Hi hi, first time poster here. We just flipped most of the sod in our front lawn. The sod cutter broke so we are doing the rest by hand..
All of the suggestions I have seen for seeding or planting after flipping want a lot of compost or mulch and amendments. My understanding is that amending isn’t really what native plants want.
It seems that under the darker soil from the sod, it transitions into more native-like soil. So I don’t want to amend it if that will hurt the native plants. I have a bunch growing in the house and am cold stratifying lots of seeds to plant.
Any advice would be helpful!! I hate lawns and we have almost zero bees in this neighborhood. Last year we let our grass go crazy and it created this beautiful meadow and we had bees and butterflies and so many other bugs and birds. I want to give them the best chance I can!
I’m in Montana, USA – zone 4b
by compandaleelee
11 Comments
Where you’ve got a nice big square area there, I’d tarp it until you’re ready to plant. You’re going to have weeds/grass germinating there and you want as little competition as possible when you’re going to be seeding/transplanting your babies. The tarp will also keep it damp in there and help some of the root mats from the grass break down.
I’d also suggest planting some brown top millet as a nurse crop along with your natives. It is fast to germinate, but will still let the natives grow and be more protected and help prevent weeds/grasses from growing. It has a ton of seeds, but isn’t bad at re-seeding itself. So you don’t need to do anything with it, just let it die and the birds will eat all the seeds.
You can also plant some cosmo seeds that will come up and bloom this year even if the natives don’t bloom. They aren’t bad to reseed either and will die out on their own.
What part of Montana? Hugely different ecoregions across your state. Missoula versus Whitefish versus the eastern Hi-line….very different plants and climates.
If this is full sun then true meadow plants should be just fine. My first meadow had very little amendment and was the shittiest soil.
You can go ahead and sow a seed mix that’s native to you if you’re OK with a meadow. A good mix will have some quick starters to crowd out weeds. Don’t worry about cold strat—most of the stuff that will save your ass the first two years doesn’t need it. I’ve sown two meadows in mid-May in NC and had great success!
Water if you can, especially once you get rain so things don’t dry out. Draught isn’t as bad as a good rain followed by no rain.
Cover crops! Chop and drop once the plants flower and allow everything to decompose into the soil, you can do successive plantings so you have soil cover growing all season to build up the layer of organic matter
Looks great, would be cool to see some follow up pics as you progress. Good luck 🍀
The soil is probably pretty terrible under long-established lawn, no matter what it looks like. I’d let the sod dry out for a handful of days in the sun and mulch heavily (~4″) with wood mulch like arborist wood chips, then start adding native plants that are woody and/or run over the first couple years while soil conditions improve before switching to more sensitive species that need better soil. Consider pioneer species to kick start the process.
If you’re looking for some species suggestions, my site Easyscape generates interactive native lists accurate to any square mile. If you type in your address or click on a map near your garden it can generate personalized lists for Helena at 4,500 ft. You can filter options further for form, low/no water, etc. in the search tab. Here’s a list I generated for the Helena:
[https://easyscape.com/categories/all_plants?address=helena-montana&filter=native](https://easyscape.com/categories/all_plants?address=helena-montana&filter=native)
https://preview.redd.it/8gr1equscmwg1.png?width=1885&format=png&auto=webp&s=efce74da06bbebdc8e0e13069e0f418c8869ac1d
Wait…can you really just flip your grass upside down and then start planting in/on it??
You are my heros now. Sooo much work! I hope your garden grows into the beautiful thing you are working so hard for.
I didn’t flip my sod, I did soaked card board and 3 + inches of mulch on top of that and let it marinate until the next year.
The cardboard did not break down, so I’m dealing with the remnants of that, but it’s not that bad.
I didn’t have any weeds pop up to speak of. Maybe a handful of dandelions and thistle, but that was peanuts.
I wonder if you could do the same thing with flipped sod? Cardboard and mulch?
Gosh this looks satisfying.