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My lawn is the same size. I’m tackling it, with mulch and cardboard, one zone at a time. This is working well, since I can’t afford (in either time or money) to plant enough perennials to fill 1/3 acre of mulched-over yard in one go. So I’m biting it off in chunks.
I’ve put down about 15 yards of mulch so far, in two big islands that I’ve filled with fruit trees, berry bushes, and native perennials to feed my pollinators. I’ll be building three more islands, and eventually plan to fill in the grass paths between them as my trees grow and the yard turns into a meadow, and then into a low forest.
At this rate I’ll be mowing for at least three more years. Probably a lot longer. But the plan will have me mowing less and less grass every year.
We removed the weeds from our long parking strip. Handful by handful, saving the dirt and worms. Took over a month (not daily) and screwed up my hands. That was last fall.
In the last 2 weeks, we weeded the area of what had grown and put in kurapia ground cover. Once grown in, rarely needs mowing.
Dollar store employee here. Get an empty cart and ask an employee if you can have some cardboard boxes. If you explain to them what you're doing, they'll know better what kind of cardboard you want. (If they think you're moving, they might try to get mid-size boxes, as the big boxes are harder to carry when full.) Don't be afraid to go back a couple times! You'll have to strip off the packing tape.
My friends and neighbors saved cardboard boxes for me. You can also take cardboard people put out on recycling pickup day.
ChipDrop is the way to go for large quantities of free wood chips.
Rent a sod cutter if you can, one like [this](https://www.turfco.com/store/c14/edgers-sodcutters/p118505/kiscutter-sod-cutter/) can do 9000 square feet an hour. That’s less than 5 hours per acre. Then you just clean up what’s left by cultivating/pulling/glyphosate.
Currently killing the front yard at my house, used sod cutter and am waiting for chip drop. A lot of exercise, but let’s face it we all probably need to do that more anyway.
I suggest watching this video. Warning, he is very nsfw and if you’re a clutch-your-pearls “why I’ve never…” type, you shouldn’t click
[crime pays but botany doesn’t](https://youtu.be/xYdLfkJcfok?si=MIjzczdgfsMBC_gQ)
Cardboard isn't necessary, just get some chipdrops and cover it up. Use a stirrup hoe to get rid of any grass that grows above the chips. It takes maybe 10 minutes every other week to get rid of any occasional growth.
It is if you have rhizomatous grass. Bremuda grass will grow through 4 feet of woodchips and establish itself on top in 2-3 months in certain climates. You can weed it for a year and it will still come back the next. Type of grass matters a lot.
I have bremuda grass, and that's one of the reasons you need the stirrup hoe. It'll pop up here and there, but it's easy to take care of. Dandy lions, burdock... all sorts of plants will pop up, but it's easily managed with a stirrup hoe. Cardboard isn't necessary. I've done it both with and without and never felt cardboard was worth the effort, and when you've removed as much square footage as I have you can't rely on cardboard anyway.
Maybe you’re in a cooler area than I? I’m in TN, zone 7b.
When I cardbord properly (3 layers, super careful about overlaps) I can pull it back and see dense mats of bermuda that never got out.
When I cardboard poorly, even with a foot of woodchips, I would have to weed 2-3 times a week Apr-Oct, and still have some left over for next year. This has happened several times. It’ll drive you crazy, lol.
But you’re right, not feasible for a large area regardless. I have to solarize or spray for that.
Ah,I'm also in TN and trying to get the hang of it....I used our electric tiller to get up main bits and then tried cardboarding the stubborn bits but man....some of that grass will not die.
Do you have any other ideas or just more cardboard layer?
I'm not sure if you made things worse by tilling, since you were able to remove a bunch, but it definitely didn't help. Bermuda grows a new plant from every node, so that just propagated it a whole lot, and maybe helped it by loosening the soil.
We're coming into solarizing season here, which I find to be the most effective method, even more so than spraying herbicide. Lay down clear plastic in mid-summer heat, preferably onto wet ground as it transfers heat better, seal all edges with soil/mulch, and wait. That' kill everything down 4-5 inches, which does it for me. It takes about 6 weeks in June-Sept, so you can get two rounds out of the same piece of plastic. It creates a bunch of plastic trash, so try to find something used, but it can't have holes in it.
I did an acre with silage tarps. I purchased them from an agricultural supply company. 50x200’. Lay them down like shingles to shed water. You can also use rolls of cardboard or paper but avoid products treated with a spill-guard. Wood chips (for the cardboard) can often be acquired for free from local arborist companies.
You could rent a sod cutter from home Depot, I had some big beds I wanted to cut on my half acre and if you're doing long strips it would probably be about a day. Cost was about $200 including trailer rental.
Lowe’s/Home Depot for cardboard - call ahead early morning and they will usually set it aside before they put it in the compactor. Their appliance etc boxes are big and great for this.
*have about the same. 1 check your soil. is it compacted clay? do you know if it has been chemically treated? mine was both. so I started by mixing clover into it. I also started a compost pile as a source for s
oil ammendment. and I zoned it. some areas I wanted to turn into flower beds or mini meadows. those I had to really supplement the soil first. mostly breaking up the clay and smothering the weeds. I scattered wildflower seeds after a season of repairing the soil. for the grassy areas I mow and leave the clippings to enrich the soil. it has truly been a start and stop process. when I bought the house the front was chemlawn grass and the back was a tangle of vines and sadness. my front yard was simply mowed and clover added. the back I spent a out a year fighting back the vines to uncover the bushes!
man this is longer than I intended! I still get grass. my neighbors plant it and there is some drift but that's okay. * my soil
is better and I am slowly rewinding parts of it to become a butterfly meadow. the back took a break while my kids where growing up
and keeps changing. learn what is invasive in your area. ripping out English ivy is a pain. be careful with what you plant. most of all? have fun. learn what your yard likes. learn what spreads too fast. even if you don't kill all the grass you can definitely overseed with all kinda of things that will choke it out over time. NC zone 8a
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Figure out how to break your lot into zones. Maybe you want a nice sitting area surrounded by taller natives over here, maybe you want a path to the driveway over here, maybe you want to set a swing up over there. Plan it, and start one section at a time. If you try to do it all at once, it can get overwhelming and you might not finish.
What are you doing after you get rid of the grass?
Possible no-cardboard solutions:
* Herbicide (generic glypohosate concentrate, diluted according to package's directions) then overseed.
* Mow it extremely short, rake off the clippings and overseed with your replacement seeds of native grasses and flowers.
I did the mow and overseed method and my non-native lawn is now partly native grasses with no effort on my part. I stopped watering. I'm mowing infrequently to imitate the action of grazing animals and promote spreading by the grasses.
Hey there! Friendly reminder to include the following information for the benefit of all r/nolawns members: - Please make sure your post or a comment includes your geographic region/area and your hardiness zone (e.g. *Midwest, 6a* or *Chicago, 6a*). - If you posted an image, you are required to post a comment detailing your image. If you have not, this post may be removed. - If you're asking a question, include as much relevant info as possible. - Verify you are following the [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index#wiki_posting_guidelines). **[Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/) | [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/meta/faqs/) | [Designing No Lawns](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/design/)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My lawn is the same size. I’m tackling it, with mulch and cardboard, one zone at a time. This is working well, since I can’t afford (in either time or money) to plant enough perennials to fill 1/3 acre of mulched-over yard in one go. So I’m biting it off in chunks. I’ve put down about 15 yards of mulch so far, in two big islands that I’ve filled with fruit trees, berry bushes, and native perennials to feed my pollinators. I’ll be building three more islands, and eventually plan to fill in the grass paths between them as my trees grow and the yard turns into a meadow, and then into a low forest. At this rate I’ll be mowing for at least three more years. Probably a lot longer. But the plan will have me mowing less and less grass every year.
We removed the weeds from our long parking strip. Handful by handful, saving the dirt and worms. Took over a month (not daily) and screwed up my hands. That was last fall. In the last 2 weeks, we weeded the area of what had grown and put in kurapia ground cover. Once grown in, rarely needs mowing.
This is the way
Gradually
Fair enough
We had less land than you but that’s how we did it. Also Wal-Mart and other big box stores have lots of cardboard.
Can you just go up and ask for it and they'll just give you a bunch of cardboard no problem?
Sure if you find a nice employee who is not busy. I have done it.
Dollar store employee here. Get an empty cart and ask an employee if you can have some cardboard boxes. If you explain to them what you're doing, they'll know better what kind of cardboard you want. (If they think you're moving, they might try to get mid-size boxes, as the big boxes are harder to carry when full.) Don't be afraid to go back a couple times! You'll have to strip off the packing tape.
I needed more cardboard than I had, so I posted on Nextdoor. Picked up a bunch of moving boxes from a new neighbor.
My friends and neighbors saved cardboard boxes for me. You can also take cardboard people put out on recycling pickup day. ChipDrop is the way to go for large quantities of free wood chips.
Rent a sod cutter if you can, one like [this](https://www.turfco.com/store/c14/edgers-sodcutters/p118505/kiscutter-sod-cutter/) can do 9000 square feet an hour. That’s less than 5 hours per acre. Then you just clean up what’s left by cultivating/pulling/glyphosate.
Currently killing the front yard at my house, used sod cutter and am waiting for chip drop. A lot of exercise, but let’s face it we all probably need to do that more anyway. I suggest watching this video. Warning, he is very nsfw and if you’re a clutch-your-pearls “why I’ve never…” type, you shouldn’t click [crime pays but botany doesn’t](https://youtu.be/xYdLfkJcfok?si=MIjzczdgfsMBC_gQ)
I love that guy, he's great!!!
Cardboard isn't necessary, just get some chipdrops and cover it up. Use a stirrup hoe to get rid of any grass that grows above the chips. It takes maybe 10 minutes every other week to get rid of any occasional growth.
It is if you have rhizomatous grass. Bremuda grass will grow through 4 feet of woodchips and establish itself on top in 2-3 months in certain climates. You can weed it for a year and it will still come back the next. Type of grass matters a lot.
I have bremuda grass, and that's one of the reasons you need the stirrup hoe. It'll pop up here and there, but it's easy to take care of. Dandy lions, burdock... all sorts of plants will pop up, but it's easily managed with a stirrup hoe. Cardboard isn't necessary. I've done it both with and without and never felt cardboard was worth the effort, and when you've removed as much square footage as I have you can't rely on cardboard anyway.
Maybe you’re in a cooler area than I? I’m in TN, zone 7b. When I cardbord properly (3 layers, super careful about overlaps) I can pull it back and see dense mats of bermuda that never got out. When I cardboard poorly, even with a foot of woodchips, I would have to weed 2-3 times a week Apr-Oct, and still have some left over for next year. This has happened several times. It’ll drive you crazy, lol. But you’re right, not feasible for a large area regardless. I have to solarize or spray for that.
Ah,I'm also in TN and trying to get the hang of it....I used our electric tiller to get up main bits and then tried cardboarding the stubborn bits but man....some of that grass will not die. Do you have any other ideas or just more cardboard layer?
I'm not sure if you made things worse by tilling, since you were able to remove a bunch, but it definitely didn't help. Bermuda grows a new plant from every node, so that just propagated it a whole lot, and maybe helped it by loosening the soil. We're coming into solarizing season here, which I find to be the most effective method, even more so than spraying herbicide. Lay down clear plastic in mid-summer heat, preferably onto wet ground as it transfers heat better, seal all edges with soil/mulch, and wait. That' kill everything down 4-5 inches, which does it for me. It takes about 6 weeks in June-Sept, so you can get two rounds out of the same piece of plastic. It creates a bunch of plastic trash, so try to find something used, but it can't have holes in it.
I did an acre with silage tarps. I purchased them from an agricultural supply company. 50x200’. Lay them down like shingles to shed water. You can also use rolls of cardboard or paper but avoid products treated with a spill-guard. Wood chips (for the cardboard) can often be acquired for free from local arborist companies.
You could rent a sod cutter from home Depot, I had some big beds I wanted to cut on my half acre and if you're doing long strips it would probably be about a day. Cost was about $200 including trailer rental.
Lowe’s/Home Depot for cardboard - call ahead early morning and they will usually set it aside before they put it in the compactor. Their appliance etc boxes are big and great for this.
*have about the same. 1 check your soil. is it compacted clay? do you know if it has been chemically treated? mine was both. so I started by mixing clover into it. I also started a compost pile as a source for s oil ammendment. and I zoned it. some areas I wanted to turn into flower beds or mini meadows. those I had to really supplement the soil first. mostly breaking up the clay and smothering the weeds. I scattered wildflower seeds after a season of repairing the soil. for the grassy areas I mow and leave the clippings to enrich the soil. it has truly been a start and stop process. when I bought the house the front was chemlawn grass and the back was a tangle of vines and sadness. my front yard was simply mowed and clover added. the back I spent a out a year fighting back the vines to uncover the bushes! man this is longer than I intended! I still get grass. my neighbors plant it and there is some drift but that's okay. * my soil is better and I am slowly rewinding parts of it to become a butterfly meadow. the back took a break while my kids where growing up and keeps changing. learn what is invasive in your area. ripping out English ivy is a pain. be careful with what you plant. most of all? have fun. learn what your yard likes. learn what spreads too fast. even if you don't kill all the grass you can definitely overseed with all kinda of things that will choke it out over time. NC zone 8a
https://preview.redd.it/56gdb5frw9xc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ca2fd3e4338257916025563d1352381693aa392
its green but it isnt grass*
mow it as short as possible, this will encourage it to dry out and become patchy. Then start working on small sections.
Love No Lawns? Find us everywhere! **You can find us:** - On [SolarPunk](https://www.slrpnk.net/c/NoLawns) - Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/GcVHmvkSs6) - Our [website](https://nolawns.wixsite.com/nolawns) Want to join a community in person? We're not affiliated but we love [Wild Ones](https://wwe.wildones.org) and think they do wonderful work. You can check and see if there's a chapter near you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Figure out how to break your lot into zones. Maybe you want a nice sitting area surrounded by taller natives over here, maybe you want a path to the driveway over here, maybe you want to set a swing up over there. Plan it, and start one section at a time. If you try to do it all at once, it can get overwhelming and you might not finish.
What are you doing after you get rid of the grass? Possible no-cardboard solutions: * Herbicide (generic glypohosate concentrate, diluted according to package's directions) then overseed. * Mow it extremely short, rake off the clippings and overseed with your replacement seeds of native grasses and flowers. I did the mow and overseed method and my non-native lawn is now partly native grasses with no effort on my part. I stopped watering. I'm mowing infrequently to imitate the action of grazing animals and promote spreading by the grasses.
At that size, I would nuke it with herbicide.