Solarizing My Lawn

Our entire front yard was bermuda grass. I decided I wanted to get rid of the grass and install a garden. In doing research, I learned that bermuda grass is hard to get rid of. It is extremely persistent. And even if you get rid of it, a grass seed will just blow in from your neighbor's yard into your yard and bermuda's back.

Whatever. Bermuda grass has never met a challenger as dogged as me.

I got started a little late, toward the end of July. I did my research by reading articles published by various extension offices and by calling my local master gardener hotline.

Our front yard is west-facing with no shade and a ton of sun. I decided to solarize the grass. What you do is till up the grass. Then you get the soil wet. And then you place a clear plastic sheet over the grass to let the sun steam the roots and seeds until they die.

Solarizing in full swing

In Austin, late July was probably a little late. The days start getting shorter toward the end of summer, so you miss out on sunlight. I'd recommend starting early July and letting it go through September.

Anyway, I started in late July, and things were going great. It was hot and the grass was turning yellow. But then August hit and we had a very wet and mild month--not enough heat. In September, my plastic started to get tons of holes. I think the holes were due to the heat and the UV from the sun breaking down the plastic over time. Another cause is that when I put down the plastic, I stretched it kind of taut, removing wrinkles. I think the plastic was stressed by that.

Because it was breaking down, I pulled the plastic mid-September.

A disappointing start to my solarizing.

If I do it again, the main improvements I'll make are:
-making a much tighter seal between the plastic and the ground. (I used rocks to keep the plastic on the ground, but next time I'll dig mini-trenches and then bury the plastic in them, creating a super seal)
-starting earlier in the summer and going later
-not stretching plastic, allowing some slack
-possibly buying thicker mil plastic that would last longer in our hot Texas summer (I used 3 mil from Home Depot).
-mowing the bermuda grass down really low before tilling, then clearing clumps of dead grass after tilling and before laying down plastic. Then raking soil pretty flat. That's because some clumps of dead grass became very brittle and poked holes in my plastic. A couple dried out clumps of soil did the same.


When I pulled the plastic, the grass was pretty much dead in the bulk of the yard (at least at the surface). Shortly after, I put down compost and mulch.

Several weeks later, there are many green leaves of bermuda grass that pop up through my mulch. I have decided that solarizing was a great start, but it was just a start. Now the next phase is to just pull every single leaf that I see. My hope and plan is that if I pull every single leaf of remaining bermuda, then after a couple of years the root system will run out of energy and die out.

I will pull every single one of these for the next several years until the roots are dead. I will succeed.