Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Sod busting – turning lawn into landscape
More 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
