I hear that! This time, I even used handfulls of wet leaves I plopped down in the corners where the cardboard didn't quite cover.
I managed to complete the intended shape, using every scrap:
Covering this area with enough stuff is also a challenge. The place I might order a load of topsoil from has a minimum delivery of 4 yards. I don't have any place to put 4 yards of stuff and though eventually I could use it, immediately I would barely need 2 for this project. Too bad! So I am buying bags of stuff.
Yesterday I spread (sortof) six bags of topsoil (2cu. ft. each) around. This morning I spread 3 cu ft alfalfa pellets, similar amount of bagged steer manure, a few quarts of Milorganite, and some greensand, and then a light layer of straw over all that. Light because I ran out! This was three bales of straw total on this area.
Design-wise, this isn't really solving the problem, it's just providing me a more or less gracefully shaped bed in which to plant a lot more stuff than there is room for now. I have yet to resolve how to tie the gardens into the lawn/non garden space. You can see from the second picture how small this section looks from the opposite side of the yard. It's a big expanse.
I'm also not yet sure how much my cousin/housemate, whose house and yard this is, is willing to let me remake the space back there. There has to be a lot of room left for gatherings because she does use the yard that way from time to time. So I am pondering all this. I also have extremely limited funds for stuff.... and my usual way to solve things is just to make it up as I go along. So far, so good.
