Want to replace tiny lawn with paving

[Sallythedog]

I've recently moved, and have a small garden, planted borders with a tiny grassed area which is no more than 8ft by 8ft. It's currently attracting the neighbourhood cats. My preference is to get rid of the grass and put down paving, but leaving spaces for plants, if that makes sense. So I'd end up with deepish borders, with some paving in the middle, with pots on, and earth with plants in.

My question is this: Should I attempt to dig up the grass, or should I put weedkiller down? I've always gardened organically in the past, but I'm looking for a quickish solution. I won't be laying the paving myself, I'm, erm, not exactly in the first flush of youth, but for economy would like to get the preparations done before I get a professional in.

Could I have your views please, or indeed any other suggestions.

Thankyou MNers

[MrsMushroom]

I would not use weedkiller if cats are going there. It's not too hard to move turf...especially if its not large.

Do it over a few days perhaps? Or see if someone can help?

[MrsMushroom]

cats eat grass...mine does.

[mollythewitch]

I did this, for exactly the same reasons! What I did was laid out the paving on top of the lawn for a couple of weeks first. This was to make sure I had enough coverage as I was using a mix of odd and broken stone flags I'd been given, plus a few bought sandstone flags and I wanted to make sure they fit before the builder came to lay them properly (there were quite a few broken pieces and odd shapes and sizes so it was a bit of a jigsaw!). When I came to dig out the grass, where I'd had the flags sat it was easy peasy as it had mostly yellowed a died off, the gaps in between took a lot more work. Once laid, where I had irregular gaps I dug pockets then filled them with gravel and pebbles and planted thymes. It was lovely, turned it from a cat infested poo spot into a real sun trap full of bees and thyme. It also made me laugh watch the offending cats wandering round on the flagstones looking confused!

[Sallythedog]

Thank you both for your replies. Molly that's an excellent idea, which I may well copy. Looking forward to confused moggies.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Poor cats

[mollythewitch]

I think if you just lay old carpet or cardboard down it would have the same effect but it was monumentally easier to dig out dead grass than living. To prepare I dug over, removed grass & roots and any big stones then trampled it down firm, like you would if you were laying a lawn. The builders put the flags down I'm a dry sand cement mix.
The one disadvantage was that it moved the cats attention to the borders for a while, which were newly dug and planted so I had to cover any bare soil with stones and holly clippings until the new plants had established and covered up any potential cats toilets!