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My biggest question is why anyone would want to get rid of their green lawn to begin with. A healthy lawn require surprisingly little real maintenance, outside of occasional mowing, watering, and minor weeding.

The weeding can even be relaxing after a hard day's work, to be sitting, digging up dandelions and such, which are beneficial plants for the dinner table. It really takes little effort. In fact, if the lawn is largely energy consuming, it is probably either an indicator that it is far too large, or that something isn't being done quite properly.

I'm currently living in the third house in a row that had very little to speak of as far as a lawn when we moved in. They've all been basically weed fields, filled with little more than brown stubble and weeds. All have been of varying sizes, but one thing has been common in all three. Within 3 months, we had a lush green lawn that made the entire place look nicer.

At all three places, we have done the same thing; water deeply at least once a week, reseed barren spots, and do minor weeding. Thick rich grass will choke out weeds, so the weeding doesn't need to be extensive, the lawn simply needs to be healthy. Keeping it well enough mowed that the weeds don't go to seed, and removing only the biggest weeds, is generally enough.

For this reason, perhaps I shouldn't even be writing to something regarding getting rid of a green, energy consuming lawn, since I've never had one that consumed that much energy, except solar energy that would otherwise be wasted. Fact is, with as much talk as there is about lowering carbon dioxide levels, what better way to do it than to have a nice healthy yard filled with grass that is converting the co2 to oxygen? A small lawn does this to a greater extent than a moderate sized tree.

If you really want to get rid of something this nice, it isn't that hard to do. First, stop watering it and prevent moisture from getting to it. Second, put black plastic tarp over it and weight this down, which also helps with the first step. Third, simply wait for it to die. It really isn't any harder than that. It is a lot easier to kill a nice lawn than it is to turn a sickly lawn into a healthy one.

The shocker to many people, though, is that once you've killed the yard, unless you treat it with harsh chemicals that are harmful to all plants (and wildlife for that matter), the grass may be dead, but the weeds will only be waiting for moisture to grow and flourish. Personally, I'd much rather have a nice lush green carpet of grass, than a sporadic grouping of a few healthy weeds. That is just me, and I cannot advise you as far as what you would find preferable.

I just hope that everyone would consider it carefully before deciding to destroy a nice green lawn. It can be done, but really serves no useful purpose.

Learn more about this author, Rex Trulove.
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