Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Roundup use in common areas

[Marina King (marinakingcarpenter]

Hi there Ceil:
I am very sorry your community is considering Round-up. Skagit Commons has
successfully used cardboard - very often a free resource - over very large
areas. You can purchase landscape pins to hold it down. You cover it with
as thick a layer of mulch as you can. The chips can be from the local
arborist. It doesn't have to be fancy stuff from the Garden Store.
Arborists will often deliver chips for free or almost free if you allow
them to do a drop of a full truck load (as much as 35 yards!)
We have used this strategy very successfully for several landscaping
projects now. If you want to plant very soon after your application of
cardboard & mulch, you simply need to brush the mulch aside enough to punch
a hole in the cardboard, punch the hole, plant the plant, and replace the
mulch around the base of the plant. If you wait through a season to do the
planting, the cardboard will have deteriorated enough that it no longer is
an issue as far as digging holes go.
It is important to remove as much tape as possible from the cardboard,
otherwise you have lengths of tape showing up in your new landscape.
Good luck with your project!
Regards,
Marina King
Landscape Circle lead
Skagit Commons

On Fri, Oct 2, 2026 at 7:45 AM Ceil Malek via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Our community, Casa Verde Commons in Colorado Springs, is proposing to use
> Roundup extensively to kill old grass in preparation for planting native
> grass.  The intention is to cut down on water bills and prepare for coming
> climate change, which is admirable..
>
> Our landscape committee, which is proposing the project, advocates this use
> of Roundup t because it's time limited, but the chemical will be
> administered over a three-year period. Final decision will come from the
> board, not the community.
>
> I'm wondering what other communities have done.  Are there viable
> alternatives to using Roundup?  Do other communities have a model for
> changing to native grass that doesn't challenge the health of community
> members, especially the vulnerable ones. We have young children, older
> people with various health challenges, dogs, and cats whose exposure to the
> chemical Roundup may be especially problematic.
>
> Thanks for your help.
> Ceil Malek
> Casa Verde Commons
> Colorado Springs, CO
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