At a recent talk sponsored by GreenTown Los Altos, Deva Luna gave do-it-yourself tips for transforming a blank space formerly lawn into a sustainable landscape as well as removing a lawn and planting.
Luna, horticulturist and principal designer at EarthCare Landscaping, offered 6 steps for do-it-yourselfers to design a sustainable landscape.
One, lay out paths. On a lawn, you can walk anywhere, but if you are adding a variety of plants that you can't walk on, you will need to think about natural circulation patterns and allow for maintenance paths. Do you need a path from the driveway to your front door, or a path to wheel your recycling bin to the street? Use permeable options, such as pavers laid in sand, an informal mulched path, or even permeable concrete.
Two, divide and conquer. The paths define smaller spaces, with more interesting shapes, which you can think of as garden rooms.
Three, place larger items such as trees and shrubs for screening or shade. Do you want to block the view of a neighbor's garage, or create a shadier corner?
Four, place accents to create garden views. You can use sculptures or bird baths as focal points, arrange plants around boulders, or add benches. Look at the landscape through windows in your house and from the sidewalk.
Five, add colorful perennials along walkways, near the entry, and next to the sidewalk.
Six, fill in with low, spreading groundcovers such as prostrate ceanothus, sage, or coyote brush.
To remove the actual lawn, sheet mulching is the most efficient way to go. EarthCare has completed about 70 yards using this method, Luna said. There's no need to scalp the lawn or dig up anything except for the edges next to sidewalks, paved paths, or other hardscape. Next to those edges, dig down about 4 inches, tapered back to about 15-18 inches.
Use the removed soil to make berms or mounds. Place the berms where you want to grow plants that need good drainage. The berms will ensure that rainwater and irrigation water drain away from the crown of the plant.
Next, smother the grass with 2 overlapping layers of builder's paper (or cardboard or newspaper). You can get rolls of builder's paper from landscape supply companies such as Lyngso.
Then get a truckload of free wood chips from any tree-trimming service. I spread up to 4 inches deep under the driplines of established trees and shrubs, and 6 inches or more in unplanted areas. At the edges of hardscape, make sure the mulch is level with the hardscape so that it does not fall onto sidewalks or paths.
Pull the mulch at least a foot away from existing trees, and a few inches away from shrubs.
You can begin planting the same day the mulch is spread, Luna said.
To plant, make a pocket in the mulch a little bigger than the root ball of your plant. Scuff the root balls a little to open them up, and fill the rest of the hole with compost. Luna's secret ingredient for plant success is mycorrhizae.
In my experience, the pile of mulch delivered to your front yard looks like a mountain at first, but it doesn't take long before you want more! This pile is strictly wood chips, so it's ideal for paths where you want it to break down as slowly as possible. If you spread the mulch 4 inches deep, a truckload of 3 cubic yards will cover about 240 square feet.
If you ask tree trimmers for mulch, you will get a truckload at a time. Here, it's being offloaded onto a driveway. Note that this truckload has lots of green, from leafy hackberry and elm trees. The mixture of leaves and branches will break down faster than wood chips alone, so this mulch would be especially good for a planted area.
A wheelbarrow, a garden fork or manure fork, and a lot of persistence are needed if you choose to move the pile of mulch yourself. Why go to a gym when you can get a good workout doing some productive work?
© 2014 Tanya Kucak