Lawn restoration

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by louie, May 20, 2007.

  1. louie

    louie Member

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    Hi,

    My lawn is in a very bad shape.. there are low and high spots and dead spots (no grass). Need help please... What would be the best thing to do? Will I need to remove the old sod and start to install a new one?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Chuck White

    Chuck White Active Member

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    If the majority of the lawn is at least acceptable, you might use a steel tine rake to break up the soil in the bare spots, haul in enough good fill to even out the low places, and just re-seed. This would, by far, be easiest. Toughest, as I have done it, is to use a spade fork, turn the whole thing over, put 3 inches of peat moss on top, turn the whole thing over again, then rake it level, THEN sow your seeds along with several pounds of Iron Sulphate, 6-6-6 fertilizer, and a somewhat smaller amount of Epsom Salts. And jump back!!!! OR, just make a phone call and have it sodded.
     
  3. WesternWilson

    WesternWilson Active Member 10 Years

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    We have, over the years, inherited some really sad and sorry lawns.

    There are ways to renovate old, stressed lawns, but IMHO, they are usually only of middling success. In all the lawns we had that were in trouble, ALL had been planted on a poor substrate: ie. a soil that no grass seed would ever flourish on by itself, and which was barely adequate even when fed, watered, etc. You can renovate the lawn but will probably find that in high summer, you have big patches that either brown and die, or which have trouble staying abreast of the weeds and clovers.

    So here are some options, with the best last;

    1. Apply a grass friendly herbicide, organic or otherwise, or pluck out all weeds possible. Then topdress the entire lawn, attempting at the same time to fill dips and level, with a good quality topsoil or compost mix, with as LITTLE sand in it as possible. Try to put on 2". Your old grass will be poking through but overseed with a good grass mix suited to your site and use. Repeat this each fall and spring till you are happy with the lawn. Do not use pesticides and herbicides (kills the soil fauna, tough on the grass and environment)...if your topdress material is good, fertilizing is also unnecessary.

    2. Get out as many weeds as possible by the method of your choice. Dress the lawn with as much compost or topsoil as you can afford. Bury the grass, make the whole thing nice and level. Compact with a roller. Plant new sod.

    3. Get rid of the existing lawn and as much of the soil as you can. Replace with at least 6", preferably 1' of good topsoil, as low in sand as you can find. Compact. Plant either seed or sod (I prefer sod...you get a good lawn, quickly, and need not worry about paths made in the new seedbed, and you can lay it any time of the year).

    Good luck and remember, big, curvy garden beds show off the grass and minimize your mowing chore.
     
  4. thirstbuster

    thirstbuster Member

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    Hi there folks,

    I am also having some lawn troubles - nothing as bad as described in the initial post, but nonetheless, I would like it greener.

    I get plenty of weeds from neighboring yards that are not cared for, and have been told in another section of this forum that when I pull weeds out leaving bare spots I should top cover and seed. I plan on starting that as soon as our rain lets up.

    What I would like is to find some reputable information on lawn maintenance. Do any of you people have preferred authors or web sites that you would recommend I check out?

    Thanks a bunch!
     
  5. WesternWilson

    WesternWilson Active Member 10 Years

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    If you are having trouble with a lot of weeds moving in, that indicates that your grass may not be healthy enough to compete with the weeds. In a healthy lawn, that is not a huge problem.

    That said, I don't mind a bit of clover as we pull it and feed it to the guinea pig! I spot weed every couple of weeks as the odd dandelion etc. moves in.

    You can boost your lawn considerably by going organic (so you have worms and things down there working for you), and doing a generous fall and spring topsoil/compost top dressing, then an overseed. For more thorough fixes, see my post above.

    Most trouble lawns indicate a trouble substrate. I have never inherited a lawn that was planted in anything better than 1 inch of "topsoil" over a sand/gravel (read: utterly infertile) substrate. That is NOT enough.
     
  6. thirstbuster

    thirstbuster Member

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    My rear lawn (rough estimation is 30'x50' of lawn), which I sodded myself about 3 or 4 years ago has about 3 dump trucks of topsoil under it.. it is probably a foot or more thick. We were lucky I suppose because the grading was very low. Previous to the lawn being planted, there was a garden in the entire yard for many years.

    The front yard, I have no idea how deep the top soil is. It seems to me that the grass is not thick enough, and I am not sure what the cause is. I have TONS of worms in the yard. Every shovel full of dirt I pull from the planting beds has oodles of worms in it. More than I have ever seen before.

    I have been reading about thatching and topdressing my lawn. I am not sure how to topdress.. do I actually cover the lawn with dirt and hope the lawn pokes through? There must be more to it than that!

    Attached are some photos of my lawn. The first is the back lawn, which has few weeds, but lots of thatch and a little brown. It was greener before I cut it this morning, and I think I may be cutting it a little short and too frequent. I also attribute some it to a week of cloudiness with light showers and no sun.

    The last two are the front lawn, which has the same problem, but is more sparse and infiltrated heavily with weeds. There are not many right now, but I hand weed almost every day.

    My lawn isn't in despair, but with the amount of work I am putting into it, I would sure like better results. For anyone with recommendations, I prefer organic solutions. (Sorry for the long post!)
     

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  7. WesternWilson

    WesternWilson Active Member 10 Years

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    Well, the down and dirty method would be a weeding, a liming, a deep topdressing (yes, just spread as much topsoil over the grass as you think it can stand, it pokes through), rake that in and overseed with a good grass mix for your situation. The old grass should grow through and be supplemented by the newly seeded grass. Repeat in fall.

    Let us know what you decide to do and how things go!
     
  8. Chuck White

    Chuck White Active Member

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    Thirstbuster; Typically, your lawn should be about three inches in height, on average. And when you cut it, never take more than one third of the blade height. If you cut it very short, you have the situation of stressing the roots because the roots can't grow without the blades doing their thing such as, providing nutrients to the roots to process to keep the grass blades green. One can't work without the other. About your lawn, I would think I'd died and gone to Heaven if my lawn looked HALF as good as yours. Maybe you are too fussy. Enjoy what you have!
     
  9. thirstbuster

    thirstbuster Member

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    I guess I am being picky, but I spend alot of time to make my lawn look nice, and if there is some sort of technique that I can adpot in my maintenance, I am always eager to try it!

    I am going to move my lawn mower up a notch to lengthen the grass and try long infrequent waters as I have seen recommended here and other sites. There was quite a bit of rain again today, and it is getting greener already tonight.

    Is there such a thing as over mowing? I find I have to mower about every 3 - 7 days, depending on the weather. It also keeps the crab grass short. (Maybe I should go to all crab grass - that stuff never dies!).

    Thanks for all the assistance everyone!
     
  10. Chuck White

    Chuck White Active Member

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    thurstbuster: A couple of things::: Your lawn would appreciate about 1 inch of water per week. It is healthier for you to water once per week to enable the water to soak past the roots and then begin to dry somewhat. Too often and too lightly will cause the roots to move toward the surface and out of the water retention zone. This will stress the roots and the lawn will begin to fail. A really wet lawn (more than I stated before) will cause root-rot and, again, there goes the lawn. Cutting the lawn frequently is not harmful as long as (critical) you keep the blades SHARP! Lay on your belly some warm day and closely examine the cut ends of the grass blades. If the end of some or most are 'frazzled' on the ends, your blade needs sharpening. The cut should be a square, smooth cut, as though each blade was individually cut on a cutting board in the kitchen. Besides, all those ragged ends will die back and give the lawn that 'half-dead' look. Re the 'over mowing', you probably can get away with mowing as often as it takes to satisy YOU. However, if you collect (catch) the cuttings, you are removing the nutrients that produced the grass, and should replace them with a balanced slow release fertilizer. If you don't catch the cuttings, the more frequent cutting will begin to build up thatch, which is another kind of problem.
    It is often stated that a lawn is the most expensive, time consuming thing you can put in your yard. The following personal philosophy might blow your mind, but I'm slowly eliminating ALL my lawn and going to plants, trees, and mulch, all Tropicals.
     
  11. thirstbuster

    thirstbuster Member

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    That is another good point. Last year I hit a water shut off pipe in my neighbour's yard while I was mowing. I didn't replace the blade, but a friend of ours ground it down and repaired the shaft. I will pick up a new one in the morning!
     

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