I have a small lawn. It is 1600 square feet out of my landscaped area of about four acres, so very small indeed. When we installed it, we prepped it immediately before planting it. Here's what I'd do:

Begin with solarization (you will have to wait until summer): http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html

Install edging if desired. II used steel, similar to this: https://www.kinsmangarden.com/category/EverEdge-Lawn-Edging?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6Nu0vtCx4QIVGoGzCh0GfAU_EAAYASAAEgLYcPD_BwE)

Install irrigation

Lay hardware cloth if desired (keeps out gophers and moles)

Add sterilized soil on top to berm your lawn very slightly (it will settle). A slightly crowned lawn looks better, I think.

Lay sod

The combination of the solarization, additional soil, and sod will suppress any weeds.

I mow it with a battery-operated mower. Every now and again I pull a weed out of it, but it is pretty rare, as healthy grass makes a dense mat that weeds have a hard time penetrating. The only weeds come from seeds that land on top. I use an inorganic fertilizer because it's easy - I use a belly-spreader that easily broadcasts granular material - but I'm pretty sure that you could find an organic solution. It takes me 30 minutes to mow it, including getting the mower out of the shed and emptying the bag into the compost midway through.

So no chemicals, very little work, very little lawn but much enjoyment. In summer it is instantly cooling to the eye, and makes a great contrast to the plantings. In the late afternoon on a hot day, I love to lie on the grass as it gets shaded.

I'd just weed-whack the weeds at some point so that you don't have to look at them (I have a battery-operated weed-whacker as well, and we are 100% solar so I use these tools with abandon) but don't get serious about eradication until you are ready to act. You'll just have to keep doing it.

Lawns don't have to be ecological nightmares. Just remember that they represent a monoculture, are not friendly to wildlife and have their own set of cultural requirements. Keeping them small is key.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

Concur on keeping grass long. And keep your mower blade sharp. This will minimize the brown ragged cut edges of the grass, making it appear much greener.

Without herbicides the lawn will naturally turn into more of a pasture. There's billions of dormant seeds in the soil ready to sprout. Nothing wrong with that, even weeds look decent if they're mowed and trimmed, just don't expect a picture-perfect lawn.

Lawiac not true if you sod it and keep on it. The sod has enough thatch so that nothing gets through. I have no problem keeping it hand-weeded. The joy of a very small lawn.

I used black plastic to solarize and kill weed seeds. My San Diego county house had carpet scraps covering a large part of the yard when we bought it -- when the carpet was removed, several hundreds of weeds sprouted. I cut or pulled them, then used the plastic -- it worked!

Used the same technique here in Ohio as well on parts of the yard.

Corn gluten meal is a non-toxic, non-chemical substance that when spread on a lawn suppresses the sprouting of seeds. Use it only after your grass is established, if you find weeds remain a problem.

Bay area is huge. Name the location and we can help better. If you are in the morning fog zone that makes a big difference as to what grasses you can use and not ruin the California watering budget.

I have used nothing but organic fertilizer, corn meal at first but recently alfalfa pellets, since 2002. I never seemed to need weed killers because our yard was in pretty deep shade. Then we had a hard downdraft storm that broke all the trees on our west side. Suddenly we had a lot of sunlight and then came the weeds. I took to a chemical product that was safe for my particular lawn. The idea was that if I used the chem once, the grass would become more dense and crowd out the weeds. That approach works with St Augustine lawns, but not with all lawns.

One thing to know about spray-on herbicide is that they are foliar sprays, not soil drenches. You only use enough to moisten the leaves of the weed. Granular herbicides are all soil drench types of products and do more damage to the water and soil.

Deep and infrequent watering is, by far, the best way to keep weeds down. Typically weeds need frequent watering to germinate the seeds. If you only water once every few weeks, the weeds may never get enough moisture to germinate. Seems like 99% of Californians and Floridians feel the need to water daily. You don't need to at all. Just don't.

Mowing high is also key. The more shade you can put over a seed the less chance it will take root even if it sprouts.

I've used corn gluten meal extensively. One year I applied it at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, once a month for 9 months. I never saw a reduction in weeds. If you read the research from Iowa State the best they were able to do with it was 80% effectiveness against certain weeds under special circumstances. The rest of the time they got 20% reduction in weeds. That is not even noticeable. CGM is the best grain type of organic fertilizer you can buy, though. While I used it once a month, my lawn was as dense as cabbage leaves.

Thank you so very much for your helpful replies.

Sara, that is heartening to know. My lawn will be less than 1000 sq ft for sure. It'll be hard to wait until after summer to put it in, so we can go through the solarization process, but I'm willing to do it if it means a healthier lawn in the long run. May I ask what kind of grass you have in your lawn? UC Verde Buffalo was suggested to me, but as far as I know, it doesn't come in a sod form. I'm fine with using a more traditional kind of lawn grass, if I can keep it healthier without using chemicals, while mowing it higher and watering it deeply but less than usual.

d_chall_sanantonio, I'm in Fremont, not too close to the hills (pretty much in a standard, flat, crowded suburban neighborhood.)

I have a mix that was created by Park Avenue Sod in Sebastopol. I can find out what it is. It is supposedly appropriate for this climate. I have been impressed with how little work this lawn is (I was talked into it) and also how much I am enjoying it. I was very anti-lawn. Ah well, marriage involves compromise...;-)

Ah, I see. Yes, I would appreciate it very much if you could let me know. I will also try and talk to them to see what they suggest. I wonder if there's a place like that closer to where I am...

Very different climate than you, but wanted to say it is possible to have nice grass without the use of chemicals. I agree with the mowing at a higher setting suggestion. I hand pick my weeds, it takes a bit of time at first, but once your grass is thicker it really helps to keep the weeds out. We also aerated our yard a few times, it helped with some compacted areas, which will have it's own kind of weeds. And thankfully we don't have to water too often, because I have a few thousand feet of lawn!

Just chiming in that you absolutely can maintain a lawn without using chemicals.

There is some great advice already in this thread. We're in SoCal but let us know if we can help at all with more questions.

I have a cheap kitchen knife (long & thin) that rides in a duct tape holder on my lawnmower. When I am mowing, when I see a larger weed, I pause and take 2 seconds to cut around it -- like I was cutting the eye out of a potato - and yank it out by the roots. Very easy. Some of the smaller weeds like chickweed, ground ivy and bent grass have to be pulled by hand & more time consuming -- I'll get patches sprouting up that seeded from the neighbor's yard. If I absolutely have to, I will use IronX weed killer (chelated iron in solution) which is also benign to use.

Good luck getting rid of oxalis without chemical control.

I think maybe people just have different standards as far as what they would call a lawn and what is acceptable quality. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Hi dchall, what is your application rate for Alfalfa pellets and when would you put this for a bermuda lawn? I am able to find a 40lb bag from tractor-supply for $15 close to me.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/standlee-premium-western-forage-premium-alfalfa-pellets-40-lb-bag

I know this is for horses, but is it too big to pass through a spreader?

The key is to get weed-free sod. No sod company is going to sell sod infested with oxalis.

If the oxalis is at the site already, weed free sod won't matter.

Yes, there is oxalis in my yard already, although most of it came up in the gardening beds this spring, not in the lawn area (I'm not sure if that matters.) I am going to put cardboard and mulch down over it for the rest of this year and hand weed, and see if it helps with anything. it is going to be an ongoing battle because the two next door neighbors' yards have oxalis too.

Oxalis is a scourge. I might capitulate and spray it. But if you don't want to do that, you have to dig it out, you can't pull it. All the little bits left behind make new plants. Generally takes a few seasons but it can be done. But you have to be determined.

This article called “PREPARING A LANDSCAPE SITE WITHOUT CHEMICALS” describes step-wise detail from planning to successfully installing the turf without any chemical in your lawn.

And here you can get all the details about common weeds and how to eliminate it naturally. https://www.abchomeandcommercial.com/blog/how-to-get-rid-of-weeds-without-killing-grass/

And for your Oxalis problem, this is what you can do to get rid of it without using chemical:

Spray the oxalis with a homemade non-toxic weed killer. Fill a small spray bottle with white vinegar and add one or two squirts of dish soap. Gently shake, then spray the mixture directly on the base of the oxalis clusters. This works even better on a hot day. The foliage should be dead within 24 hours.

Things You Will Need

Hoe or spade

Scissors or garden shears

Plastic bag

Spray bottle

White vinegar

Dish soap

Tip

Oxalis flowers, seed pods, leaves and stems are edible in moderation. Those with kidney stones or gout should avoid it, as they do any food (such as tomatoes or spinach) with oxalic acid.

Warning

Do not spray homemade weed killer on any plant you wish to keep; vinegar kills any plant it touches.

You have to use horticultural vinegar - 30% solution - not household vinegar - 5% solution. And the science is very sketchy even on this. The little literature that there is suggests that it only works when the plants are very young/tiny.

The efficacy of using vinegar as a herbicide is very mixed. It really only dessicates or dries up the foliage, interferring with photosynthesis, but it does not translocate down into the root system so perennial weeds - like dandelions - are typicaly unaffected. And household vinegar can work but needs to be applied in sunlight to function properly.

When I hear about spraying weeds with vinegar I remember when I was a kid in the mid 60s and my father built a house on 2 acres of orange grove in Southern CA. An older man up the street had worked in the groves his whole life and took us under his wing so we could keep the trees alive. One thing the commercial groves did to control weeds was spray them with diesel oil. I killed the leaves and that usually killed the plants although with bermuda grass it always eventually came back. We had a 50 gallon drum of it and used it all the time.

Here's a reasonably good summary.

https://extension.umd.edu//sites/extension.umd.edu/files/_docs/programs/ipmnet/Vinegar-AnAlternativeToGlyphosate-UMD-Smith-Fiola-and-Gill.pdf

Note that weeds should be within two weeks of germination. And it's nasty at the higher concentrations.