Killing Everything Then Growing Grass

[Not_A_Gardener]

My parents want to get their house ready to sell. As such, I've been helping them fix it up. Most of it is easy stuff(laying new carpet, painting, etc...) but we're kind of stumped as to how to fix the lawn.

The lawn hasn't even been mowed or raked in roughly 15 years(yeah, I know it's ridiculous but our house is kind of hidden so no one ever really saw it except us). As you may expect, it's full of weeds and even some saplings. It seems to us that the best approach to dealing with this is to kill everything then just plant new grass seed.

We tried using one of those claw things but were disappointed to find out that the roots of said weeds and saplings reached down 3 or 4 feet. Since the yard is roughly 1000 square feet, neither me nor my father really feels like clawing or digging 4000 cubic feet of dirt and roots. We proceeded to head to Home Depot to see if we could find some herbicide that we could just soak the lawn in to kill the vegetation. One of the employees there recommended using Round Up then laying Scotts Turf Builder EZ Seed.

My question is this: I've tried using the Round Up(2 1.33g bottles) and the effect seems minimal. The active ingredient in it seems to be salt. At $15 a bottle, it would seem cheaper to just salt the ground. Doing some research I've found this will kill everything which is what I want. What I don't know is if in a few months, say October, I'll be able to lay new fertilizer and grass seed that will actually grow grass. If anyone could help with this, I'd appreciate it.

[Bestlawn]

It might sound like it, but salt isn't what you want. The problem is salt will remain in the soil, and you won't be able to grow grass.

The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, which affects the plants that it touches but is not persistent in the soil. You can successfully plant seeds within a few days after applying roundup to existing vegetation.

Because Roundup is normally very affective, I'm not sure why it doesn't seem to be working for you or when you used it. If it was just a few days ago, then just give it time. Did you follow the label instructions and heed the water warning? Something else to consider is outside temperatures. The label suggests the best temps for efficacy. Outside of ideal parameters, you will need to give it even more time to work, and you'll likely have to spray again. In some cases, you have to spray a second time anyway. Something that will help it along is a surfactant to help the herbicide adhere to plant tissue. Just a tablespoon of regular dishwashing liquid mixed in should do the trick, or you can purchase a surfactant from Home Depot.

I'm a little concerned about your timing. If you are spraying Roundup right now and plan to seed in the fall, then you will have a lot of vegetation that grows back in the interim.

Something else I'm wondering about is the lack attention for so long. In such a long time as that, isn't everything as tall as trees? I imagine you not only have deep roots and saplings, but probably tree stumps too. So, don't you need something like a swather to chop it all down? And, you probably need a tiller or box blade to turn the soil over. I hate that idea and never recommend tilling, but I think yours are unique circumstances. I'm thinking in terms of Roundup not really serving your purpose. It will kill it, but you still have the problem of getting rid of it, which kind of makes using Roundup unnecessary since you need to remove it and then turn the soil over. It doesn't matter if it's dead or alive when being removed.

I wouldn't suggest you use anything that promises magical results. Buy the regular Scotts seeds and regular fertilizer. Inquire when you're ready if you would like help with the seeding process.

The best time to seed is between mid-August and mid-September. October could prove way too late for success.

[Blunt]

covering the ground with heavy black plastic to block all sunlight will kill almost everything as well. Previous posting had what sounded like some good ideas. At this stage you may have to use a combination of things in order to reclaim you're lawn.

[jal_ut]

If there is still some grass in there, I would cut the small trees out with an axe, then spray the weeds with 24d, then water and mow the area. The grass will respond.

If you feel you really need to start over, Get a tiller and till up the area, water up the weeds, then till again and plant grass seed.