7 Ways to Downsize Your Lawn and Start New Garden Beds
Lawns are boring! If you don’t use their space, you might as well convert some portions into garden beds. Multiply how many flowers, vegetables, and fruits you can grow by turning your lawn into beds. Seasoned grower Jerad Bryant shares the seven best ways to do so.
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It’s easy to kill grass! Lawns consist of shallow-rooted, non-native grass species that need continuous moisture and sunlight to thrive. Deprive them of light, moisture, or air, and they’ll struggle to survive. We’ll use these conditions to our advantage during the conversion process.
There are many ways to downsize lawns and start new beds. There are quick and expensive options and cheap but time-consuming ones. A few low-maintenance techniques work well from fall through spring, while others are quick-acting during summer.
No matter how you convert the lawn, you’ll be doing the garden a service; more flowers benefit local pollinators! Bugs need more nectar and pollen—growing a garden full of flowers and habitat space is the best way to help them survive.
Here are the seven best ways to downsize the lawn and start anew with fresh beds.
Smother the Lawn
Smothering works by depriving grasses of light, air, and moisture. You can do it during any season and with many different materials. Use what you have on hand, or find materials available at your local recycling center. Cardboard, newspaper, and paper are often free of charge at recycling facilities.
- Cardboard or Newspaper
- Non-glossy cardboard and newspapers work well to smother lawns. They’re carbon-rich, boosting the soil with carbon as they break down and decay.
- Remove tape and any packing material from the cardboard before putting it in the garden.
- Layer them on the lawn in areas you want beds, and cover them with compost or soil. The site will be ready for planting a few weeks after smothering.
- Always choose paper products that don’t contain toxic dyes or plastics.
- Thick Layers of Mulch
- In a layer 8-18” deep, organic mulches work the same way as paper products to smother grass. Fall leaves, wood chips, and compost work well.
- Remove the mulch a few weeks after smothering to plant perennials and annuals, then hill the mulch around the plant’s rootball.
- Do not plant directly into the mulch. Plant into the soil after the grasses decay underneath. After planting new perennials and annuals, remove some mulch so a 2-3” thick layer remains.
- Plastic Works Too
- Plastic sheets are suitable materials for quick periods in the garden. Use them for less than a year to smother growing weeds and grassy plants.
- Simply layer a sheet over the lawn, weigh down its edges with something heavy, and wait a month or longer for the plants underneath to die.
- Remove the tarp to inspect the site, and plant new species directly in the ground after the lawn dies.
Lasagna Composting
Lasagna, or sheet composting, is a method of composting without turning. You layer nitrogen-rich organic matter with carbon-rich waste, or greens and browns. The layers decay and form crumbly compost while they smother the grasses underneath.
Lasagna composting takes time; it relies on soil microbes like fungi, bacteria, and archaea that feed on dead waste and turn it into humus. This is an excellent technique to start in late summer or fall as the growing season ends. The site will break down over winter, turning into rich, plantable soil the following spring.
As with smothering, there need to be sufficient layers to snuff out the grasses. Pile on greens and browns to form a mound eight inches or taller. For extra protection, layer cardboard or newspaper under the bottom layer; it’ll smother tough lawn weeds like dandelions and flatweeds.
Buy Raised Beds
Raised beds are a quick and easy way to create planting space in your garden. Simply construct them, fill them, and plant into them. You may layer cardboard or newspaper on the bottom before filling to prevent the lawn from growing into the bed.
The best beds are those that last the longest in the yard. Opt for metal kinds with environmentally safe paint like Birdies raised beds. They’re built to last 20 years or longer with rust and corrosive-resistant steel coated in aluminum and zinc.
Giant planters work like beds in the same fashion. Simply find your favorite kind, add it to the yard, and fill it with soil before planting flowers and vegetables inside.
Build Wooden Beds
Wooden beds are also excellent options for instant planting space. Though some require building, you can plant new crops immediately after filling them with soil. There are pre-made versions and DIY options available, offering you the ultimate selection in style, size, and longevity.
If you’re going the DIY route, first choose a plan so you know how much wood you’ll need. There are dozens of options, and the limit is your creativity—as long as you know how to hammer nails into wood, you can build a bed.
The best woods to use are rot-resistant types that resist decay, such as cedar, Douglas fir, or acacia. They’ll last longer than brittle softwoods that struggle to withstand the environment.
After building the beds, fill their bottoms with cardboard before adding compost or potting soil. Fill them to the top, water the site well, and add your starts or seeds.
Dig It Out
This option requires more work, but you can do it in the afternoon! Grab a shovel, dig the grass out, and add compost to the exposed dirt. Grasses have shallow roots, making digging an easy but time-consuming ordeal.
If you leave any roots or shoots, some grass species may sprout again and colonize the bare soil. Plant annuals or perennials after digging, and pull weeds or volunteer seedlings as they germinate. Continuous care will help the beds look their best throughout the growing seasons.
Till the Grass
Like digging, tilling works well, and you can complete the project in a single day. Manual tillers are cheaper than mechanical ones, though they require lots of manual labor! Opt for renting a till instead—many farm supply and machinery stores offer tills for rent by the hour.
Though tilling kills worms and beneficial soil microbes, it grows more harmful the more often you do it. If you’re using it to renovate an old lawn into a new planting space, it’s beneficial in the long run because you’ll be tending the space and helping the soil grow.
After tilling, inoculate the soil with a layer of compost two to three inches thick. This will add worms, fungi, and bacteria back into the soil to help boost its quality for future plants.
Edges Keep Grass Out
Edges are beneficial for in-ground beds that touch the lawn. Grass may creep into the bare dirt and colonize the area. You can prevent the creeping species from coming back with cinderblocks, wooden planks, logs, or similar materials.
Edges work best with methods like sheet composting and smothering. They’ll help you know where the lawn ends and your garden begins!
Within the edges, continuously weed by pulling unwanted seedlings from the site. Keep the soil moist, protected with mulch, and well-fed. After a few weeks of continuous care, the unruly plants should stay out of the area. You’ll have fresh, crumbly dirt ready for new flowering plants, vegetables, or fruit trees.
