Considerations when Removing Lawn

[m2244]

Hello,

I'm planning on removing our front lawn and planting creeping thyme along with some bushes and flowers in order to try to reduce the amount of ridiculous gas-powered lawn mowing on this planet. I've seen manual sod removers, the kind that removes roughly the top 2 inches of sod. Then I will have good topsoil delivered.

My question is, will removing 2 inches of sod be enough to prevent grass and other weeds from growing? I've read that it's important to remove all of the grass and roots when trying to use grass alternatives.

 

[Mike Allen]

Answer to your question. NO.

Having removed the grass in the form of turves and then covering the area with imported top soil, will also provide the possibility of also importing grass and other unwanted seed.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

My garden had been considerably neglected and I have converted a lot that had grassed over back to cultivation. My method was to dig out squares a spit deep and turn them over, then leave for at least six months minimum, hoeing from time to time. It's labour intensive, but doing a little bit every day it soon adds up to an area.
You will never eradicate grass and other weeds entirely, unless you concrete it over and park your car on it. Even then the concrete will crack in time and something will grow in the crack. Production of many seeds which distribute themselves widely is one of the mechanisms that weeds have developed to make them the fittest to survive. Unwanted seed will arrive on the soles of your shoes, wind blown and with birds and animals, as a boy my father used to play the game of 'See how many different flowers you can find'. Even in the urban concrete jungle it doesn't take long to find several different grasses, dandelions, thistles, plantains and so on once you start looking carefully, it is a good way to improve your observation skills.
There is no such thing as a maintenance free garden, I have no idea how big your front lawn is, but a manually operated push mower is not an impossible task if you maintain it and use it little and often, the other petrol free alternative is to have plants spaced well enough that you can hoe between them regularly. Ground cover sort of works, but things grow through it eventually, and they are often the deep rooted ones that are hard to remove, like docks and ash trees.

The trick is to learn to enjoy the process of gardening, not only the result.