To covert a grass bank to other ground cover plant I have heard that
you can mow the lawn short, lay newspaper over the area and mulch it.
This is opposed to using something like Round Up to kill the grass. IS
this an accepted method and if so how long before you can plant the
zone?

Yep, that'll work just fine. Use 5-6 layers of newsprint, and overlap it
well. Keep a hose handy to water it down and prevent it from blowing away
as you work, and do it in sections, adding mulch as you go. The grass will
decompose fairly quickly in the summer heat; it you mulch it now, it should
be ready for fall planting.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"GaryM" wrote in message
. 3.44...
To covert a grass bank to other ground cover plant I have heard that
you can mow the lawn short, lay newspaper over the area and mulch it.
This is opposed to using something like Round Up to kill the grass. IS
this an accepted method and if so how long before you can plant the
zone?

To covert a grass bank to other ground cover plant I have heard that
you can mow the lawn short, lay newspaper over the area and mulch it.
This is opposed to using something like Round Up to kill the grass. IS
this an accepted method and if so how long before you can plant the
zone?

Yup -- I just did this with a 30'x10' section of my front yard a week or two
ago. Worked like a charm. For the main part, I put down about one full
section of newspaper (6-8 individual pages) then covered that with around 4
inches of mulch (ended up being one bag of mulch for about every 8 square
feet). Let it sit for approximately a month to really give it time to die,
carefully turn the mulch every week or so, and you should be good to go.

As someone else mentioned, you'll want to do this in sections and preferably
on a day when there is not much wind. I had newspaper flying everywhere
on me -- halfway into the project, a summer rainstorm hit us outta nowhere
and THAT was fun.

James

Depends on where you live and what grass you're talking about. If you're in
the south, I doubt the paper method will take care of bermuda, bahia,
johnson or even zoysia grasses as these can form long and/or powerful
stolons and growth tips. I've even seen them come up through asphalt. I've
seen bahia survive 2 shots of roundup and being turned 8" under. It might
take care of centipede, fescue and some of the other milder perennial
grasses like bluegrass. Quackgrass and nutsedge are 2 more I doubt the paper
will hit hard enough to kill. I'd use roundup and cover with black plastic
for a week or two if I wanted a scortched-earth effect. Plant a couple of
days after removing the plastic.
Gary

"GaryM" wrote in message
. 3.44...
To covert a grass bank to other ground cover plant I have heard that
you can mow the lawn short, lay newspaper over the area and mulch it.
This is opposed to using something like Round Up to kill the grass. IS
this an accepted method and if so how long before you can plant the
zone?

"SugarChile" wrote in
:

Thanks for all of the replies. I have all of this week's Wall St Journals
and 5 yards of mulch in my future today.



Gary