Kill Some Lawn?
This blog title may sound weird but for people who want to get rid of a patch of grass to plant a garden or put in a fountain, or some other landscaping feature, killing the lawn is a good solution. In addition, many people are tired of coddling and feeding their lawn only to have to chop it twice as fast because the more you feed it the quicker it grows.
However, using a chemical killer not only kills the lawn but anything that grows or even moves. It can be harmful to children and deadly to pets. Not only that it kills the microorganisms in the soil and, if you were to plant a garden afterward, this would not bode well for the new plants.
You can "cook" the lawn by putting on a layer of plastic vapor seal. The grass can't breathe and the plastic holds in the heat. It turns brown and dies. Then you can rototill the dead lawn and add compost, The dead turf also becomes nutrients.
Smothering the grass works very well and is easier to do. Put down 2-3 layers of cardboard or 20-25 sheets of overlapping newspaper. Wet the layers well and then cover with 6-8 inches of manure and bulk from the compost pile. The lawn will be smothered and die, the paper or cardboard will decompose and you have a great start to a rich soil base for a garden or shrubs. There's no extra work because the dead lawn will be more compost.
There are many reasons to have a lawn but more homeowners are deciding that there are many other things they would rather do than cut lawn.