Make Your Own “Lawnsagna”
A lawnsagna is another term for sheet mulching, which is the process of transforming a lawn to a layer of bio-rich soil that you can use for planting a drought tolerant, native plant garden! Below is a list of the steps needed to create your very own lawnsagna:
Materials Needed:
Compost
Cardboard
Wood Chips
Water
Steps to Successfully Sheet Mulch Your Garden:
Mow Lawn
Prepare Cardboard: Remove any stickers, tape or plastic attached to the cardboard. Soak cardboard for 10 minutes.
Trench a perimeter around where you would like your mulch to go. This should be 6 inches deep and at least 3 inches wide.
Thoroughly water the grass, going over the area 3 times.
Next you are going to add 2-3 inches of compost to the entire area. You should also fill the trenched perimeter and the ground should be level at this point.
Thoroughly water the layer, going over the area 3 times.
Now, put down three layers of soaked cardboard. Tuck the sides of cardboard on the outer side of the perimeter.
Thoroughly water the layer, going over the area 3 times.
Add 3-4 inches of wood chips or mulch.
Thoroughly water the layer, going over the area 3 times.
Maintaining your “Lawnsagna”:
Give the entire area a deep water at least once a month.
Wait one to two seasons (3-6 months) before using the area to plant.
What are the Benefits of Sheet Mulching?
There are many benefits of sheet mulching your yard. Lawns require about .623 gallons of water per square foot. On a sunny day the average lawn uses 125 gallons of water. While facing a drought in California, this may not be where we want to be using our water. Sheet mulching your lawn will help to reduce a households water usage by 40%, saving money on the monthly water bill, while increasing your soils water retention. This can be the first step in creasing a drought tolerant, California native plant garden. We suggest once you are ready to plant to pick pollinator friendly options. Check out our blog post on starting your own pollinator garden for a suggested plant guide.
Why use Cardboard?
Worms love cardboard! They will eat through this layer leaving behind a bio-rich layer of soil. We also have an excess of cardboard from our current online shopping craze. It is always a good idea to reuse and recycle materials instead of sending them to the landfill. Michelle Cabrera, a landscape designer from Watershed Progressive, who was leading a demonstration on sheet mulching this past Thursday stated that we need to “put these trees back to the Earth, where they belong”.