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tommysgarden

taking back control of my lawn...

tommysgarden
15 years ago

We moved into our house almost 3 years ago (june '05) and sadly i haven't done a thing to my yard since except for mow it. however, now i'm finally at a point where i can put our lawn as a priority and i am hopelessly lost as to where i should begin.

my yard is currently overrun with wild grasses and mutant weeds (in fact, i don't think i can really say that ANY of it is grown turf). portions of the yard (area shaded year-round by trees and sections around a big gumball tree, GRRR....) are hard as cement due to the fact that 100+ years ago, the area i live in was nothing but a giant coal strip mine.

so my 2 initial questions:

first, should i try and battle with the native grasses and mutant weeds and try to crowd them out with turf from seed? or is that a hopeless fight? would it be better to simply kill everything off and start from scratch? if so, what's the best way to go about that?

second, i'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to try and amend the soil in the shade and around the gumball tree. while i'd love to grow grass in those areas, i doubt any turf will really survive in 100% shade. plus i don't know if i'll really be able to get deep enough into the soil around the gumball tree and its mass of roots to loosen it with any sand. (perhaps that will be a project after i can have it cut down)

i would much rather stay organic as i have 2 dogs, 2 small children, and multiple raised beds that feed us. my parents have gotten chemical treatments for their yard and while their grass is the greenest of greens, i can smell it as soon as i turn into their driveway after it's been sprayed. god knows where else that stuff is ending up.

i also don't like the idea of "replacing" my lawn with sod...somehow that just seems like cheating to me.

i understand that this will most likely be a multi-year endeavor, but for me at least, now is as good a time as any other to finally get started on year one.

TIA for any help you can offer...

Comments (3)

  • fescue_planter
    15 years ago

    Might not like this but here is what I would do:

    Feed your lawn a monthly blast of corn meal/cracked corn at 20lbs/1000sqft. 3 weeks before you would do a fall seeding dump 20lbs/1000sqft of alfalfa pellets. 5 days before you would do a fall seeding, blast the whole yard with roundup (prefer sunny day). Mow the next day and then roundup again 2 days later. Might not be popular here but I'm trying to make sure all your wild stuff is really dead. 2 days after that give the now dead yard a full seeding of grass that does well in your area. If you want to break your back, apply 1/8" compost to the whole area or hit it with compost tea. Now your grass has a head start to grow without too much competition from weeds and should be ready to go in the spring and should take over dead grasses as they decay (hint compost microbes). The cracked corn bit is my way of getting organic matter into your soil in the meantime without being too expensive or overly stimulant. Finish off with an application of 15-20lb/1000sqft soybean meal late in the season so the nutrients from the decomposing soybean will pick up as early as the weather allows in the spring.

  • tommysgarden
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    FESCUE-

    that sounds pretty good. that sounds pretty good. would you aerate before the corn meal treatment to keep it from just washing away in a rain or is that not much of a worry?

    also, when you say a "monthly blash of corn meal/cracked corn...3 weeks before fall seeding," should the corn meal be a one-time application or do you mean that i should continue to apply monthly afterwards as well? how long? certainly not through the winter...?

  • fescue_planter
    15 years ago

    I'm saying a monthly app of corn meal every month starting now as an organic supplement for your soil to give it something to eat and to develop a good fungal web and start making it a nice vacation spot for worms/arthropods/bacteria/fungi/protozoa. I assume the soil is possibly in poor to moderate condition and this is the cheapest grain I can think of to put on. You could aerate if you want. The alfalfa would be my preference to apply 3 weeks before you seed to provide good and diverse nutrients to help your seed along. 3 weeks would be the 'rule-of-thumb' time frame during warm seasonal weather to break down your average corn/soybean/alfalfa grain into nutrients that your new plants can start to use. After your grass starts growing in the fall, give it a "winterizer" dose of soybean meal that will be ready to feed your lawn on nature's clock when the spring warmup comes.

    In the meantime I would let whatever you have growing on your lawn grow tall to minimize your watering and to keep the birds from finding your grains. Example: my wet hair (short cut) dries within a half hour or so compared to my wife's hair (long) that can take all day if she doesn't dry it because her hair near the scalp is never exposed to significant airflow. Not to mention if you use the plant to shade the soil it will not dry out as quick from intense sunshine. Don't bother bagging the clippings anymore either, you want whatever that comes out of your soil to recycle itself.

    This is just my opinion and if anyone has any problems with it, please chime in!

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