A homeowner and expert gardener had a vision for a strip of grass on the side of her house, and she shared how she started taking steps to bring that vision into reality.
Daryl Lindsey (@yardfarmer) posted a video on her YouTube channel, showing off the large patch of grass and describing the area as a "waste of water" and, even worse for a gardener, a "waste of wonderful southern exposure."
Instead, she exclaims: "It's gonna be garden!"
To start, Lindsey begins by laying out rolls of contractor paper, which she explains she plans to cover with mulch to smother the existing grass.
"A lot of people think the first thing they need to do to get mulch in their yard is lay down a bunch of landscape fabric," she explains, "which is not only expensive, but terrible for the environment! Sheet mulching is the way to go."
Landscape fabric is notoriously controversial. While its proclaimed purpose is to smother weeds, it's generally known among gardeners that it not only fails to do this effectively, but it also contaminates the soil with microplastics and chemicals.
That's why Lindsey goes the paper route — paper will biodegrade quickly, without leaching plastics into the area. "Much better to prevent weed breakthrough," one commenter wrote approvingly.
It's affordable, too; Lindsey shared that the paper is only $15 for 140 feet, and the woodchip mulch was entirely free from a service called ChipDrop.
And once the grass is gone, the best way to manage weeds without chemicals is to fill a yard with native plants, which naturally suppress weed growth.
An additional benefit of this approach, Lindsey explains, is that native plants "don't require sacrificing every Saturday morning to the mower." Instead, they "help transform boring, basic lawns into beautiful yards that take care of us the way we take care of them" — benefiting everything and everyone in the environment, from the smallest pollinator to the tallest tree.
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If you were to switch from a grass lawn to a more natural option, which of these factors would be your primary motivation?
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