Less Lawn

I smothered another patch of lawn this summer, as shown in the picture, and can’t wait to plant it with natives later this fall! Our family lived in Tucson, Arizona in the early 1970s and then my mom returned in the 1990s to be with my grandparents. Over twenty years I witnessed the shift in Tucson away from green grass lawns to xeriscaping – landscaping with native cacti, plants and stone to decrease water consumption. I hope the drought this summer will inspire more folks in the mid-Atlantic to decrease their lawns and install native plantings or lawn alternatives. Over the past year I have been replacing more of my lawn, working on expanding the borders of my existing gardens or planted areas. The two methods I have used are solarizing and smothering. For solarizing, I put plastic sheeting over a full sun patch of lawn to kill the grass. For smothering, I cut the grass as short as possible then layer it with cardboard and 6-10 inches of mulch or woodchips. When its this hot and dry put the sun to good use getting rid of some lawn!