newly tilled garden question

I had my yard tilled today, it had never been dug up before, so there are lots of little clumps of grass. Can I leave those little clumps in there for a couple days, hope they dry up so I can use my Mantis to smooth out the ground? I was going to take all the clumps out but I woud have 100 wheelbarrows full, back breaking work. Thanks for any help.
Mary

I would take them out, I'm afraid later you may have wished you did, you won't believe how much of that stuff is going to grow back. I think it's better to get it over with, When i dig a new bed I try to remove as much of the sod I can before working the soil. I know its a pain, but better in the long run.

Yeah, a lot of the grass will have enough soil and moisture on the roots to live thru that. Blocking the light with mulch and/or raking the grass away from the planting area are your best bets.

those clumps of grass will really grow well now that the soil is aerated. but the clumps should be relatively loose because of the tilling, or so has been my experience.

I learned the hard way many years ago that removing the clumps after tilling is much, much easier than trying to dig up all the grass and weeds later.

The only other thing I can think of is lasagna gardening. If you've never heard of it do a Google search on it and you'll get tons of hits. It's somewhat based on the idea of what jkehl said about mulching. You start with a heavy layer of wet newspaper or cardboard to keep weeds at bay, then you layer (lasagna style) organic matter to the depth needed to plant. Most times tilling the (under) soil is not done. I don't see how it would hurt anything that your soil has been tilled though....anyone else with more lasagna beds than me can chime in here though.

Lasagna beds are great. The only problem I've ever had with them is coming up w/ enough materials to build them up. I've never seen such big worms show up so fast in any other beds, or plants do so well as in my lasagna beds!

Good luck!

I will give you the other side. I turn all sod down as a green manure. Nothing except edibles come off my fields, everything else is put back into the soil. Grasses can be a problem unless buried. Exceptions are Bermuda types which are not killed by cultivation and and are almost impossible to remove. Blue grass types are easy. Annuals like crabgrass can be be your worst grass pests.

Thanks so much for all your advise. I'm still contemplating what I should do. They guy who tilled my ground went over it about 10 times with a tiller that you pull behind a big garden tractor. The grass pieces are really tore up good. I've had a 50/50 response so far on what to do. I'll keep ya posted.

it probably more depends on what you will be planting in the yard. at least they keep a weed seed from growing there.

Well, today I used a pitch fork and that really helped a lot. I am getting a lot out. I am going to do a little at a time, I have so much tilled up. I have a big spot for a vegetable garden, another big spot for flowers, and had the fence line all tilled about 4'-5' deep.