White Grubs...in garden?

[Mushroom Man]

On I just started turning my lawn over to prepare it for my new raised bed gardens. As I'm turning the soil I'm noticing a huge amount of white grubs. To my understanding this is a lawn problem. But will this affect my new garden?

[Karen]

Interestingly, I have just found them even in my previous raised beds! I made 2 beds 2 yrs ago and filled them with compost, peat and vermiculite. They were over existing grass but I put down landscape fabric first. Grass still invaded here and there, of course. This year I've replaced those 2 beds (rotten wood) with one larger one and in the course of doing so, shoveled out all the soil into containers to put back. I found a LOT of grubs, which I was not expecting. Probably just as many as when I've dug up grass to plant a tree or something, same number per sq ft estimated. Since I was moving the soil anyway I took the time to squish every single one of them before forking the soil back into the new bed. I have no idea if they would harm anything besides grass but also moles will tunnel extensively to eat grubs and you probably don't want them in your garden. You can buy nematodes to spray on the area to kill the grubs I think.

Karen in Md

[Mushroom Man]

Thats it Karen....nematodes!
I'm going to purchase enough for the whole yard and see how it goes.

Good luck to you....and your garden.