Every hobby gardener cherishes and cares for his lawn like the apple of his eye. But there are always situations in which you want to achieve exactly the opposite. For a different use or just a new sowing, it makes sense to first completely remove the existing lawn. In order to achieve exactly that, a wide variety of techniques are circulating among garden lovers and do-it-yourselfers. The best known of these are the use of film, fleece and bark mulch. But do they really work?
remove turf
Of course, there are countless different techniques for removing weed. Most of them help, but are not very popular for a variety of reasons. They are either only moderately effective or involve a great deal of technical effort. In addition, many hobby gardeners would like to avoid chemical substances in their own garden because they fear the effects on other plants grown there. Finally, the most common techniques are the use of:
- foil
- fleece
- Tree bark mulch
All three variants remove grass with the same approaches:
- withdrawal
- light
- humidity
- oxygen
- Increase in temperature to aid dehydration
The lawn area is not actively killed by using this method. Instead, it is deprived of its livelihood so that it dies of its own accord. First and foremost, this procedure costs time. It is all the more important that the effectiveness is actually given. Because hardy grasses usually help to remedy a lack of supply in a single area with alternative solutions. As a result, simply removing light, water or air is not enough. Instead, only the combination of all three factors can effectively help to eliminate it.
One should assume that the choice of material is ultimately irrelevant. However, they differ significantly in a few points, so it is worth taking a closer look at your actual suitability.
slides
Whether as a real garden foil or universally applicable multi-purpose tarpaulin, foils are known to almost everyone. Made from different plastics, films are all completely airtight and watertight. Depending on the material and coloring or transparency, a film also partially or completely blocks light. When used to remove grass, it is laid flat over the entire lawn and weighed down with stones, boards or the like.
- Material: Various plastics such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as a homogeneous compound, sometimes with fiber additives for material reinforcement
- Properties: airtight, watertight, colored mostly strong to completely opaque
- Effectiveness:
- air withdrawal:
- Withdrawal of light: moderate to very good, depending on film properties
- Dehumidification: very good
- Temperature rise: very good due to airtightness and heating as a result of solar radiation
tip: When it comes to foils, do not use the very cheap, but also extremely thin cover foils from painting supplies. They tear very quickly and let water and air into the sod. In addition, they are not light-tight, so that the death of the grass plants is clearly prevented. Instead, choose robust and completely opaque multi-purpose films, such as fabric tarpaulins or construction films.
Conclusion
If the right film is chosen, it is very well suited for removing lawns without chemical agents or time-consuming digging. Since the grass is deprived of all essential growth factors, the film should lead to the goal comparatively quickly.
fleece
Common fleeces for horticulture consist of a heterogeneous fabric of synthetic fibers. Depending on the orientation of the material, it is more or less permeable to air and moisture. The light transmission, on the other hand, depends strongly on the material thickness and the fiber density. Fleece fabrics are used in the same way as foils in strips or predefined pieces and must be supplemented with a weight to prevent them from swimming away in the rain and wind suction.
- Material: comparable to foils
- Properties: permeable to air, permeable to water, moderately to very well opaque, mostly thermal insulation properties due to fiber composite
- Effectiveness:
- Withdrawal of air: usually only moderate due to tissue structure
- Light deprivation: moderate to very good, highly dependent on the type of fleece
- Moisture removal: only slight due to water permeability
- Temperature increase: good heating of soil and lawn due to the insulating effect of the fleece materials
Conclusion
Since the removal of moisture and air through fleece is not at all or only moderately successful, the deprivation of light is of the greatest importance as a basis for life. If fleece materials are to help with the removal of grass, they must therefore be chosen to be as opaque as possible. However, even then, a relatively long waiting time must be expected before success is achieved. With little light, plants are still able to maintain the basic functions of life for a long time.
danger: The worse a fleece fulfills the required tasks, the faster its use changes. In extreme cases, the additional heat can even initially improve lawn growth. If water and light are at least minimal, the heat generated under the fleece can trigger an additional growth spurt in the lawn.
bark mulch
Contrary to the previous materials, the use of bark mulch relies on a natural material that is also used elsewhere in the garden. Since it is bulk material, the effort involved in applying a continuous, covering layer to the lawn is significantly higher. And the removal after the end of the operation is associated with a far greater use of time and material.
- Material: crushed bark of coniferous or deciduous trees
- Properties: The bark material itself is light and airtight, absorbs and releases moisture, but the properties of the actual material are not very meaningful for lawn removal, instead the overall effect of the top layer that has been filled in is relevant
- Effectiveness:
- Air extraction: given moderately with sufficient layer thicknesses, can only be described as good with very thick layers of more than 5-8 centimetres
- Light deprivation: well given from a layer thickness of around 5 centimeters
- Removal of moisture: not given, as bark mulch regulates moisture, i.e. absorbs and releases water
- Temperature rise: very good due to the insulating effect
Conclusion
If you want to remove lawns with mulch from tree bark, you have to put up with a lot of effort. This is because the material, which is made from natural raw materials, only has an effect at all if it is thickly applied. Underneath, the individual pieces, which are often up to several centimeters in size, leave large gaps. This means that the supply of water and light is still good. But even with an intensive application of the bark mulch, it will hardly be possible to completely seal off the air. While light can be excluded very well, the bark material is initially even beneficial to the moisture supply. Because it absorbs water and releases it again with a time delay, so that the lawn benefits from it for a long time to come. Finally, the bark can even serve as a nutrient supplier due to decomposition processes, which is also not conducive to lawn removal. All in all, bark mulch can be used effectively, but it should be applied in large quantities and left there for a long time.