Let’s Work on the Garden Area!

My landscape goal for this summer was to do ‘something’ with the garden area in our backyard. When we moved into the house in June of 2001, the backyard was lawn from fence to fence & fence to house.

Original backyard garden

My first project with the backyard that first summer was to create a little garden area on the east end of the yard. I designed the space and then removed the sod in that area. The new garden lined the north fence, east fence, and part of the south fence. I planted mostly annuals so I would have instant color but I also bought a few perennials and transplanted hostas from the front yard.

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Adding to the garden area

The tree in the pictures above is one that we bought at the local nursery and planted ourselves. Unfortunately, it didn’t live so in 2006, we hired a tree company to come plant one correctly. Happily, this Maple tree has thrived! The pic is a little blurry but you can see that it is nice and healthy and the garden is filling out! Pic was taken in June 2009. I built a couple of arbor/trellis structures and planted some vines on the fence. You can read about the arbor/trellis project by clicking on the pic.

Pre-project

We have spent a lot of time caring for our lawn; removing weeds, fertilizing, and watering it well. As you can see in the pics, it is a healthy lawn. Over the years, as the Maple has grown, its roots have come to the surface especially on the north and east sides of the tree.

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Project plan

Over the years, I have continued to remove sod in my landscape projects. I remove sod by hand as opposed to renting a machine due to the large trees (and hence, roots at the surface) and very rocky soil.

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For this project, my plan was to remove some of the grass and cover up the rest.

Enlarging garden beds

I started with the garden. The plants have done so well in that area that I have thinned them many, many times. I felt it was time to enlarge their space.

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Sod removal process

I removed sod from all three sides of the garden and relocated it to a friend’s property. My go-to tools for sod rippage is a shovel and small garden claw. I use the shovel to cut through the sod along the desired length and width of the area then grab my garden kneeling pad, get down on hands and knees then use the garden claw to pull the sod toward me bit by bit, inch by inch. When I’ve pulled up a section that is approximately a foot by a foot, I rip it away from the grass and place it in the wagon. Sometimes it comes loose before I have a section that big but it’s usually firm enough to hold together. When working in direct sun, I use our deck umbrella & stand for shade.

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Planting ground cover

While removing sod, I also took out a foot of it on all 4 sides of each raised garden bed (this also went to Linda’s property) then planted ground cover.

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Preparing the grass

Now that I had the garden beds enlarged and ground cover planted around the raised beds, I looked at the rest of the grass and pondered whether I wanted to remove the sod or cover it up. I know I’ve said this many times in my landscape posts: removing sod is hard, manual labor. With this in mind, I decided to just cover the grass. I researched how to do this. Would I have to kill the grass first? Would I need to add landscape cloth? Could I just put down mulch over the grass? I read several gardening articles that said I could simply put mulch over the grass and that would prevent the sun from reaching the grass and therefore prevent growth. Yes! This is what I would do! Hubby asked if I was sure I shouldn’t put down landscape cloth first? “Yes, I’m SURE“, I told him, even when my intuition asked “Are you really sure? Maybe this easy way was too good to be true”? “Yes, I’m Really Sure“!

However, I did think that it might be best to first spray the grass with the vinegar, salt & Dawn dish soap mixture that I use to kill weeds (The mixture that I make is: 1 gallon white vinegar, 1 cup of salt & 1/4 cup of Dawn dish soap) So, I mowed the grass with the lawnmower set low then doused the whole area with the vinegar mixture, let it sit for a day then repeated the dousing. A lot of the grass was brown, but not all…..

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Covering the grass

Anxious to get moving on the project, I drove to the landscape place and picked up a yard of fine bark. When I got home, hubby asked me once again if I was sure I didn’t want to lay down landscape cloth and I confirmed that I was, then, I put the bark directly on the grass. I ended up using 3 yards of fine bark which covered all the grass with 3 inches of mulch. Walking on the bark was so nice (although you had to wear shoes since the fine bark can give you splinters) and cushy! Boy, did the whole area now look great! Park-like!

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Too good to be true

Although both hubby & my intuition had told me that simply using mulch was too good to be true, I ignored them. I mean, to save all that time pulling up sod or laying landscape cloth first? Who could blame me? **Sigh** Of course my intuition and hubby were correct! One of these days, I’ll pay attention to their suggestions, in the meantime, I’ll just forge ahead and then have to fix whatever it was that should be done differently.

What happened?

After about 2 weeks, as I was watering the garden plants, I noticed a few green blades of grass coming up through the bark. Not to be deterred, I doused them with the vinegar mixture. The next day they were brown. Great! About a week later, those brown blades were growing with fresh green coming through the bark. Ugh!!!! So, yes, I bought landscape cloth.

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Fixing the issue

I was so dreading this task. How much easier would it have been to lay this cloth first?! But, I took it easy and using a garden rake, moved a couple of feet of bark at a time, laid down the cloth and covered it with the displaced bark. I continued this process until the entire area was done. The weather was hot at this point so I started early in the day and worked in the shade of the tree. I wore my rain boots for this task as I had spider bites the last time I worked in the area. Since doing this project, I have purchased ankle-high booties to wear when working in the yard.

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Issue fixed!

Finished project

I am so thrilled to have this back area updated! I feel that it is better for the tree to have mulch over its roots rather than them being exposed to the elements and lawnmower.

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Hubby has started calling this area our Park

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Supply List

• Garden wagon
• Small garden rake
• Garden shovel
• Gloves
• Kneeling pad
• Rain boots
• Umbrella to provide shade
• Landscape cloth or newspaper
  • If using newspaper for a barrier, use 6-8 sheets of thickness and wet them down with water before placing bark on top
• Fine bark
• Ground cover

Instructions for garden area

• Remove grass (see Sod removal process above)
• Plant ground cover

Instructions for bark area

• Lay down weed barrier
• Cover with bark

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