I killed my lawn in fall 2024 to create a native plant garden. This portion of the yard is 80% direct seeding 20% plugs. I thought I’d offer some hard earned advice for those of you direct seeding this winter.
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Use a cover crop.
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Take it easy on the yarrow.
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Most importantly, control for slugs. These little assholes are not native to my area, love cold wet weather, thrive in wood chips, and will eat your plants before you even know they germinated. They seem to have a preference for sprouts of the most expensive and hard to find seeds. You won’t know that you have slugs unless you look for them so stay vigilant. Hand picking at night helped but I eventually resorted to Sluggo which targets snails and slugs specifically. Note that you do not want to use Sluggo Plus which contains other pesticides.
by International-Fox202
5 Comments
It’s great! What method did you use to kill the lawn and what cover crop do you recommend?
Because the yarrow is aggressive? Wondering why that one got called out specifically.
Partridge pea can take over quickly too.
Thanks for sharing! I’m new at this and can take all the advice I can get. I am also hesitant to use Sluggo, but sounds like I might have to bite the bullet here. I don’t want all my hard work to go to waste.
I found that burying a quart deli cup so the rim is flush with the soil with beer will massacre slugs. If you really are feeling murderous.. use a pint.