In terms of removing turf, my advice (based on what I've learned from other people I consider to be local experts, followed by my own experience) is as follows: 1) Mow your lawn down to the lowest possible setting. 2) Sign up for ChipDrop at https://getchipdrop.com/. This free service connects landscapers who have tons (literally) of wood chips to get rid of with gardeners who want them. It works best if you have a driveway where they can dump a massive quantity of chips. The chips may arrive unexpectedly, so be on the alert! 3) Spread the chips in a layer about 4-6 inches thick all over your mowed lawn. My understanding is that it is NOT necessary to spread cardboard or plastic or newspaper over the lawn before laying down the chips, and that in fact, it is better to just put the chips directly over the grass, because that allows air and water to percolate down into the soil. 4) Do nothing for a few months, while the grass decomposes and the chips slowly begin to decompose too. 5) Plant your native plugs directly into the chips, ideally in the fall -- as long as the bottoms of their roots are in the soil, they should be fine.
I did try the method of digging up turf grass, but it is so labor-intensive compared to this extremely easy (and free) method, that I would never dig up grass again (esp since digging up the grass then also releases all the weed seeds stored in the soil, making your gardening that much more difficult the next year). The woodchip method just takes time. It's worked really well for me. It's been about 4 years since I did this, and now my front yard is lush with native plants and has practically no grass or weeds.
Oh man. I have talked about several of the very things you discuss in this column with friends over the years. Thank you.
On lawn… I have used several approaches. None are perfect. Sheet mulching… pretty good, but give it time. I second the reader who said that yes, over time, the mulch breaks down and thins out and things spread. Grass may want to come out of your planting holes, so give it enough time (this is also where cardboard helps).
Solarization… I found solarizing with either clear or black plastic to be not great. I’m still pulling out occasional thin stands of grass a few years later. Also, solarizing doesn’t kill weeds with deep roots, like bindweed.
Scalp the grass and plant shrubs… I discovered this advice from CSU Extension in one of the more southern (drier, hotter) counties in Colorado. Basically, mow your grass super low then plant (native) shrubs and water them only at the base. It was okay-ish. I added mulch after a while.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Kristine. I also had so-so results solarization--and now that I'm trying to avoid using plastics, I wouldn't do it again. I had not heard that excellent idea re you can essentially just let turf die by selective watering in dry climates.
The excellent idea about selective watering… you could understand why you’d pair it with shrubs; you also want to shield some of the precipitation. This is the perfect year for something like this approach (we’re experiencing pretty severe drought), but you never know what you’re going to get.
Also. One of my penstemon beds was part of the solarization area. I could not keep that friggin’ lawn happy, and the penstemons get almost zero supplemental water. But I’m still pulling out occasional anemic thin sad clumps of KBG. 😂
Exactly—what I didn’t mention is that I was the second user of the plastic, and it started falling apart by the end of the summer. There’s several good Pollinator Friendly Alliance annual conference seminars re site prep on their YouTube channel. I swear that there’s someone who has used some kind of super heavy duty plastic which doesn’t break down as readily (I’ll believe it when I see it) as well as other neat reports on site prep—some kind of paperboard product, cover crops, etc… check them out. And of course you know about the 40 page guide from Xerces.
Yes. And I think I have tried them all—except wood chips:) But I’m not sure if I’ve seen the Xeroxes guide and I will check it out. I’m hoping to reduce it all to an if/then chart or at least pros and cons
Thank you for sharing this methodology! I’ve seen research on the benefits of growing woody plants in wood chips. I’m wondering about forbs spreading, something I want to encourage. Have your wildflowers and grasses spread by seeds and rhizomes in the wood chips?
Great question. Some of the more spread-y forbs have definitely spread in the chips -- like monarda fistulosa, zizia aurea, solidago rigida, rudbeckia hirta (seems to come and go), rudbeckia triloba (has popped up in unexpected places), viola striata and viola sororia (of course!), ruella humilis (very spready and lovely). Others haven't spread as much. I just looked back at my notes, and I spread the wood chips about three years ago (in May of 2023), and then I planted plugs that fall. I think probably things can start to spread more once the chips degrade more. I will say that there is one area where I spread chips but then didn't really plant (haven't decided what to do with it yet), and it's still pretty bare, though a few things have spread there. I put a bunch of mountain mint there a couple years ago and it spread like crazy (rhizomatically), and then I ripped a bunch of it out.
Just finished a major redo of our small urban borough backyard that’s “only” about 35’x95’, after ripping out most of the “non” shrubs lining both sides and adding two ovals (+/-25’x8’ each) bordering a central concrete walkway that runs straight to a shed in the back. Had an arborist who air excavated to 12” deep an area under our huge pin oak and added straight compost and wood chips for the tree roots. Last year I asked if he had compost to cover the grass clippings and leaves I piled outlining the ovals, thinking it would help prep over the winter. Apparently an arborist’s compost also includes wood chips not just the “brown” stuff. 6”+ thick worked to kill the grass but I had to scrape most of it off and spread in other beds. Planted over 350 native plugs and shrubs this year, through the chips and dead grass roots in the ovals and the chips everywhere else. The plugs don’t care, as they seem to have skipped the sleep and are full on to creep! Hyssops and Verbena already blooming. Was it the leaves and grass clippings underneath? The plants in the very chippy areas under the oak are a bit slower but also doing well. I just think no matter how you prep the natives want to grow!
I’m a novice with no idea if it going to work, but I had a bare area under my oak with grass majorly struggling to grow and few invasive (yet). I couldn’t afford 12” plugs throughout and didn’t want to leave it vulnerable to the invasives (creeping bellflower, gout weed, creeping Charlie) that eye any bare spot they can find, so I decided to just put the plugs (carexes, wild geranium, wild strawberries, black cohosh, wild ginger, a few nannyberry bushes…) that I got into the bare spots, stop mowing, let the oak leaves fall and see what happens!
One important difference between the British and Seattle climate is that Seattle is Summer-Dry. Again, British plant choices don’t work well here either. The Pacific Northwest native plants have a much better chance of surviving 2-3 months without measurable precipitation.
So Monty Don --British-- has the absolute best gardening show. It puts American gardening shows to shame. His tips and DETAILED advice is missing from American gardening shows. On grass... for small areas..I cover with thick layered cardboard for about 2 seasons. I remove it and dig out any remaining growing things ,usually violets in my yard
I then plant my plants. Lay down newspaper and cover in wood chips or mulch. When you remulch in couple of years ..lay down the newspaper again. This works good for small beds. And you build your garden and borders one bed at a time. Its a long game though
YES! "Gardening exotic plants in North America requires much more labor, knowledge, and inputs for less satisfying results." Because it's a design mismatch!
Two hundred years of Americans calling themselves bad gardeners when the actual variable was that they were trying to grow the wrong plant in the wrong place. And calling the ones that thrived there (the natives) "weeds."
I see so many failures take this exact shape: mistaking the mismatch for the person + blaming yourself for the yard. Nice piece. 💚🌿
I think it would be more accurate to say: "This perfect weather encouraged a passion for gardening that, combined with a DISREGARD of native species and a mania for exploration, led Brits to scour the world for promising plants..." in other words, they looked outwards, away from the plants that surrounded them, just as we (and our predecessors) have. There are plenty of 19th century (and earlier) herbariums and books on wildflowers that show careful botanical regard for the wildflowers, trees, and shrubs. It just didn't transfer to garden design and styles.
As for naming, personally I am opposed to the trend among some eco-writers to rename milkweed, Joe pye weed, rosinweed, etc. because of the "negative connotation" of the word weed. Common names are just lovely and fascinating! I think at first that weed meant herb or grass and was a way of making the common names more explicit, sometimes indicating its herbal use such as for goutweed (aegopodium) which, I admit is an aggressive weed in our modern sense of the word. It was also called Bishop's weed - I guess because there were a lot of gouty Bishops who liked their wine and rich food.
Thanks for your weekly reads, they are a treasure!
Note to Heather: I get it that you're very worried about microplastics and nanoplastics. My background is in research and biology. When a topic gets reported on heavily, I look into it. All that's known so far is that the bits of plastics are everywhere researchers have looked for them. It is still not known what long-term effects they may have. Of course we should minimize exposure to plastics for lots of reasons. But daily life as we know it can't happen without plastics. Minimizing ingestion is important, for known endocrine reasons.
The 4 garden areas I write about here are small, about 12 feet by 20 feet, in southern Maine. I've had good success with the following, in two locations with vastly different soil types. Of course mow first. Then I laid out cut-open contractor trash bags (tough, and do not degrade, so are reusable) covered with whatever weighty objects I have on hand -- an old door (with knobs removed), some worn-out small rugs, various pieces of lumber that I store in the garage, etc. Have never used wood chips -- it actually never occurred to me, and I have a huge fear of Jumping Worms being delivered inadvertently to our habitat. (We used bark mulch to improve the marine clay soil where we live now (when we had to have the area around the house graded to keep the water from flowing toward the foundation), and I use some every year as mulch around the perennials -- we have the contradictory conditions of soil that's soggy when wet and like cement when dry, on a very windy, south and south-west facing site, so I have put in my time hauling bark mulch in wheelbarrows, to keep the plants' root systems protected from the harshness of the site). I put the plastic and top materials down in late summer and leave it there until the spring. We use a Root Slayer shovel to remove the turf (we would have had a much harder time creating a garden space without that tool -- I highly recommend it), and then I use my Hori knife (another indispensable tool) to whack the soil off the turf clods. I still fight with Common Milkweed rhizomes and my nemesis, Quackgrass, but they're manageable if I keep after them. A White-Tail doe is our biggest problem now...
As for the question of directionality: I walk straight west and straight back. My left-handed husband walks around our narrow loop (around the house) both clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on his mood (our loop is narrow because when we bought this decrepit fixer-upper 9 years ago, we stopped mowing, except for paths. It's amazing what's come up in this former hay field. Plenty of invasives, but also Northern Willow Herb, Selfheal, abundant Goldenrods and Asters, Bedstraw, Cancer Root, Dewberry, Black Raspberry, Elderberry, etc., etc.).
I agree with so much of what you say, from don’t get crazy about plastics to root slayer and hori knife to the miracle of just letting grass grow. And fear of jumping worms is exactly why I don’t like the chips approach. However, I question the bark mulch… You may disagree, but here’s my article on mulch, with a quote and link to a scientific paper: https://www.designyourwild.com/
Interesting article, especially the comment on different types of racing. Here's another from my own experience:
Watch how in the circus, the trainer guides the elephant or horse in a small counter-clockwise circle before exiting the ring. The circuit is always done in a counter-clockwise direction, so it would be wrong for the animal to turn right to leave - this way the animal goes straight out of the ring.
I am currently in the process of making several new beds in my yard and am using the sheet mulching method of cardboard topped with a thick layer of wood chips. This is my third time using Chip Drop and it really has worked well for me. If I don't put the cardboard down first, the grass will eventually grow through the chips. I have a lot of Bermuda grass that is extremely difficult to completely eradicate. In the past. I dug out the grass but that is just too labor intensive for me!
Thanks, Amy. I imagine the difference between your experience and Amanda's is the species of turf grass. The turf species used in the North are easier to kill:)
Sorry to intrude, I'm a lefty here and go counter clockwise- I too think my decision is based on how my yard is laid out. But there are times that I purposefully walk in the opposite direction to mix it up and see it with fresh eyes!
Not left handed. I think it is partly how the yard is, both in terrain and where the most interesting things are. Plus, as a kid, I always wanted to go the opposite of the normal way in the skating rink and I think the rebellion solidified into a habit.
I love this blog so much!
In terms of removing turf, my advice (based on what I've learned from other people I consider to be local experts, followed by my own experience) is as follows: 1) Mow your lawn down to the lowest possible setting. 2) Sign up for ChipDrop at https://getchipdrop.com/. This free service connects landscapers who have tons (literally) of wood chips to get rid of with gardeners who want them. It works best if you have a driveway where they can dump a massive quantity of chips. The chips may arrive unexpectedly, so be on the alert! 3) Spread the chips in a layer about 4-6 inches thick all over your mowed lawn. My understanding is that it is NOT necessary to spread cardboard or plastic or newspaper over the lawn before laying down the chips, and that in fact, it is better to just put the chips directly over the grass, because that allows air and water to percolate down into the soil. 4) Do nothing for a few months, while the grass decomposes and the chips slowly begin to decompose too. 5) Plant your native plugs directly into the chips, ideally in the fall -- as long as the bottoms of their roots are in the soil, they should be fine.
I did try the method of digging up turf grass, but it is so labor-intensive compared to this extremely easy (and free) method, that I would never dig up grass again (esp since digging up the grass then also releases all the weed seeds stored in the soil, making your gardening that much more difficult the next year). The woodchip method just takes time. It's worked really well for me. It's been about 4 years since I did this, and now my front yard is lush with native plants and has practically no grass or weeds.
Oh man. I have talked about several of the very things you discuss in this column with friends over the years. Thank you.
On lawn… I have used several approaches. None are perfect. Sheet mulching… pretty good, but give it time. I second the reader who said that yes, over time, the mulch breaks down and thins out and things spread. Grass may want to come out of your planting holes, so give it enough time (this is also where cardboard helps).
Solarization… I found solarizing with either clear or black plastic to be not great. I’m still pulling out occasional thin stands of grass a few years later. Also, solarizing doesn’t kill weeds with deep roots, like bindweed.
Scalp the grass and plant shrubs… I discovered this advice from CSU Extension in one of the more southern (drier, hotter) counties in Colorado. Basically, mow your grass super low then plant (native) shrubs and water them only at the base. It was okay-ish. I added mulch after a while.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Kristine. I also had so-so results solarization--and now that I'm trying to avoid using plastics, I wouldn't do it again. I had not heard that excellent idea re you can essentially just let turf die by selective watering in dry climates.
The excellent idea about selective watering… you could understand why you’d pair it with shrubs; you also want to shield some of the precipitation. This is the perfect year for something like this approach (we’re experiencing pretty severe drought), but you never know what you’re going to get.
Also. One of my penstemon beds was part of the solarization area. I could not keep that friggin’ lawn happy, and the penstemons get almost zero supplemental water. But I’m still pulling out occasional anemic thin sad clumps of KBG. 😂
Exactly—what I didn’t mention is that I was the second user of the plastic, and it started falling apart by the end of the summer. There’s several good Pollinator Friendly Alliance annual conference seminars re site prep on their YouTube channel. I swear that there’s someone who has used some kind of super heavy duty plastic which doesn’t break down as readily (I’ll believe it when I see it) as well as other neat reports on site prep—some kind of paperboard product, cover crops, etc… check them out. And of course you know about the 40 page guide from Xerces.
Yes. And I think I have tried them all—except wood chips:) But I’m not sure if I’ve seen the Xeroxes guide and I will check it out. I’m hoping to reduce it all to an if/then chart or at least pros and cons
There’s an excellent double page spread table in the Xerces guide. They include everything except herbicides and the scalp’n’shrub method I mentioned.
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this methodology! I’ve seen research on the benefits of growing woody plants in wood chips. I’m wondering about forbs spreading, something I want to encourage. Have your wildflowers and grasses spread by seeds and rhizomes in the wood chips?
Great question. Some of the more spread-y forbs have definitely spread in the chips -- like monarda fistulosa, zizia aurea, solidago rigida, rudbeckia hirta (seems to come and go), rudbeckia triloba (has popped up in unexpected places), viola striata and viola sororia (of course!), ruella humilis (very spready and lovely). Others haven't spread as much. I just looked back at my notes, and I spread the wood chips about three years ago (in May of 2023), and then I planted plugs that fall. I think probably things can start to spread more once the chips degrade more. I will say that there is one area where I spread chips but then didn't really plant (haven't decided what to do with it yet), and it's still pretty bare, though a few things have spread there. I put a bunch of mountain mint there a couple years ago and it spread like crazy (rhizomatically), and then I ripped a bunch of it out.
Super helpful! Thank you.
Another terrific blog! Thanks Heather!
Thank you!
Just finished a major redo of our small urban borough backyard that’s “only” about 35’x95’, after ripping out most of the “non” shrubs lining both sides and adding two ovals (+/-25’x8’ each) bordering a central concrete walkway that runs straight to a shed in the back. Had an arborist who air excavated to 12” deep an area under our huge pin oak and added straight compost and wood chips for the tree roots. Last year I asked if he had compost to cover the grass clippings and leaves I piled outlining the ovals, thinking it would help prep over the winter. Apparently an arborist’s compost also includes wood chips not just the “brown” stuff. 6”+ thick worked to kill the grass but I had to scrape most of it off and spread in other beds. Planted over 350 native plugs and shrubs this year, through the chips and dead grass roots in the ovals and the chips everywhere else. The plugs don’t care, as they seem to have skipped the sleep and are full on to creep! Hyssops and Verbena already blooming. Was it the leaves and grass clippings underneath? The plants in the very chippy areas under the oak are a bit slower but also doing well. I just think no matter how you prep the natives want to grow!
Thank you! Clearly wood chips are the fan favorite:) But I agree re natives wanting to grow no matter how you prep
I’m a novice with no idea if it going to work, but I had a bare area under my oak with grass majorly struggling to grow and few invasive (yet). I couldn’t afford 12” plugs throughout and didn’t want to leave it vulnerable to the invasives (creeping bellflower, gout weed, creeping Charlie) that eye any bare spot they can find, so I decided to just put the plugs (carexes, wild geranium, wild strawberries, black cohosh, wild ginger, a few nannyberry bushes…) that I got into the bare spots, stop mowing, let the oak leaves fall and see what happens!
That should work! It’s always an experiment and some of these native species will be more successful than others.
One important difference between the British and Seattle climate is that Seattle is Summer-Dry. Again, British plant choices don’t work well here either. The Pacific Northwest native plants have a much better chance of surviving 2-3 months without measurable precipitation.
Thank you for clarifying for me, Katherine!
Great article! I have been gardening organically since 2010. Unfortunately, not my neighbors...
Thank you, Nancy!
So Monty Don --British-- has the absolute best gardening show. It puts American gardening shows to shame. His tips and DETAILED advice is missing from American gardening shows. On grass... for small areas..I cover with thick layered cardboard for about 2 seasons. I remove it and dig out any remaining growing things ,usually violets in my yard
I then plant my plants. Lay down newspaper and cover in wood chips or mulch. When you remulch in couple of years ..lay down the newspaper again. This works good for small beds. And you build your garden and borders one bed at a time. Its a long game though
Love Monty Don! And thanks for sharing your method.
YES! "Gardening exotic plants in North America requires much more labor, knowledge, and inputs for less satisfying results." Because it's a design mismatch!
Two hundred years of Americans calling themselves bad gardeners when the actual variable was that they were trying to grow the wrong plant in the wrong place. And calling the ones that thrived there (the natives) "weeds."
I see so many failures take this exact shape: mistaking the mismatch for the person + blaming yourself for the yard. Nice piece. 💚🌿
Thank you!
I think it would be more accurate to say: "This perfect weather encouraged a passion for gardening that, combined with a DISREGARD of native species and a mania for exploration, led Brits to scour the world for promising plants..." in other words, they looked outwards, away from the plants that surrounded them, just as we (and our predecessors) have. There are plenty of 19th century (and earlier) herbariums and books on wildflowers that show careful botanical regard for the wildflowers, trees, and shrubs. It just didn't transfer to garden design and styles.
As for naming, personally I am opposed to the trend among some eco-writers to rename milkweed, Joe pye weed, rosinweed, etc. because of the "negative connotation" of the word weed. Common names are just lovely and fascinating! I think at first that weed meant herb or grass and was a way of making the common names more explicit, sometimes indicating its herbal use such as for goutweed (aegopodium) which, I admit is an aggressive weed in our modern sense of the word. It was also called Bishop's weed - I guess because there were a lot of gouty Bishops who liked their wine and rich food.
Thanks for your weekly reads, they are a treasure!
Thank you, Kathie, for those additional thoughts. You are so right about the charm of common names!
Note to Heather: I get it that you're very worried about microplastics and nanoplastics. My background is in research and biology. When a topic gets reported on heavily, I look into it. All that's known so far is that the bits of plastics are everywhere researchers have looked for them. It is still not known what long-term effects they may have. Of course we should minimize exposure to plastics for lots of reasons. But daily life as we know it can't happen without plastics. Minimizing ingestion is important, for known endocrine reasons.
The 4 garden areas I write about here are small, about 12 feet by 20 feet, in southern Maine. I've had good success with the following, in two locations with vastly different soil types. Of course mow first. Then I laid out cut-open contractor trash bags (tough, and do not degrade, so are reusable) covered with whatever weighty objects I have on hand -- an old door (with knobs removed), some worn-out small rugs, various pieces of lumber that I store in the garage, etc. Have never used wood chips -- it actually never occurred to me, and I have a huge fear of Jumping Worms being delivered inadvertently to our habitat. (We used bark mulch to improve the marine clay soil where we live now (when we had to have the area around the house graded to keep the water from flowing toward the foundation), and I use some every year as mulch around the perennials -- we have the contradictory conditions of soil that's soggy when wet and like cement when dry, on a very windy, south and south-west facing site, so I have put in my time hauling bark mulch in wheelbarrows, to keep the plants' root systems protected from the harshness of the site). I put the plastic and top materials down in late summer and leave it there until the spring. We use a Root Slayer shovel to remove the turf (we would have had a much harder time creating a garden space without that tool -- I highly recommend it), and then I use my Hori knife (another indispensable tool) to whack the soil off the turf clods. I still fight with Common Milkweed rhizomes and my nemesis, Quackgrass, but they're manageable if I keep after them. A White-Tail doe is our biggest problem now...
As for the question of directionality: I walk straight west and straight back. My left-handed husband walks around our narrow loop (around the house) both clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on his mood (our loop is narrow because when we bought this decrepit fixer-upper 9 years ago, we stopped mowing, except for paths. It's amazing what's come up in this former hay field. Plenty of invasives, but also Northern Willow Herb, Selfheal, abundant Goldenrods and Asters, Bedstraw, Cancer Root, Dewberry, Black Raspberry, Elderberry, etc., etc.).
I agree with so much of what you say, from don’t get crazy about plastics to root slayer and hori knife to the miracle of just letting grass grow. And fear of jumping worms is exactly why I don’t like the chips approach. However, I question the bark mulch… You may disagree, but here’s my article on mulch, with a quote and link to a scientific paper: https://www.designyourwild.com/
Another excellent post. Bookmarked for frequent sharing in the future!
Thank you!
Interesting article, especially the comment on different types of racing. Here's another from my own experience:
Watch how in the circus, the trainer guides the elephant or horse in a small counter-clockwise circle before exiting the ring. The circuit is always done in a counter-clockwise direction, so it would be wrong for the animal to turn right to leave - this way the animal goes straight out of the ring.
Interesting! Oddly, however, an unexpectedly high 42% of readers stroll their yards clockwise
I am currently in the process of making several new beds in my yard and am using the sheet mulching method of cardboard topped with a thick layer of wood chips. This is my third time using Chip Drop and it really has worked well for me. If I don't put the cardboard down first, the grass will eventually grow through the chips. I have a lot of Bermuda grass that is extremely difficult to completely eradicate. In the past. I dug out the grass but that is just too labor intensive for me!
Thanks, Amy. I imagine the difference between your experience and Amanda's is the species of turf grass. The turf species used in the North are easier to kill:)
My vote hit the wrong button. I usually walk clockwise.
Interesting… Are you left handed, by any chance? That’s a theory I saw.
Sorry to intrude, I'm a lefty here and go counter clockwise- I too think my decision is based on how my yard is laid out. But there are times that I purposefully walk in the opposite direction to mix it up and see it with fresh eyes!
I do that, too. It’s amazing how different things look from the opposite dorection
Not left handed. I think it is partly how the yard is, both in terrain and where the most interesting things are. Plus, as a kid, I always wanted to go the opposite of the normal way in the skating rink and I think the rebellion solidified into a habit.
Love that!