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We just did a couple of inches. Its true the cardboard composts down, but with the layer on top I think it lasts a bit longer. Either that or our dry summers might keep our carboard from breaking down quite so fast. Whatever the case, it works real good for me. Two years later still only weeding the very edges of it!
I am sure climate makes a big difference. I can see where hot and dry weather would make the cardboard last longer. We typically get a good amount of rain and I think that breaks down the cardboard much faster.
At that time, I only needed one season out of the cardboard. I just covered it with grass clippings as mulch and in the fall just tilled everything (that was left) into the soil. I was happy to do that because my native lakeshore soil is mostly sand and nothing much grew well in it. But now I have converted almost all my gardening into the pallet wood raised beds I have been posting.
If you have poor native soil like I do, you can spend years trying to improve it. Or you can invest in good quality topsoil and compost (chicken run compost) and grow food from year one. The only way I could afford that option was to make raised beds, fill them with hügelkultur wood, and just top of the raised garden beds with the topsoil I had to purchase.
I have no idea where the statement "dirt cheap" comes from. If you have to buy quality topsoil, it's "dirt expensive." But it was worth it to me. I was spending too much time trying to improve my native soil and getting very poor results from the plants. When I built the raised beds and used good quality soil and compost, I had yields easily 3X-4X at the end of the growing season.
Besides, I save so much money on making my raised beds out of free pallet wood that I have no problem in buying high quality top soil to fill it.
Here we are mid-March, and we are still pulling garden fresh produce out of our freezer from last year. That is what I call a success.