How to Remove Grass the EASY way? Lawn Removal with Sheet Mulching over grass

LOL...I love it, exactly how I do it...I recently had to take down a dying water oak tree that was like 2 ft from my house, it was huge, 5 ft diameter...but I'm in mulch heaven right now. This is my 2nd property I've done this to and it works great, the tree guys love me and know me on first name basis now and I've only lived here 6 months...mind you, I'm 73 and live alone, but hauling these wheelbarrows of chips all over my yard keeps me active and fit(I take lots of breaks aka naps), I did find that my housing addition from the 40's, old military housing, was prone to flooding, it was actually killing many of my plantings(they forgot to mention this when I bought the house)but adding this deep layer of mulch is saving my plantings now! And yes piling beyond the concrete edge saves alot of weeding, may not look the best, but it's temp...and I haven't started my mower since I moved in...AND the free chip program has delivered 15 trucks already...I love them...! And hopefully I'll have bananas soon...YIPPEE...!

We have been using Contractor's Paper as the first layer in place of cardboard. It has no adhesive or things to remove, comes on a roll 3' wide, and is not terribly expensive. Our property was sand and then whatever grass just grew there, so we have some pretty persistent grass that is coming up through eventually. We are getting ready to add another layer. We were going to paper again, but after listening to you, we may just skip that step. We dug out a few spots (in our FF) to put in some plants and I was so glad you addressed that and the time table with options. I'm pretty impatient! Also, I noticed that we have some Frog Fruit already growing around the yard!

If you have time in a backyard situation where people won’t be seeing it all the time one great way to smother grass is to lay a tarp on top of it for a few months or longer.

I personally have beef with bulk mulch (or anything) as I have a neighbor who chooses to have it dumped in a non dumping zone…where part of the land belongs to me and surrounding neighbors and needs to be maintained by us. And now with the insane laws changed to where you can’t report a city ordinance violation without going on the record (no longer anonymous) the piles just sit there for months. As a hill you have to work around and no city vehicles (or commercial trucks) can pass through. So my friendly note to all, if you’re going to have soil or mulch dumped, make sure you’re dumping it where it’s legal to dump and not on your neighbor’s property under any circumstance, unless they are sharing the pile willingly with you.

I recently did chip drop. It was all really nice stuff and I’m guessing it was 15-20 yards😳 it was SO much work, but in two weeks we had it spread and it was FREE;)

I live in south Florida and you have educated me so so much. I am dreaming of a garden filled with FL native plants and flowers. Without your videos I would not know where to begin and what to choose. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will be following you until you decide to stop putting contents on your channel. You are awesome😀

Wow, I didn’t know about the mulch and killing the grass. This is my first time watching your videos. I live in South Florida, I know I will learn a lot from you! I am trying to get ideas for my backyard. It’s a mess!

Thank you for the Chip drop information. I just signed up!

Ian washed and blew away everything I did in 4 years at our house. There is nothing but grey sand and weeds in our back yard. The trees mostly survived, but were blown crooked. Not sure what we’ll do, but this is a really helpful idea. 😊

Great video!!

I'm in the Florida Keys zone 11 and this has been a dry rainy season. Yes, bugs are a little crazy 🤪 but hopefully I will be able to manage them.

This makes so much sense! I had success in about a 150 sq. ft. Space with cardboard. But it was a pain. I am in Northern Michigan. It does take longer for mulch to break down here, but it's very effective, and I'd much rather have the bare mulch, than grass, even if it takes a couple of years. I've converted to natives in about 50% of my property. I can spend a lot of time actually tending vegetable and flower patches, while I'm NOT mowing the grass!

I've used the methods you describe but I have also secured tarps in areas where I want to kill grass - I leave them for several months and it works well. I can attest to the cardboard disintegrating quickly, but you can help that by not chopping up the boxes into a single layer of cardboard and just breaking down the top and bottom and laying them so you get a double layer of cardboard. I think just adding mulch really depends on the type of grass you have. For St. Augustine I'm sure a thick layer of mulch will work, though I've always done cardboard first. We have a patch of yard that we're converting now that has Bermuda grass. Mulch on top of cardboard is not working at all - and the mulch is extremely thick, at least 6 inches and more in spots. The Bermuda is snaking around and finding ways around the cardboard and up through the mulch. In the next few weeks I'm going to have to pull back the mulch and whatever cardboard is left and tear out the grass.

3 years ago put down cardboard that furniture store saved me because it's huge. No gloss cardboard. Then tree service company that we know dropped off 10 yards of woodchips which i put down in the fall over top of the cardboard at least 10 inches of it. And it sat all winter to break down. I'm in N.Y. I didn't put down any compose. Following spring only put compose in the hole where I planted the plant. Chips 3 years later because I put 10 inches of it with cold winters have not broken down much and I love it. No weeds and no grass! And what ever germinates on top because it's still wood chips is easy to pull out. Was a lot of work but where I live was so worth it.

Omg I can’t believe I can get chips for free dropped at my house, I put the order as soon as you said that.

Amazing. I live in Williston, and I’m in zone 9a.

I have a huge backyard with oak tree seedlings comed up. I mow them down. Will mulching help ged rid of that. I grown in containers raised off ground. I woulk to beable to put in a raised and something in ground. Your thoughts are so appreciated. Also can you grow sweet potatos around an oak tree?

I think I am going to grow sunshine around my garden area . Hopefully it will take ver grass areas

Such good information! Also, cardboard attracts ants like crazy in Florida.

I've been using a compost blend on my garden would like to convert to mulch. Adding mulch does it really increase the bug activity like cockroaches or not.