question about planting grass around a house???

[leeinmemphis]

Hey everyone,

On the old homeplace I took out I am needing to plant some grass up there to help with the erosion. I am not overly concerned about what type of grass but I just need something green and something that will help keep the mud/erosion down during the winter also because it is kind of a high traffic area. The area has been bladed level with a dozer but I still have about another half a day of finish grading with it to have it good enough to call finished. I am guessing I am probably talking about a 1/2 to 3/4 acre area. This isn't an area that I can water everyday because I am not living up there but could water it once a week or so. Is there anything that I can plant now to help with my situation now? If so do I also need to take my disc and bust the ground up a little to have a seed bed or just scatter it on the ground as it is now? Would spreading some hay over the area be a good ideas as well? I've thought about maybe just waiting until this fall and trying to plant some winter wheat around the area to get me by until spring and then planting something in the spring that will take off better(clover or something like that). My soil is very clean with some red sand content in it that helps. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This is the area that I am needing to cover:

 

[Egon]

The hay/straw should help keep the seeds moist for sprouting.

Look into the local grasses and pick the ones with the deepest root system.

 

[RickS]

For your situation common bermuda is going to be hard to beat. Drought tolerant, traffic tolerant, deep roots, relatively cheap to put in by seeding. Maybe overseed in winter with a rye.

 

[Gizmo36]

Get some common bermuda About 30 pd and a 50 pd bag of sand to mix with it.seed are little and the sand will make it spread better.

 

[wushaw]

Whatever seed you get you will have to water it for several days for the seed to germinate...even bermuda.

 

[EddieWalker]

I like bermuda also. I'm always looking for the best price on seed and where to get it. Right now it's at my local feed supplier. He has hulled 50 pounds sacks of pure bermuda seed for $200. When comparing seed, hulled is better than unhulled. You don't want to pay for the hull when buying by the pound. Most hulled seed will sell for half the price, but it also contains large quantities of other stuff. Just read the labe to see what percentage is actual seed.

One problem with hay is you don't know what your getting. Most hay has weeds in it. Spreading it out over your yard is a good way to get a whole bunch of weeds to start growing too. If erosion is your main conern, then you can deal with the weeds later on.

My favorite thing to do it to scrape grass from an area I already have it and spread it where I want it. A few days of watering and I have instant grass!! It's kind of a pain and not for large areas, but great for patches and starting a new area without spending any money. I have five such patches in my front yard that are spreading toward each other. One day they will all join and it will be a solid yard of bermuda grass for no money.

Eddie

 

[CurlyDave]

I've thought about maybe just waiting until this fall and trying to plant some winter wheat around the area to get me by until spring and then planting something in the spring that will take off better(clover or something like that).

The advice I have always read is that it is better to plant grass in the fall than the spring.

Just start yourself off with what you want this fall, winter is far less stressing on the grass than summer and the grass will have plenty of time to establish itself before next summer.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I've thought about maybe just waiting until this fall and trying to plant some winter wheat around the area to get me by until spring and then planting something in the spring that will take off better(clover or something like that).

The advice I have always read is that it is better to plant grass in the fall than the spring.

Just start yourself off with what you want this fall, winter is far less stressing on the grass than summer and the grass will have plenty of time to establish itself before next summer.

Exactly! Grass planted in the fall will continue to develope a root system throughout the winter. Grass planted in the spring and summer will only root shallow. It generally has all the water it needs in the top few inches of dirt. When dry, hot weather gets here in late summer, your shollow root system won't be able to support the grass like it should. Grass continues to grow some, even in the winter. About 90% of it's growth and developement will occur underground in cold weather.

All I can relay on grass types is what works here in Kentucky. For lawns, turf-type fescue is hard to beat. Drought tolerant, holds up to traffic, grows in good OR bad soils fairly well, and has strong, deep roots.

I've got a Bluegrass/Falcon Fescue mix on my lawn. It's tougher than a $2 steak, green as, well, grass, and with a little fertilizer, needs cutting every 3 to 4 days right now with all the rain we've been getting.

I'd seed this fall. (Late August is good) Consider straw OR having someone hydroseed using the shreaded paper mulch to hold everything in place.

Also, around here, most everyone will mix in some perrenial rye to get a "quick cover".

 

[Lindblom Lawn Care]

I would vote for waiting until fall to plan. I am not totally up to speed on warm season grasses. With that said I usually have a mixture of annual rye grass until the perennial grass is established.

 

[rox]

I've gott a Bluegrass/Falcon Fescue mix on my lawn. It's tougher than a $2 steak

Farming withjunk, I really had to chuckle about the $2 steak. Where do you southerners come up with all those "sayings", or if I wanted to use a big word that I dont' know how to spell, "colloquialisms" ... Honestly the southerners and westerners have more really funny, but right on target sayings than the northerers. We're jsut not that funny I guess...

Leeinmemphis,

Here is a a very creative way to start a lawn. When my father was a young man in the 50's after WWII there was a huge building boom. My father built his own home and to get money for materials on the week-ends he put in lawns, with no power equipment I might add. Here is what he did and it really does work. Instead of using hay or straw after he sewed the grass he layed down gunny sacs as he called them, burlap bags actually. He got the used bags from who knows where, probably some feed mill, my mother cut them open, and then he nailed them into the ground using real long nails to keep the seed in. The gunny sacks retained moisture, held up against wind, and kept the birds away from the new grass seed. He was always worried about birds eating the grass seed.

I can tell you his system worked because 20 years later, the old man still had his gunny sacs and he used them when I was a teenager and they built a new home. So I layed down gunny sacks myself. He always made us kids work.

If you can get a supplier of used burlap bags, it will eliminate the weeds that you would get if using hay or straw. It really will work