YYC YardSmart on how to remove a lawn
The City of Calgary’s YardSmart program includes a number of useful tips on how to create gardens that are both Water Wise and YardSmart.
On their page entitled “YardSmart: Annuals and Perennials” there is a useful section describing easy methods to remove a lawn. It is found in the PDF file you can download called “Design for Full Sun”.
These methods provide alternatives to simply digging up your lawn and putting the sods in the Bin which I believe is not recommended.
They recommend that you prepare the lawn in the fall by smothering it with “several layers of damp newspapers, or cardboard. Then top it with compost or wet soil to keep it wet. It should be ready in the spring for planting. In the spring it should be ready to dig up the sod.
YardSmart suggests you can also flip chunks of the lawn with the roots on top and the grass facing downwards. Then cover it with soil and leave it for a month. The city says that you can add compost or new soil to this area before planting.
A third method is to a 10 cm layer of compost and new soil on top of the lawn to smother it, then wait for the grass to die.
I prefer to remove the carpet of lawn in chunks, soak it, leave it near the compost, pull out the mass of roots which usually separates easily, soak it, shake off the soil and move the thatch or mass of roots to the compost pile or even a green bin.
If the area has weeds such as couch grass, the city’s methods have to be adapted to ensure there are no long threads of roots running through or your new garden will be constantly invaded.
Another Calgary garden 