Ended up making a mix of 30% vinegar, salt, and dish soap and spraying the weeds. Looks like that killed most of them.

Im still wondering how to go about shooting out the land and prepping for grass seed. Should I to up the dirt prior to sowing seed? I'm also thinking about irrigation and if that's really necessary.

Would love to get a conversation going with someone who has experience!

I have no experience of lawns but I would advise you not to use salt on your soil if you want grass to grow there in future. Also that mixture won't deal with perennial weeds. If you don't like the idea of hoeing, I'd use an application of a standard herbicide.

As for irrigation, is the rest of the lawn growing without it? If so I would not bother.

One way to level a yard is with a bobcat or skip loader running string lines to help you check your progress but digging dirt up by hand and using a long board as a screed would work. Piling the mulch you made in the clearing process on thick enough that it excludes light should drastically cut back on weeds. Alternately black plastic does the same.

You are in central Virginia and are get plenty of water so irrigation is not needed. You do not want a perfectly level yard, so the first thing that I would do is make sure that you have adequate drainage. Make sure there is no area where water will pool in on spot. You may have to do this with a shovel and a rake, not a large piece of equipment

It is difficult to tell, but did they spread the clay from the footings of the house on that part of the yard? If not you probably have good soil from the years of decomposed vegetation that was on the land.

There is a large difference in temperatures depending on what areas of central Virginia, so I would talk to the people in the local hardware that sells grass seed. Not one of the Big box stores, but one that has been there for decades and has people who have worked there of years. I would then follow their advice as to seed etc.

Thanks for all the insight guys!

Makes sense about the irrigation. This was a new construction home and when we moved here in January the entire yard was mud. The builder hydroseeded with what I believe to be a rye grass. It's growing fine, but super patchy. Thinking I could get away with a few sprinklers hooked up to the hose just to water the new seed for a few weeks after sowing.

I will absolutely find a local store to consult about seeding and get their thoughts on what will be needed! Great idea!

I used about 1.5 cups of salt over 3 gallons of vinegar and sprayed the weeds. I figured since I don't plan on seeding for another 3 months it would be okay. Hopefully I didn't mess up the integrity of the soil.

I'll look into spreading the much and getting some straw to cover the land for now, didn't even know that was an option. Can you tell I know nothing about this? haha

The land has a bit of a slope to one side so there aren't any drainage issues. The ground is just super uneven. I'll look into raking and hoeing to smooth it out. Also the board method sounds like a good idea too!

How much has it rained since the clearing? And, have you noticed pooling, runneling or erosion, or other water signs in the cleared area?

If you read the history of Rome, as I remember, when they capturing Carthage, they spread salt over the area to prevent farming (growing grass). Unless you are defeated by the Roman Empire, there is no need for salt.

When it comes to planting trees and plants go to your local arboretum, and see what they have growing. Also look at the older houses, older farms, or older areas of the local towns. What is grown there will grow in your yard.

One last thing, when you are in the nursery or local garden store, and find the perfect flowering plant, don't get discouraged it it does not have flowers the following years. Plants have to be comfortable where they are planted, before they start to bloom/growing.

Also remember that tree and plant years are not the same as human ones. They will grow in tree years, not yours. So while in two years, you thing the tree should be taller, have flowers, etc, don't rush them, they will do it eventually in their time

If you want to plant grass in the fall, smother the entire area with black plastic until then.

Thanks again for the insight guys!

Im regretting adding salt to the mixture every time I look outside 😐.

Now that all the weeds are dead and drying out, Im going to allow the rain to wash away what it can for the next few weeks then look into covering the ground with either straw or plastic.

I'll invest in a nice rake and get to work leveling out the land before seeding as well.

I only notice rain water pooling in one small area of the cleared land. I'll be sure to pay attention to that spot when smoothing the dirt.

Where do you down spout of the gutters empty. In light rain you may not notice the problem, but I had to make several swales to move the water to appropriate places. like not on the patio.

There are lawn grasses like Bermuda grass that tolerates salt.

AI OverviewFor salty areas, grasses like Bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass, and Zoysiagrass are good choices due to their salt tolerance. Tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, and alkali grass also offer decent salt tolerance. When selecting, consider factors like soil salinity levels and specific grass characteristics.

Cardboard and newpaper are good for smothering weeds. There are lots of palms and palm like plants that tolerate salt.

OP is in Virginia. I don't know for sure but I don't think those grasses, or palms, are suitable there. I believe they should be able to have year round green in their climate.

When you sprayed with the salt mixture, did you saturate the soil or only spray the leaves of the weeds? Sodium is one of the easier salts to deal with as it will wash away with rain and irrigation.

The best thing you can do right now is wait until late August or early September to do your seeding. Summer is too hot unless you are going with warm season grasses. And while you are waiting, the best thing you can do right now is mulch the soil heavily. Mulch is all you need, but if you wanted to apply some ordinary corn meal or alfalfa pellets (both are inexpensive organic fertilizers in 50-pound bags at your feed store), that will jump start the rebuilding of the soil. Actually your soil should be pretty good if it was all woodsy prior to this.

If you want to level the soil, now would be a good time before you mulch. The idea is to loosen the soil at the high spots and drag the high spots toward the low spots to fill and level it all out. Do that once and water it to look for more low spots. Repeat as necessary two more times and you should be in good shape. Whatever you do, do not rototill the soil thinking that you could level it that way. Rototilling leaves an uneven under surface with and uneven amount of fluffy soil on top. As the fluffy soil settles over the next three years, it will settle to match the uneven under surface. That's exactly what you don't want. You've already disturbed the soil enough with the tree removal.

For mulch you can use cardboard or real mulch. Black or clear plastic can work, also, but the cardboard and real mulch will decompose. Plastic needs to be removed. If you use straw, that needs to be removed, too. Most of the country does not use straw when seeding grass. Mother Nature, similarly, does not use straw when Her animals perform their seeding rituals.

Seed comes in a bag or box which has a guaranteed analysis on the side listing the amount of the various grasses along with weed and 'other crop'. Weed and other crop will be very small amounts as measured by weight. It will be listed as 0.13% or some small numbers like that. You want a seed mix with 0.00% if you can find it. Why? Because the bad seed (bermuda and creeping bentgrass) have seeds the size of dust while the real grass seed is the size of a pencil point or eraser. An analysis with 0.21% could have thousands of dust sized seeds in the bag. You'll pay more for the better seed. But if you don't get the expensive stuff, you really can come back later and dig or spray out the weeds.

For Virginia you traditionally would want a mix of fescue, rye, and Kentucky Bluegrass. Whoever suggested checking with your neighbors about what they were successful with was right on target. Fescue survives better in the shade and remains green all year. Rye needs full sun, sprouts quickly, but goes dormant in the winter. Kentucky bluegrass (KBG) needs full sun, will go dormant, but it also has the redeeming quality of spreading out to fill in bare spots (in the sun). Having said that, if you believe in global warming, which I do, Virginia is not going to get cooler anytime soon. It is located in what is called the transition zone for grasses. If you think the area is going to get warmer, you might get a jump on the program and go with bermuda (full sun) St Augustine (sun or shade) or zoysia. There are zoysia varieties which will work in both sun and shade and some that will work in both cool and warm soils. Zoysia, bermuda, and St Augustine all spread to fill in bare spots. If you think you might want to do that, then REALLY look around to see if anyone is being successful with the warm season grasses before you dive into that.

Professional finish grading is done with a tractor and a box blade as shown in this picture.

Someone with experience and with few obstacles in the way can grade 5 acres in a morning. On the other hand, a skid steer or bobcat might take a week to do 5 acres. If you're paying by the hour, find someone with a tractor. For small areas you can do it yourself fairly easily.