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reviving my lawn
First, a little background. My front yard was used as a parking lot by
the previous owners. The house was split into a few apartments and some trees have EXIT and ENTER spray painted on them (just to give you an idea on the complete lack of care and maintenance that was provided). The front yard is about 1/2 acre or closer to 20,000 sq. ft. We have 2 large Oak trees, a Hickory and a few other varieties, all well established. Last year I thought I was aerating when I pushed by hand a little spike 'aerator' around - boy was I sore after that! I now know better and this year I bought a plug aerator attachment for the riding mower. Last year I threw down some grass seed & Scott's chemical fertilizer and had little to no success. There are areas of moss, areas of grass and areas of nothing but soil, with tree roots coming through. I feel I'm a little better prepared but want to run my plan of attack by some of you more knowledgeable folks. After doing a soil test and hoping it comes out pretty close to neutral: 1. Clear the yard of debris - any left over leaves, twigs/branches etc 2. Aerate, aerate and then aerate again 3. Using drop spreader drop a layer of organic fertilizer 4. Using same spreader, drop fescue blend (K-31, Rebel 3d & Sentry, Duster, Durano and various other tall fescues) 5. Top coat with a layer of muchroom soil, trying to fill in some of the dips in the ground but generally trying to get about a 1/4inch cover over the seed. Does this sound good? I've already spent what I feel to be a fortune $200 on grass seed $50 on fertilizer - not to mention the cost of the aerator and a truck load of mushroom soil from a local farm. I've tried to do my homework. I want to keep it chemical free (amazing how the arrival of a baby can change you)and am not looking for the perfect golf course look. Sorry this was so long, thanks for any help Ian |
#2
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reviving my lawn
Ian wrote:
Does this sound good? I've already spent what I feel to be a fortune $200 on grass seed $50 on fertilizer - not to mention the cost of the aerator and a truck load of mushroom soil from a local farm. I've tried to do my homework. I want to keep it chemical free (amazing how the arrival of a baby can change you)and am not looking for the perfect golf course look. Well, first of all, the life cycle of a lawn more appropriately starts in fall, not spring. When you start a lawn in spring it doesn't have enough of a chance to build a healthy root system before the heat of summer. Much of what you do this spring will not matter by the time fall comes. I don't know how much you want to spend for what will basically be single-season cosmetic work. Looks for this summer aside, the best thing to do now would be to work on the soil. If it was used as a parking lot, the soil is probably extremely compacted. Aerating and putting a top dressing of new soil as you've already done would probably be good enough for someplace that used to be untouched, and only was subjected to heavy traffic during construction of a building, but this soil has probably been compacted so tightly that you'll need to do more. You may need to till-up the soil, being careful when you get near the root zones of the trees. Clean-up the non-organic litter first, as well as thick branches, but leave the leaves. After you break through the hardpan surface, top dress with a lot of organic material. Horse or steer manure will probably be cheaper than any "soil", and will do a lot of good. Now at this point you might want to put out some grass seed. You didn't mention what part of the country you're in, but an annual ryegrass might be a choice here. Don't bother fertilizing this spring. And during the summer, limit the traffic, including foot traffic, on the area. Don't mow too often, either. Let what does come up reach 2-4 inches. Pull as many weeds as you can. Don't let them go to seed heads. Mowing them down first is better than nothing. Pulling them is best. Careful application of herbicide on the individual weeds may be okay, but this should be avoided to the extent that you can. After the heat of summer has pasted, when night time starts to be cool, and the weekly rainfall approaches an inch a week, check the soil again. Aerating would be a good idea again. After aerating, put down a good mix of grass seed. Check with your county extension office to see what the best blend for your area is. Don't just buy the cheapest bags on the shelf at Home Depot. Also put down a "winterizer"-type fertilizer. Be sure you don't over apply the fertilizer. Under applying (down to half the package recommendation) is going to be better than over applying. Then *next* spring, you may want to overseed again. Spring fertilizer might be a good idea for the first year or two (again, don't over apply), but eventually, except for mowing and edging (and removing weeds before they go to seed), most of your lawn work will be in the fall. In fall, aerating, overseeding and fertilizing will be the basic routine. Spend springtime in your garden, not your lawn. A word about mowing: Mulch. Don't bag. Mulch. Mulch the leaves that fall, too. The organic material finely mulched is what's going to save you a lot of money. You'll have a healthy lawn that (for the most part) controls weeds by choking most of them out, and you won't have a need to spend a lot of money on fertilizers and other chemicals. One last word: Watering. You should water deep. An inch a week all applied at once is best. However, since your soil has been compacted so badly, even after you till-up the top few inches, there's going to be a hard crust under that for many, many years until the worms can work the organic material in deeper. If you start to get run-off before you reach an inch of water, stop. Wait 20-60 minutes, and restart. Don't ever be tempted to do a light watering every day or two. That encourages shallow roots, and you'll never have an established lawn. Lawn care services do it that way so they can convince home owners that they need to pay big bucks to have a crew of people come out to constantly care for the lawn. To sum it all up, a good lawn starts in fall. Until fall comes, you want to work on fixing the soil. When fall comes, aerate, seed and fertilize. Then next spring, enjoy your new lawn. -- Warren H. ========== Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife. Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants to go outside now. |
#3
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reviving my lawn
"Warren" wrote in message news:N_Xka.416780$S_4.484806@rwcrnsc53...
Ian wrote: Does this sound good? I've already spent what I feel to be a fortune $200 on grass seed $50 on fertilizer - not to mention the cost of the aerator and a truck load of mushroom soil from a local farm. I've tried to do my homework. I want to keep it chemical free (amazing how the arrival of a baby can change you)and am not looking for the perfect golf course look. Well, first of all, the life cycle of a lawn more appropriately starts in fall, not spring. When you start a lawn in spring it doesn't have enough of a chance to build a healthy root system before the heat of summer. Much of what you do this spring will not matter by the time fall comes. I don't know how much you want to spend for what will basically be single-season cosmetic work. Looks for this summer aside, the best thing to do now would be to work on the soil. If it was used as a parking lot, the soil is probably extremely compacted. Aerating and putting a top dressing of new soil as you've already done would probably be good enough for someplace that used to be untouched, and only was subjected to heavy traffic during construction of a building, but this soil has probably been compacted so tightly that you'll need to do more. You may need to till-up the soil, being careful when you get near the root zones of the trees. Clean-up the non-organic litter first, as well as thick branches, but leave the leaves. After you break through the hardpan surface, top dress with a lot of organic material. Horse or steer manure will probably be cheaper than any "soil", and will do a lot of good. Now at this point you might want to put out some grass seed. You didn't mention what part of the country you're in, but an annual ryegrass might be a choice here. Don't bother fertilizing this spring. And during the summer, limit the traffic, including foot traffic, on the area. Don't mow too often, either. Let what does come up reach 2-4 inches. Pull as many weeds as you can. Don't let them go to seed heads. Mowing them down first is better than nothing. Pulling them is best. Careful application of herbicide on the individual weeds may be okay, but this should be avoided to the extent that you can. After the heat of summer has pasted, when night time starts to be cool, and the weekly rainfall approaches an inch a week, check the soil again. Aerating would be a good idea again. After aerating, put down a good mix of grass seed. Check with your county extension office to see what the best blend for your area is. Don't just buy the cheapest bags on the shelf at Home Depot. Also put down a "winterizer"-type fertilizer. Be sure you don't over apply the fertilizer. Under applying (down to half the package recommendation) is going to be better than over applying. Then *next* spring, you may want to overseed again. Spring fertilizer might be a good idea for the first year or two (again, don't over apply), but eventually, except for mowing and edging (and removing weeds before they go to seed), most of your lawn work will be in the fall. In fall, aerating, overseeding and fertilizing will be the basic routine. Spend springtime in your garden, not your lawn. A word about mowing: Mulch. Don't bag. Mulch. Mulch the leaves that fall, too. The organic material finely mulched is what's going to save you a lot of money. You'll have a healthy lawn that (for the most part) controls weeds by choking most of them out, and you won't have a need to spend a lot of money on fertilizers and other chemicals. One last word: Watering. You should water deep. An inch a week all applied at once is best. However, since your soil has been compacted so badly, even after you till-up the top few inches, there's going to be a hard crust under that for many, many years until the worms can work the organic material in deeper. If you start to get run-off before you reach an inch of water, stop. Wait 20-60 minutes, and restart. Don't ever be tempted to do a light watering every day or two. That encourages shallow roots, and you'll never have an established lawn. Lawn care services do it that way so they can convince home owners that they need to pay big bucks to have a crew of people come out to constantly care for the lawn. To sum it all up, a good lawn starts in fall. Until fall comes, you want to work on fixing the soil. When fall comes, aerate, seed and fertilize. Then next spring, enjoy your new lawn. -- Warren H. ========== Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife. Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants to go outside now. If you have shady areas of your soon-to-be lawn you can probably get away with seeding now. But the seed you bought may not be appropriate if these areas receive little sunlight. Fine fescues such as creeping red and chewings will grow very well in shady areas and are very low-maintenance grasses (although creeping red fescue is prone to thatch buildup). They also germinate pretty quickly, usually in about 6-8 days. Tall fescue would be fine in areas of light to moderate shade. Also I'd recommend that you ditch your K-31. It's more of a pasture grass than a lawn grass; it is very light in color, almost yellowish, has wide blades that are uncomfortable to walk on, and does not grow very densely. In an NTEP study, it was the worst performing tall fescue out of over 140 tested varieties. The other grasses you bought are great though. |
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