![]() The idea is to eliminate your lawn, not to keep it comfy until fall.” Without added water, most California lawns will go dormant in the summer so it’s better to start this process in the spring, when the grasses are alive. “Late winter or early spring is the perfect time to start. “I’ve decided to utilize the sheet mulching method,” Parker says. “While drip is ultimately more efficient, I’m still going to save a bundle by decreasing the amount and frequency that I water based on my plant choices alone.”Īs for the variety of lawn removal methods, homeowners can go the chemical route by spraying the grass with herbicides, removing it with sod cutters, solarizing it or sheet mulching over it, just to name a few. “I’m going as low-tech as you can go. I’m leaving my existing sprinkler irrigation system,” Parker says. Quite a variety of options are available, but it isn’t always necessary to change. “At the Arboretum and Public Garden, we’re all about involving the community so I figured why not extend that idea to my front lawn? I’ll make it an educational work in progress!”Īnother important landscape component many homeowners consider revamping is their irrigation systems. I don’t think it should be stressful, expensive or complicated. “There are so many ways to achieve the same goal. “The thought of lawn removal can be overwhelming,” Parker says. Drought Monitor reports, and city of Davis water rates rising every year, homeowners are looking to their landscape for help even without “Cash for Grass” programs like the cities of Sacramento and Roseville have offered their residents. With almost 95 percent of the state remaining in a drought despite recent rains, according to U.S. There are five steps involved, four active and one inactive: There are so many great plants out there that are happy with very little water - it just makes sense.” Sheet mulching steps “I’m the economizing type anyway, and I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned from working on campus. “Having just bought this little house, I’m ready for the adventure of making my yard fit the real situation with the water supply. Lawns are what we’re used to and they’re definitely appealing, but times have changed,” she says. Stacey Parker, horticulturist for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden and a new Davis homeowner, can empathize. Then, there’s that nagging inner voice telling you every time you walk out the front door, “Break up! You’ve got to break up!”īut you ignore it all in favor of making the excuse that you don’t know where to begin and that you might regret it. A new Davis homeowner, she is a horticulturist for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. As seen in the Davis Enterprise, March 2014īy Katie Hetrick Stacey Parker lifts some sheet mulch to show the progress she made in kiling her lawn and residual weeds.
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