Seed suggestions?

[Whitewater]

Not this year, *maybe* next year (possibly the year after that), we're going to start our BackYard Lawn Re-Greening Project.

I may have already mentioned that when we bought our house it hadn't been lived in for at least 2 years and clearly the people who lived it it before that didn't give a flying fig about the green things . . .

As a result, our backyard has no grass. It has weeds and what I, growing up in San Diego, would call groundcover in the summer, but now that we have two large, active dogs, we don't even have that.

The plan is to fence off a portion of the yard at a time (because of the dogs) and put a new lawn in via new grass seed.

Trouble is, we get FULL SUN in that backyard ALL DAY (and it faces south) AND we have two large dogs AND we're constantly having to walk on the grass to water the berries, the herbs and the veggies, to grill, to get back and forth from the garage, etc. The lawn takes a TON of abuse.

Anybody have any recommendations for a VERY hardy (we also live in zone 4a), sun-lovin', heavy traffic handlin' grass seed, or combination?

And what should we do to get the soil ready? Should we just till what's there, if anything? How do we prepare the soil? And do we have to do anything *this* summer to get ready for next spring?

Yeah, I've never had to totally replace grass before. Can you tell? LOL!

Help?


Whitewater

 

[SarahFair]

One fall day I remember riding home on the bus to find my WHOLE front yard DIRT.
My dad turned over the whole front yard and reseeded it. I thought it would never grow back! But it did and it was beautiful!

Youll either have to reseed in the early spring but I think its best to do it in the fall (or atleast down here in HOT Georgia) where the temps wont scorch the grass.

My dad did it to his backyard in his new house and it does not recieve a lot of sun, so he had to bring in the MOST beautiful sod from NC. This grass is probably the most beautiful grass I have ever seen in my life! It looks like a pitcure. It laid down perfectly!

 

[vfem]

People and their lawns... I am so sick of grass. I've talked and talked with hubby wanting to dig ours up and out. I want paths, moss, stepping stones, brick, and tons of wildflowers instead!

Then we could be done with the 3 hours it takes to mow and weed whack our yard. (A riding mower too!)

I don't mind a nice little plot big enough for a child to play some baseball or soccer or something. Its just hard enough to maintain a garden and then to have to chase down weeds in your lawn too is a nightmare.

Our lawn looks fabulous compared to our neighbors, but their weeds are slowly moving into ours, not much we can do about it.

Anyways, tis not the subject at hand.

I wish I could help you, but I do not know the Zone. Sarah is right, in NC we plant and start in the fall rather then spring with grass. And using seed they really try to get you to do different seed for each season.

Honestly, my friend hired a lawn care company to do her's it was AWESOME! They were not expensive at all for her 1/2 acre lot. It was very shady and rooty becuase of the surround woods... so they airated the soil first and that was extra. I think she paid $35 every 6 weeks for them to throw more seed and treat everything that was there. First trip was like $80 or something to start her off. It was a good deal for her difficult lawn.

Just an idea!

 

[digitS']

People and their lawns...

I don't mind a nice little plot big enough for a child to play some baseball or soccer or something. . .

Oh Vfem, I wish I had enuf room for a baseball or soccer game . . . As it is, my backyard is so tiny I have to go elsewhere to plant a tomato or 2.

I have a friend who has a little farm - level land with only a few small trees along the back driveway. So, it is fully exposed to the sun. She put in a large lawn and asked me to help . . . after she hired an experienced landscaper. Apparently, I was just there to look after her "best interests" and that was okay with me.

Picking up seed for that lawn couldn't have been simpler. The landscaper was adamant. He wanted straight, 100% bluegrass.

We probably live north of you Whitewater but have less severe winters. Our soil is glacial till. There is a lot of gravel beneath a fairly light covering of soil. Bluegrass has been grown commercially on this ground and I used to work for a bluegrass farm as a young man. There is still some bluegrass grown, mostly south of here on loess-type soil. That ground is essentially clay without the gravel. So, this grass doesn't seem to have very serious restrictions for soil type.

My friend's lawn is beautiful and thick. It would take a herd of rottweilers to do much damage to it - her little gaggle of geese don't cause any harm .

I no longer remember the variety of bluegrass. There are quite a few and you should talk to those folks who know about such things in your area.

Back in the day, when I worked for the bluegrass outfit, we would plant a field in the early spring, roll it, and do no more than chop the weeds down the first year. The 2nd year, broad-leaf herbicide would be applied and the grass could pretty much fend for itself after that.

Steve