“ Can You Get Rid of Your Front Lawn Without Offending the Neighbors?
It isn’t easy or fast, but it can be done. Here’s what worked for one couple.”
Excerpt
But in response to increasing inquiries from lay people, she had an idea that will come to fruition in December, when the organization kicks off a multisession online course for home gardeners called Landscaping With Nature. Taught by Mr. Weaner, it is “a condensed, simplified version of our professional intensive course,” she said, complete with its own manual. (A short segment on her D.I.Y. front-yard project will be included; she is also doing a webinarabout the yard adventure on Nov. 21.)
I think one thing to remember is that removing lawn isn’t an all or nothing endeavor and doesn’t have to happen all at once. I am converting much of my yard to native meadow and rain garden type habitat, but find it works well to rip the lawn out slowly just as i aquire the native plants i want to replace it with. I then just move outward from the core areas and by the time i’ve expanded out the central part has been weeded enough that it doesn’t require constant weeding any more. If you do it all at once the weeding gets really overwhelming or you have to overuse mulch which sometimes seems to remove the ability of the area to support complex natural vegetation at all.
This is similar, not the same as, the strategy in the article. They did not kill the sod, but managed it so that gradually the native meadow seeds would crowd out the old sod.