Clear plastic wouldn’t work too well. It would scorch the soil and damage some of the soil life. It would set the weeds and grass back a bit, but as long as they are getting sun, they’ll survive. I would use landscaping fabric, preferably non woven geo textile fabric. It would need to be left on for a full growing season to turn grass into plantable soil. A second option would be sheet mulching using cardboard/paper and compost/straw/grass clippings. If the area isn’t too large, it’s doable, but it requires a ton of materials and work, and isn’t guaranteed to kill grass. So I no longer use this method.
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We're planning on doing the back to garden method, so will be mulching and composting, etc. In the garden we have now, we scrapped the grass up by hand and laid a few inches of compost down before planting. The grass came up in some places...mainly where we got tired/lazy I think. But this is our first year doing back to eden gardening, so I'm hopeful.
Yeah back to eden is a great method. Makes it difficult to plant smaller direct seeded plants, but it’s perfect for transplants. If the wood chips are 8” deep you won’t have much of a problem with grass surviving. Otherwise, you may want to make sure it’s all dead before laying down any mulch.
Checkout this YouTube series it’s really informative.
Thanks! I will!! We started it this past weekend. We laid down cardboard to help kill the grass and are laying down manure/compost under the woodchips. I've heard the first year or two doesn't give you great results because the woodchips haven't decomposed enough - but I'm hoping the manure/compost will help!