Rejuvenating dug up lawn soil?

I recently dug a 10 by 10 foot section of my front lawn to replace the soil with garden-quality dirt. I dug six inches down and now I have a pile of lawn dirt and lawn grass. I would like to turn it into garden-quality dirt for next spring.

However, I am a new gardener, and I'm not sure what to do to improve it's quality in that time. Should I just treat it as a compost dump? Should I pull a tarp over it to kill the grass? What can I do to improve the quality of my old lawn soil in time for next spring?

use that soil as one of your layering materials for your compost heap then use the rest to cap the heap so you get maximum benefits from the compost you are making.
When it is finished, just mix and use.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:use that soil as one of your layering materials for your compost heap then use the rest to cap the heap so you get maximum benefits from the compost you are making.
When it is finished, just mix and use.

Redhawk

Thank you, but won't the grass survive that? How much compost should I use?

When grass grows out of a compost cap, it is very easy to pull, then you just add that to the center of another compost heap.

BTW, grass is not something that will hurt your garden plants, just snip it off and let it become part of a mulch layer.
The grass, when continuously forced to grow from nothing, will wear out the root system and the plant will die at that point.