This past weekend I finally finished digging out all of the grass that was my front lawn.  I replaced the grass with water conserving plants.  My yard is in San Diego, California, and so some of what I recently experienced in doing this is specific to Southern California.  However, I also did this about fifteen years ago in Connecticut, so this article should apply to anyone who wants to be rid of their lawn.

The first step in replacing your lawn is to remove the grass.  This is by far the hardest and least glamorous part of the project.  There are a few ways to go about this.  You can spray something like Roundup to kill your grass.  You can take a rototiller to your lawn.  You can dig your lawn up bit by bit with a shovel.

You can spray something like Roundup on your lawn and wait for it to completely die.  I'm not sure how many treatments this would take, but I think it would take a while.  Still, you might avoid a lot of digging this way.  I did not kill my lawn with Roundup.  One reason is that the sod that made up my lawn had this green plastic netting under it, and I wanted that netting gone.  The other problem with using Roundup is that it would leave lots of unsightly dead grass.  If you plan to heavily mulch your yard so that you can't even see the dead grass, and you make certain that all the grass is completely dead before mulching, then this wouldn't be a bad approach.  Or, if you don't care that there will be dead grass visible for a few years while your yard is in transition, then this would be an easy way to go.

You can dig up your lawn with a rototiller.  At least one neighbor will invariably suggest this to you.  I did not use a rototiller when I recently removed my lawn.  In my case, as in most Southern California lawns, there is an underground sprinkler system that the rototiller would ruin.  The other problem, as I discovered back in Connecticut, is that rototilling does not kill grass.  I was digging grass clumps out of my rototilled daylily bed back in Connecticut for years.  I guess that if you don't have a underground irrigation system, and you sprayed Roundup first to completely kill the grass, then rototilling might not be a bad idea.

You can dig up your lawn with a shovel.  I removed my grass with a shovel, digging up one nine inch square of sod after another.  It took months.  It was difficult.  However, it came out really well.  If you live in a area in a drought I'll strongly advise you to start your digging only after it has rained in the past month.  I started my digging project in October.  It hadn't rained here in San Diego since the previous April.  The soil was baked hard.  It was very dusty when I dug it up.  This made a difficult job even more miserable.  Once the rains came in November the soil got much softer and easier to work with.  The soil even smelled like soil.  It was still a difficult job, but much less miserable.  Not surprisingly, the sod in my yard had good soil where the roots are.  This meant that after digging up each grass clump I wanted to get as much of that soil as possible off the clump and into my yard.  I did this by flipping the clump upside down on the ground, whacking it with the edge of my shovel a few times, and then shaking soil from the sod.  Once you get the sod to to mostly roots and grass you can either add it to your compost, or if you have trash pickup with a special bin for "greenery" add it to that.  Note that digging the lawn and knocking the soil off is hard work.  I personally couldn't do more than 20 or 30 square feet in a day.

Once you have the sod removed I would recommend amending your soil.  I would usually do this at the end of digging up each new patch.  Where the soil is alkaline, such as here in Southern California, you will want to add pelletized gypsum.  Where the soil is acidic, such as in New England, you will want to add pelletized lime.  I also added some peat moss and compost to the soil.  Spread the gypsum/lime and peat out over your soil and rake it in.  Some people would say only to amend where you will actually be planting, but as I will probably never have the whole yard this prepared again I took the opportunity to amend all the soil.  Later, when I put in the plants, I amended those holes much more.

Partly because this was such slow and hard work I did not wait until I had all of the grass removed from my yard to begin planting.  I started planting once I had fairly sizable sections of yard ready.  This not only will encourage you, but will also serve to demonstrate to your neighbors that you are not a complete maniac.  If you have some finished sections to display it is a real boost to all.

So, what water wise plants should you put in your yard?  This is the fun part.  You can, of course, go to local nurseries and see what they have.  Most nurseries in drought prone areas will have special water conserving plant sections and will be happy to discuss your options with you.  You can also see what seems to be thriving in your neighborhood.  I especially like plants that are doing well despite little or no irrigation.  Be sure to notice the conditions in your yard such as sun or shade, and get appropriate plants.  My front yard gets intense full sun, so I needed plants that would do well under these conditions.  My standout plants are aloe, sedum, srelitzia.

Check out my resources for gardening at GardeningWithLarry.com with listings of local garden centers and specialty mail order nurseries.