don't support monsanto's ruination of the planet! they are a fucked company no matter how you slice it and Round-up was their entree into the general and unknowledgeable consumer world. (check out the scary documentary The Future of Food for some info about their ethics)

I remove lawns all the time with a mattock and some hard work. you can do it and all it takes is your labor. start at one edge with your feet in the lawn and your head facing an edge. get the mattock into the edge and use it to pull out the turf towards you. as you remove hunks of lawn, flip them over and let them stay exposed to sun/air to dry out a bit so that you can knock off as much of the impacted root soil as you can, to save the soil. it is waaaay worth the effort to have no chems at all and your native garden will thank you. in fact I'll thank you too for going native! you rock!

agreed round up is destroying everything we hold sacred

I'm an organic garden designer/gardner in Los Angeles....and have removed quite a few St. Augustine lawns and replaced them with Native grass or plants....It is not a fun job to remove this stuff! and I won't ever guarantee it is gone forever....Here are some tips that help...Remove as much of the grass as possible...don't rototill now! (if you chop up the stuff your just spreading the roots around). Water thouroughly and let sit for two weeks.....Remove the grass and its roots a second time. (if you are blessed with time, do that several times). Then shut the water off.....Mulch heavily! and wait......until your satisfied....its all gone. Remember that St. Augustine roots.....can grow three feet deep....You'll never get it all out immediately! Roundup is dangerous stuff!.(read the label sometime and tell me you'd like that used near your family, pets and gardens) Somone mentioned solarizing...that works as well....but you need a complete cycle of seasons....lots of newspaper and black plastic. I've seen some amazing results with this method. I"m afraid its good old fashioned hard work thats going to get this stuff out!

If you have not done it yet... Bioling water does a really good job of killing a lawn. Even works on the dreaded bermuda if you use enogh of it...

How big is this lawn area? If it is somewhat smaller, what about doing a modified lasagna gardening method and put down lots of newspaper /cardboard to smother the grass and then add some topsoil and then plant with what you want to plant with? I know lots of gardeners who just stake out a piece of lawn, start layering and they never have to weed or break ground.

Also in Oregon where I come from orginally, they have alot of turf farms. Though they have huge machines to cut the sod, you may want to use the phone book and see if there is anyone who rents smaller scale machines to do this. You could potentially put the sog on FreeCycle and even get it hauled away for you for free*S*

Oh man.. do not even start me on Monsanto.

tenzicut
www.downtotherootsmagazine.com

Covering it up with cardboard, and then throwing mulch over the cardboard works great. The cardboard composts, the grass dies, and you have happy worms and soil. No chemicals required. And yes Roundup is quite toxic. It probably wouldn't kill everything it is sprayed on if it wasn't...

--Jesse

Well there are two options that I know of. One cover the grass with a thick cover like cardboard, carpet ect. Because no light, water, and oxygen will get to it it will die. If this will take too long you can use distilled vinegar. Mix it with water and spray it over the lawn. The acidity will become too high for anything to grow there. After a few rains it will go back to a more neutral level, or you can add limestone.

i think sheet mulch/lasagne gardeding is the best choice. it doesnt disturb soil, it adds nutrients, its less work, and you can create a more natural setting with swales, mounds, depressions for a variety of plant zones and to collect water by making the mulch thicker and thinner. a compost expert here in town working at a city operated yard waste composting facility said he can eliminate certain classes of poisons such as roundup thru the compost process and that it one of "easier" classes to eliminate. he has the finished soil tested. there are other classes of poisons such as ddt that are harder. i am not advocating for roundup and would never use it but i am just relaying what i heard.

I'd use urea to kill off the grass ( or anything else.) it'll leave the soil rich in nitrogen which will wash out in a few rainstorms