Ways To Kill Your Grass Naturally
There are many reasons to get rid of grass in the landscape. The trick is in how to kill grass naturally without resorting to dangerous chemical preparations. The good news is that there are several natural ways to kill grass, all using items normally found in the home. Once the deed is done, you will be left with a safe, weed, and grass free zone ready for planting.
What About Weeds Are They Dormant Too
Some weeds may grow while the grass is dormant. Dandelions, for example, are perennial weeds with tap roots that reach into the soil for moisture. They can survive heat and drought. The best way to keep weeds in check is to maintain a healthy lawn. If you see weeds actively growing when your lawn is dormant, pull them by hand or spot-treat with an organic herbicide .
If hot weather and drought make your grass turn brown, just remember that brown lawns are not necessarily dead lawns. Good lawn care practices and a little patience are all you need.
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What You Need For This Project
Tools
Rake it Out
Because moss has shallow roots, you may be able to get rid of it simply by raking it out. Vigourously rake your grass to ensure the moss comes out. A bit of grass might also come out, but grass has longer roots and will be able to survive a thorough raking.
Step Things up with Baking Soda
Try organic options first, with two main ones available:
Test the pH of Your Soil
Use a kit to determine the pH of your soil. Sometimes if your soil is too acidic, you may need a more alkaline soil to effectively compete with moss. Garden lime is a good tool to use in this case, as are compost and fertilizer.
Check the Moisture Content of Your Lawn
One of the strongest signs of a poor-draining lawn is water that puddles in areas and doesn’t dissipate. Poor-draining soil, such as a high clay content or high-traffic areas, can create excellent growing conditions for moss.
To combat high clay content, help it drain better by adding organic carbon, humus, compost, manure, or other organic matter.
Reduce Excessive Shade
Keep an Eye out for Other Stressors
Pesticides: The Last Resort
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Why Do I Have Patches Of Yellow Grass
Patches of dying or dormant grass alongside an otherwise healthy lawn mean that there is a problem other than weather conditions that is restricting its growth. In some cases, a sprinkler head could be broken which isnt allowing the area to be properly watered. It could also be infected with bugs that are damaging the soil and grass, which will need to be treated. Finally, it could be a result of over fertilizing a specific area or using weed killer too liberally, causing it to harm the grass as well.
Top Tips For A Healthy Lawn
A green and healthy lawn is easy to achieve with a bit of work. A little effort now will save you a lot of effort later, because healthy lawns are less vulnerable to pests, weeds, drought, and other problems.
Follow these seven tips:
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Protect Your Body Before Digging
- Wear two pairs of gloves. This is crucial. I started getting blisters fast when I was just wearing one pair of regular gardening gloves. So I looked around and found a pair of soft white cotton gloves. They fit very snugly. I started wearing them underneath my garden gloves to prevent friction, and that kept my hands from getting new blisters.
- Cover up from the sun. Make sure to wear long sleeves and long pants so you dont get fried.
- Use sunscreen or a large hat to protect your face. If youre going to wear sunscreen, I recommend one with zinc oxide. Or you can do what I do and wear mineral makeup as sunscreen.
- Wear sunglasses
- Drink water before and keep water handy. This seems like it would be obvious, but the first day I didnt take any water outside with me and didnt drink enough later. By the end of the day I was a little dehydrated and my kidney started to hurt.
How To Bring Your Lawn Back To Life In 5 Simple Steps
Does your lawn look dead and dying or filled with brown grass instead of green? Don’t give up hope quite yet. Chances are there’s still life in that “dead” lawnit’s just calling out for help. You can answer its cry and restore your lawn to lush, living beauty with all-in-one Pennington Lawn Booster and these five easy steps:
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Slice And Loosen Method
For small areas, less than 100 square feet.Slide a garden spade through the top 1-2 inches of sod and soil, parallel with the ground. Sod contains valuable topsoil and organic matter and should not be thrown out. Instead, turn it over next to the garden area to dry and kill the roots. After the sod turns completely brown it should be mixed back into the soil.
Garden spade and garden forkSlicing the sod using a garden spade
While you wait for the sod to die, spread a 2-4 inch layer of compost over the garden site. Before and after spreading the compost you can use a garden fork to loosen the subsoil. Insert the fork and rock it gently back and forth to the subsoil. This will improve the movement of air, water, roots and soil organisms through the soil. Then spread the dead sod and topsoil you removed and mix it all together. Plant and mulch the area soon after to minimize weeds.
Loosening subsoil with a garden fork
Soil testing;should be the first step when you convert a lawn to another garden purpose. This is especially important if a pH adjustment is needed.
Solarizing To Kill Your Grass
For larger areas, one of the best ways to kill unwanted grass is to cook it. Focusing the sun on areas of the sod at its highest heat level will cook the roots and effectively kill it. You can use an old window or black plastic to hone the sun and heat in on the area. The optimal time for solarization is summer when the sun is at its hottest.
Cut the grass to a short length and then cover the area with plastic or glass. Black plastic works best but you can also use clear plastic. Hold the plastic down with rocks, soil staples, boards or whatever you have handy. It can take a few weeks to a month to kill the roots completely. Then remove the covering and turn over or remove the dead sod.
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Things To Consider When Deciding If You Should Remove Your Grass Entirely Or Simply Landscape Over It:
What kind of grass do you have? If your yard is made up of classic lawn grass like fescue then simply covering it up may work out just fine. On the other hand, if your lawn is full of invasive, creeping grasses like crabgrass then you may want to think twice about leaving it in place.;
What is the desired use and design of the garden? Have you thought about whether you want to build raised garden beds, or plant directly in the ground? Clearly, if you want to create in-ground garden beds, youll need to remove the grass in that space. On the other hand, tall raised beds can be placed and filled right on top of grass especially if the bottom is lined with cardboard, landscape fabric, or other material to smother grass and weeds below.;Read more about the pros and cons of raised beds versus in-ground planting here.
What is the space height and borders like? Imagine if you covered the top of your grass with cardboard or landscape fabric, added raised beds on top, and also a nice deep layer of mulch, gravel, or other ground cover of choice. Would the added height make everything spill over the edges? If your grass that abuts a patio, driveway, pathways, or other hardscaping that is already at an equal height as the grass, adding material on top may not work well. By removing our grass, we created a nice 4 to 6-inch deep void within the borders of our yard, perfect for filling back in with gravel, fresh soil, compost, and plants.
What Is The Easiest Way To Remove Dead Grass Killed By Roundup
After you kill them with Roundup, you can remove grass and dead weeds from an entire lawn with a sod cutter, by mowing low and dethatching the lawn, or by rototilling dead grass into the top 6 inches of soil. To remove dead grass in localized areas, use a string trimmer to cut it off or soil height. Alternatively, you can dig up dead grass and root material with a shovel. These methods will work regardless of grass type, leaving you with a blank slate to repair your lawn or start anew.
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Why Replace My Lawn With A Xeriscape Garden
Here in Colorado, we live in a high desert climate where water is a hot commodity. Eighty percent of our population lives on the Eastern Slope of the Rocky Mountains while only 20% of Colorados water is actually available there. With populations expected to multiply in the Front Range in the coming years, we need to pay more attention to how we are using this invaluable resource. Removing some of your lawn and replacing it with a beautiful xeriscape garden is an easy and effective way to reduce your water use and make an impact! While you may not be willing to transform all of your yard to xeric, there is probably a portion of your lawn that you can part with. Lawn that is on steep slopes, irregularly shaped areas, narrow mowing strips, along fences, or in any other hard-to-water places are great candidates for a transformation to xeriscape.
When watered and maintained effectively, replacing your lawn with xeriscape can reduce your outdoor water use by up to 60%! On average, 50% of household water is used for landscape irrigation, so by converting even a small portion of your lawn to xeriscape, the potential water savings are HUGE!
In addition to the incredible water-saving power of lawn to xeriscape conversion, lawn replacement also offers you the following benefits:
Choosing A Good Location For Your New Garden Bed
Poor location is one of the primary reasons people fail with their new garden installs. Where you want your garden to be might not be the best location for plants to grow, so its important to think about the plants youd like to grow in your garden, and then choose the best location on your property for them.
If you already know where you want to grow your garden, get a sense for the amount of sunlight it receives. Then choose plants that will thrive in those conditions.
Before I dig in to the best way to remove grass when creating a new garden bed, its worth taking the time to explain what makes a good garden location.
Hopefully this will save you from some disappointment or frustration later on.
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Removing Old Grass For New Sod
Physically removing old grass is the fastest method to prepare the site for new sod, but it is also the most labor-intensive. You can hire someone to do this for you, or if you prefer, you can rent a sod cutter and do it yourself. Use this grass removal machine to cut the old grass into strips of sod, advises UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County. You can then roll up the strips and remove them from the site.
As an alternative, if you don’t want to rent a grass removal tool, you can use a flat shovel to cut the grass into strips and then roll them up for removal. This is equally as effective as a sod cutter but requires much more labor on your part. If you had unwanted weeds or species growing in your yard, consider applying an herbicide or solarizing the soil to kill any surviving roots and rhizomes.
Are You Ready To Transform Your Water Loving Lawn Into A Drought Resistant Landscape
Youre not alone. Many people are making the switch these days. Not only do they want to lower their water bills and conserve our dwindling water supply, but they are also rewarded with a fresh and unique new landscape filled with vibrant colors, pleasing smells, and interesting textures. Some are even lucky enough to take advantage of a lawn removal rebate .
So how do you go about actually taking all that grass out? Well, theres a few ways. The method you choose will depend on the circumstances.
Method 1: Excavation
If you want that lawn out quickly, your best bet is to use excavating machinery. You can use a tiller, bobcat, tractor, or sod cutter for this. When deciding what equipment to use, youll need to consider a few things. What type of soil do you have? If your soil is sandy, a tiller will break up the turf more easily than heavy clay soil. But if you have mesh underneath your sod, it will get bound up in the tiller blades. In this case, a sod cutter may be just the ticket. If you have a large lawn, you may want to use a bobcat or a tractor to scrape the turf off. Gather up the removed grass and compost it or take it to your nearest green waste facility.
Method 2: Solarization
Method 3: Sheet Mulching
Using the sheet mulching method to remove a lawn
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Removing The Lawn Progress To Date
The one advantage of living on a sandpit rather than heavy clay soils is that it is fairly easy to dig out grass. It isnt back-breaking work but there is a lot of it.
My superstar neighbour has given me a hand out the front and it is quite amazing how much can be removed in a day.
Currently, the front looks like this:
Im going to have another blitz at the weekend, and Im hoping it will almost all be gone when Im done.
Heres the back, with the new beginnings of my citrus grove and my raised garden beds beginning to fill up:
So that, my friends, is the extremely long answer to the question: why am I digging out my lawn. Its fairly boring work up front, but the long-term rewards will be worth it.
Now Id love to hear from you! Any more questions about lawn or lawn removal? Any experiences of removing lawn yourself both successful and unsuccessful? Any other thoughts at all? Please share in the comments below!
How Do I Get Rid Of My Lawn
Contrary to common myth, you dont have to be a landscape professional or extremely strong and muscular to successfully kill and/or remove your lawn. In fact, with a few easy steps and a little patience, anyone can do it! The following section outlines four different methods for killing and removing your grass successfully. The four recommended methods are: solarization, sheet covering , physical removal, and vinegar.
While perusing these options, be sure to ask yourself: What size is the area of grass that I want to remove? How much manual labor do I want to invest in the process? How much money do I want to spend? How quickly do I want the grass to be gone? The answers to these questions will help you select the method that is right for you.
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Putting The Work In Up
Even if I thought that mulching/solarising was a great idea, and wanted to give it a go, Id need to wait several months for the grass to die before I could plant anything in the ground. And I dont want to wait.
The sooner I can plant trees the better, and the sooner I can plant vegetables the better.
Also, I think putting in the work up-front means not playing catch-up later. I dont want to spend the next six months digging out regrowing grass especially not grass that has grown through raised garden beds and now has 1+ metre deep roots.
I expect there will still be some regrowth, but it should be a lot less than if Id just tried to plant on top.
