So you’ve made up your mind-all that useless, polluting, time- and money-consuming grass has to go, to be replaced by something more interesting. But just how do you go about it?
Mary Jamieson of Western Springs, who replaced her front lawn with creeping thyme surrounded by flower beds, simply grabbed a shovel and started cutting away, removing small amounts of grass over a long period until it was all gone.
For quicker removal, though, there are four basic methods: using a power sod cutter to scrape off the turf; tilling up the soil with a machine such as a Rototiller; using an herbicide and smothering the grass with plastic or newspaper. Ron Nowicki, landscape architect with The Land Office in Downers Grove, has tried them all and thinks sod-cutting is the best.
A professional is likely to charge between $600 and $800 to strip the lawn from a 75-by-75-foot yard with a sod cutter, according to Adam Tecza of Tecza Environmental Group in Elgin, though he said costs will vary with individual circumstances. For the same yard, he estimated professionals would charge between $300 and $500 to apply a herbicide and $800 to $1,000 to Rototill-the most expensive option, because it involves grading afterwards.
Sounds steep? With varying amounts of effort, you use these same methods yourself.
Sod-cutting: Nowicki prefers sod-cutting because it “allows for easy land-form design changes.” That is, you can turn the sod upside down to make mounds and raised beds, or place it against the foundation of your house to channel away water. Renting a sod-cutter will cost $80 to $100 a day. Compost anything that’s left.
Nowicki terms sod-cutting “not too difficult-you can get the hang of it after two hours.” Two warnings, though: The sod is heavy to haul around, and the work will likely take most of a weekend.
Rototilling: You can rototill any time you can work the soil, says Nowicki, but it’s the slowest method of removing grass. The reason is that disturbing the soil encourages inactive seeds to germinate, so you will want to wait between tillings to see how many weeds come up and then till again. You may need to till two or three times to eradicate lawn grass. A plus for tilling is that you can work in soil amendments while you’re doing it. Tiller rental runs $80 to $100 a day.
Herbicide: The chemical glyphosphate, sold under the trade name Roundup, is considered a “safe” herbicide because it doesn’t move through the soil like other herbicides and is broken down quickly . It does, however, kill everything it touches, so use caution if you’re applying it near some prized plants. You may need two applications for this to work-or more, if you have thistles. A gallon of ready-to-use Roundup, enough to cover 300 square feet, costs about $10 at home centers.
Smothering: This is a do-it-yourself method. To successfully smother lawn with sheets of black plastic the grass must be actively growing, so plan this for spring or fall. Weigh down the plastic, leave it in place for six weeks or until the grass is dead and then remove it. A 10-by-100-foot roll of 4 mil plastic costs around $20.
Smothering with newspaper can be done any time, but Nowicki cautions that you must only use the black-and-white parts, since colored paper contains toxins. Lay down the paper, 10 sheets thick, on a windless day and cover with mulch. You will not remove the paper but leave it to decompose. If you wish, you may cut holes in the paper and start planting from Day One.
Topsoil warning: Don’t bring in a truckload of excavated topsoil to spread on top of your now grassless yard, or you are likely to end up with more weeds than you started out with. Instead, cover the excavated soil with 2 inches of sterile mushroom compost to shade out the weed seeds. A 1.5 cubic foot bag-which will cover about 9 square feet- costs about $3.50.
If you are planting shrubs, you could cover the soil with wood chips instead. But don’t use the chips around herbaceous plants, because the wood will rob the plants of nitrogen as it decomposes.
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Next week: Neighbors who transformed their parkways from lawn to lush.
