Bye, Bye Grass

Leaving grass pathways in our garden enabled us to only clear the sod from our beds, thus preserving much of the soil foodweb and saving us time.  Now that we are in our second year of growing here at The Common Milkweed Farm, we decided it's time for the grass to go.  Steve started the project with some great edging.

A trip to the local recycling center gave us many boxes to lay on top of this grassed paths.

A trip to a local farmer's barn gave us 12 bales of straw.

Ready to start laying...

Now, time for the straw...

Nice!  One area done.  Many more to go, but the system Steve worked out allows us to work quickly.

Watering now helps the plants more since the straw acts as a nice mulch.  Most of Ohio is in level 1 drought, with our home state of IN and NW Ohio in level 3 (out of 5).  Our grass ridding is aptly timed it seems.