2017-2020 Grass & Yardwork Thread

[ChrisRU]

Garden thread popped up, is it too early to be thinking grass?

I'd like to get my mess fixed up this year. I'd like to get some decently thick and established grass growing. The soil in the yard is loose and sandy, so the crappy grass that's there now rips up easy.

There are a bunch of bare spots and moss is creeping in on the left. The whole yard is a gentle slope, probably 6'-7' feet of change from top to bottom. The area that says "needs grading" and mud toward the right is all jacked up from when some septic work was done. The bottom area by the road is just dirt and wood chips, no idea what's going on down there but I'd like to change it over to grass. There are 5 built in sprinkler heads around the yard, so water isn't an issue. The center of the yard gets sun few hours a day, the perimeter sees quite a bit of shade.

I have access to a small york rake and large tiller, but the ground is soft I can probably rake out some of the bad spots by hand. Since I need to smooth out the one area anyway, Should I just tear the bad spots up and start from scratch? When should I plant grass?

 

[rlb]

When should I plant grass?

August 15th (not a joke). You probably have more than 5 sprinkler heads, that's a lot of yard for 5. Fire it up in the spring and see what pops up.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole of lawn care go to aroundtheyard.com be warned, it's a rabbit hole. It takes a hell of a lot more time than you might think in terms of building good soil (fertilizing, lime etc.) And chasing out weeds.

Alternatively, just throw down some seed and go with the "Scott's plan" and see what happens. I'd leave what you have if you're not overly concerned earned with an evenly colored weed free lawn. Order some top soil to fill in what you need to and take it from there.

 

[clarkenstein]

for peeps like myself, the scotts plan works out pretty well.

this year i plan to set my lawn on fire.

 

[pooriggy]

The soil in the yard is loose and sandy, so the crappy grass that's there now rips up easy

Crappy grass rips up easy because of weak root system. Loose Sandy soil is desired for root penetration.

Statistically Aug. 15 is a good seed date. This does not mean it's the only time to seed. I've had good success with spring seeding, late March, April...even May.

The picture posted does not illustrate how much sunlight the grass recieves during the growing year. More sun more better.

If areas are wet due to poor grading, then re grade . Be careful not to over water, irrigation is usually only needed in late June to mid September. Do not run the system on a daily schedule, only water as needed. Most homeowners set sprinklers to come on daily, even if it poured the day before.

I would try cutting new seed in with a seeder the first year before you start ripping up the whole lawn.

 

[ChrisRU]

Appreciate the feedback guys. I know fall is more ideal but I missed that window. I'm not looking to win any contests. I'd like to have more green looking stuff and less mud stuck in my boots when I venture through the yard. I'll take a look at the Scott's plan and attempt some half assed version of it and report back with the results.

@rlb, I was being generous. Its not really a sprinkler system but rather just some PVC piped hose hook-ups that I'm assuming the previous homeowner put in. I ran it late fall to figure it out before winterizing it. I can use it took hook up some sprinklers but its not a real sprinkler setup.

 

[qclabrat]

I rented a cross cutting seeder from HD with Chris' recommendation last year. Saved me a ton of time and really promotes growth. If you yard is very uneven, you may want to get a landscaper to level it out with a box grader. I wish I did that last year as the front has some depressions I tried to fix but still didn't get smoothed out right. Try to find the seeder which is self propelled, anything with a slight slope will be hard to get up otherwise. It took me about a full day to do an acre lot, but spent two weekends prior prepping .

Oh yeah, get really good seed, not the contractor crap with annual seeds at HD. Agway and Tractor Supply both have good seeds. I'm going to overseed one more time this fall. Lastly do a soil test to see what you need to amend. The previous owner my have neglected the lawn and you may need more than the "Scotts treatments". I don't use chemicals in the backyard since its where my kids and dog hang out. Been using that sewage stuff bi-product fertilizer and not that concerned about weeds.

 

[Monkey Soup]

It looks like you get a lot of shade there. I would bite the bullet, get a few yards of dirt from Como and Sons or Mulch Depot (both on Jacksonville), and reseed. Get landscapers seed from Condursos, not the Hone Depot crap, comes in30lb bags. Check your soil pH also, may be acidic in the shade. Also, Lawn World is a good local company, everyone I know that uses them are pretty happy.

 

[Pearl]

so i took on this large project by hand that i probably shouldn't have, but since we had no grass anyway and i was tired of looking at it, i went full YOLO and went at it.

the fill is as rocky as CR and sucks. we are trying to make a little bit of a level area in our back yard, maybe a small little wall of some sorts on the hill to hold it back and look purty. now i think i need some bigger machinery in here. i just dont know what. in my limited research, its either a mini excavator or a skid steerer. what im worried about is that whatever i choose will do one job well, and the other shitty.



here is what one day of digging got me.im just about to where i would want to be on how deep i would go.


trying to show you what im working with, but not working too well.

@pooriggy

 

[Blair]

you need a dump truck worth of top soil, just buy the pre grown grass rolls and just roll them out and done.

 

[Patrick]

watch the way the water runs off from the higher ground.
@pooriggy on the mini excavator ftw.

 

[pooriggy]

I'm not sure how the Soil Conservation people let the developer get away with such a poor re-grassing of the property surrounding the development.

In any case the first thing you need to do is establish a lawn. Matty will tell you that grass is stupid, however it is aesthetically desirable and prevents further erosion of the area.

1. You need to level the area in photo within reason, meaning it does not need to be pancake flat however the grade should be consistent enough so you don't twist and ankle and smooth enough for grass to grow over without a mower scalping it. It's tough to see in pic how inconsistent the grade is. You may be able to rent a roto-tiller and loosen soil to re grade. Once it's fairly level and water does not puddle anywhere you need to rake off existing rocks. When this is done you should get some topsoil delivered and spread it evenly and till it into what you have. Rake it off again, level and seed. Apply straw mulch and water.

2. Depending upon time and money I would look into a fence to define your yard and establish a sense of private space. Establish grass first, it will make a big improvement. Putting a raised flower bed in is nice, but that comes further down the line.

 

[hotsauce]

Thoughts on adding some drainage for @pearl? It looks like the runoff from his entire neighborhood will flow downhill and pool right by the patio.

sry to make your project bigger, but you got your work cut out for you either way.

 

[Pearl]

Maybe this will help more:



Red will be the fence , black is where im hoping to cut the area back to be flat. On the second one im hoping to kick it out a little more if i get some machine stuff in. we have to worry about that drain and i would say its about 2 feet of dirt worth of shit.

it drains well now, thankfully nothing from the house you can see drains into our yard because it goes directly into that drain, the water flows to me in the photo. i'm not looking to make it pancake flat but something useful. right now its just a ramp.

is it worth just tilling and going through? i dont mind doing the shoveling work, but hitting rocks every 6 inches is a pain. im just not sure if thats the right tool for the job if its so rocky.

 

[ktmrider]

I'm not sure how the Soil Conservation people let the developer get away with such a poor re-grassing of the property surrounding the development.

In New Jersey the developer would get sued or The town would hold up his bond money until it was repaired , crazy you can spend 200k +- and be left with that

 

[The Kalmyk]

I'm an advocate for rain gardens. I have two in my yard. It was a more natural and economical choice for me.

 

[pooriggy]

Ok, I think i understand the grade that is going on. You have this awkward role happening that makes a small yard even smaller. In this case I would recommend renting a mini ex to cut into the back portion of yard and gradually blend to lower portion. You don't want to raise lower portion but blend elevation to take out roll in yard. You could hand dig but that is a lot more work, it looks like you Mya have to dig about 6" from the back and pull forward to blend into low area.

Once this is done you can re grass, with method I described above.

Another thought is to leave the roll. Right now the backyard looks like hell because of no grass. It may look better with grass and a fence. Re-grading will cost you and I'm not sure it's really necessary .

 

[UtahJoe]

I'm not sure how the Soil Conservation people let the developer get away with such a poor re-grassing of the property surrounding the development.

Where @pearl lives? Hes probably the first human in that area to go to the bathroom indoors.

 

[Pearl]

those rain gardens are cool, sadly it only ever downpours for 15 minutes from a thunderstorm here, or the sun cooks anything that lives, i would have to water a rain garden probably

iggy you are on the same page now. i agree that if it was green it probably wouldn't have bothered me. im hoping to move that roll area 6-8 feet to the right (or right where the H is Higher is). still going to have the yard pitch to leave a small area to have the water flow, but just not as dramatic as it is now.

the mini ex is 4x the price of renting a tiller, i don't mind shoveling dirt that can actually be shoveled. if i get the mini ex i would still need to rake out the rocks and level the land... so im not sure how much farther ahead id get. decisions!

 

[pooriggy]

the mini ex is 4x the price of renting a tiller, i don't mind shoveling dirt that can actually be shoveled.

They do have powerful tillers that go on the back of a tractor. You may be able to rent one if your rental shoppe carries such tillers. If they do you then need to convince your neighbors to go in on rental of such machine. Or hire a contractor with a tractor roto-tiller to loosen soil and make it workable to level and amend with good soil. It looks like all your neighbors have the same shitty soil, no grass back yard.

 

[soundz]

build a pump track