Take Time to Plant Newly Opened Soil

Weeds Emerging in My Newly Opened Soil

Florida is the worst place I've ever lived for weeds, but they occur everywhere. One characteristic of a "weed", native or not, is their tenacity to survive for long periods of time in the soil waiting to be released. Newly tilled soil is awash in weed seeds and they will be the first to germinate once you've removed the ground cover of turf grass - or anything else that once covered them. It is not possible to scrape off the surface vegetation or "solarize" the vegetation and simply plant into it without having to cope with the weeds that will emerge - first and with a vengence.
As I expand my backyard woodland to create an open sunny area to the south of my woody plants, I have had to remove the lawn first. As I always try to avoid the initial use of herbicides, I used my shovel to dig up the turf and its associated lawn weeds and this has exposed the soil now to sun and moisture.  I knew what was going to happen so I did not plant this newly created strip with the wildflowers I plan to add. I've waited to plant. As I expected, the weeds have emerged in multiples. The weeds in this photo are mostly Florida pusley (Richardia scabra), also known as Mexican clover. It is a noxious nonnative weed (despite one of its common names) with a deep-forming taproot that is difficult to pull once its well established. Right now, it is easy and I will pull each one over the next several weeks.
I often read posts on social media from well-meaning people who want to eradicate their turf grass and then seed it with wildflower seed - or even worse, let nature take its course. Nature will replace your former turf turf with lawn weeds if you are simply removing the turf that was once covering your soil. Some of these may be native weeds, but they will be weeds nonetheless. Adding wildflower seed to a seed bank of lawn weed seeds will result in your chosen seeds having to battle those of the weeds. The weeds will win. That is their nature. They are the most aggressive and they will overwhelm the plants that by nature play nice. There is no altruism to be played out in this scenario.
To plant a newly tilled area, like the one I've created recently takes patience. It takes time to wait first for the weeds in the seed bank to germinate and then be weeded out. I have wildflowers growing now in flats and pots, and I will add them in due time. Once they are added, I can mulch a bit to hinder the growth of new weeds that might still be present, but my job then will be easy. One cannot be impatient up front if you want to be successful at the end of the day.
I also will not mulch heavily as mulches, laid too thick, will impede my wildflowers from self-sowing their own seed once they are fully established. Weeds will eventually be limited by the growth of the plants I desire. What I intend to plant will someday form their own ground cover - a sod of sorts that will hinder the weeds that remain nearby from taking hold. That day is a year away at least and I will be adding my new wildflowers in a month or so from now. I am not a big proponent of simply scattering wildflower seed to create a pollinator garden in the first place. It has never worked well for me though on the surface it seems to be the quickest and least expensive way to go. It isn't... Kill the weeds first. Add plants once the weed seeds in the seed bank have expired and let the plants you want seed the open areas. At least that's what I will do once more...