Making a new garden on turf

I'm going to start a new project this year. Partly because I want to reboot my polycultures area, and partly for intellectual curiousity, just to see what can be done.
I was inspired by paul on this thread to consider the possibilities of using vigorous growing plant to clear turf.

paul wheaton wrote:I would like to hand to them two small packets of seeds.  In packet 1 is a seed that can be tossed under a tree where there is grass; it germinates, grows, outcompetes the grass, smothers the grass, and then conveniently dies back ready for the seeds from packet 2.  Packet 2 contains the seeds for a nice guild planting under fruit trees (lots of tap rooted plants, including nitrogen fixers).

So I'm considering the first seed packet. To be honest I don't think just sowing seed on top of grass will work very quickly, but I have been pretty impressed with the ability of Angelica to smother out grass in time. I failed in the past trying a no till version of green manures in turf (see here) but my rye has grown pretty well this month in my kitchen garden, so I'm going to try a modification.

1: mow the turf as close as possible
2: fork the area to try and relieve some compaction and add drainage (just lift an inch or so with out turning if this is possible)
3: broadcast Angelica and fodder radish seed
4: cut narrow slits with a spade and sow grazing rye just under the surface
5: rake some of the cut vegetation back over the area
6: wait and hope over winter!
7: leave (assumed) growth of green manures and angelica to smother the turf for the first season
8: maybe resow or mulch over second winter
9: sow and plant new area!

If I get started in the next couple of weeks I think the rye will have a chance to get big enough to get a running start next year. Bonus if I get a crop of rye grain from the area!

I have lots of weeds that coexist with vigorous grasses just fine, but the only thing I've seen that eliminates it (other than tree canopy) is comfrey -- but having it everywhere would probably be even worse than the grass.

Actually, now that I've written that, I sort of wonder. In a small plot at least, it would be pretty easy to control with selective chop and drop. But I'm fighting to eliminate seeding comfrey now and don't think I'm willing to go backward on that.

Yes I was a bit surprised too that the Angelica worked so well, considering I hadn't improved the soil that much. This isn't the best picture, but shows how clear the area under the angelica is over winter compared to the grass in the background. The thin sticks are the remains of my sunroot plants, which seem to coexist with the Angelica fairly well.

Angelica cleared polycultures

I think rhubarb is also pretty good at smothering grass.  Not sure a solid patch of rhubarb is easy to convert to seed packet #2 either though.

I doubt you could throw them around and have it work, but some aggressive pumpkins could do something.

Mike, Rhubarb is on my list as one of the follow on plants. I'll probably split my main plants, which are overdue dividing already.

"Aggressive pumpkins" don't do Skye weather in my experience. Well to be fair, I haven't even tried but feel it would be a waste of seed! I'm hoping for some in my polytunnel this year, but I think they're struggling with the poor acid soil there too.