20/04/2026
Less Lawn ❌️ ... More Garden ✅️ ... 😁
After dumping some well used soil from our potato harvest, I've laid cardboard straight on top of the grass, followed by a whole lot of bark mulch! 💃
Q. But won't that nasty Couch Grass just come through⁉️
A. No, not in my experience. I've done MANY meters² like this over the years (probably about 400m² 😂)
🌿 Some areas I did an incredibly thorough removal of the turf, spending days on end getting every last bit of root that could grow, then topping with thick mulch ...🥵
🌿 Other areas I literally just put cardboard down and topped with thick mulch ...😎
THE LONG TERM RESULT WAS EXACTLY THE SAME!!! ☆ No Grass ✅️ ☆
~ so learn from my wasted effort, save yourself some time and sweat, and let the cardboard/mulch do the work for you 😂
🤎 The mulch MUST be thick - minimum 6 inches, ideally 12 inches.. **you can later remove some mulch for use elsewhere once the garden has settled & the grass has rotted and given up, 24 months is very safe for this.
🤎 Cardboard must be laid in such a way that no sunlight can pe*****te (be sure to remove any plastic tape, staples etc.)
💚 Couch Grass is aggressive BUT it is also lazy ;)
🌱 To plant into this area soon, I will move the bark to the side, place the plant and surround it with soil/compost, then put the bark back in place. The roots will eventually work their way through the cardboard into the earth, in the meantime, that same cardboard will hold water for the plants while they establish 👌
❌️ As soon as you break that cardboard barrier you risk the grass coming through.
✅️ After about 12-18 months, it should be safe to dig further down if needed provided you re-mulch after planting - though I won't need to in this case because my plan is for shallow rooted pretty things + maybe a few alpine strawberry plants 🥰
The wooden slabs are temporary, holding everything in place while it settles and stopping the chickens from spreading my hard work all over the lawn & undoing everything 🫠😂 (I've also put rocks and potted plants all over this for now to stop their pesky scratching 🐔)
Eventually rocks will be my edging 🪨 ... but I'm thinking this garden can come out another foot or so too 😏
I also had some tiny crushed rocks not good for much else, so I've put them along directly under the fence to help with drainage to preserve the fence itself + stop the chooks digging out, or the dogs digging in (the animals have more or less free-range, but I still don't want them digging up my garden!)
I think that's about it.. 🤔
As always, any questions are welcome! 🥰
🌻🍄 ~ 𝓔𝓵𝓵𝓪 ~ 🍄🌻
Want to see more of what I'm up to?
🄼🅈 ☆ 🅈🄾🅄🅃🅄🄱🄴 ☆ 🄷🄴🅁🄴: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_yyBRzv3JmMz8OZbrlnedg?sub_confirmation=1
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