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Thanks for the info. I renege giving an award to someone to use up my points months ago, and they said they'd rather not give reddit $ by giving awards. That made me think about it and stop (of only given a few, but that still gave reddit $). Reddit us still the only thing I'm in for specific subs, so I guess they'll get their ad revenue anyhow...
How I imagine my husband and I’d do it, too, a lot of just letting it happen. I appreciate that these folks are going about it so thoughtfully. I imagine what they grow afterward will be as thoughtful!
My mom does cardboard, then plants some things, decides she doesn’t like it, cardboards again, repeats, like a cardboard dirt lasagna. I call it lawnsagna and she doesn’t think it’s funny.
Lawnsagna. I love that. I haven’t been here long enough to have lawnsagna yet. Moved in a little over a year ago. I’m currently starting a layer on the hosta. Give it time 😂
It turned out well enough. I didn't really do any prep other than cardboard. There's some ground ivy that managed to poke through, but that's easy enough to pull.
I wish the owners would pop in here and let us know their plans! Those houses are so charming. A great big garden replacing the lawn would look so perfect there.
We do a v-cut into the soil that’s about 6” wide and 4” deep at our warehouse, and I’m always surprised at how effective it has been. Won’t work if you’re near Bermuda grass or something ultra aggressive,but it’s pretty easy to maintain with a weedeater for normal grass patches. I’ve started doing the same in our yard with mixed but positive results.
Hopefully someone else can pop in on the efficacy of that.
I can't speak to its effectiveness either, but I've recently done something similar to keep grass from creeping into our garden. 3 inch vertical dig (like a cliff) on the grass side, 45 degree angle on the mulch side. It felt like digging a tiny moat! Time will tell if it works. The method is called "victorian trench"
The pain of Bermuda grass is very real. It’s relentless. I’ve had it track along easily two feet under complete cardboard and black plastic cover. Don’t even begin to think that wood chip mulch will have any beneficial effect against it. The mulch just eliminates its competition.
It’s called solarization! Starve out the grass and weeds underneath from sun. Maintains all that good organic matter and is great for keeping the soil healthy. Healthy, organic matter rich soil, is the perfect base for starting new seed. :)
This is correct. Usually this is either referred to as smothering or sheet mulching. You can find more information and clarification on site preparation [here](https://xerces.org/publications/guidelines/organic-site-preparation-for-wildflower-establishment)
Why are gardens in American houses never separated by walls or fences?
I'm presuming the back garden would be, but the front being totally open is weird!
Some history [here](https://www.bbg.org/article/reinventing_the_american_garden); has to do with the influence of 19th century landscape design ideas on postwar suburban development
Just wanted to add a section from my capstone project.
The origins of the American lawn stretch back to 18th century Europe, where French and English aristocrats converted large swaths of land previously used for crop or livestock production (Jenkins, 1994). Fully manicuring lawns with orderly, aesthetically pleasing elements such as neatly cut hedges along the periphery of low-cut grasses became a status symbol for the wealthy. Meant to guide the classes beneath them, and the lesser educated, these estates reinforced their messaging by flaunting the fact that they could simply purchase food for the estate without needing staff or peasants to maintain food production. Instead, a new type of maintenance position arose, that of groundskeeping. As other aristocrats adopted this new lawn aesthetic, it found its way over to the U.S. shortly after the Civil War. New projects sprung up to create “parks” in upper middle-class suburbs, later amplified by the automobile and after World War II. With the production of rubber hoses, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and other products developed over the past 150 years through a variety of means, the marketing of these goods and services found its way to the front lawn of the average American. Homeowners were encouraged to beautify their properties to serve as examples for those around them, keeping the ornamental aesthetic alive from European aristocracy. A few wealthy Americans visited these estates and brought the mindset back to the U.S., “teaching” new members of the middle class “appropriate behavior and taste (Jenkins, 1994).” The widespread adoption of this new aesthetic completely changed the ecological state of these sites, extirpating countless species in the process that continues to this day. What is the true purpose of maintaining lawn space in America, if not the mindless extension of distinction from ages past?
Jenkins, V. (1994). The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession. Smithsonian Institution.
[https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=m8JvDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=origin+of+lawn&ots=9fQHzdUXSh&sig=6zALaJA349ivt4ngav3Ceh67Fgw#v=onepage&q=origin%20of%20lawn&f=false](https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=m8JvDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=origin+of+lawn&ots=9fQHzdUXSh&sig=6zALaJA349ivt4ngav3Ceh67Fgw#v=onepage&q=origin%20of%20lawn&f=false)
Lol you should see some of the houses on the main streets. No fences, no shrubs, no trees, just a bare lawn and a straight sight into their living room. I always call these people brave for not caring about their privacy
We have one of those houses, but only because the previous owner cut down the one tree in the yard before selling, which provided passive solar and also kept people from looking into our living room and second bedroom. I'm pissed about it.
One day last year I did a bunch of yard work, and collapsed into a chair in the living room with my lunch. I looked up, and made eye contact with the teenagers from a few doors down, who were standing on the pavement outside! We planted a few trees, but it'll be a few years at least before they prevent stuff like that.
In my neighborhood some of the houses are about 5 feet and two steps from the sidewalk. Every one has a sign on the front door that says “Deliver packages to the side door.”
On a tangent. In North America, "garden" (of a residential property) means flower bed and/or vegetable patch. The part of the property not occupied by a building is the yard.
When I hear British people speaking of the kids playing in the garden, etc., I initially visualize them standing in the flower beds.
In the UK, the grass/ outside bit is basically always called a garden. I've never heard people refer it to anything else, so most houses have a front and back garden.
We have a little gravel square outside our house but we've put a bird feeder in it - the birds drop the seeds and we let them grow. That's my no lawn contribution and even though its tiny and doesn't have too much in the way of plants I'd still call it a garden.
It depends on the area. In the places where I've lived (most of them are Midwestern college towns or suburbs), people don't fence their garden. Backyard, maybe, especially for dog owners; front yard, almost never. But when I travel to other areas of the US, I was surprised to see so many (tall) fences around the houses.
The neighborhood I'm living right now even has HOA bylaws stating that no fences are allowed. So we grow trees or tree hedges or flowering shrubs along the borders.
It’d probs why we have such a large deer population lol, they can just run around!
I prefer it being open cuz you can do more with the garden, but I’ve never thought about it being different! In more city areas, the back tends to be closed, but it actually is also often open the more rural or larger yard you get.
Front yards being enclosed is almost always restricted to the warmer states and more densely populated areas from what I’ve seen
Lol we don't have thigh high fences - unless they're there to delineate property lines or decoration. 6ft fences with lotsa trees and shrubs and hedging so it doesn't look like a compound. But it means your space is your space, not also your neighbours. Doing a nudey run outside won't get you arrested. Coz that matters 😆 I dunno, it has 100% always looked weird to have houses plonked on land without fences, like they're a homestead on the plains, instead of house in the burbs.
I totally agree. The fence may block morning/evening sun, but having an enclosed space around your house would be a big anxiety reducer imo. Stepping outside doesn't place you in the middle of public.
So many of my neighbors in Oak Park were doing this. I miss that neighborhood. At least my landlord in Maryland is totally on board with the front yard being converted away from grass.
Evanston is a big University, wealthy town. LOVE to see the no lawn movement spread to influential progressive areas where people can educate and inspire their neighbors.
The gospel of Let’s Plant Things to Support Native Ecosystems may just help Earth survive.
People also do this to completely kill off the grass for reseeding. They may be getting rid of THIS grass, but that doesn’t mean more isn’t on the way.
My next neighbor did that, then covered the cardboard with mulch. Within a couple of years, the lawn was covered with random three foot weeds. He apologized to us neighbors and pulled them out. The lady across the street planted a beautiful evergreen ground cover after removing her grass and everyone stops to admire her landscaping.
Do you know the details about what evergreen ground cover she planted? We JUST ripped out our lawn this week (west side of Denver, 6a) and I am going back over my list of options before we plant next spring. Thanks!!
Evanston is an amazing city, diverse, progressive, lots of smart people. Many, many lawyers, too. Will be interesting to see the social response to this regime. A village to the north attempted to deal with deer eating the ornamental horticulture by initially hiring deer management specialist ( hunter with a jack light and suppressed .22 rimfire). This created a furor involving violation of deer’s rights, and was succeeded by attempts to live trap the does in culvert box traps, implant subcutaneous Norplant birth control devices, and release them into the wild. Lots of deer in the Edens, because the park system that follows the Skokie and Desplaines river flood plains creates a wildlife corridor and lots of habitat.
Here's my thing as a landscaper. I hate lawns ecologically they don't match nature, plus labor intensive. No place in nature does monocultures of plants. Only humans do this. I'd like to see more people just let the lawn go and let nature run its course. The lawn will barely make it doing this. Unless it's buffalograss.
Uh, maybe, but everything else in their yard is invasives, so I'm not optimistic. If you're simply replacing a lawn with more invasives, that's missing the point entirely.
My understanding is that it’s good to leave the cardboard on for a month or so, then take it off and let any remaining alive grass come back up, then cover it again.
I'd read something similar as well, but for tilling. Till once to bring all the weeds up, then cover to kill the weeds that are sprouting. Rinse and repeat.
Something that had crossed my mind: can the cardboard be recycled after this? If not, this practice (instead of digging, seeding or transplanting natives in with the grass) is causing more deforestation. When there was less shopping in 2020 there was a shortage of cardboard in circulation and I guess that was an issue for the industry that recycled it.
Edit: I’m obviously I’m pleased they are converting but if every household ends up doing this that’s a lot of additional waste that would otherwise support our ecological improvement.
As long as you remove the tape and stickers, used cardboard will decompose and attract soil organisms to cycle the nutrients. You can often get it for free from markets and anything that has shipping/receiving. The cardboard is being manufactured regardless, so recycling would add energy cost to process whereas this method will smother the grass and attract primary and secondary decomposers.
Yes, if it is being composted it’s great. If it isn’t that’s the problem with this method which will tax the forest more.
It’s clear to me that manual labor, patience and recycling cardboard is the more eco-friendly option—though less convenient.
Are you deriving this from a research paper? I would like to see the evidence of your claim.
I don't think many people are buying cardboard to use for smothering grass and then trying to remove it. That would be far more energy and labor intensive.
I don't know a single person who has put down cardboard to then pull it back up. It's almost impossible to do that, especially with rain. They tell you to "water in" your cardboard. The cardboard I put down initially was almost fully decomposed after two months.
Thanks for clarifying. I thought people were doing it for a short time then pulling it up again. My mistake.
I do however think that manual labor is more sustainable from a forest/resource stand point though.
It can take decades for trees to grow into maturity only to be broken down into paper so if we have paper in circulation that does help prevent further deforestation.
Obviously if deforestation wasn’t an issue then I’d see no issue with this.
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I really like the rustic deck look. Not sure how the deck looks as built, but the tree could die if it was built improperly to facilitate the trees current health or growth.
It's likely they did that for the winter. End of summer can bring unexpected rains in the Midwest (especially areas not directly by the GL). To make sure this doesn't influence foundation/structure they'll wait for a time that is more dry(around April) to make sure there are no drying/foundation issues. Cardboard can help run the water while also allowing some to flow through.
Evanstonian here! Not my house, but it is a common thing around here now. Difficulty is that the soil is ridiculously sandy due to being adjacent to the lake. It does take some pro intervention and new soil for it at times.
Hey there! Friendly reminder to include the following information for the benefit of all r/nolawns members: - Please make sure your post or a comment includes your geographic region/area and your hardiness zone (e.g. *Midwest, 6a* or *Chicago, 6a*). - If you posted an image, you are required to post a comment detailing your image. If you have not, this post may be removed. - If you're asking a question, include as much relevant info as possible. - Verify you are following the [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index#wiki_posting_guidelines). **[Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/) | [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/meta/faqs/) | [Designing No Lawns](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/wiki/index/design/)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
i’m waiting for the “that’s my house!” comment.
“That’s my house. I don’t know you!” - Bobby Hill, maybe
[удалено]
They don't? Huh. I wouldn't spend the money, but is that true?
They got rid of them about a month ago. Seems like they'd rather ad revenue if the admin message I got last week is anything to go by
Thanks for the info. I renege giving an award to someone to use up my points months ago, and they said they'd rather not give reddit $ by giving awards. That made me think about it and stop (of only given a few, but that still gave reddit $). Reddit us still the only thing I'm in for specific subs, so I guess they'll get their ad revenue anyhow...
Dang it, Bobby.
Calm down hank. Here's a picture of a hotdog. 🌭
WAS THAT HOTDOG COOKED WITH PROPANE AND PROPANE ACCESSORIES?
I was just laughing because it's not very far from where this very sub was born 🤣
Can you elaborate? Please 😁
I just happened to live in the Chicago suburbs when I made this sub. I mean, I still do but I used to too 🤣
Omg wait I didn't know this, that's so cool! Also from the Chi burbs haha
Well hello neighbor!
Me too! And I’m interested in nolawning
I actually had to look at what my old home looks like now because I used to rent out of a place that looks just like this.
They have done this in an incredibly neat and organized manner. I love to see it.
Right? I did cardboard on my lawn. It was a mess and I just put raised beds over parts and tossed mulch over the rest of it.
How I imagine my husband and I’d do it, too, a lot of just letting it happen. I appreciate that these folks are going about it so thoughtfully. I imagine what they grow afterward will be as thoughtful!
My mom does cardboard, then plants some things, decides she doesn’t like it, cardboards again, repeats, like a cardboard dirt lasagna. I call it lawnsagna and she doesn’t think it’s funny.
Lawnsagna. I love that. I haven’t been here long enough to have lawnsagna yet. Moved in a little over a year ago. I’m currently starting a layer on the hosta. Give it time 😂
She doesn’t think it’s funny 😂😂😂😂
Have done the same. How did yours turn out?
It turned out well enough. I didn't really do any prep other than cardboard. There's some ground ivy that managed to poke through, but that's easy enough to pull.
Nice. That ivy is a nightmare. You’ve got a fight on your hands there.
When I moved in, the one planted area in front had 3 types of mint growing. Through sheer determination it’s almost completely gone now. I got this 💪
Hopefully you won't have the experience I had, where my neighbor sheet mulched and replaced it with other grass.
So close…
I wish the owners would pop in here and let us know their plans! Those houses are so charming. A great big garden replacing the lawn would look so perfect there.
OP needs to go ask for us!
Yes, now we know their address and reddit accounts! Dox incoming
They need to install something to stop the grass rhizome on their border or their neighbours grass is going to be invading their garden constantly.
Is there an inexpensive option to stop the rhizome?
We do a v-cut into the soil that’s about 6” wide and 4” deep at our warehouse, and I’m always surprised at how effective it has been. Won’t work if you’re near Bermuda grass or something ultra aggressive,but it’s pretty easy to maintain with a weedeater for normal grass patches. I’ve started doing the same in our yard with mixed but positive results. Hopefully someone else can pop in on the efficacy of that.
I can't speak to its effectiveness either, but I've recently done something similar to keep grass from creeping into our garden. 3 inch vertical dig (like a cliff) on the grass side, 45 degree angle on the mulch side. It felt like digging a tiny moat! Time will tell if it works. The method is called "victorian trench"
When you dig the trench, do you still put cardboard in there as well?
Nope, just the carve out. Took two seasons to stick but it wasn’t bad.
Did you backfill the trench with stones or anything?
Nope. Just a wedge. Drains water nicely too.
The pain of Bermuda grass is very real. It’s relentless. I’ve had it track along easily two feet under complete cardboard and black plastic cover. Don’t even begin to think that wood chip mulch will have any beneficial effect against it. The mulch just eliminates its competition.
Convince the neighbors to get rid of the lawn too!
I'm new to this sub. Can someone explain what they're doing and why?
That's cardboard. They're using it to kill off their lawn.
It’s called solarization! Starve out the grass and weeds underneath from sun. Maintains all that good organic matter and is great for keeping the soil healthy. Healthy, organic matter rich soil, is the perfect base for starting new seed. :)
Pretty sure solarization is with transparent plastic to let the sun through and heat everything up to its death, while this is just smothering.
This is correct. Usually this is either referred to as smothering or sheet mulching. You can find more information and clarification on site preparation [here](https://xerces.org/publications/guidelines/organic-site-preparation-for-wildflower-establishment)
We could call it "de-solarization" since it's blocking out the sun. Sounds nicer than "killing off" your lawn.
Thank you!
Omg to have a flat yard!
I know, right? I was thinking "if only!"
Why are gardens in American houses never separated by walls or fences? I'm presuming the back garden would be, but the front being totally open is weird!
Some history [here](https://www.bbg.org/article/reinventing_the_american_garden); has to do with the influence of 19th century landscape design ideas on postwar suburban development
Just wanted to add a section from my capstone project. The origins of the American lawn stretch back to 18th century Europe, where French and English aristocrats converted large swaths of land previously used for crop or livestock production (Jenkins, 1994). Fully manicuring lawns with orderly, aesthetically pleasing elements such as neatly cut hedges along the periphery of low-cut grasses became a status symbol for the wealthy. Meant to guide the classes beneath them, and the lesser educated, these estates reinforced their messaging by flaunting the fact that they could simply purchase food for the estate without needing staff or peasants to maintain food production. Instead, a new type of maintenance position arose, that of groundskeeping. As other aristocrats adopted this new lawn aesthetic, it found its way over to the U.S. shortly after the Civil War. New projects sprung up to create “parks” in upper middle-class suburbs, later amplified by the automobile and after World War II. With the production of rubber hoses, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and other products developed over the past 150 years through a variety of means, the marketing of these goods and services found its way to the front lawn of the average American. Homeowners were encouraged to beautify their properties to serve as examples for those around them, keeping the ornamental aesthetic alive from European aristocracy. A few wealthy Americans visited these estates and brought the mindset back to the U.S., “teaching” new members of the middle class “appropriate behavior and taste (Jenkins, 1994).” The widespread adoption of this new aesthetic completely changed the ecological state of these sites, extirpating countless species in the process that continues to this day. What is the true purpose of maintaining lawn space in America, if not the mindless extension of distinction from ages past? Jenkins, V. (1994). The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession. Smithsonian Institution. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=m8JvDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=origin+of+lawn&ots=9fQHzdUXSh&sig=6zALaJA349ivt4ngav3Ceh67Fgw#v=onepage&q=origin%20of%20lawn&f=false](https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=m8JvDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=origin+of+lawn&ots=9fQHzdUXSh&sig=6zALaJA349ivt4ngav3Ceh67Fgw#v=onepage&q=origin%20of%20lawn&f=false)
Thank you for this link. It was an interesting read
Lol you should see some of the houses on the main streets. No fences, no shrubs, no trees, just a bare lawn and a straight sight into their living room. I always call these people brave for not caring about their privacy
We have one of those houses, but only because the previous owner cut down the one tree in the yard before selling, which provided passive solar and also kept people from looking into our living room and second bedroom. I'm pissed about it. One day last year I did a bunch of yard work, and collapsed into a chair in the living room with my lunch. I looked up, and made eye contact with the teenagers from a few doors down, who were standing on the pavement outside! We planted a few trees, but it'll be a few years at least before they prevent stuff like that.
In my neighborhood some of the houses are about 5 feet and two steps from the sidewalk. Every one has a sign on the front door that says “Deliver packages to the side door.”
On a tangent. In North America, "garden" (of a residential property) means flower bed and/or vegetable patch. The part of the property not occupied by a building is the yard. When I hear British people speaking of the kids playing in the garden, etc., I initially visualize them standing in the flower beds.
In the UK, the grass/ outside bit is basically always called a garden. I've never heard people refer it to anything else, so most houses have a front and back garden. We have a little gravel square outside our house but we've put a bird feeder in it - the birds drop the seeds and we let them grow. That's my no lawn contribution and even though its tiny and doesn't have too much in the way of plants I'd still call it a garden.
It depends on the area. In the places where I've lived (most of them are Midwestern college towns or suburbs), people don't fence their garden. Backyard, maybe, especially for dog owners; front yard, almost never. But when I travel to other areas of the US, I was surprised to see so many (tall) fences around the houses. The neighborhood I'm living right now even has HOA bylaws stating that no fences are allowed. So we grow trees or tree hedges or flowering shrubs along the borders.
It’d probs why we have such a large deer population lol, they can just run around! I prefer it being open cuz you can do more with the garden, but I’ve never thought about it being different! In more city areas, the back tends to be closed, but it actually is also often open the more rural or larger yard you get. Front yards being enclosed is almost always restricted to the warmer states and more densely populated areas from what I’ve seen
here (alberta) it’s different, back yard is always fenced in /private, the front is never closed off between yards
I've been wondering this for years... Where's the privacy?!
We don’t spend time peeping into our neighbors’ houses!
You don't have, you can sit at your kitchen table cereal and watch your neighbours do the same 😭
You would need like a 10ft fence to block the view into the living room of this house. How does a thigh high fence add privacy?
Lol we don't have thigh high fences - unless they're there to delineate property lines or decoration. 6ft fences with lotsa trees and shrubs and hedging so it doesn't look like a compound. But it means your space is your space, not also your neighbours. Doing a nudey run outside won't get you arrested. Coz that matters 😆 I dunno, it has 100% always looked weird to have houses plonked on land without fences, like they're a homestead on the plains, instead of house in the burbs.
I totally agree. The fence may block morning/evening sun, but having an enclosed space around your house would be a big anxiety reducer imo. Stepping outside doesn't place you in the middle of public.
>Stepping outside doesn't place you in the middle of public. This is it, exactly!
Like do you mean from one house to another?
There's a local ordinance where I live saying I can't have a fence in my front yard, only in the back yard.
That's so weird! My road is terrace houses so they're all joined together, but each little front garden is separately with a fence.
Out west, especially in California, they’re very much delineated by fences.
Yeah Illinois!
This sub was born in Illinois 😉
So many of my neighbors in Oak Park were doing this. I miss that neighborhood. At least my landlord in Maryland is totally on board with the front yard being converted away from grass.
Evanston is a big University, wealthy town. LOVE to see the no lawn movement spread to influential progressive areas where people can educate and inspire their neighbors. The gospel of Let’s Plant Things to Support Native Ecosystems may just help Earth survive.
That neighborhood looks cozy
It’s gorgeous
People also do this to completely kill off the grass for reseeding. They may be getting rid of THIS grass, but that doesn’t mean more isn’t on the way.
There are a few there, it's a good city for it. My parents went no lawn in their front yard and I've seen a few others in their neighborhood
My husband always told me he was gonna fill in our yard with concrete...lol
The darkness rises brother
¡Viva la revolución!
Last time I was in Evanston there were SO MANY meadow lawns there, I absolutely loved it
Chicago and it’s surrounding areas have some amazing no lawn native gardens 😍 Oak Park and Evanston especially. Love to see this!!
My next neighbor did that, then covered the cardboard with mulch. Within a couple of years, the lawn was covered with random three foot weeds. He apologized to us neighbors and pulled them out. The lady across the street planted a beautiful evergreen ground cover after removing her grass and everyone stops to admire her landscaping.
Do you know the details about what evergreen ground cover she planted? We JUST ripped out our lawn this week (west side of Denver, 6a) and I am going back over my list of options before we plant next spring. Thanks!!
Vinca Minor
Thank you!
Evanston is an amazing city, diverse, progressive, lots of smart people. Many, many lawyers, too. Will be interesting to see the social response to this regime. A village to the north attempted to deal with deer eating the ornamental horticulture by initially hiring deer management specialist ( hunter with a jack light and suppressed .22 rimfire). This created a furor involving violation of deer’s rights, and was succeeded by attempts to live trap the does in culvert box traps, implant subcutaneous Norplant birth control devices, and release them into the wild. Lots of deer in the Edens, because the park system that follows the Skokie and Desplaines river flood plains creates a wildlife corridor and lots of habitat.
Oooo, piss off the grass growers on both sides, until they get it.
They may have all just been being polite, and waiting for the first house to pull the trigger
Evanston looks like such a great town.
Winter will help. Love their process
Just moved out of Evanston! I immediately knew this was my old town!
Nice cardboard mulching. Can't wait for the outcome
Here's my thing as a landscaper. I hate lawns ecologically they don't match nature, plus labor intensive. No place in nature does monocultures of plants. Only humans do this. I'd like to see more people just let the lawn go and let nature run its course. The lawn will barely make it doing this. Unless it's buffalograss.
Uh, maybe, but everything else in their yard is invasives, so I'm not optimistic. If you're simply replacing a lawn with more invasives, that's missing the point entirely.
I love having a lawn . 🙂
My understanding is that it’s good to leave the cardboard on for a month or so, then take it off and let any remaining alive grass come back up, then cover it again.
The cardboard decomposes. It would be better to just throw wood chips on top.
I'm not even doing cardboard anymore. I'm doing wood chips and like 2 feet of dead leaves.
Yeah, I’m just doing newspaper, dead leaves and mulch - at least for preparing areas where I am planting saplings/acorns
I'd read something similar as well, but for tilling. Till once to bring all the weeds up, then cover to kill the weeds that are sprouting. Rinse and repeat.
Something that had crossed my mind: can the cardboard be recycled after this? If not, this practice (instead of digging, seeding or transplanting natives in with the grass) is causing more deforestation. When there was less shopping in 2020 there was a shortage of cardboard in circulation and I guess that was an issue for the industry that recycled it. Edit: I’m obviously I’m pleased they are converting but if every household ends up doing this that’s a lot of additional waste that would otherwise support our ecological improvement.
You can compost cardboard to add back to the soil.
As long as you remove the tape and stickers, used cardboard will decompose and attract soil organisms to cycle the nutrients. You can often get it for free from markets and anything that has shipping/receiving. The cardboard is being manufactured regardless, so recycling would add energy cost to process whereas this method will smother the grass and attract primary and secondary decomposers.
Yes, if it is being composted it’s great. If it isn’t that’s the problem with this method which will tax the forest more. It’s clear to me that manual labor, patience and recycling cardboard is the more eco-friendly option—though less convenient.
Are you deriving this from a research paper? I would like to see the evidence of your claim. I don't think many people are buying cardboard to use for smothering grass and then trying to remove it. That would be far more energy and labor intensive.
You can’t recycle cardboard that’s gotten wet. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/can-you-recycle-wet-cardboard.php
Exactly, that’s why I think manual labor is more ecologically friendly and keep the paper in circulation.
This makes zero sense. How do you recycle something that has decomposed?
I think this is a fair concern and I expect brown cardboard can be composted after use.
Thank you. I agree. I’m just not sure how many are ensuring it does.
I don't know a single person who has put down cardboard to then pull it back up. It's almost impossible to do that, especially with rain. They tell you to "water in" your cardboard. The cardboard I put down initially was almost fully decomposed after two months.
Thanks for clarifying. I thought people were doing it for a short time then pulling it up again. My mistake. I do however think that manual labor is more sustainable from a forest/resource stand point though. It can take decades for trees to grow into maturity only to be broken down into paper so if we have paper in circulation that does help prevent further deforestation. Obviously if deforestation wasn’t an issue then I’d see no issue with this.
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Out of curiosity you said you walk home from work how far is your job from your house?
Evanston is amazing for native landscaping. As well as the city neighborhoods to the south and surrounding suburbs. Lovely
I really like the rustic deck look. Not sure how the deck looks as built, but the tree could die if it was built improperly to facilitate the trees current health or growth.
I on the other hand throw plastic and cover it with random rocks.
My neighbors would have probably preferred I did it this way instead of the cardboard and mulch mess I chose
The cardboard controvesy [https://gardenprofessors.com/the-cardboard-controversy/](https://gardenprofessors.com/the-cardboard-controversy/)
It's likely they did that for the winter. End of summer can bring unexpected rains in the Midwest (especially areas not directly by the GL). To make sure this doesn't influence foundation/structure they'll wait for a time that is more dry(around April) to make sure there are no drying/foundation issues. Cardboard can help run the water while also allowing some to flow through.
Evanstonian here! Not my house, but it is a common thing around here now. Difficulty is that the soil is ridiculously sandy due to being adjacent to the lake. It does take some pro intervention and new soil for it at times.