Next is the organic mulch layer. You can use any organic material. Use leaves and grass cuttings from your own yard. Get coffee grounds from your local Starbucks. See if your county or a local tree trimming company has any cheap or free tree mulch. You need at least 3-4 inches of organic materials. Make sure this layer is also wet.

Some people use bales of straw as their organic material, which becomes sort of like a raised bed.

I also have lung disease and try to stay away from chemicals as much as possible.

Sheet mulching is free, or almost free, and you can do a little bit at a time. Roundup costs money and still takes a year of spraying to get rid of every weed and grass, as you stated yourself. With sheet mulching/lasagna, you can plant right away in some cases.

Sheet mulching did absolute wonders for my terrible soil. I'm glad I have my Roundup handy for the corner where poison ivy keeps popping up, but I can't imagine spraying my entire yard with it. Jbander, if you have no qualms about using chemicals, I guess it's an option, but sheet mulching was not a lot of work at all.

I just delivered over 12 yards of wood chips to a couple in town who have only maybe about a 4 x 10 area of actual grass. The whole rest of their front yard is shrubs, wood chips and trees and it actually looks really nice. They re-apply chips every several years apparently.

Lloyd

Some people just hate round up, and nothing can be done to change their mind. So, they will think up all kind of awful things about round up. I have had people tell me things like it will kill birds. Sometimes if you don't like something you would do better to look at the facts of a product rationally rather then demonize it.

I have a wonderful friend who is closer to 90 than he is to 80. He is a big fan of Roundup and when I voiced some concern about its enivironmental impact he told me quite clearly, "its my land and I can use and do whatever I want to it."

Smoke it.

A one time application of Round up to prepare a larger area for seeding a prairie or meadow is probably the easiest way. The OP could wear a good quality respirator to protect his lungs. If applied according to instructions, on a calm and sunny day, it will dry quickly and have the least impact on surrounding plants or wildlife.

On the other hand, I've had a great experience creating garden beds by laying down a paper layer and then covering with an inch or so of either wood chips or leaves to kill weeds. It takes longer for the weeds to die off however, but it enriches the soil, preserves moisture and the worms LOVE it.

If you buy the seed mix, they will have instructions on the best way to kill the existing lawn and convert it to a slow-n-low growing turf.

I have a crushed granite driveway parking lot and last summer I put five different kinds of weed/grass killers on it to kill weeds. Not one single one came even close to killing all the weeds, including areas that were repeated ly resprayed.

They can be annoying on a lawn when one gets careles and over-spray gives a temporary brown spot, but unless one uses agricultural/commercial grade spray, I believe they are over-rated.

The only thing I ever used on the drive-way that lasted a full year was old gasoline that had become to much like varnish.

As I wrote in another thread, IF you can get help and have access to a rental store. Rent a sod-cutter and cut the sod off and either haul it away or have them dig a pit deep enough so that a covering of dirt can be put over the stacked sod, even if three fourths are above grade, as it will turn into a dirt mound quite quickly.

One odd-annoying thing, at least around here-- sod rolls now are inches wider than they were thirty to forty years ago but sod cutters still cut to the old size.