Post Carbon London (Ontario)

Hi Dan,

What is the limitation with the sheet mulch on the additional 600 sq ft? Why not sheet mulch the whole thing?

Using newspaper can be a hassle. Here's my solution. I went to the local farm supply place and got a roll of tobacco baling paper-- essentially, it is heavyweight brown kraft paper. Super cheap at about 20 dollars for a 50 lb roll.

Just unroll the paper over your area-- a single sheet works fine. Don't wet it, just wait for the snow or rain to do that for you. I put rocks and branches around the edges to hold it down, but once it's wet, it stays put.

Cover the paper with a layer of compost, bark mulch, wood shaving, sawdust, grass clippings or any other organic matter you can get your hands on. Even if you don't have enough for thick layer, don't worry. The point is just to hold the paper in place while it kills the grass.

This method does not produce a nutrient-compost-rich bed like the lasagna method does, but it is fast and cheap. Papering the grass gives you the organic matter and N of the decomposed grass and whatever "topping" you use. For vegetables you'll want a richer soil.

To soup-up the soil, scatter some amendments on the area before you paper it. Options are: dolomitic lime or carbonatite; seaweed meal, soy meal, alfalfa pellets, hardwood ashes, worm castings. If you are planning to turn or rototill the area in the spring you can use rock phosphate, but don't bother with this if you're just going to let it sit on the surface-- P doesn't "travel" in the soil.

Of course, if you have the money to buy these amendments, you may want to buy a load of compost and use that to cover the paper.

A note on rototilling: don't do it if you have bindweed. You will multiply your problem a thousandfold. Millionfold.

If you're worried about complaining neighbours, do look at some of the "decorative" vegetables and herbs out there: asparagus, climbing malabar spinach, "bright lights" chard, bronze fennel, red-veined dock, beautiful dark-leaved lettuces; scarlet runner beans; nasturtiums. Basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and many other herbs make terrific rock garden plants.

I concur that rototilling won't kill the grass. I've never used a rototiller, but I've hand-turned beds and even TWO passes with a spade sometimes won't do it. Grass is very persistent!

Instead of removing grass by hand, you could try a mechanical sod- remover. Not all the rent-all places will have them, but you can check around. Basically, it slices off the top couple of inches of sod, leaving some root mass but no green. You will have the benefit of the root OM with no regrowth.

The problem of removing sod and getting a crop in the same year is a bit tricky. You can start the grass-killing process during the first warm spell in February, but it won't start to decompose until the soil warms up in the spring and the microherd perks up again. Your soil may not be ready to feed a vegetable crop this summer, but you can help things along by using compost tea and organic water-based fertilizers such as fish and/or seaweed emulsion.

Don't heed the old warnings about compacting wet soil-- you're just walking on it, not driving a tractor on it. But if you're really worried about compaction, plan your pathways at the outset and use boards on top of the grass as temporary pathways.

Good luck! (and don't hurt your back!)

- Bev

Last summer I removed about 200 sq ft of lawn. Basically I just used a shovel to dig down about 4 inches and tore the lawn up in strips about 6" x 18". Then put them in pile that I eventually managed to shove into my 2 composters. It took about 3-4 weeks before the composters were able to swallow the lot. It was a bit of work and you have to do it when the ground is nice and wet. Of course the more lawn you do the bigger your compost pile.

Of course the gardens were lower because of the topsoil removed. I planted anyway just added all the compost I had at the time and this summer of course I'll get it all back in spades. This method is the blood seat & tear approach but it wasn't that hard really. Just do it over a few weeks a little bit each day. I also tried to double dig the gardens as best I could.

The grass comming back was not a problem at all. However I got lots of vegetables growing from the seeds that survived in the compost. I'm trying to figure out this problem. Some I kept & others I just keep weeding.