Getting rid of lawn.

moonpenny

I want to get rid of front garden (slightly raised) lawn that is mostly weeds.
I have a large plastic sheet that would cover the area. Would that alone kill the lawn and weeds or do I need to use some sort of weed killer as well?

I want to distribute the soil to make the garden flat rather than raised and then re-lawn. Is it likely the original weeds will grow back?

sheramber

If you remove the fertile top soil you will be left with subsoil which may be infertile.

twopenny

I cut and lifted the turf, then after leaving it a week or so hammered the back on the turf to remove the soil to keep.
The weeds came out with the turf and I had no problems.

A sheet over probably won't kill the grass or weeds for a year or more.

If you use weedkiller there is a chance thit will affect the soil and new grass growing. Ditto worms which you need.

MikeJXE

moonpenny said:

I want to get rid of front garden (slightly raised) lawn that is mostly weeds.
I have a large plastic sheet that would cover the area. Would that alone kill the lawn and weeds or do I need to use some sort of weed killer as well?

I want to distribute the soil to make the garden flat rather than raised and then re-lawn. Is it likely the original weeds will grow back?

Black polythene sheeting will kill the grass and the weeds but it will take a few months

It's not a case of just levelling the garden or you will have areas with little or no top soil and areas with too much.

To level out the garden you need to first remove the top soli, level out the subsoil then spread the top soil evenly

Weeds will grow whatever you do, constant maintenance to control them will be needed 

Rural_Life

I used layers of wet newspaper/card to kill off my grass and keep all the nutrition in the soil. Took a couple of months but once covered and watered it was left alone. The newspaper and card then broke up and composted into the soil.
Similar to the no dig method

theoretica

I double dug my unwanted lawn - dug out thick turf, dug another spade depth, put turf face down at the bottom, refilled with soil (minus rocks + compost).  Very much not a no-dig method, but successful turning lawn into bed.

Mojisola

twopenny said:

If you use weedkiller there is a chance thit will affect the soil and new grass growing. Ditto worms which you need.

Not if you use the right weedkiller.

[Deleted User]

Agree, systemic weedkiller won't affect the ground at all.