works a treat 😀

netted it like this, not pretty but no cats or birds
the nets are just hooked on small screws left with the heads out a bit so take seconds to remove

If you build raised beds from timber line the inside with polythene, it helps to stop them drying out so fast.

Yep good advice to line it with polythene. Pea straw is um straw that comes in a bale – I think any srtraw will do though. Ours has produced chilli peppers courgette cucumber peas by the bucket load and is now being prepped for the winter veg. And yeah end of daylight savings so dark at 6.30 cold and windy – looking forward to my 2 months in the European summer