Re: Converting from grass to something else

[SugarChile]

Yep, that'll work just fine. Use 5-6 layers of newsprint, and overlap it well. Keep a hose handy to water it down and prevent it from blowing away as you work, and do it in sections, adding mulch as you go. The grass will decompose fairly quickly in the summer heat; it you mulch it now, it should be ready for fall planting.

Cheers, Sue [e-mail] Zone 6, Southcentral PA

To covert a grass bank to other ground cover plant I have heard that > you can mow the lawn short, lay newspaper over the area and mulch it. > This is opposed to using something like Round Up to kill the grass. IS > this an accepted method and if so how long before you can plant the > zone?

[JNJ]

Yup -- I just did this with a 30'x10' section of my front yard a week or two ago. Worked like a charm. For the main part, I put down about one full section of newspaper (6-8 individual pages) then covered that with around 4 inches of mulch (ended up being one bag of mulch for about every 8 square feet). Let it sit for approximately a month to really give it time to die, carefully turn the mulch every week or so, and you should be good to go.

As someone else mentioned, you'll want to do this in sections and preferably on a day when there is not much wind. :) I had newspaper flying everywhere on me -- halfway into the project, a summer rainstorm hit us outta nowhere and THAT was fun.

James

[V_coerulea]

Depends on where you live and what grass you're talking about. If you're in the south, I doubt the paper method will take care of bermuda, bahia, johnson or even zoysia grasses as these can form long and/or powerful stolons and growth tips. I've even seen them come up through asphalt. I've seen bahia survive 2 shots of roundup and being turned 8" under. It might take care of centipede, fescue and some of the other milder perennial grasses like bluegrass. Quackgrass and nutsedge are 2 more I doubt the paper will hit hard enough to kill. I'd use roundup and cover with black plastic for a week or two if I wanted a scortched-earth effect. Plant a couple of days after removing the plastic. Gary

[GaryM]

"SugarChile" wrote in news:KwiRa.57785$ [e-mail]:

Thanks for all of the replies. I have all of this week's Wall St Journals and 5 yards of mulch in my future today.

:)

Gary