New lawn

[maros91]

All right. My grass is pretty much just weeds that I mow and there still are tire and tractor ruts from when they were building the house. My question is how do I put in a new lawn? Bring in a tractor and till it up, burn it and then till it or spray with weed killer then till? I live out in the country so tractor access should not be a problem and after the till I could bring in wheelers to drag the yard to get it smooth. Any ideas would be awesome.

[LwnmwnMan2]

I'd spray it first, do a complete kill on however big of an area you want to work.

If you don't have an irrigation system, you might want to just do a manageable area at a time. This way you're not constantly dragging hoses everywhere.

If you get started now, you should have it pretty decent by the time it's prime time to seed, if that's what you're going to do.

Once it's been killed off, then till that area in, adding any compost or dirt, depending on your soil type to help out with drainage down the road.

Get it smoothed out, and the seed, using a decent starter fertilizer, something along 18-24-12, or so. Then keep it damp at all times, not wet, but damp.

If it's not that big of an area, or you can get it in real real soon, the weather is cool enough that you can still get it in. However, much longer, and you'll be better off to wait until late August to seed.

[hotrod1]

Plan it so you can seed sometime between mid August-mid September.

I would start with spraying the yard with a non-selective type herbicide (round-up). Then, after the herbicide has started working, till it up good, drag yard with some kind of drag. I used a tooth drag first to really loosen and break up the existing turf and weeds from the ground...it seemed to work. Then drag the yard with some kind of heavy drag that will smoothen out any humps and bumps and fill any ruts in.

When the time comes to doing the seeding, try getting ahold of a brillion seeder to pull behind a tractor. It does a great job at seeding a new lawn. I believe the rental place in princeton has one.

If you have any steep slopes, you may want to consider erosion blankets, they can save you a headache if you get a heavy rain right after seeding.

After you have the seed down, apply a starter fertilizer and water it in. make sure you keep watering the seed so that it don't dry out, but don't over water, making puddles.

After about 3 weeks when you have a good amount of seed germinating, I would apply another application of fertilizer down to push them roots deep and get your lawn to establish quickly.

Around early October, hopefully acouple weeks after the 2nd application of starter fertilizer, I would put down another application of fertilizer to help your new turf survive winter...this time you shouldn't need any Phospherous.

If all goes well, you should be able to mow by the time we get snow.

Good luck. Feel free to ask if you have other questions.

[hotrod1]

You beat me to it Lwnmwnman.

[fishing tech]

Don't want to hyjack this post, but I am going to seed a couple of areas. I have starter fertilizer with crabgrass preventer. When should I put it down? Before or after I seed or after the seed starts growing?

[croixflats]

Biff to make things easy a good way is to seed with an overseeder. You can rent these. They are a machine that slices small trenches and drops seed in them then pushes dirt in the trench. Ive had really good luck in doing this many times for my costumers in the spring and fall. Its less laborsome than tilling and less susessable to wash outs. And also less watering though you should water for faster results.

For prep do as said above spray to kill then mow real short after a few days of spraying fill low spots with dirt then seed with over seeder. Be sure to make 2 passes one ,oneway the other perpondiculer to the other

Overseeder runs $125 a day

[croixflats]

Your cutting it close here on putting crabgrass preventer down I'd put that down now!! And take your chance with seeding.

You can get a crabgrass preventer that allows seeding at the same time. Its alower concentrate of prevanter but it still works.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Don't want to hyjack this post, but I am going to seed a couple of areas. I have starter fertilizer with crabgrass preventer. When should I put it down? Before or after I seed or after the seed starts growing?

Fishing tech. That product is fairly new on the market. I haven't had a chance to read the label yet. Read the label yourself, it should state when to apply.

Just thinking about it makes my brain burst though... I still can't imagine putting down starter fertilizer and crabgrass preventer at the same time.

[fishing tech]

The label states, apply after seeding but what does that mean? 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month. I think I will wait until I cut it.

[LwnmwnMan2]

It means apply after seeding. You don't have to look any farther than that.

Put down the seed, put down the fertilizer.

[fishing tech]

Thanks

[311Hemi]

1) I am working on prepping my back yard. Mostly level now but I need to go through and pull out any remaining roots from the 50+ stumps I pulled out. Does a Harley rake do anything to help remove all these smaller roots, or am I better just finding them with a rake and pulling them out by hand?

2) If I Harley rake do I need to worry about tilling? 1/2 the area is/was grass that got tore up so I may jsut tear up everything and start fresh, the other half was grown over with a bunch of weeds/tree that I cleared out.

2) I know were getting to the point in the season where seeding is iffy because of weather. If I rent one of those seeders that buries the seeds a bit under the top soil will that help if I seed in the next month or so, or would that not be needed? Previous post made it sound like the seeder could be used instead of tilling.

[maros91]

Great responses guys. Thanks for the info. Working long hours and haven't checked this in awhile. I will read them all ovet the weekend when I get time.

Thanks again.

[maros91]

I want to seed in late August/early Sept so when should I spray the weed killer on and start tilling. Where can I buy round up in bulk? I push mow my grass and it takes me 2 hours to do so I have a decent size yard. How much round up should I get?

[KEN W]

I would mow the weeds until early Aug.Then spray with roundup.DO NOT TILL W/O SPRAYING if you have quackgrass.Tilling will just spread it by chopping up the roots.It will take 2 weeks or so for the roundup to kill everything.Then till it,drag it,seed with a spreader,and rake it in.Start watering and water every day.It will be up and growing strong in about 2 weeks.Fertilize as stated above.

[hotrod1]

Biff, You could probably get round-up or a genaric Glyphosate (round-up) at the Princeton co-op or Mora co-op.

As far as how much to put down, it deppends on the size of your yard.

[MuleShack]

If you want to get things done quickly, rent a bobcat with a soil conditioner attachment.

It will pulverize the soil and furrow the remaining weeds so they are easy to pick up or you can push them all on one pile.

I know this is far more expensive than tilling, but to some people time is money. Soil conditioner will also level out the bumps and valleys to make a smooth surface.

Just a thought.

[maros91]

alright. I got a farmer to disc my yard but not til mid October. He said I should spray round up at the end of August and then he can till it up in October. Should I seed late Oct. or wait till spring?

[MuleShack]

Round up only takes a week or two to fully function and you can plant with in a week of application...however i would wait atleast 2 with a rainfall in between.

If he's not going to disc it up until October (which i'm assuming later October) then i would do the round up the last week in September. Weeds still continue to grow thru September so just want to make sure you get them all.

If you can get your grade done and the seed down before it snows then definately do it in the fall. The spring is too unpredictable with wet weather to be able to work the ground.

Make sure to use a few straw mesh mats on any sloped areas to prevent run off and keep the seed and dirt in place.

Last fall i did the lower section of my yard (roughly about 3/4 acre)with bobcat and soil conditioner. I spread the seed after dirt work was done, then raked it in with a dethaching rake on a mower. It came up right away in the spring and is doing great.

[maros91]

Sounds good. I will round up in late Sept. Thanks!!