Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Sod busting – turning lawn into landscape
Audio PlayerMore and more, a trend is to break up your lawn and fill it with native plants. There are a ton of reasons and I’ve discussed many of them on Garden Bite!
But how should you tackle getting rid of that lawn? The most brutal method is a shovel and your back!
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It’s also the best way in terms of cutting up that sod and removing all offending lawn grass. However, you’ll lose soil this way too. The pro – once done, it’s ready to plant. The con – it’s a lot of work.
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Next up, solarize the area and burn the grass up. I don’t mean literally. It takes time as the sun cooks the lawn grass and weeds. Lay two thick layers of plastic on top of the area, secure it and wait… 6 to 12 weeks. Once those plants are dead, they don’t need to be removed, they’ll decompose. You can amend the soil and start gardening. This is the least back-breaking method.
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Another easy method is smothering your lawn but that’s best to do in late Summer or Fall. This takes about 6 months… throw old carpet or several layers of newspaper or cardboard down over the area and wait till next spring! Wetting it down helps hold it.
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The lasagna method also takes a long time.
The other method is to build a raised bed. That’s what my vegetable garden is. It must be at least 8 inches deep.
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There are ways to fill it. In my area we have a local yardwaste site where the City also composts and there is a soil hill. It’s also filled with weeds by mid Summer. You can buy bulk soil from reputable nurseries too. Take a whiff of the soil, it should smell like earth, not sour.
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