On Wed, 12 May 2004 08:03:43 -0700, FGreen wrote:

My lawn is ~6 years old, was new when I bought the place. It looked
pretty good initially, but later I realized that the ground where the sod
was placed didn't have good soil at all. Pretty rocky, and had a heck of
time planting a small tree (which looks sickly and isn't blooming much
flowers at all).

The lawn now has a lot of dandelions, I mean, a lot. I used one of those
extraction tools from Home Depot. It does a decent job, but the roots are
rarely taken out completely, and there are just too many. Too many to even
use weed-b-gone selectively.

So, I'm thinking of redoing the lawn, probably in the fall, and need your
help. I'm thinking I need to
- Till up the ground
- Kill the existing dandelions/weeds with...? - Put in good soil
- Put in new grass (hydroseed? sod?) (I know I need to do more studying
on it, but need to discuss it with a neighbor that shares the lawn in this
2-family home, so basics would be sufficient for now.)

My questions are...
- What tools do I need, if I do it myself? I only have basic gardening
tools. Rent a rototiller?
- Is there a way to get rid of existing weeds without using chemicals,
once the lawn is dug up? Cover it up to choke it? We've got dogs and
young children.
- If not, how long would it take for it to be 'safe' for dogs and
children? It'd still be a dug up ground, but you know how kids are...
they love dirt!
- Would I be better off hiring someone? (I know that's a very subjective
question...)

I'm in New England and the lawn get a lot of sun. I don't think I'd need
the soil analyzed, since whatever is there is just almost rocks, and I'd
be putting in new soil.

I'd appreciate any help.


Good day FGreen. Sorry to hear about your poor quailty lawn. It can be a
real bummer to have a weed patch instead of a lawn. Before we get too far,
I have some questions:
What is the mowing hight of the lawn? 1", 2", 3"..?
What have you done in the past 6 years as far as fertilizer?
Do you water the lawn in the summer?
Do you let the lawn go dormant in the summer?
Have you ever aerated your lawn?
Do you re-cycle your lawn clippings (multching mow)?

On to fixing the lawn..........
If the soil quality is poor, then I would start by trying to correct that
first. You can compensate for poor soil quailty by using fertilizers and
multch mowing. Over time (possibily a long time) the soil quality wil get
better. If the organic matter (humus) is very low, it would be best to add
new soil / compost. If you find this is the case, then you could overlay
the lawn with compost and till it. Look at my post to FardinA on 5/8/2004
at 6:54 pm. I goes through the refurbishing of a lawn with costs and tool
requirements.

There is no need to hire out for this type of a job. The average home
owner can do this, although the amount of labor required may be too much
for some. If the lawn is somewhat large (1500+ square feet) then you would
want to rent a tractor for the day. Rent one with a bucket on the front
and a tiller on the back. This can cost up to $300.00 a day, but it's
worth every penny. You can till the whole area in a few hours and the
bucket will make the huge pile of dirt spread a lot faster 80) .
I personaly would re-seed the lawn with locally available seed. This means
seed for your area. Beware of name brand seed from big box stores. Just
because they sell brand X seed at home depo doesn't mean it's correct for
your area.

More question etc... just add to this thread.