Do I need to remove all roots from lawn bed?

Question

Hi,

I am working on a lawn (in London) that was taken over by wild grasses and weeds so I decided to start from scratch and reseed the lawn. I strimmed down the overgrowth and I removed all the loose debris. I then covered the entire lawn area with black plastic sheeting. after about 6 weeks the lawn underneath appeared to be dead, so I removed the sheeting and I began removing the top layer of dead grass and put it in the waste bin.

I then started to turn the soil and break down the heavy soil to get it ready before I rake, roll and seed it.

I am noticing when I am turning the soil that there is numerous amounts of different kinds of roots under the soil some that appear dead some that appear alive, some on the surface, some rooted in the subsoil, some hair like etc.

I am just wondering what roots to remove and what roots are okay to leave that won’t interfere with my new lawn?

I have been going through it very finely and trying to remove all the roots but it seems impossible to get them all as some of them are very fine.

I have put so much work into this lawn already and it would be such a shame if after all of this the lawn gets taken over again.

I would really appreciate advice from an expert.

Thanks

Answer 1

Solarization works best with clear plastic so the sun can penetrate and warm the soil. I'm thinking with your mild summers, the soil may not have reached high enough temperatures to kill all the plant material. And turning the soil is uncovering a lot of weed seeds that will now grow. From this point, I would just remove the rest of the sod, then start the raking, rolling and seeding. Solarization would only have killed existing weeds and not a guarantee of a weedless lawn.