If your yard is starting to look more like foreclosure than a nicely manicured home because your lawn isn’t working, it could be time to restart your lawn from scratch. Bare spots, out-of-control weeds, and the grass generally not looking much like a lawn anymore are just a few reasons you might consider killing your lawn and starting over. Well, you wouldn’t be the first person to replace a lawn. But when do you know that killing a lawn and starting over is the best option? Let’s take a look.
Should I Kill My Lawn and Start Over? (The Short Answer)
Generally speaking, once 50% of the lawn is dead, it’s practical to start over. A lawn in poor health can usually be brought back to life with a lot of hard work, investment, and time. But there comes a time when restoring a lawn requires more effort and money than killing the lawn and starting over.
Scenarios Where Killing a Lawn and Starting Over is a Good Option
Before you grab some plastic sheeting or an herbicide, let’s look at a few scenarios where killing a lawn and starting over is a good idea.
50% of the Lawn is Gone
If you find yourself in a position where a large portion of your lawn is missing due to weeds, disease, neglect, or even the dogs tearing around, you’ll find that starting over is the easiest and significantly quicker option. Waiting for the grass to recover and fill in will require fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and probably either seed or sod. When you start to add the cost of all these processes, you realize the price is pretty high.
Weed Infestation
Weeds are great at smothering grass and killing off a lawn if you don’t stay on top of them on a regular basis. In bad cases, you’ll find that weeds completely take over, and no matter what you do, you never seem to win the battle. If this is the case, killing a lawn and starting over is usually the best option. Even if you do manage to beat the weeds, there may not be much grass left.
Undesirable Grass
Another reason for killing a lawn and starting over is if you have a mix of grass in your lawn that you don’t want. For example, I’ve seen St. Augustine lawns that have been taken over by Zoysia. Now because St. Augustine and Zoysia are both types of grass, then there isn’t a herbicide that will kill one and not the other. Therefore if you want to get back to one grass type, you’ll need to start over.
Soil Problems
If you have poor soil, then you’re probably familiar with tasks such as fertilizing, topdressing, extra watering, and aeration. These are all methods you can use to improve the quality of your soil to give your lawn the best possible conditions to thrive. Unfortunately, these methods are time-consuming and can become expensive over the year, especially if you need to repeat them every year.
So, when calculating lawn expenses over a few years, you may find that killing your lawn and starting over with a new soil bed could be a better option for your wallet in the long run.
Time Not on Your Side
If you had all the time in the world and some pretty good patience, you would probably be able to get your lawn back to an acceptable standard. But this could take years. I’ve seen St. Augustine spread and fill in bare patches fairly quickly. But bunching grasses like perennial ryegrass and fine fescue don’t spread as they grow. Therefore, you’ll be waiting forever if you wait for a bunching grass lawn to fill in. The only real solution is to start again.
Things You’ll Need to Keep in Mind If You Restart Your Lawn From Scratch
Ripping up a lawn and starting over is no small feat. It takes time and hard work. Especially if you undertake the job yourself. So, before you head out and start tearing up your lawn, let’s go over a few of the realities of killing a lawn and starting over.
Killing the Lawn
You can kill the existing lawn in a few different ways. For example, you could use an herbicide to kill the grass and wait a few weeks for the chemical to work and wash out of the soil. So, it’s a slow process. Or you could use a sod cutter to remove the lawn completely. This is a quick process, but you’ll have to be comfortable using a sod cutter, and you’ll need to get rid of a big pile of removed sod.
Topping up the Soil
If you use a sod cutter, you are removing a few inches of soil at the same time. Now, this may not be a problem, but you may need to add fresh soil to bring the level back up. Even a small yard will probably need a few yards of fill, which can be some backbreaking work.
Now if you decide not to top up the soil, you will need to consider adjusting the height of your irrigation heads. Less soil means the heads could be sticking up out of the ground and can get chopped off with your lawn mower.
Picking the Right Time of Year
Weather can play a really big role in deciding when to kill a lawn and start over. If it’s too wet, your lawn will turn into a mud pit. If it’s too hot, your new lawn will struggle. If it’s too cold, your lawn may not grow at all. So, you’ll need to be flexible when planning your new lawn.
How to Restart a Lawn
So you are ready to take the plunge, rip out your lawn, and start again. Here are all the steps you’ll need to follow to install your new lawn.
Surveying the Existing Lawn
The first job is to mark out any services like irrigation heads on your lawn. If you use a power tool to remove your lawn, you’ll want to make sure you know where these are.
Tools to Mark Out Services
- Landscaping Flags
Removing the Existing Lawn
The two main options for removing a lawn are herbicides with soil solarization or sod cutting. Let’s take a closer look at these two methods.
Herbicide with Soil Solarization
Using herbicides with soil solarization is a two-part process. The first stage is to spray the lawn with a herbicide such as Round-Up and allow the chemical to poison the grass and weeds. Then after 24h, cover the lawn with a plastic sheet. This is called soil solarization and is the second stage. You are basically blocking out the sunlight and increasing the temperature of the soil.
The knock-on effect of this process is the lawn dies, and weeds seeds are destroyed. Now you can use these methods separately, as they are both effective at killing grass. But using them as a combination really speeds up the process. I would expect the lawn to be completely dead after a week. The final stage is using a rake to remove all dead vegetation. This is the hard part.
Tools to Poison & Solarize Existing Lawn
- Eye Protection
- Facemask
- Gloves
- Herbicide
- Sprayer
- Water
- Plastic Sheeting
- Garden Rake
Sod Cutting
Sod cutters are machines that remove approximately 2 or 3 inches of the top grass and soil. They are similar to a small mower in that you walk behind the machine while it does its work. You end up with a continuous strip of removed grass and soil that you can then cut into manageable pieces. When you remove the cut sod from the lawn, you are left with bare soil ready for the next stage.
I should mention that what you remove doesn’t just become useless – it can be repurposed and used for good. In fact, I put together the following post that you might find interesting if you’re in this situation:
Tools to Sod Cut an Existing Lawn
- Sod Cutter
Preparing the Soil
Now that you’ve gotten rid of the lawn, it’s time to prepare the soil. This can include adding a layer of topsoil and a very thin layer of compost, say a ¼ inch. Also, you can add a small amount of lawn starter fertilizer and mix it into the soil and compost.
In addition, if you have been trampling a lot during the removal, consider using a tiller to break up the top of the surface to remove any compaction. Alternatively, you can use a hard garden rake to break up the top few inches of soil. Again this is some pretty tough work.
Now if you did go the herbicide route, then you’ll want to make sure that the chemical has leached through the top part of the soil. The only way to make sure this has happened is to water the soil to wash the chemical through and wait at least a few weeks before seeding or sodding.
You may read that Round-Up supposedly becomes inert after two or three days, and it’s safe to work/plant after this period without any issues. However, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) states that it can take up to 4 months.
So, the longer you can wait, the better. Then finally, give the soil surface a light rake and get rid of any humps, bumps, or holes. Sod and seeds won’t do well with air pockets.
Tools & Materials for Soil Preparation
- Topsoil
- Compost
- Lawn Starter Fertilizer
- Hard Garden Rake
- Watering Systems (Hose/Irrigation)
Seeding or Sodding a New Lawn
Seeding – The best method I have found to spread seed onto a new lawn is to use either a drop spreader or a broadcast spreader. The broadcast spreader is good for large areas and gets seeds out quickly, whereas a drop spreading is slower but much more accurate. Depending on your lawn area, one might work better than the other.
If you look at the side of the seed bag, you should find the settings for your spreader. All you need to do is set your spreader to the appropriate application rate, and off you go.
Tools & Materials for Seeding
- Grass Seed for Spreaders
- Drop/Broadcast Spreader
Sodding – If you like jigsaw puzzles, then you’ll probably like sodding. All there is to it is laying out the rolls/pieces, so they are tightly positioned without gaps and cutting off the excess. I recommend that you position the pieces, so they are staggered and not just in a checkerboard pattern. I find this helps keep everything tight.
So, lay one complete row of sod, then begin the next row, starting halfway down the first piece of sod. This will give the staggered pattern. Finally, take a cutting tool like a large knife or old hand wood saw (my preference) and cut off any excess sod.
If you can help it, try not to walk over the sod, as this will compress the soil and potentially damage the root. If you have to walk on the sod, try using a scaffold board or a wood plank. This will spread your weight and reduce the damage/compaction of your new sod.
Tools & Materials for Seeding
- Sod Rolls/Pieces
- Sod Cutter (Knife/Saw)
- Wooden Planks
New Lawn Care
What do new seeds and sod need the most? Water. Newly spread grass seed and laid sod will need at least 1 inch of water every day for at least the first week or so. Then you should be able to reduce watering down to every other day. After about a month, you should be able to put your new lawn on a regular twice-a-week schedule. But this will vary depending on what time of ear you have decided to plant your new grass.
You want to avoid two things: your new lawn drying out or getting too much water. An easy way to keep an eye on the moisture level in your lawn is to use a soil moisture tester. These handy little tools give you the precise water content of your soil and eliminate having to use your finger as a gauge.
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