Backyard DO-OVER! What prep for new sod?

[Moose-Hunter]

Howdy All...

Well... The backyard came in thick this spring. Very green and VERY YELLOW!!! Better than 80% of the backyard is now overrun with the dandilion plague!!! Not to mention the other weeds. Trust me when I say it's BAD and way beyond even thinking of saving... That being the case, I'm planning a very extensive make-over and need a bit of advice...

I'll be bringing in quite a bit of clean fill to help level out a steep hill area. A least one, possibly two VERY large dump trucks so I'm told... Should I remove the existing "dump" before dumping and leveling? And how? Chemically? Scraping? Or my personal favorite... FIRE. The last option is more of a revenge thing. And, being in town, the locals may take exception to this...

What is the best way to prepare the yard for the leveling and new sod?

Thanks...

[slotlimit]

If it was me I would just dump on the dirt right over the top and till the whole yard. Smooth it out before putting on the sod so you have a nice level yard.

[Powerstroke]

In order to do the best job of eliminating more weeds seeds form mixing in you should hit the area with roundup or something similar. Kill everything. You can rake, burn, till scrape, or whatever to remove the dead material. Wait 1-2weeks. New weeds will start to grow. Zap it again with the roundup. Once that stuff is killed and cleaned off you can delevir your new fill and start the grading work. Use a starter fertilizer BEFORE the sod arrives to prep the soil. The sod will have enough fert and chemicals to make it last till its well rooted.

[FISHINGFARMER]

How deep will your new yard be elevated from the old yard?

If your ending up with more than 6 inches of new fill, you can probably save some bucks not having the first burndown of round-up applied to it . Most yard type seeds will only germinate if they are in the top 2 inch profile of new dirt.

Test your ending up soil once it is leveled and rolled with a packer for the right amount of PH, apply the right amount of lime and fertilizer mix to bring it up to snuff and your good to go with the new seeding of grass.

Farmer

[Moose-Hunter]

Quote:

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Kill everything.

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Powerstroke... I like the way you think!!! As he says with an evil voice!!

Thanks for the responses folks!!! I'll try to shoot a few pics today and let you see what I'm up against...