Hi everyone, first-time poster here. I have a large vegetable garden that I love so much. It is my happy place. It is located in the middle of an organic orchard, which is aa gorgeous as it sounds. But as a result I have a constant, never-ending struggle with orchard grass of various sorts creeping into my garden along the edges. Crab grass, sticky grass, catmint, bluebells, you name it. It's been a decades-long battle and as I am well into my middle years, I can't see myself spending hours on my knees pulling up tentacles for many more springs. The perimeter of the garden is close to 140ft and it's just too much, year after year.
I've tried various strategies: mulch, flame, brick perimeter, leaving it, deep edge cutting, weed whacking / mowing. It always encroaches into my in-ground beds around the entire approx 33ft x 35ft perimeter. I'm ready to throw some real muscle and some money at it, and I'm considering putting in some raised beds along the perimeter of the whole garden.
My reasoning is that a tall enough bed with lots of cardboard at the bottom should keep the rhizomes at bay for a few years before it needs to be refreshed / de-weeded. I could also happily weed-whack right up against the metal bed wall without damaging my vegetables. It also provides a visual / psychological barrier for me so I can get my Gandalf on with the grass: this far, no further.
My questions for this community are whether this is a bonkers idea and a huge waste of money, and if not, which of these two options would be better.
Option A) 2ft wide raised beds butting up against the deer fence. Narrow so I can reach across from interior side only. Mow and weed whack up to the fence on the orchard side.
Option B) leave a 2 ft (ish) wide walkway between the deer fence and new raised beds. This could be cardboard and mulch or a living walkway that will give me less grief. It would probably be hard to establish a mulch or green walkway and keep the orchard grass out, which has been my struggle the whole time. Have a wider raised bed (3 or 4 ft) as I can access from both sides.
In either case, the centre of the garden would remain in-ground beds as they are now. (Or until I get too old and want raised beds everywhere.)
I appreciate any advice. I know this will be expensive, but I'm ready for it. Thank you all in advance.