Rebuilding a yard

[Sandmannd]

I have a lot of uneven spots in the back yard and some areas where crab grass keeps comeing up. I want to till it up and resead it. When is a good time to do this? Also, do you have to tamp it down? I have a kid and two dogs that will run around on it so I don't want it to get all uneven again. How long does it take for the grass to show? I was thinking about 2 weeks.

[Quetico]

Now there's a loaded question someone could write a book on and probably has.

After this present snow would be a great time to start this project. The ground should be ready for this early season repair work. Grasses we use here in MN germinate best when the day time high temps are between 65-75. Get the site prep and grass seed laid out right now as the temps next week should be in those ranges.

Don't tamp the soil down. Instead try removing all of the heads of crabgrass creating the humps. Raking the area smooth and general foot traffic should be all the tamping you need. You don't need the extra compaction created by tamping.

The germination time depends on your grass seed. If its a sunny area use a mix that's predominantly Kentucky Bluegrass. This grass would take almost 30 days to germinate. If its a shadier area use a mix that is predominantly Fine Fescue. This species will take 2-3 weeks to come up. If possible keep the traffic over this area to a minimum for a month.

I always urge people to use some sort of erosion control blanket whenever laying out new soil. Covering the newly seeded area with a straw blanket, coconut fiber mat, or even one of those starter fertilizer blankets you can get at the home dumpo. This will help germination, hold in soil moisture and ultimately give you a better end result. Its a bit of extra cost and work but well worth it.

Gold luck

[hotrod1]

How big of an area are you talking about Sandmannd?

If its a bunch of small spots, i would just spread some soil over the areas and level them out.

If its a bigger area, tilling it would work fine. Till it up, rake it smooth, pick out the clumps of grass and weeds.

Choose a seed you want to use and spread it over the area and gently rake into the soil a little bit.

Spread some starter fertilizer over the seed and water it in. Keep watering it enough just to keep the soil damp. you don't want to soak the soil to much, which is one reason seeding in fall is best.

With the right soil and daytime temps you should see bluegrass germinate in a couple weeks.

When it does germinate, i would apply another application of starter to push the grass to grow faster and try choking out weeds that want to take over. You will still more then likely need to treat the weeds after the grass has matured a bit later on.

I seeded our 2 acre lawn a few years ago with straight Bluegrass in early September and after a couple starter application the lawn was coming in beautiful. I was mowing areas of the lawn by October.

[Sandmannd]

It's a could 40 x 20 area I think. Pretty much one big area. Thanks for the advice so far. I like the idea of covering the area.