How to go from woods to lawn?

Where better to go for a question about grass than Grassroots Motorsports??

We have half an acre of wooded area here in Mid-Michigan. It's not been developed in at least the last 40 years, probably more. A month ago it was covered with brush and saplings. My hope is to end up with only mature trees and deep shade grass.

I've pulled or cut most trees under 4" and almost all the brush. I'm still working on pulling everything to a huge brush pile at the back that I'm leaving for the critters.

Yesterday I went to scrape together the bigger sticks and branches with a metal rake but ended up scraping up the first couple inches of composted leaves and plant life, exposing bare dirt underneath on a 6 x 40 section. That was a lot of work and I cannot do that by hand on the whole area. I then ran the drag behind aerator with my JD L120 over the whole woods, intending to pulverize and churn instead. However, my understanding is that I need bare dirt in order to get grass, and it's still not that way, and I just don't know how to get there from here. Our financial future is uncertain at best, so not only must our fix be affordable, but the grass seed itself for 22k square feet is going to be like $300 so we want a little more certainty before seeding, too.

Here are pictures to help explain

This is where I pulled back the leaves and poison ivy vines/runners and exposed dirt. Holes are from aerator.

There are a bunch of rotting logs around too. Must I shovel underneath or can I just pulverize and still get grass?

Another view, also before mashing things down with the aerator.

My wife was thinking we should spend this first year maintaining by keeping it clear and using ground sanitizer on the poison ivy and others. Thoughts?

That's a lot of area, can you do it in sections? One piece at a time over a few years.

There is a technique that I've been investigating recently for preparing a plot of land for a garden. It involves covering the soil with clear plastic for a period of two to three months.

They call it Solarization. Not using chemicals is certainly an advantage. This would also save you quite a bit of money.

There's going to be a lot of stuff that's been whacked back but not killed trying to reassert itself.  In English--you're going to have a lot of weeds and small trees.  Grass seed isn't going to be able to compete. 

I like your wife's idea of just keeping it mowed this year.  That will give it time for leaves and twigs to get chopped up and break down.  Downside is, weeds will find a way to cover that ground, and you'll have to eradicate them before you plant grass.   Going forward, attacking it in sections is going to make it less of a chore.

Edit:  Also, best time to plant seed is in the Fall.

I have a similar situation--my piece of woods is smaller, but the ground is sloped and pitted and covered with leaves and brush.  I'd say you're in a pretty good spot as your land is pretty level already.

If you were close I would offer to rototill that for you, only because it would be pretty quick with the 5' tiller on the back of my tractor and the rock bucket on the front.  Maybe someone local with similar equipment could be hired in?

Meantime, maybe a set of power rake dethatching blades for the mower? That plus a craigslist lawn sweeper would be relatively cheap way to break the light loose stuff up and move it away with less back work.  The bigger stuff is going to need to be shifted, but the scale might be more manageable for not a huge investment. 

Edit: roundup and the mower, or the poly film, are going to be your friends this year.  I would probably wait until the fall to seed with shade seed, but I would buy whatever you can get cheap at an ag store in burlap sacks to start moving the edge of the lawn this summer. 

In reply to P3PPY :

The trick with grass seed is sun lite and rain.  Grass does not grow in shady areas well.  At best you will have splotchy grass in those areas. And needs regular watering. Really should have it twice a day until fully established. 
 

What about ground cover instead?   No,  not those potted plants at nursery's  but on that principle?  ( they are typically grown from seed) There are many ground covers that will do better under those conditions. 
Go on the internet for good sources of ground cover at cheap prices. Nurseries shop for plants and products why not You?  That's how I bought my bare root stock apple trees. In the fall  I spent $7-9 a tree rather than the $50 -&100 nurseries asked the same tree in a pot with dirt on it one year later.    Most ground cover sold at nurseries is sold later in the year so there might still be a very good supply for the next few weeks.  
 

The by product of ground cover is the aggressive way it keeps out invading weeds and tree seedlings ( if you select the right ones).   That will slowly work towards driving back the woods.  
Continue  to thin back saplings and  trees and you can expand your lawn area. Next year and maybe seed a little of the area where ground cover was very successful at moving back the tree line..  

In the fall, Remove  all the ground cover is areas that will get full sun all day. Spray  with a good pre-emergent and come spring just before predicted rains  till the soil, spread the seed and lightly rake it in. 

Whenever Dad does a road through his woods he clears it, then uses the trees to create a bonfire along the path of the road.  The heat kills the roots in the soil so you don't have to worry about anything growing.

Would take a while, and has its own hazards, but I can attest that it works

I did something similar to about an acre at my last house.  Hired a back hoe to take out all the stunts and small trees and large debris.  Then rented an aerator and ran it back and forth more than normal to break up the soil so the seed could take hold.  If I were to do it again I would try to find a small set of disks to better break up the soil.  Then normal seeding procedure and straw on top.  When planting new grass it takes alot of seed and straw.  I still had lots of weeds but overtime they were reduced as I used fertilizer and weed preventer.  It was never as nice as a normal suburban home but for a rural space it was good.  More of a natural lawn.  I am sure of I kept at it with more over seeding and generous use of weed preventer and pulling of the growth the weed preventer didnt attack and it would have been even nicer.  

I would definently remove any logs and large debris.  Pull as much growth as you can including roots.  Leaves can be disked into the soil but you need bare dirt on top not leaves and sticks.  

Shade grass is not as easy to grow nor as quick.  Weeds will try to take over before the grass germinates.  In my space I cleared out enough trees that i could get away with normal Kentucky fescue which is common in my area.  

Are you allowed to have livestock? A fence and a couple of goats could've cleared that out with less labor on your part. Maybe they could be used to eat the weeds that will continue to grow. Let them decimate what is there, then plant grass in the fall?

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Fire is a great sterilization tool, if you can keep it under control.  If you can get a couple of garden hoses out there and throw a socially appropriate gathering with enough of your friends to dump buckets of water as appropriate, or if you can get bare dirt around the edges of the entire area, burning it off would be a viable inexpensive option.  Some fire departments will actually help out too in the name of training, especially volunteer agencies that need the calls/hours.

Sadly no big fires unless I can get the local firefighters on board. I'm not in an incorporated area so I can shoot at my lawn all day long but they have county subdivisions called townships up here and mine says I can't start a fire bigger than 2' across in an approved ring and approved location. Also no livestock.

By the way I had no idea such a thing as a yard sweeper even existed- that's probably a lot of what I need right there! Or the power rake dethatcher blades.

So I have a question about the ground cover (the plants, not the Saran wrap - I don't think there's enough sun to make a solar oven work) would I not run into the same issue later with having to fight the ground cover like a weed when I go to add grass?

EDIT: FieroReinke, what do you mean by a small set of disks? And how deep and extensive are you talking about aerating?

In reply to P3PPY :

Depending on which you use. A lot are not so much like grapevines growing on the ground but densely planted little plants.  Think like clover or alfalfa 

A disc in this context is a farm implement that turns the soil shallower than a plow. 

It might be worth a conversation with a local landscaper that has access to a Harley rake (power rake). They might have (reasonable) concerns about fighting roots, and tell you "no", but if they'll do it, that's definitely the easy button for soil prep.

I'd try to do it in August/Sept when the grass starts to grow vigorously again, and then seed immediately. Watering will be critical to seed growth/root development before winter.

How about a Roto-Tiller set on low dig level?  Due to the Poison Ivy if you drink beer doing the job, be careful peeing.  (trust me on this)

Years ago I was at a spring event for landscapers that was put on by the Georgia department of Agriculture's Extension Program. Lots of smart people with good info. One of the attendees asked what type of lawn grass was best for planting in shade. The extension agent says "I'm glad you asked, I get this all the time. I always tell people that the best bet is to use plants that thrive naturally in those growing conditions. So if you go out in the deep woods and look down, what type of grass do you see?)

-confused silence

-"um...there's no grass out there..."

Ext agent: "Exactly. Doesn't matter what you plant, you're never going to get a good lawn in deep shade. You're wasting time and money."

Just a thought....

I'd cut down all the stuff you want gone then, rent a Bobcat with a landscape rake to pick up the debris and smooth things out, then seed it with a grass seed meant for shade. That is if you want to do it nicely. (Personally I'd do a mowable micro-clover because it does better in the shade and lawns are an ecological wasteland.)

Personally I just chainsaw out all the woody small stuff and mow whatever comes up.

I am picturing that you somehow managed to get a nice lawn growing between the remaining trees. I would kill myself after the first time I had to mow around all that growth.

Bulldozer rental. 90% of the trees gone and lay out a nice smooth dirt pad to seed.

If that is not on the cards, then maybe ultraclyde has the right idea; go look in a heavily shadded forest and see what kind of low ground cover grows in your area. In Ontario it would be Trilliums. They form a carpet on the floor. Or may I recommend Hostas with walking paths between.  You would need a E36 M3load of them, but they are fun to grow.

Trilliums

You don't have to mow the woods....

Funny that you posted this, as I just finished clearing an acre this past weekend! It was an overgrown mess, I used my John Deere 270 skid steer to do the job. First, backbladed everything with a rock bucket into a pile and filled a dump trailer 4 times. Once all the vines were gone, a grapple and stump bucket removed anything under 8". Those two steps took an entire weekend plus a full day. This past weekend I used a smooth bucket and the rock bucket to remove all of the dead-fall branches, old root material, larger rocks and get a final grade. I ran out of time on Sunday evening, but was able to make a few passes with the landscape rake to see what it will like with "most" of the small rocks removed. 
 

I own the skid steer and quite a few attachments just for these projects around the house. With the right attachments and some time, going from woods to lawn should be just a few weekends work. After running the landscape rake/rock hound over the whole area, I still think I'm going to have a "rock picking party" before final raking. 
 

Im good getting to the point of seeding, but that's where most of my grass projects go to crap. I can't seem to grow grass! For this project, I bought a pallet of pelletized lime to condition the soil on the advise of an old farmer friend. Something about sweet vs sour soil. 
 

Hopefully the next week or so will give me a few nice sunny days to work on this.

I want to do the opposite, and go from lawn to woods. I have 3.5 acres, about 2.5 of it is green mowed grass and I'd rather have 1 acre of mowing and 2.5 acres of woods.

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

If you plan on staying at the house long enough, you can grow some really interesting trees there for not so much money. Obviously the bigger the trees the bigger the cost, but saplings should be producing fruit by the time the kids are in middle school.

I don't have my catalog handy, but Baker Creek seeds, rareseeds.com, is partners with a sapling and tree supply company basically, reasonable prices and shipping, and filtered by growing region. 

If fruit trees aren't your thing, you can get oaks and maples that have had their roots inoculated with black truffles, so in 5-7 years you could have your own truffle orchard. $50-60/tree when I was looking last year. 

In reply to RevRico :

That's cool! I've been planting trees, but of course have to be careful not to outstrip my ability to keep the area around the trees clear. One problem is the deer are just absolutely bonkers here. We have a few that are basically in our yard 24/7 and a dozen or so that hang out sometimes. They'll eat ANYTHING, and I've lost a half dozen or more good sized saplings to them stripping the bark. Tree guards made it even worse as they trampled them and thus the tree inside in order to get to the leaves.

So now I'm planting seedlings of native trees hoping they can put up with the deer browsing pressure. Tulip trees, eastern red cedars, sweetgum, etc. I'm gonna look at your info though as getting seeds would be nice.

I agree with those who have said:

1) You won't get grass to grow well in that much shade

2) Why on earth would you want to turn woods that require minimal care into grass you have to mow?  Also mowing around those trees would suuucck

Here in NC, its easy to keep a forest floor like that in check but just letting it get covered with leaves.  A few small trees will pop up now any then, but weeds & grass won't grow through them.

In reply to ProDarwin :

I’m paying for those square feet. I want to use them for fun. Also, kids and little ATVs. Mostly it’s that they’re not just messy they’re utterly unusable because of the poison ivy and in my experience if you leave ANY unmanicured area, you’re asking for poison ivy. 

So for now our plan is mow and brush kill. I like the idea of renting a dozer, if for no other reason that that I like the idea of renting a dozer :)