Converting grass to garden? - Ask Extension
I’m interested in converting a section of our front yard grass into garden. I am hoping to do a smothering technique but I don’t want to use cardb...
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Converting grass to garden? #889857
Asked November 14, 2024, 10:34 PM EST
I’m interested in converting a section of our front yard grass into garden. I am hoping to do a smothering technique but I don’t want to use cardboard or newspaper. We have double shredded mulch and plenty of leaves and some backyard compost. Do you have recommendations on layering order and thickness to help kill the grass and return nutrients to the soil in preparation for spring planting?
Thank you!
Baltimore County Maryland
Expert Response
If you want to smother the grass, you could bury it in mulch; usually wood chips are more suitable, but shredded hardwood might work as well. How long the process will take to kill the grass (and any weeds in it) is hard to determine since not much is growing this time of year anyway; we would guess it would be ready to plant by spring, though. Smothering might be more effective regardless of the time of year if the area can be tilled to weaken or kill the grass, assuming no utilities are in the way, but with an area this small, maneuvering a tiller around might be impractical.
With wood chips, a layer around 8 inches deep tends to be effective for smothering live plants. With shredded mulch, we don't know what depth would be needed, as wood chips would likely allow more air and water to reach the soil below (important to maintain healthy soil conditions) compared to shredded mulch. You may have to experiment to see how well it works at a given depth. The alternative would be to try a biodegradable landscape paper material (like landscape fabric or weed cloth, but made from compostable kraft-like paper), and then mulch over that, mostly just to help keep the paper from weathering as quickly or blowing around in the wind. A standard roll would be way more than you'd need for this project, but you might be able to find it in smaller sizes, or keep the extra for future projects, or sell/donate it to other local gardeners.
You could use leaf mulch as a top-dressing when you're ready to plant, as you could with the compost also, but neither material would provide much benefit for smothering the turf itself, so you could keep them in reserve for planting time.
Another option, though more labor-intensive, is to strip the sod off with a shovel and either flip it over to start self-composting (using mulch on top just so the exposed soil doesn't erode or support weeds) or put it elsewhere to compost while you mulch the exposed area with either shredded bark or leaf litter. The finished compost can then be used as a top-dressing for the new planting bed, though the bark or leaf litter mulch used will also turn into compost over time.
Miri
With wood chips, a layer around 8 inches deep tends to be effective for smothering live plants. With shredded mulch, we don't know what depth would be needed, as wood chips would likely allow more air and water to reach the soil below (important to maintain healthy soil conditions) compared to shredded mulch. You may have to experiment to see how well it works at a given depth. The alternative would be to try a biodegradable landscape paper material (like landscape fabric or weed cloth, but made from compostable kraft-like paper), and then mulch over that, mostly just to help keep the paper from weathering as quickly or blowing around in the wind. A standard roll would be way more than you'd need for this project, but you might be able to find it in smaller sizes, or keep the extra for future projects, or sell/donate it to other local gardeners.
You could use leaf mulch as a top-dressing when you're ready to plant, as you could with the compost also, but neither material would provide much benefit for smothering the turf itself, so you could keep them in reserve for planting time.
Another option, though more labor-intensive, is to strip the sod off with a shovel and either flip it over to start self-composting (using mulch on top just so the exposed soil doesn't erode or support weeds) or put it elsewhere to compost while you mulch the exposed area with either shredded bark or leaf litter. The finished compost can then be used as a top-dressing for the new planting bed, though the bark or leaf litter mulch used will also turn into compost over time.
Miri
