On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:26:46 -0600, Eggs Zachtly
wrote:

dgk said:


[...]

That's not a bad suggestion. The lawn is green and is better than the
crap on my two neighbor's yards. And clover is not awful and is a
natural part of the lawn.

Clover is better for your lawn than you may think. Do some reading on
"nitrogen fixation".

Still, over the 10 years or so that I've
owned the house, I've made the mistake of using different grass seeds
and it just all sort of looks different.

It's 18x30. Just rent a sod cutter for a day, cut the old sod out and
discard it. Rake it smooth, working in a bit of organic matter, and lay the
new sod in place. It's that simple. You could, by yourself, prep that area
in one day, and lay the (less than a) pallet of sod in less than an hour,
the next day. That's such a small area, it would seem to me to be the most
logical, quick method. All that's required after that is regular waterings
until it roots in. If you want cool season grasses, now's the time to
resod, for sure. Tilling isn't really all that great for the soil
structure. You stated that your soil is mostly clay. You hit it with a
tiller, you're going to have 60 sq/yd of big, hard, clay "rocks", in a few
days. Have fun raking /that/ smooth.

There are also patches where I can't get anything to grow. The ground
is hard and it just doesn't seem possible to fix it without major
renovation. The base of the lawn is a thick web of interlocking roots
and runners. Pulling out clover by the roots and runners is not a
time-efficient activity in my experience.

What I suggested above is about as "major" of a renovation as you can do.
You completely replace the turf. But you do it /without/ disturbing the
substrata. It takes a nice weekend, and probably less cash than you think.
Call a local sod farm. You only need 60 yd. A pallet is about 70 IIRC.
Local rental shops should have a sod cutter, or the sod farm would know
where to rent one, I'm sure. It's worth looking into.

[...]


I think this time I'll just till the mess and use the opportuity to
get some lime and peat moss in, and reconfigure the yard, adding some
space for more tomatoes and string beans and such.

How much peat do you think you'll need for that area? Are the rest of the
plantings in the immediate vicinity, acid-loving?

Perhaps a little
house for the cats to play in and maybe a waterfall thing. But those
are so hokey.

I dunno. I've never seen cats play in a waterfall thing. Might be kinda
entertaining. =)


If the crabgrass and clover come back too quickly, I'll consider the
roundup route or cover it up with plastic sheeting.

Crabgrass is easily prevented using a pre-emergent. If the Forsythia are
still blooming, or it's been unseasonably cool in your area, it /may/ still
help to put it down. I'd rethink killing the clover, if you're actually
going to till the area.


Thanks everyone for the advice. We're finally going to have a nice
weekend here in NY so I'll probably do the deed tomorrow. It's
guaranteed to be a big mess.

Yup. And, one that will probably take you a while to fix. Good luck. =)


Ok, I'm convinced. I hold off on tilling. One other thing I should
have mentioned is that there is no way to get anything into the
backyard without going through the house, so sod is going to be
awkward. But, I never heard of a sod cutter before and it certainly
makes sense that tilling clay can be messy.

Instead of heading off to rent a tiller, I'll look around at sod
cutters and the availability of sod. I suppose they put roundup all
over the sod but at least I won't know about it. Maybe.

Thanks for the advice. I'll head over to the local Garden World for a
start.