Operation Grass Killer

Ok, so this weekend I decided to get rid of what little was left of the grass in the backyard. With all the garden beds and hardscaping the backyard grass was reduced to little more than a few pathways and hard to reach areas. This was making mowing burdensome as it was too difficult to maneuver the push mower but the area was a little large to use a weed eater. Plus with all the garden beds and trees so close the weed eater was just throwing unwanted grass and weed seed into the beds and making my work more difficult down the road. I had recently added a shredded hardwood mulch walkway down the side of the house and figured why not just extend this on into the backyard. This will tie everything together. Plus no sense in paying to water / maintain grass that is not necessary. Also with the addition of the mulch what little rain there is will stay in the ground longer and not be lost due to evaporation with the blistering Texas heat. In this area of Texas people water around the foundation of their house to try to keep the dirt at a consistent moisture level to avoid  having the ground dry out to much and cause a shift in the foundation which will lead to cracks in the house. I imagine that this extra layer of mulch will help with this water retention as well. Its a win-win!

So it makes complete sense to get rid of the grass and replace it with mulch. The problem is that I have Bermuda grass. This grass is tough and it is great for surviving the dry hot Texas weather but its resilience can sometimes be burdensome to the home gardener. As I had attempted to get rid of the grass in the backyard before for another hardscaping project, I have a little expertise in this matter. In the past I have gone to the big box garden center and purchased a nice expensive roll of weed block fabric. I put this down in a small section of the yard only to have the grass grow right through it. This was not the cheap landscape fabric either. I then had to remove all the gravel that I had put down and start over. The second time I doubled up the landscape fabric and put down a couple of layers of newspaper. This was a hassle as the newspaper kept wanting to blow away on me before I could get it covered plus I was now going through twice as much of the expensive landscape fabric. This approach was much more affective but unfortunately after several months I had grass coming through in spots again. I even resorted to trying to use roofing tar paper but I stopped using this as I didn't like the environmental aspects of putting this stuff in the ground. Also it did not allow the rain water to flow through into the ground properly.

The best thing that I have found to kill the grass is actually free! That's right I said free. Try to beat that. It doesn't cost anything. Its environmentally friendly. Its readily available, easy to find, and easy to work with. Go and find you a bunch of old used cardboard boxes. Its that simple. It doesn't really matter what condition they are in as you will be breaking them down to lay flat on the ground anyway. There are tons of these things floating around and most people are happy to give them away once they are done with them. Plus you will be preventing them from going into the landfill. You would have to put down a whole lot of newspaper to equal the effectiveness of a layer or two of cardboard. Plus the cardboard will not blow away on you when you are trying to put it down. If the wind if blowing hard enough to blow your boxes away you probably should not be outside anyway. I also find that I can cover larger areas more quickly with boxes than with newspaper. Plus, like the newspaper, the cardboard boxes will allow the water through and they will eventually break down into the Earth as they are after all a paper (wood) product but this will be long after the grass is dead.

Now prior to putting the cardboard down onto the ground you do have a couple of additional options. One of these options is to put down a product like Roundup. I am guilty of using this product in the past and it is very affective at killing the Bermuda grass for a couple of weeks before it returns again. Yes the grass will still return even after using this product so you can't use it alone. Did I mention how tough this grass was? This is the reason for the cardboard on top. Although I have not completely converted everything over to organic practices yet I am well on my way to making this my norm. I would recommend to always go this route first if possible. Regardless of whether you are talking about killing grass or killing pests you always want to start with the least environmentally impacting practice and move out from there. This is where your other second option comes in. To organically kill the grass I would recommend to use vinegar. It is the acidity in the vinegar that allows it to kill the vegetation. Notice that I said vegetation and not just weed or grass in that sentence. Vinegar is a non selective herbicide. In other words it will kill whatever it comes in contact with so be careful about over spray and make sure not to get it on anything that you want to keep around.  When applying vinegar as an herbicide it is best applied on a sunny dry day. The sun will magnify the affects and the dry conditions will give the product time to do its work. When it comes to vinegar there are a couple of different options. I believe that normal vinegar that you buy from the grocery store contains about 5% acidity. This will work for small weeds and such. For some of the more difficult weeds there is a 20% acidity agricultural vinegar that can also be used. This high acidity product can be found at most all garden centers. Be very careful when using the higher acidity product as it will burn you if you get it on your skin so take extra precautions. Did I also mention that vinegar is very cheap? Try saying the same thing about Roundup.

 As a side note to the above picture, when planing your garden always make sure to make the access pathways large enough to move material around with a wheelbarrow. This little bit of prior planning will save you a ton of time and trouble down the road.

Anyway, once you have put down your chemical grass killer and given it time to work (organic hopefully) then proceed to lay down your cardboard boxes in a jigsaw fashion until all the ground is covered. You really cant get this part wrong as long as all the grass is covered. Once the cardboard is down then spread your covering of choice and you are done.