Lawn to garden

Compostmania

Good evening

We are having some garden landscaping done to put in a new sloping path and a patio. This will leave us with a couple of small areas of turf each about 10 sq metres. We would like to turn these areas into flower beds.

My plan was to ask the contractor to skim off the turf with his digger and then dig over the soil underneath by hand digging or rotavator, but wondered if this was the best way of doing it? I know I can cover the area with cardboard and mulch and wait for nature to do its stuff, but we're impatient to get the new beds established.

Thanks for any advice you can offer. 

AnniD

To be honest, if you've got a bloke with a digger to hand, l'd take full advantage 
You can stack the turves grass side down in a corner and eventually they will rot down in to lovely loamy stuff.

StephenSouthwest

If it were mine, I'd cover with cardboard then compost and manure and plant straight into it.

 I wouldn't get rid of the turf

Busy-Lizzie

I would do as @AnniD has suggested. I have used cardboard and compost and I've removed turf manually, but if a man with a digger had been there I would have used him.

JennyJ

I would get the digger man to skim it off too, and stack it to make loam that can later go back on the beds or be mixed with bought compost for container plants, to give it more body. You can do the cardboard-and-compost to plant through on top of what's left if it's not too compacted to dig planting holes, or fork it over first to loosen it up.