Converting Turf to Meadow

Lawn is one of the hardest starting points for a native seeding. Turf is dense and competitive, and older lawns are often full of persistent cool-season grasses. It has to be fully killed or removed before you seed, because natives sown into living turf rarely establish.

Options for removing turf

Herbicide

Spray the turf with a non-selective herbicide such as glyphosate while it’s actively growing, then spray again once regrowth appears, usually two to three weeks later, to catch whatever survived. Tall fescue and other tough grasses may need a third pass. Once the sod is dead, mow it as short as you can and seed straight into it; the dead thatch acts as a mulch. As with any herbicide, wait at least a week after the last application before seeding, and follow the product label.

Smothering

On small and medium areas, you can smother the turf instead. Cover it with heavy black plastic or a silage tarp, weight or bury the edges, and leave it for at least six to eight weeks in warm weather, or longer when it’s cool. Without light, the grass dies. Plan to smother over the summer ahead of a fall seeding.

Solarization

Solarization works in a similar way but uses clear, UV-stabilized plastic over moist soil to trap the summer’s heat. It’s covered in more detail in Preparing the Seedbed.

Sod cutting

Stripping the sod with a sod cutter gives you a clean seedbed right away, which helps when the schedule doesn’t allow a season of preparation. The trade-off is that it removes some topsoil and organic matter and leaves you with sod to dispose of.

Don’t till the sod

Tilling breaks rhizomatous grasses into pieces that simply resprout, and it brings buried weed seed to the surface. Killing the turf in place is far more reliable.

Seeding into dead sod

A no-till drill is the best tool for placing seed through dead thatch. If you’re broadcasting instead, mow or scalp the dead turf as low as you can and rake or lightly scratch the surface so the seed reaches the soil, then press it in. Seeding Methods covers each approach in more detail.