My way of coping lately has been to focus on what I have control over (note my Ridin With Biden sign in the bottom photo). Some days I just unplug and do something in my own little corner of the world.
I’ve been working within the climate change/solutions community for several decades. There came a time when I felt I was just screaming into the wind and needed to take a break. But I did what could within my own life: plug-in hybrid car, electric yard tools, high-efficiency appliances, heating system, and whole house fan that have more than returned their investment. Now, it’s time to kill my lawn. I’ve wanted to do it for quite a while.
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It began innocently enough with laying out an outline of what might be nice and a promise I’d think about it for a while. Two weeks later, phase 1 is complete.
This was the beginning, outlining with bricks to see how I’d lay out the new yard
My goal was to create an excellent soil base to replace what is now pretty much cement hard clay. The previous owners used a chemical lawn service for at least a decade, that left the soil depleted and hard as a rock. Over the past four years, I’ve been amending it with compost, manure and aeration. A record drought this summer proved that none of those measures were enough to reinvigorate the lawn and the soil was still like granite.
I had several choices: use chemicals to kill (just no), or a bobcat to scrape, the grass and bring in a large amount of good soil and replant the grass, or add sod, or xeriscape. I was definitely leaning towards creating an area of low-water native plantings. But the cost of scraping a lawn and bringing in yards and yards of compost/soil was cost-prohibitive.
Then a bit of research led me to the Sheeting Method. Better soil would be achieved by killing the grass and weeds with a sealed layer of cardboard and mulch. Leaving an excellent base for native plants and bushes to replace the grass.
The next step was a hunt for cardboard.
Thanks to neighborhood apps, I was able to relieve multiple neighbors of their cardboard just before recycling day, so it was already flattened. They didn’t have to drive it to the recycling center, and I got several carloads of boxes.
I hired a landscaper who was more than happy to learn more about the Sheeting Method and then I started laying cardboard a few days before he arrived.
Several things I learned as I went – clear tape is compostable but takes a long time. Removing it was easy, and research told me that any leftover would float to the top of the soil as the cardboard decomposed. So I didn’t sweat the small pieces. Chewy, Amazon and Walmart boxes were my favorite. They didn’t use clear tape or external packing slips.
Also, working with wet cardboard is much easier than dry. Boxes have to be torn into even pieces, so the end flaps don’t leave gaps. Wet cardboard tears easily at the seams and leaves clean edges. Then pieces are layered and overlapped in a way so that no grass or weeds can escape through any seams. I used brown paper – paper bags, packing material – and small pieces of cardboard around existing plantings. In the end, not a blade of grass showed through.
Then the fun began. My landscaper planted my new tree and delivered a heap ton of mulch. It was taller than me when it was unloaded. We had some fun with Jurassic Park and Great Dane jokes. The landscaping crew did a beautiful job, ensuring everything was well-covered to avoid any grass or weeds showing up.
Eventually, there will be a few that find their way, because “life finds a way,” but it should be easy to tackle them before they become a problem.
The phase one results are beautiful.
Now I’m playing around with paving stones, rocks and plants for placement. I won’t be able to plant anything new until spring. Don’t want to pierce the weed barrier prematurely.
At least now, the neighbors can stop wondering why I was watering cardboard for a week.
If you’re wondering why I left an area of grass, there are two reasons. The first being, that’s a plum tree, and I was not going to try and pick plums out of mulch every summer when I could just mow them into the lawn with my (electric) mower. Second, I’m still looking at selling my house in the near future, and grass is still desirable as a selling point.
Stay tuned for phase 2 – the plantings…
x-posted at LivingLightlyTV.com
Open thread
germy
I haven’t touched a lawnmower in ten years and I’m proud as hell of it.
I spent 25 years living in an exurb with a large lawn. And republican neighbors on riding mowers.
I never did the riding mower thing, but I walked with one once a week for 25 years.
Now we live in a different place. First thing we did was get rid of the lawn.
Ground cover, perennials, and mulch paths. Lots of flowers and vegetables.
germy
Ruckus
On my walks around the area (when it’s cool enough to walk) I notice a lot of yards that have no grass and a few more being installed. What it usually takes is someone going first and then it grows from there. A lot of people really don’t like mowing the lawn.
Another Scott
Neat. Thanks for this.
I believe our own Satby has talked about the wonders of cardboard as well a few times – https://balloon-juice.com/2020/04/26/sunday-morning-garden-chat-7/#comment-7685394
I’m starting my every decade or so cutting back of the jungle around our house. I had thought that the pandemic would make finding time for yard work easier, but it hasn’t worked out that way so far. I’m understanding my dad’s comment after he retired (“I need to get a part-time job so that I have some free time.”) more and more, and I’m not retired yet…
Looking forward to the updates. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
I have come to the conclusion that previous owners always do irritating things that are expensive to reverse.
namekarB
@germy: Love carpenter jokes. You could also ask him to explain the 3-4-5 method of squaring a corner. (Pythagorean Theorem for you geometry freaks)
Bill Arnold
My lawn is whatever survives mowing, with a mulching mower, as infrequently as I can get away way, which is about 4 times per year now.
The yard is about 11 years old. It was an old orchard/vineyard area, so the topsoil has very small amounts of arsenic from a pesticide of choice of the early 20th century, so the builder was required to “remediate”. Which meant putting the top soil into big piles, then spreading it back out after real estate closing. (Raised beds for vegetables.)
The soil was lousy (very well drained though), but 10 years of mulcher-mower mowing (and rock removal) has created a little topsoil. Slowly though.
The flower beds, on the other hand, get a layer of wood chip mulch every year or two, and those have decayed over time to nice soil. So whatever you do, mulch, best with large delivered amounts. (Also tree crews will often dump a load of wood chips if you ask nicely.)
OzarkHillbilly
You know, garden threads are on Sunday mornings. Git with the program woman.
namekarB
Or as Dagwood Bumstead says “Thank goodness I have a job to go to everyday. A fellow could work himself to death around the house.”
Ken
@Ohio Mom: “And this is the perennial garden, where we have a mix of bamboo, morning glory, and trumpet vine grouped around the ailanthus.”
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Speaking as a carpenter, there is no way one bevel cuts a jack rafter onto a door header. One bevel cuts jack rafters into hip or valley rafters.
Jus’ sayin’…
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s a trick question. Jesus would know.
Nutmeg again (formerly MoxieM)
Exciting!! I have too much lawn, not enough money and a way too lousy back to tackle a project this big–however: My place (been here a year) has a lovely but dilapidated garden bed at the foot of the yard. It’s too much for me to manage, even with just perennials, with my rotted back & knees, but I hope to do something with it. So, oddly enough I too have been using boxes, and mulch. Not as much luck finding anyone to help me spread the damn mulch–I had already bought bagged (big mistake). I start every summer with eyes bigger than my vertebrae can handle. But I’ve laid down boxes all across the back of the 6 to 12 foot wide bed, and am slowly opening the bags of mulch (nice lawn mower guy moved the bags for me). I hope to have the mulch out before it snows. At any rate, I won’t have so many weeds next year. Really wanted to xeriscape, but it’s just beyond me.
I live in the land of riding mowers, and even my electric mower astonishes the neighbors. Very funny, since I moved down from the Tofu Curtain, aka Hamp, aka Northampton MA, where an electric mower is high energy consumption vs a push mower. I’m sure there are some folks who scythe.
Cheryl Rofer
No lawn since I moved to Santa Fe. My yard is simply not suited for it. Would have to remove the trees and truck in a whole bunch of soil, since Santa Fe formation is caliche, sand, and rocks. So most of the yard is on its own, but I supplement it with interesting dryland plants. I always wanted an agave and planted one when I moved in. It’s doing well, and I hope it will bloom soon.
Sab
I put a lawn in in the side yard last year to replace the poison ivy infested weed patch. Jackals suggested it. I used cardboard boxes to kill the weeds, and the results this year have been miraculous. Neighborhood liquor store is a great source for cardboard.
The rest of my yard that isn’t perennial beds is whatever is flat and green, whether it is grass or not. Being in Ohio, I don’t water at all (except for the infant lawn last year.)
Searcher
@Another Scott: I miss my 90 minute train commute. I had so much time.
Mike in Oly
I did this at our first home back int he early oughts. We wanted to garden and had zero use for the small tortured lawn we were left with. Put down cardboard and added 10 inches of fresh garden mix compost (mushroom compost/topsoil mix) and then just planted away. Never had a problem with anything coming up from the cardboard and inside of a year or so it had all composted away itself. Worked great and my garden was gorgeous for years before we sold and moved to the country. Have fun designing your plantings!
Falling Diphthong
I recall a book I read some years back about the history of lawns, and at one point the writer observed that the people she’d interviewed at the front of the no-lawn movement all had bits of grass still. Because for small children or dogs running around, you can’t beat an expanse of flat grass–and they either had kids or dogs, or regularly saw friends who did. So keeping the bit of grass makes sense to me.
jnfr
Really nice work on the yard, TaMara.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you Jesus!!!!
ant
we have a fair amount of lawn that we converted to planting areas by just putting down wood chips over the grass. I’m sure cardboard would not have hurt anything, but, whatever.
Anyway, we’ve found that the soil acquires an ‘appetite’ for wood chips, digesting them faster and faster over the years. Worm populations play a roll no doubt. Weeds have no problem at all germinating in the beds, so fresh chips have to be added every year.
I don’t think it’s any less work than grass. Your mileage may vary as they say. Wood chips will decompose faster with more rainfall.
hotshoe
Congrats on the lovely and successful yard.
I do agree about picking the plums out of the mulch … good decision!
J R in WV
I haven’t touched a lawn mower since 1994, when we moved up the narrow hollow from the old farm house, into the woods where we built the new house. Weed whacker, chain saw, blower, but no mowing whatsoever!!
My dad had a huge lawn and loved walking behind his mower — until I was old enough to do it for him. Downhill was OK, uphill was exhausting. Plus the grass and weed sap was horrible, my nose ran for a couple of days every time I mowed the “lawn”. The my brother got old enough to do some lawn work — OH NO, he’s allergic! Snot! Can’t do it!!! So I did it until I left for college.
Hate mowing. Now I mow the bottoms once a year with a really big Kubota tractor and a 60″ brush hog.
raven
I have to mow, it’s the best way to keep the kudzu at bay.
WaterGirl
@germy: Do you have pictures of what it looks like now?
NoraLenderbee
Weeds grow right through wood chips or mulch, if you put them directly on the soil. The layer of cardboard creates a barrier that weeds can’t get through. Multiple layers make a tougher barrier and last longer. Wind and birds will drop new weed seeds in the wood chips themselves, but they can be pulled up much more easily because the roots can’t penetrate the cardboard layer.
@Ken: Four o’clock flowers.
Mary G
@Cheryl Rofer: I left you this answer on Twitter, but for jackals that aren’t on there, agave grow pretty easily from seed. Yours is probably a gift from a birb’s poop.
Baud
I’m relying on weeds to kill my lawn.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mary G: Thanks! I replied to you there, but I’ll say it again. I’ve been distributing wildflower seeds over the years. I don’t know if agave is included, but that could be where it came from too.
Thanks for the pic. I am so waiting for the big one to bloom and to take many pictures, then chop it down and retrive seeds. The pic you sent probably is pretty accurate as to the seeds, but this is a New Mexico agave, Agave neomexicana.
Jess
I did this for part of my yard, and within two years the weeds grew through and took over. I guess that means that it did create good soil (although I had mulched in prior years). I just redid it, but with landscaping cloth instead of cardboard, and extended it to the rest of my (small) front yard. I chopped up the pathetic lawn years ago and have been scattering wildflower seeds ever since, but I’ve been too busy in recent years to get medieval on the weeds, and they’ve been taking over (we’re talking ragweed, here, nothing attractive). Next spring I’m going to plant Russian sage and bee balm everywhere. The wildflower meadow was great, but still takes some maintenance. I’ve learned that I’m not a gardener, sadly, even though I love gardens. Now I hire a former student to do the rough stuff, and I’ll just pop the plants in.
Jharp
Scraping it off with a bobcat is for sissies.
I used a mattock, an edger, and shovels to clear my yard of 6 inches of clay.
At age 59.
And I had a good time doing it. 1/10th of an acre. Tops.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
Will your agave die back after it blooms?
The native agave in SE AZ do that, after they put up that really tall mast with seed pods on, the plant itself dies, while acting as a “nursery” to the seeds sprouting around the late parent plant.
The “seed mast” (I dunno the real technical term) stands for at least a couple of years as a scenic marker of the late parent plant, while tiny new agaves sprout in the debris of the old plant.
Jess
@Jharp: I used an African-style hoe thingammabob, but my yard guy uses a pickax, which sounds more fun. Until you hit your foot, I suppose…
Cheryl Rofer
@J R in WV: Yes. That is the routine. The entire plant dies. My deck is just above it, so I will be looking down (or maybe across) at the flowers. Hummingbirds and other critters love them. This plant has a few pups closer in that will take over from it, but the gophers enjoy them when they’re babies, and some have been eaten.
I’ll decide how long to leave the dry stalk up when it happens. And, of course, it eventually falls by itself.
Ruckus
I like to upgrade people on the fire situation as I get news.
The Bobcat fire has grown to the north and northeast and is now at 100,000 acres. There is still fire to the south end of the burn area but it seems to be at least reasonably controlled. The growth is now endangering residential areas that 2-3 days ago it seemed like would be safe. But the area between 2-3 days ago and now is relatively wide open and little populated so it burns fast and hot.
pluky
@ant: possibly slime molds. they’re one of the few organisms that can digest lignin.
satby
Looks great and it will be much easier to maintain TaMara.
@Another Scott: yes, I’ve used layers of cardboard plus mulch a few times, even talked about doing it again this morning after I try to save what few plants I can salvage from the raised beds in my backyard. The previous owner built such a beautiful set up for gardening in them, even with irrigation; but the years the house was vacant before I bought it let weeds and small saplings take over. I’ve tried to clear it every spring and by July it’s completely out of control again, so back to the deep layers of cardboard and mulch. The soil will be so much better in just a year or two!
Denali
This year has been the absolute worst for weeds. We have never had a real lawn- just pachsandra and cottoneaster and a bed of deer-eaten hostas. But much of the area is just a weed factory. I won’t use Round Up – but I really can’t keep up with the weeds this year. Very discouraging.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
The cycle is beautiful. We see, very slowly, mature agave plants finally decide they are strong enough to put up that huge sprout, blooms appear on the pole, way up in the sky (or down the hill from you…).
Then seeds fall down into the soon to be remnants of the parent plant, where they stand a better chance of germinating and living in the Sonoran desert, then to begin that cycle all over again.
StringOnAStick
I eliminated our grass in 2005, now the tiny front yard is very low growing manzanita native to western CO. The backyard has a sandstone slope/cliff so this house is NOT for families with kids under teens in age. I learned about xeriscaping from a friend who had a landscape design business and I worked for him when geology was moribund and hiring no one. I’ll never go back to having a lawn, period. Wasting that much water for grass here in the dry West is obscene.