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Chemical free methods to kill old lawn and weeds in prep for new sod

Posted: September 6th, 2020, 5:48 pm
by Ajay19
First off, if this would be a better post for the Organic section, feel free to yell at me a bit as I am new to the forum.

I live in the Colorado front range and my front lawn is a mess due to neglect of past owners (and self inflicted neglect due to a new baby). The lawn is about 200sqft. I am getting ready to kill off the old grass and eliminate all or most of the weeds to put in new sod next spring. I am looking for chemical free ways to do this.

Right now, I am thinking of a sheet/lasagna compost and solarizing mix. My plan is to start the sheet compost now (September) using cardboard, mulch and compost and leave it to overwinter. I am then thinking of starting the solarizing in the early spring (March- April which I know is not the best time) to finish the composting process and kill anything left over so I will be ready to rototill the area and put down the new sod in mid-late May.

Has anyone tried something like this with any success? Is my timeline way off? Is this just the most foolish, labor intensive/low success idea ever? Do I have any other non-chemical options that don't require 2-3 years to work? Any thoughts, comments, criticisms or ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Re: Chemical free methods to kill old lawn and weeds in prep for new sod

Posted: September 6th, 2020, 8:34 pm
by MorpheusPA
Didn't I see you before somewhere else? :-) Like we all said over there, well...kind of. Maybe. It's not that it's going to be perfect, but it'll sort of work by spring, and it'll get you out of at least some to most spraying. How much depends on the quality of the seal and how much gets choked out over that time frame.

Personally, I think much of it will go. But I tend to be a positive person. You'll have it sheeted over, trying to deal with late winter/early spring, choked for air, and so on. It's not going to be happy at all--for months at a time.

You'll still probably need to kill some chemically, but at least you can reduce the amount you'll need to use drastically. And that's a major advantage at the very least. And I may even be overly pessimistic about that.

Re: Chemical free methods to kill old lawn and weeds in prep for new sod

Posted: September 6th, 2020, 11:00 pm
by Ajay19
You definitely did see me elsewhere! Figured a second opinion never hurts! Thanks again for the continued advice!

Re: Chemical free methods to kill old lawn and weeds in prep for new sod

Posted: September 6th, 2020, 11:29 pm
by MorpheusPA
Let's see if anybody else chimes in here or over there. They probably will, it's just that today and tomorrow are likely to be very slow days.