More Than One Way to Skin a Lawn
I have been on a summer speaking tour …. OK, three talks here in Sioux Falls really isn’t a tour but I have been talking to people. We talked about replacing lawns with native plants. I didn’t even have to use my toxic turf grass rant — people were ready to ditch the grass and plant natives. We talked about variations of solarizing and using cardboard to smother grass. I also tried to clear up confusion on a couple of terms I have heard recently.
“Rewilding” is a word used to describe abandoning a turf grass lawn. I appreciate the desire to get rid of a toxic lawn but I warned people that native plants are not likely to start growing in yards that are rewilded. There probably aren’t any native seeds left in the soil. All you will get is a bigger stand of weeds. Therefore, you will need to reintroduce native plants to your yard. But, beware of using “wildflower” seed mixes. A wildflower is not necessarily a native plant — it is just a flower that grows wild. Dandelions pop up wherever they want so they are the biggest wildflower. Wildflower seed mixes may contain unwanted weeds — I know this from experience. A number of years ago before I knew much about native plants I planted a wildflower mix. One of the flowers in the mix was called Morning Glory. That turned out to be field bindweed which is on South Dakota’s top 10 noxious weed list. I’m still pulling the annoying vines in my yard after many years. So be careful and get native plants from places that specialize in native plants.
But, the big topic of discussion was how to get rid of the grass. Solarizing with plastic seems to provide the best kill of grass and weeds but it takes several months to work. There also were questions about how well it worked in shady areas. It will work in shade but it probably won’t get hot enough to kill weed seeds. Basically, the plastic smothers the grass.
Then the discussion turned to using cardboard to smother the grass. I have used this method a couple of times. In June of 2022 myself and a couple of volunteers planted a small native garden at Bronze Age foundry in Sioux Falls. We put down cardboard and wood mulch about a week before we planted the garden. Then during the monthly art market at the foundry we planted the garden using a tray of 38 native plants. We wet the cardboard when we put it down and it rained prior to the planting so the cardboard was starting to decompose when we planted. We just scooped the bark aside and dug a small hole through the cardboard and stuck a plant in. Kids painted the name of plants on rocks that went in the garden along with a few castings from the foundry. We had fun and created a native planting in a short period of time. The garden is doing well after a year. So cardboard with live plants is a good method but it is more expensive than using seed.
Is using cardboard and mulch with seeds an option? Maybe. I haven’t used this method but it is worth a try. You could put down cardboard and use two to three inches of mulch (wood chips, hay or straw) to hold it down so it doesn’t blow all over the neighborhood. Planting seeds directly on the mulch may work but I recommend putting down clean compost first. The compost will gives the seeds something to sprout in and will provide nutrients. Native seed suppliers often recommend using compost if you use solarization. Soils can be so depleted from years of growing turf grass that there aren’t enough nutrients for natives to get going. This method could be used in the summer with seeds that don’t need over-winter stratification or in the fall with seeds that do need stratification.
I look forward to hearing from people who are trying various versions of cardboard and mulch to see what works. I wish I had used the cardboard method last fall when I planted the other boulevard at my house. I didn’t solarize because the boulevard is shady and it was August when I started so I didn’t think there was enough time to make it work. I scraped off the grass and dug out European Bellflower roots. The problem was the weed seeds in the soil. First, pennycrest came up in abundance. Pennycrest is a non-native used in floral displays but my friend who is a florist couldn’t use them so I pulled them up. Now there is a lot of joint grass and something else. I am keeping it mowed as recommended. I see some plants that look like rudbeckia and coneflowers and grass. With luck it will be native grass. If I had used cardboard and seeded over it maybe I would have a better stand of natives. Live and learn. Below is a picture of the boulevard in question. The tall grass in the foreground is a holdover from the previous planting attempt.
The picture at the beginning of the article shows the sign that came with a pollinator garden kit from the city and the local conservation district. I salvaged several plants from my earliest attempt at planting native plants and just scraped the grass and weeds off the rest of the area. Then I broadcast the seeds from the kit over the area and kept it watered. A few shoots are coming up — will they be weeds or natives? In the foreground, golden alexanders are in bloom.
This photo shows the lush plants that came up on the north side of the house where previously there were only ferns. My daughter thought the tall ones were weeds so I took a picture and used a plant identification tool to find out what they are. Both sites I used said it is Rudbeckia trifola or brown eyed Susans — native plants. If that is correct, there should be a big splash of yellow here in July and August.
Here is the original micro-prairie getting ready to bloom in July. The milkweed plants are in bloom and we found a Monarch caterpillar on one of them. Monarchs are now on the endangered species list so it is nice to give them helping hand.
Finally, here is the rose that the rabbits chewed on during the winter. I trimmed off the girdled branches and the bush seems to be doing fine. It seems right at home among the native grasses.
Pretty soon the micro-prairie will be in full bloom — it will be showtime! If you are thinking about ditching the grass for a micro-prairie to enjoy all the blooms, just do it! There is still time for plants to get established before fall. And, there is more than one way to skin a lawn — solarize, scrape or mulch. When I started planting natives I didn’t know that much about it but I learned on the fly. You can too.
Keep doing what you can to build a strong community and to save the butterflies. Peace.
