No-Till Method; Grass to Garden

You’ve made it this far; we don’t need to spend time convincing you of all the wonderful benefits of nature-friendly plants over boring, non-beneficial lawn grass. Installing a new garden bed can be intimidating! The method outlined below is easy, affordable, and guaranteed effective in smothering out lawn and preparing a blank canvas for your new plants.

Preparation & the nitty gritty

Determine the perimeter and overall shape of your new garden. Using a garden hose is great for helping to form the shape and build in visually pleasing, rounded edges.

Purchase enough wood mulch to cover the garden area to a depth of 2-3”. There are several mulch calculators online to help figure out the amount needed; most will even break the results down into the number of 2 cubic foot bags or 3 cubic foot bags needed.

Mow the grass inside the perimeter very short, using the lowest setting on your mower that will cut the grass without disturbing the soil.

You will need any of the following for this next step: cardboard with tape/labels removed, newspaper (2-3 layers thick), or any type of brown paper - cut open yard waste bags, brown rolls of kraft paper or landscaper rolls of heavy paper. The main thing is, not ‘glossy" paper or any material that is laminated, shiny, or plastic-y.

Spread the paper/cardboard over the mowed area, working in sections from one side to the other and wetting the material after you lay it down. If using newspaper, use at least 2-3 layers. A single layer of brown paper or cardboard is sufficient. Since newspaper comes in smaller sheets, it can be wetted a couple different ways – stack the sheets of newspaper together, then dip them in a large tub of water and lay over the ground, OR lay the dry paper on the ground and mist with a hose immediately.

Spread wood mulch on top of the wet newspaper as you progress; as the newspaper dries really quickly it will shift or blow away and undo all your hard work.

Avoid walking on the mulch and wet newspaper after they have been placed; otherwise the newspaper will tear and fail to choke out the grass beneath it. After 1-2 weeks, the remaining grass will have smashed down underneath the weight of the mulch and it won’t be as easy to tear your paper/cardboard if you do walk on it.

Final watering, conquering those pesky edges

Once the paper and mulch are in place, give the mulched area another liberal dose of water.

A 6-12” wide strip of landscape fabric can be laid down to help form a smooth edge for the bed, as well as give defined curves and straight lines.

If using landscape fabric for defining edges, lay the paper  and mulch on top of the strip of fabric. When the grass beneath has died and you are planting, simply pull the fabric out from under the mulch to leave a clean “edge” of soil beneath.

waiting: the easiest, hardest part

This method can produce a prepared garden area in as few as 60 days, but requires the mulched area to stay constantly wet to break down the grass and newspaper below it. If using the “speed” method, to help aid the decomposition of the grass and paper, sprinkle nitrogen-rich blood meal over the wet newspaper before mulching.

For best results with least amount of effort, put down your newspaper and mulch in the new garden area in the fall and simply let it rest over the winter.

Still want some help?

Call us over for a Coaching Session and we can bring you ALL the ideas and advice on execution of this process on your own property!