With lawn reduction growing in popularity , email groups are lively with discussions of how to hit the material . There are basicallyfour choices – dig , using a sod - pinnace , smothering and spray with herbicide . I’ve remove a far morsel of greensward over the age , always using that first one – great utilisation , and it ’s tight enough for this impatient gardener . ( Who can expect for smothering and chemical decomposition reaction ? )
In that article on the Fine Gardening site , I find this baksheesh : “ Once the sod is gone , look for and destroy potential pests , such as the larva of May / June beetles . ” Curious , because all I found in my latest sod - removal project were these magnificent earthworms deep in the greensward , much too ensconced in it to only be judder off . So each clunk had to be turn over and shaken , then left for a while to give the louse fourth dimension to escape . Imagining their fate at the mulch - make adeptness where I was assume all the sod forced me to slow the sin down to give them a opportunity . Earthworm - killing is n’t my estimation of fun , and anyway , I want them here in this raw garden ; they ’re my best doer .
Fine Gardening go on to mention the near stuff that can be tossed away in the turf - remotion project .
One drawback to sod remotion is the substantial loss of organic stuff , which greatly contributes to the health of plant . It must be restore as compost , as cured manure , or in some other form . normally , surface soil must also be put back . Some of it may be shake up out of the sodomist that was removed , but you will probably need more .
Agreed , and constitutional mulch will help a slew but by shaking off as much filth as possible and rescuing rafts if not hundreds of earthworms , this new garden is off to a just startle . Sure , I ’m bringing skunk seed to the control surface and I ’ll be doing heap of weed this first season , but by next twelvemonth the evergreen groundcover ( Sedum sarmentosum on the sunny side and and variegated Liriope on the funny side ) will have get across most of the island and weeding should be snap . Anyway , I relish a bit of weeding .
Before and After
So here ’s a couple of views of a little fence between the parking mint and a big lawn in my 10 - townhouse tourist court , where a neighbor had contributed two trees and three shrubs some years ago , but there was no one to incline it . ( The salutary news being that the plant have demonstrated their ability to outlast total negligence . )
Ten 24-hour interval later , voila ! See how much work an obsessed gardener can carry out ? I haul 3 CRV - load of pot and sod to the compost dumpsite , tear down the class a minute , add perennial and groundcovers donate by neighbour , and in the end hauled in 3 CRV - load of mulch and put the island to seam for the time of year . Loved every instant of it .
Like the lastneighborhood make - over I showed off here , this one cost nothing .
I ’ll seek to keep from add together more plant to it until the fall , but I ’m not making any promises . My gardening patience has test to be limited .
