Replace Grass with Garden Beds
Many homeowners, not just loyal gardeners, are discovering the benefits of replacing lawn grass with vegetable gardens, garden beds, or shrub/flower island mixed planting areas. Integrate planting areas in the lawn to make the landscape more aesthetic, and provide space for planting healthy food or practicing beneficial flower gardening hobbies. Then there are the simple benefits of reducing lawn care chores. The less lawn grass in the landscape, the less you need to mow/weed/fertilize. In fact, one of the fastest growing trends in residential landscaping is to replace lawn with no grass substitutes.
However, to add planting areas to your landscape, you need to deal with the lawn grass that currently forms the lawn. Turfgrass species are cultivated to be tenacious and spread. Unless you find a way to remove these grasses, they will certainly appear in your newly established planting bed, where they will lead to endless fighting to remove them.
There are several ways to remove or kill grass to make room for garden planting areas. Some of these methods are quite simple, but they require patience and time. Others are very fast, but they need a strong back and plenty of energy. No matter which method you use, you will eventually get less lawn and more gardening space.
Whichever method you use, a good first step is to mow as low as possible in the area you want to remove. It will speed up and make the process easier.
However, to add planting areas to your landscape, you need to deal with the lawn grass that currently forms the lawn. Turf grass species are cultivated to be tenacious and spread. Unless you find a way to remove these grasses, they will certainly appear in your newly established planting bed, where they will lead to endless fighting to remove them.
There are several ways to remove or kill grass to make room for garden planting areas. Some of these methods are quite simple, but they require patience and time. Others are very fast, but they need a strong back and plenty of energy. No matter which method you use, you will eventually get less lawn and more gardening space.
Whichever method you use, a good first step is to mow as low as possible in the area you want to remove. It will speed up and make the process easier.
How do you do it?
Use garden hoses, ropes, or stakes to outline the garden area. Start with thorough watering to soften the planned garden area. Use a half moon edge grinder or a sharp shovel to cut the turf at the edge of the new planting bed. Use a shovel to cut the area into a series of narrow strips.
Once you've outlined the edges and stripes, it's time to dig. There are many tools to remove turf, but a sharp shovel or shovel will do. It is a good idea to try to remove as little soil as possible, so keep the shovel at a low angle to get roots while leaving most of the soil. Throw the turf into carts or other containers while walking; You can compost it or use it to repair other areas of the lawn.
Advantage
Once done, it is done. You have a bed ready for planting. It requires very little planning, so if you are an impulsive type, this method will work for you.
Shortcoming
This is a lot of manual work. On the other hand, the day you make a garden bed, you don't need to go to the gym. If you have back or joint problems, you may want to leave the job to someone else.
Sun grass
This is a method that requires a little patience and planning, but if you have many weed problems in the existing lawn, this may be the way to go. Sunlight is a method of killing grass (or other plants) by focusing the heat of the sun through plastic sheets.
How do you do it?
Sunlight requires you to cover the area of the planned garden with one or two layers of plastic, and leave it in place for 6 to 12 weeks until the heat of the sun bakes and kills all living plants under the plastic. Sealing the edges of the plastic will help retain heat and speed up the process. If you have particularly tenacious weeds (such as cayenne grass), a longer sunshine period (up to six months) will kill these weeds and lawn grass.
Once the grass is dead, pull up the plastic, modify the soil, and then garden. There is no need to remove the dead grass, as it will simply decompose and add nutrients to the garden soil.
Advantage
Sunlight will surely kill the lawn grass and any annoying weeds you are fighting against. This method requires little physical labor.
Shortcoming
Patience is required, as this process may take six weeks to six months, depending on the amount of sunshine and the severity of weeds in the area.
Asphyxiated lawn
This is another very simple way to start a new bed. It involves rejecting grass air until it naturally dies. However, like most simple methods, it takes quite a long time - up to six months. Almost any material can be used for choking weeds - old newspapers, large carpets and cardboard are common choices.
How do you do it?
Once you know the size and shape of the bed, collect your materials to suffocate the lawn, and then simply put them on the grass. This is best done in late summer or autumn, so the grass will die in winter. The next spring, you can improve the soil and start planting. There is no reason to remove dead grass here - once it dies, it will rot and become a source of nutrition for the garden area.
Advantage
Little work is required. We have done a good job of killing grass.
Shortcoming
This method looks shabby and unattractive in the landscape because the grass is choked. A good solution is to cover your choking material with autumn leaves or bark mulch. When you are ready to plant, you can pull the cover back.
Melaleuca horticulture
The Millennium Garden built in autumn will provide you with ready made garden beds in spring. This method can suffocate the grass below, even if it creates a garden bed with good nutrient soil. As the name implies, the thousand layer gardening uses a technology to place organic material layers in the garden area, which creates a perfect growth medium as the layers decompose.
How do you do it?
After outlining the garden area, first paint a thick layer of cardboard or newspaper on the grass. This will form the asphyxiant layer used to kill the turf. On top of this, several layers of organic material are coated on the cardboard. Common organic materials you can use include: 1
Compost ready
Swarf
Leaf
Fruit and vegetable residues
Coffee grounds
Tea and tea bag
Decomposing faeces
Seaweed
Shredded paper or spam
Pine needle
Flowers and decorations in the garden
Advantage
This is a very simple method. The resulting garden soil will be a perfect garden growth medium, fluffy and rich in organic matter.
Shortcoming
This method requires patience. You must plan ahead to build the bed at least six months in advance and when to plant it. If food residues are used, they may attract insects and animal pests. Organic materials decomposed in the open air sometimes stink.
Construction of raised bed
If you know your soil is not very good (high clay or very sandy, acidic pH, etc.), then raised beds are great. The method includes simply building a raised structure with wood, stone or other materials, and then filling it with high-quality garden soil, compost and compost fertilizer. Instant garden.
How do you do it?
After outlining the garden area, build an 8-inch or higher structure around the garden. If the bed is 8 inches or deeper, you don't even need to really worry about choking the grass below, because it will die by itself. But if you want, just lay down a few layers of newspaper before filling the bed.
Fill the elevated bed with a high-quality black garden soil mixture purchased from the landscape supplier and mix well with organic improvers such as compost or peat moss. Then you can garden.
Advantage
This is a simple, quick way to garden right away. Because you are creating your own soil, you can create a garden with ideal growth characteristics.
Shortcoming
The purchase of materials and garden soils and amendments requires additional costs.
Use of herbicides
It's not for everyone, but you plan to kill the grass in the garden area with the right herbicide. Herbicides commonly used for lawn weeds do not kill leafy plants as grass does, so you need a broad-spectrum vegetation killer. 2. In addition, many vegetation killers will leave traces in the soil, so it is better to use glyphosate herbicides (Nongda, etc.). Once exposed to some soil enzymes, they will lose their activity
It is this characteristic that contributes to glyphosate's reputation as a relatively safe chemical, although it does not mean that it is harmless to humans.
Warning: glyphosate is a controversial herbicide. Once considered quite harmless and safe, recent studies have shown that it may have the same carcinogenic properties as other more notorious lawn chemicals.
Although most college gardeners do not think glyphosate is dangerous, homeowners committed to organic gardening practices will want to use other ways to kill grass.
How do you do it?
In windless days, glyphosate based broad-spectrum herbicide is applied to the planned garden area with a spray. Be sure to carefully limit the spray to the grass area you want to kill, as this herbicide will kill any plant material it comes in contact with. Once the grass becomes brown and brittle (it may take about a week), it will die, and you can add corrections to the area and dig them. It is not necessary to remove dead grass - just dig it with any amendments and additional soil added. The withered grass will naturally decompose and add nutrients to the soil.
Advantage
Glyphosate herbicide is a very fast and thorough weed killing method.
Shortcoming
All herbicides are controversial, and their use has been strongly criticized by organic gardeners. Glyphosate may be safer than some other herbicides, but it is still a chemical and must be used very carefully, if any.