How to kill a lawn in just a few hours (without really trying. Or wanting to!)

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Well, ain't that special!

I'm building a hoop house to shelter my tractor, and I do plan to post pics of that when it's done, but today was special. I'm trying to do this on the cheap, so I bought a re-cycled billboard vinyl to act as the cover for it. It needed grommets added along the edges, so one of my boys was at that project today. We spread it out on the front lawn because it's a reasonably flat area which made it convenient for the work.

I ordered this billboard vinyl online, and it's cost, shipped, was about 75 bucks. Not bad for a 25x26' heavy duty tarp! There are some downsides, but I'll go into those more in detail when I post about the project. For today's adventure, what matters is that one side has the original advertising on it (something about student loans), and the other side is black. We spread it out on the lawn black side up.

I got home from a run to town, and he was complaining about all the hot, humid air coming out from under the tarp when he picked up an edge to install a grommet.

We peeked under the thing and saw.... brown grass. 5 hours in the morning sun and that black tarp had baked the grass under it deader than a door nail! :confused2:

Here's what it looked like this evening:

View attachment 512072

 

[Streetcar]

Similar problem with a black pool cover. Lucky I moved tarp after an hour and the grass recovered

 

[CalG]

The roots are not dead!

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

The roots are not dead!

Probably not, but given a few days, I'm pretty sure they would be!

 

[mapper]

I was doing a landscaping project a couple of years ago and parked my then new tractor on the lawn with the bottom of the loader flat on the grass and facing south. Burned a perfect rectangle into the grass that took most of the summer to recover!

 

[CalG]

In fact, that's a very good way to kill unwanted grass, Plastic mulch! Sold at all the garden centers just for the purpose.

Duhhh! ;-)

 

[square1]

Yep, used to do that to weedy areas to get a fresh start planting grass

 

[thepumpguysc]

That bites "the big one". TKO.. But like others have said.. WE do that on purpose TO KILL grass.. I cover my garden after every harvest, after a good till, to kill any remaining grass, weeds & mold.. & when I uncover it, its REAL NICE thick "ready to plant" soil..
Maybe a LITE rakeing & watering will bring it back in a few days??

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

I've got some T-storms scheduled for the last half of hte week. I'm thinking some overseeding and water will have it looking good in a few weeks. It might come back without the overseeding, but more likely it will be the weeds that take over.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

In fact, that's a very good way to kill unwanted grass, Plastic mulch! Sold at all the garden centers just for the purpose.

Duhhh! ;-)

Yeah, but it usually takes a bit more than a few hours!