Converting my lawn from grass to mulch

Hi! I just bought my first house. It came with nice green grass. I'm trying to figure out how to go about changing it over to a mulch lawn.

Obviously I can get mulch delivered and just spread it over the grass, which will eventually die. But I'm worried the lawn will be too high up over the pavement and the mulch will just kinda spill out over the sides.

So because of that I'm thinking of trying to remove the grass... But I've called a few landscaping companies and nobody offers this as a service.

Any suggestions?

I moved in the fall, to just under an acre of mostly lawn.
There were a few existing beds and the way I am converting is to: build out from those beds by planting and mulching. ( I got a couple of free loads of wood chips) Also, we planted over 30 trees. They are all heavily mulched and I've started doing guild plantings to expand their footprints. The old existing trees are getting the same treatment so the lawn around them is reduced. Finally, I've been setting up a bunch of lasagna style beds. Some are being used for annuals right now and some were planted with guild plants for trees I'll buy next year.
There is still lots of lawn but I am happy with how much we have gotten rid of in less than a year!

Controversial take: I tilled mine. I went through a lot of iterations before ultimately deciding to till, but ended up going with it because it was fast and effective for my purposes. I don't plan to till again, it was a grass killing measure.

I tilled, then covered it with a tarp. Waited two weeks (which killed the grass under the dirt), then tilled again. Covered it in a deep layer of hay and straw mulch, and planted.

My main tilling concern is the pan that forms under the ground. Since I am not making a habit of tilling, the pan won't form so my plants roots can go where they wish. The grass being tilled in becomes a green manure situation, and my plants in that bed are all very happy.

For it to be a permaculture plan it first needs a use designation then the design choice of method and materials to make it more permanent.
What are the site constraints that make mulch preferable to grass?

Hi Regina,
Welcome to Permies!

I do agree that some more information would be helpful. Can you share more about why you want to convert from grass to mulch? Is it to start a garden? Some perennial shrubs? To conserve water?

Understanding the reasoning behind it would help us make better suggestions on how to accomplish it.

why do you not want a lawn?  is that all that surrounds house? are there any trees or shrubs? flower bed? garden? and where is this, north, south, east, west?  I'm guessing this is in a suburban neighborhood where people have yards that are manicured. if your thinking that a lawn mower that uses gas is a environmental problem, your right, but there are lots of great rechargeable electric mowers now that dont use fossil fuels. it would maybe help to understand your motivation.
if your in a suburban neighborhood I would maybe think about planting some trees and mulching around the trees. a well manicured yard in suburbs adds much to value. its called curb appeal.
if your in the desert where there is no water there is tasteful landscaping called xeriscape.

I moved into my home in suburban Cincinnati around three years ago. I usually like to convert a front lawn into a pollinator garden. Since we have great regional parks with many wonderful wildflowers, the first thing I did was collect seed in the fall for everything that I saw that had a seed head. At home, I started with all the cardboard boxes from the move and ordered up a bunch of mulch. Gradually, over the last three years, I have continued to mulch the areas where I don't want "lawn" and developed beds for native and purchased plants. It is a constant evolution. Here are some pics.

Marco Zolow wrote:I moved into my home in suburban Cincinnati around three years ago. I usually like to convert a front lawn into a pollinator garden. Since we have great regional parks with many wonderful wildflowers, the first thing I did was collect seed in the fall for everything that I saw that had a seed head. At home, I started with all the cardboard boxes from the move and ordered up a bunch of mulch. Gradually, over the last three years, I have continued to mulch the areas where I don't want "lawn" and developed beds for native and purchased plants. It is a constant evolution. Here are some pics.

I love these photos so much! What a lush walk from the house to the road. And not a blade of grass in sight. I wish I had a vision like that back when I lived in a house with a similar walkway. I had a simple lawn path and planted some perennial shrubs and herbs, but I never converted the large swath of lawn and the result fell far short of what I really wanted. I would have been so happy with results like yours

How much maintenance is there around the stepping stones? I figure you must have to cut back at some point or else the path becomes hard to walk on

The stones have violets and plantain growing between them, mostly. Weed whip handles the edges. Not challenging at all.
Here is what the backyard lawn has become. The veg garden is between this zone and the house.