How to kill off your lawn and plant a native garden instead
Think about a mix of medicinal, edible, toolmaking and visually appealing native plants instead of lawn. (Adobe Stock)
Lawns are a lot of work and not everybody's idea of a visually appealing backyard.
Many of us are looking to create a native garden as a lower maintenance, more sustainable and often cheaper alternative.
"Lawns are what we call high input with low output," says horticulturist Helen Tuton, assets manager at Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust in Melbourne/Naarm and a former researcher with Gardening Australia.
"They require a lot of time, a lot of patience, a lot of equipment, and a lot of work for a fairly low outcome other than this quite Euro-centric sea of green."
So how do you go about removing the lawn you've got and creating a native oasis instead?
How do I kill my lawn?
There are three ways to remove your lawn, explains Ms Tuton.
- The "quick and easy" method is using herbicide. But first consider the impact of using it as well as following safety guidelines if you proceed.
- Physically remove the lawn by cutting it out and removing the seeds and stolons.
- Smothering the lawn with cardboard and mulch. "Laying a whole bunch of overlapping cardboard and covering that with mulch is a cheap and cheerful way of doing it," Ms Tuton says. She says the grass will die quicker in the warmer months, or a month or so in winter.
When can I start planting?
Brenden Moore recommends thinking about plants that attract birds, wildlife and insects to your garden. (Supplied: Royal Botanic Garden Sydney)
Aboriginal horticulturist and Biripi man Brenden Moore says when using the smothering method — his preferred technique — you don't have to wait for the grass to die to start planting natives.
"Use the pocket planting method, you move the thick mulch aside, break apart that cardboard and dig up a bit of grass and soil underneath," says Mr Moore from Taree, living on Darkinjung Country, NSW Central Coast.
"Then put the plant inside the pocket and add extra soil and slow-release fertiliser and native compost into that hole."
Mr Moore says planting just before or after winter is a good time.
"This will allow the root system to grow and create a little home."
Before you begin, however, he recommends thinking about what you want to plant and mapping it out.
What should I plant?
Mr Moore recommends a mix of medicinal, edible, toolmaking (for example Acacia, aka wattles for making hardwood tools) and visually appealing native plants if you want to maximise your garden's functionality.
"I like planting plants for purposes.
"Think about how they will look, do you want these plants to brush alongside you when you walk through?
"Pollinators will help attract birds and wildlife and insects to be able to grow, live in and share this space."
What you should plant will depend on where you live. Some suggestions from Mr Moore include:
- Corymbia ficifolia, a Western Australian red flowering gum
- Native mint bush or river mint
- Saltbush
- Lomandra
- Dianella
- Banksia "birthday candles"
- Snake vines
"I like to have native plants not be too separated from each other. That way, they communicate with each other above and below ground," he says.
Native plants can help attract wildlife to your backyard. (Pexels)
If you want to include some introduced species, such as a mandarin orange tree, Ms Moore says the native plants will support that tree from producing its pests and diseases.
Ms Tuton says if you aren't sure where to start, visit a local nursery that specialises in indigenous plants.
"They have plants locally native to where you are, which are always going to do best.
"Say you want to convert a lawn into something more sustainable with better environmental outcomes, and they will be able to give you a list."
She says your local council will also have lists of plants indigenous to the region.
"Pick the right mix and look for a range of plants [so that your garden] will flower all year long, otherwise you get a banding flower in spring, and nothing else for the rest of the year."
Ms Tuton says there are lots of Australian native plants that flower in winter and "are really valuable".
"That's when you see birds and insects that can't find tucker anywhere else."
Creating an environmentally friendly pathway
If you'd like to be able to walk through your native garden, think about sustainable pathway options.
"I just love purely walking on woodchip," says Mr Moore.
"That way it becomes purely a space for insects and birds and you are able to create a little native haven."
Ms Tuton says a thick layer of organic mulch can be affordable, simple and easy to maintain.
For people who are less mobile or using the pathway to drag bins across, for example, she says a more stable option can be made from crushed rock or granitic sand — something permeable that water can move through.
"You can put pavers down and integrate that with the ground cover."
Sick of mowing your lawn? A native garden could be your answer. (Pexels)
Planning and patience
A native garden is a "work in progress", says Mr Moore.
"I'm always thinking about what I can add to mine. What's working well, what isn't."
He says most maintenance involves putting mulch around the garden area, and slow-release fertiliser at the end of winter.
While your work may not be evident immediately, Ms Tuton says the biodiversity benefits of your transformation will reveal themselves in time.
"We've been conditioned with these TV shows to see gardens transformed overnight. But it's looking at how your garden behaves through different seasons, where does the light sit?
"Is there competing thing that are causing things not to grow?
"It's about planning and patience. And trial and error."