First, thanks Cloud dreamer for all the excellent advice.
I just moved into this house the past winter so this is the first
summer I've had working on the lawn. I have no idea what the previous
owners did with it but from the condition this spring I don't think
they put too much effort into it. The back was especially bad with dog
crap caked into the lawn in a lot of places. There were also a lot of
dried out, bare places and even a big circle where it appears they had
a trampoline or above ground pool. The front wasn't nearly as bad but
again there are bare, dried out patches there as well. What I've done
so far is I've dethatched (using lawnmower and de-thatching blade) it
and limed it back in May and then had the Weedman aerate and fertilize
it around the end of May. I've just recently fertilized the lawn
myself again. The lawn is fairly thin everywhere with small bunches of
thicker grass.
I was planning on fixing a few more of the worst bare spots now with
some seed and topsoil and then in September if the lawn hasn't
thickened up to overseed.
Do you think I should lime again now, I was planning on doing it again
this fall.
On Jul 18, 3:04 pm, cloud dreamer <Global_Warm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Rob wrote:
> > The grass on my lawn is not very thick so I was planning on
> > overseeding the whole thing. You mentioned covering the bare spots
> > with soil. What's the best and most economical way to do this for the
> > whole lawn? Would it be better to buy a load of topsoil and lightly
> > spread it over the entire lawn? Will I have to rake down the entire
> > lawn or will cover with seed and then raking in some topsoil be
> > sufficient?
>
> If you want to invest the time and money for the whole thing, then
> tandem loads of topsoil are the way to go. You just have to make sure
> you get topsoil and not clay. So many places advertise class A topsoil
> and when you see it, it's clay with rocks larger than my fist. Good
> topsoil should be cut with peat and have rocks certainly no bigger than
> what you find on a gravel driveway (smaller really).
>
> Then you just seed the lawn, cover it with a few inches and keep it well
> watered for three weeks (or until it's well sprouted) and then every two
> days afterwards.
>
> You can't do it now because of the heat. This would have to wait for
> late September/Early October or next Spring.
>
> The one question...before you do any of that...is have you limed the
> lawn religiously over the past few years? If not, that could very well
> be the cause of a weak lawn (and redoing it as above will do no good
> without consistent liming). It takes several months for the lime to do
> its magic which is why fall is such a great time to lime.
>
> If you haven't, consider liming (right now...pelletized stuff spread by
> hand as if you were feeding chickens (no chickens required)), lime
> lightly again late in the fall and every fall afterwards. And fix the
> bare spots with a little seed and a few bags of topsoil.
>
> ..
>
> --
>
> We must change the way we live,
> or the climate will do it for us.
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