Preparing for a lawn?

[GregJ]

Brett,
I don't know if I fully understand your question, but I'll try to answer. Again, my solution is very "Lo-Tech". I have used the cyclone fence to transition from dirt to existing lawn. It works well for that. It seems to fill in all the low spots. As far as killing the weeds..... We have "Country Grass".... If it's green, I leave it alone. I don't irrigate, fertilize and above all I don't use weed killer. If I did, we would have about an acre of dirt and I'd have a very angry wife. Hope this answers your question.

Greg

 

[JimMorrissey]

Robert,

I just did my neighbors and my own with a landscape rake. I have a blade too, and they are fairly useful, but not nearly as useful as a landscape rake. Have your neighbor rent one for an afternoon and you will be pleased. -Far superior for your application.

Jim

 

[BrettW]

Greg, my basic question is do you need to get rid of the vegitation on the land before you start dragging your fence around? It would seem to me that it would work much better if you were just moving dirt and not going over clumps of grass. Does this make sense? brett

 

[GregJ]

Brett,
This does work best with a lot of loose dirt. If there are some areas with grass, the loose dirt will just level it out. If they are small patches, the 6x6 will usually strip it off. When dragging, a lot of the debris, rocks and loose turf will build up in front of the 6x6. This makes it easy to stop periodically and get rid of it. I have put in close to an acre of lawn this way over the last 25 years at my place. Before I had my tractor I would drag it with either a car or my riding mower. As I said before, this is a very "lo-tech" solution, but it's worked fine for me over the years. BTW, I just put in about 6,000 square feet of lawn in some really bad soil (hard clay). I saw some quick start fertilizer at Home Depot and gave it a try. I have never had lawn come up as quickly as this. I had sprouts at 6 days and I was able to mow it in 3 weeks. I have to think that fertizer helped. Hope this answers your question Brett.

Greg

 

[BrettW]

thanks, I'm moving in about 1 yr and have about 1.5 acres to grass in, should be fun actually, brett

 

[MLB]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Brett,
This does work best with a lot of loose dirt. If there are some areas with grass, the loose dirt will just level it out. If they are small patches, the 6x6 will usually strip it off. When dragging, a lot of the debris, rocks and loose turf will build up in front of the 6x6. This makes it easy to stop periodically and get rid of it. I have put in close to an acre of lawn this way over the last 25 years at my place. Before I had my tractor I would drag it with either a car or my riding mower. As I said before, this is a very "lo-tech" solution, but it's worked fine for me over the years. BTW, I just put in about 6,000 square feet of lawn in some really bad soil (hard clay). I saw some quick start fertilizer at Home Depot and gave it a try. I have never had lawn come up as quickly as this. I had sprouts at 6 days and I was able to mow it in 3 weeks. I have to think that fertizer helped. Hope this answers your question Brett.

Greg
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Fertilizer has absolutely no affect on germination. If you had sprouts in 6 days it was Rye grass and not the "good" stuff.
The 20 in an 80/20 blue/rye blend is rye to come up quickly to satisfy the homeowner. it takes 30 days of everyday watering for the bluegrass to germinate. That's the good stuff that you pay top dollar for. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gifMOST lawns consist of rye as the caretaker stopped watering after the rye came up.......

 

[GregJ]

MLB,
Dang.... And here I thought I had discovered the solution to "instant" grass. I guess mother nature is still in control. I have been watering like crazy because we have been having a heat wave. 90 degrees in Western Washington in June is really rare. Thanks for giving me the real story, although you did kinda burst my bubble about my new secret.

Greg

 

[BrettW]

FYI, I have use a lot of perinial rye and it comes up very fast also. Looks great, (good on salads too). bw

 

[TC18guy]

I don't have a box blade either. I used your method to put in about 5000 sqft behind my house earlier this year, except I sprayed the area with Roundup first to kill off the existing vegetation. I scuffed up the ground with my landscape rake, but back-blading with your toothbar should work fine. It's not a putting green, but it'll be smooth enough to mow.