Growing A Lawn For Scratch

[ness]

If I was going deluxe, I'd bring in some good soil. The stuff around here is horrible, and it's made worse when they dig a big hole for the basement, then spread that subsoil over the top. Then I'd make dang sure it was graded correctly to move the water away -- a lesson learned the hard (expensive) way for me on that one. Finally, I'd sod it with a fine-bladed fescue (and, K31 is not fine-bladed, it's clumpy, pasture grass). They'll handle traffic, heat and drought better than a blue grass lawn will. The stuff I overseed with is called Overtime, and I get it from http://grasspad.com/. Sniff around their website -- they've got some good info, even though they're local KC only.

[Blazerman]

I my other life I spent 20 years in lawn care and landscaping and what I have read here so far is mostly what you shouldn’t do.

First thing I would recommend is going to a quality lawn and garden center for everything you need and all the advice you want. They should be able to answer all the questions you have here plus anything else that comes up. Forget the big box stores or the local hardware store.

If money is no concern, hire someone to sod it all and you will have an instant lawn. But you will be looking at a several thousand for sure. Good sod can grow on any half way decent soil because you will be bringing in an inch of topsoil with the sod. And it can be laid on pebble size rocks with no problem. But I would wait till fall and even then you might not be able to get it this year unless they bring it in from out of state.

If you don’t want to spend 1000s on sod, then you will be seeding.

The soil test is good. Sounds like your good there.

When trying to start a yard by seed, seeding in fall is always best. You get perfect temps and (hopefully) plenty of rain. Plus, and most important, you avoid all the competition of lawn weeds like crabgrass that will be popping as soon as it get warm next spring.

If you don’t get the rain you will need to water like crazy. Forget waiting for it to snow. You will most likely miss two months of the growing season. Late August should be ok but will probably be hot and dry. If you can keep it watered it will pop quickly because of the warm ground but then the hard part is keeping it wet enough to survive. If you wait till the middle of September it might be better.

K31 is great if you want to grow a pasture. If you want a lawn your kids can play on than turf type tall fescue is probably the best choice.

But before you decide, what is the sun / shade mix. If you have mostly full sun TTT fescue should do well. If you have shade you might want to go with a mix of bluegrass, rye and creeping red fescue. That has always been the St. Louis area grass seed mix of choice and should do well in most of Missouri.

You are doing great by eliminating the weeds now. If you can loosen up the soil by raking it that would be good. Trying to remove all the rock can be a pain but would also be good.

For putting down the seed, one option is to rent a slit seeder. They make slits that the seed falls into as you move across the lawn. You will want to go in two directions if you slit seed. It is the best way but if that is not an option then broadcast the seed in a spreader. After it is down rake it in lightly and then roll it with a lawn roller, which you can also rent. The main thing you are looking for when seeding is seed to soil contact. If you have that and keep it watered it will grow.

The time to fertilize is once the seed has popped and is growing. You will want to use a starter fertilizer made for new seed. Once you have mowed it twice you can fertilize again with a fall fertilizer and if needed you can do a weed control application at that time as well.

I would skip the straw all together. It doesn’t really help because it brings in a lot of weed seed which will sprout along with your grass. Plus it is a pain to spread and ends up too thick in some areas and smothers the seed and blows all over your neighbor’s yard as well. And then when you try to rake it up you end up raking up a lot of new grass because the root system has gotten deep enough to hold it.

Good luck.

[stlfisher]

Blazerman,

Thanks for the advice. Sod is definately out of the question. I think they wanted about $1500 for the front. I cringe when I think about how much the back yard would cost and to be honest I kinda want to grow it myself.

This weekend I raked the yard to clean out rock and break up the dirt on the front and sides of the house. I sprayed some additional roundup on the new weeds that have sprung loose.

I do have some Tall Fescue seed that I think should work. The yard is in pretty much full sun...I think Bluegrass would fry.

My biggest worry is the very back of the yard. I cleared about two tennis courts of weeds about 4 feet high and now I am starting to clear rock and debris from that area and loosen up the soil. I have two concerns about this area. 1) The weeds come back strong again next year and 2) if I need to grade it...it is mostly flat, but is hasn't really been graded. The yard by the house has been graded and I am not worried about water coming toward my house.

My last concern is keeping the birds away from the seed. Should I just rake the seed into the soil instead of the straw? If I can avoid the straw step that would save me ton's of time. My concern here is the neighbor's back yard was picked clean before the seed could grow. He did not have it covered or rolled in anyway though.

[stlfisher]

If I was going deluxe, I'd bring in some good soil. The stuff around here is horrible, and it's made worse when they dig a big hole for the basement, then spread that subsoil over the top. Then I'd make dang sure it was graded correctly to move the water away -- a lesson learned the hard (expensive) way for me on that one. Finally, I'd sod it with a fine-bladed fescue (and, K31 is not fine-bladed, it's clumpy, pasture grass). They'll handle traffic, heat and drought better than a blue grass lawn will. The stuff I overseed with is called Overtime, and I get it from http://grasspad.com/. Sniff around their website -- they've got some good info, even though they're local KC only.

Sounds like we have similiar soil. That is one of the reason's I decided to rake the yard and not till. The amount of rock the builders pulled up while building the foundation was unreal and I was gonna have to rake that out anyway....so this is what I have been doing. Good times! The grading has been done near the house and it drains away. The area in the back hasn't been graded much, but is really quite flat. I though about bringing in dirt, but the stuff I have tested fine so it seemed kinda redundant and expensive.

I don't mind the work I just want to see the results when the time comes.

[ness]

Flat may mean standing water. No better time to fix that than when it's bare dirt.

[sitting fishing]

Hopefully, this is the right section for this...

My fiance and I recently built a new house and now I am tasked with growing a new yard. Our yard is about double the average size not huge but probaby 3/4 of an acre. Right now it is all dirt. The front, half of the back yard, and the sides of the house and have been graded. I have spent the last month killing and removing 4 foot hight weeds from the back half our property to the treeline. I have this completed, but there are a lot of dead weed stalks still left. These have been trimmed to amost ground level and sprayed a second time. They are as dead as dead can be Now I am a bit conlicted as to what do next.

Do I need to til the yard or can I just use a rake to lossen up the dirt and remove some of the rock?

Any type of grass seed that you would recommend?

Should I put down fertilizer with the grass seed?

I am planning on laying the seed and straw the last week in August and I really want to make sure that I have the yard prepped correctly. I would rather not do this all over again next year. I really want to make sure I have the weeds under control as well. IUt took me forever to remove them. Budget is a concern as we just bought the house and we have are paying for a wedding in a few months. i am gonna need to do the work myself...mostly by hand, but I don't mind the work and I want a great looking yard.

Any thoughts or advice from the experts?

.

when you are ready for seed look for George's magic mix it is a blend made for St Louis and is worth the extra nickle

[Blazerman]

Stl, if you can get the lawn established this fall and the weeds try and come back you can use any lawn weed control as needed to treat the weeds in the spring. Like Dutch said the best weed control is a heathly established lawn.

The best thing to do in the spring is to go ahead and start a lawn weed control and fertilazation program. You can use a local service or do it yourself with something like Scott's. if the back area needs to be graded i would try and get it done before you do anything else.

If you can slit seed you won't have to worry about the birds. If you don't be sure and rake it in lightly and roll it. Once you begin to water the birds should stay away.