What to do with my useless grass after I rip it all out?

Discussion in 'General chat' started by wm9863, May 27, 2009.

  1. KPagliaro

    KPagliaro Junior Member

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    Re: What to do with my useless grass after I rip it all out?

    Rather than going through all the work of ripping it out, I suggest you mow it, then put in some no-dig garden beds (which would also utilize your grass clippings).
     
  2. Gen-X

    Gen-X Junior Member

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    Re: What to do with my useless grass after I rip it all out?

    My first suggestion is focus on the move and settling in. Once you have the house in order, you'll be able to make decisions about the space around the house. Rushing (in my experience) always led to expensive mistakes. I always went back to "redo" the area once I had the time to observe what it really needed.

    My second suggestion is don't remove the grass. I know that seems bizzare, but in my experience if you remove that much of it, you're left with bare ground - perfect for weeds to thrive. Nature views exposed soil as vulnerable and that's why opportunistic weeds seems to move in overnight. There mission is to cover the ground so it doesn't lose moisture or nutrients.

    My last suggestion is to make a treaty with your existing lawn. Let it stay to cover the soil, until you get around to setting up your different zones. My husband and I work like Trojans in the garden, every spare moment we can. We love it so our labours are satisfying. But the biggest mistake we ever made was to "clear everything" at once. You waste all that energy clearing, to let weeds thrive while you amass the time and resources to put in the garden you really want. Instead of removing uniform grass section cut with a spade, you're pulling individual weeds by hand. The spade action is a lot more forgiving on your back and lot less time consuming.

    While it can be a little stifling in the creative process, not to have a blank canvas - ultimately it's kinder on the soil (and your back) if you can manage stages of removal instead. On our 5 acres, we started with the whole grass removal tactic, only to realise the best way is to "disturb" the grass with a mattock, plant, then mulch heavily. For larger areas, we'd plan in advance - mowing the grass really short every week. That way when we came back over it with the mattock at planting time, it was mostly roots.
     

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