The BCM Lawn Thread

[95 TA - The Beast]

Anyone got any good references for "fixing" a rear yard that had an in-ground pool removed?

When we bought our house last summer the bank had earlier that spring had the in-ground pool removed. The company that did that were just fucking assholes, cut out a section of wrought-iron fence (real iron, not cheap thin-tube steel that looks like it) and pulled a dumptruck in back to fill in the hole. This basically totally screwed up the landscaping on the side of the house because it caused a berm between the two properties and caused almost two big ruts. The backyard was basically all mud where the pool was and a large section of the rest was totally screwed up in the process. When we moved in (late July) I had waist high weeds in all that mud. Took a day to cut that all down and now this year I have to deal with it since I am hoping it is done settling.

Basically I need about 20 yards of dirt, have the entire backyard tilled and then either seeded or sodded. I need about 2-3 yards of dirt for the side of the house and that leveled out and the same top treatment.

What really sucks is I have a parking slip built out of red-brick that got rutted as well from the dumptruck, so I need to pull a lot of bricks, relevel and then replace the bricks. The wrought iron fence I already fixed with screw-in shoes and stainless hardware as well as a slip-fit adapter to the main post so I can basically pull that section to get big vehicles in/out if needed. What sucks is that section of fence weighs in around 200lbs and the gate itself is around 100lbs if not more.

So, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[jbiscuit]

Michelle, Milorganite covers 2,500SF per their recommended app

If you are looking to thicken/green up your lawn, I posted this schedule earlier in this thread. I will be using this same basic schedule again this year. Just a tip but add reminders in your phone on what to apply and when. So my schedule has 3 applications of Milorganite over the course of the season. So if you want to save some money, stock up at Steins now for the whole season while its on sale. Feel free to modify this as needed. This is just what I do.

Early spring (March/Early April): Scotts Turf Builder with Halts Crabgrass preventer; wait about 2-4 weeks and apply Milorganite per bag recommendation

Late April: Overseed now. You want to get the seed down at this point so it makes good contact with the soil. It will take the full 21 days to germinate but natural spring rains will water it in nicely for you.

Spring (May 15-20 or prior to first dandelion in your yard): Watch your neighbors' lawns. If they have even one dandelion in their yard now is the time to put this down): Scotts Plus 2 with Weed Control (yellow bag); wait about 2 weeks after this app and do a HEAVY Milorganite. Apply 2-3 ticks heavier than recommended app

Summer: (Late June early Julyish) Apply lawn food or Turf Builder. 4 weeks after last Milorganite app put this down at the recommended app on the bag; if grass is real dry start watering.

Labor Day: Milorganite per bag

Scotts fall/winterizer: Ssome people swear by this, I haven't done it for a few years at my other house and didn't see ANY ill effects from skipping this step

[jbiscuit]

Anyone got any good references for "fixing" a rear yard that had an in-ground pool removed?

When we bought our house last summer the bank had earlier that spring had the in-ground pool removed. The company that did that were just fucking assholes, cut out a section of wrought-iron fence (real iron, not cheap thin-tube steel that looks like it) and pulled a dumptruck in back to fill in the hole. This basically totally screwed up the landscaping on the side of the house because it caused a berm between the two properties and caused almost two big ruts. The backyard was basically all mud where the pool was and a large section of the rest was totally screwed up in the process. When we moved in (late July) I had waist high weeds in all that mud. Took a day to cut that all down and now this year I have to deal with it since I am hoping it is done settling.

Basically I need about 20 yards of dirt, have the entire backyard tilled and then either seeded or sodded. I need about 2-3 yards of dirt for the side of the house and that leveled out and the same top treatment.

What really sucks is I have a parking slip built out of red-brick that got rutted as well from the dumptruck, so I need to pull a lot of bricks, relevel and then replace the bricks. The wrought iron fence I already fixed with screw-in shoes and stainless hardware as well as a slip-fit adapter to the main post so I can basically pull that section to get big vehicles in/out if needed. What sucks is that section of fence weighs in around 200lbs and the gate itself is around 100lbs if not more.

So, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Dennis you will want to consult with some landscape companies to have them evaluate whats needed for the best recommendation but I can take a crack at some options.

Option 1: Get estimates for filling/grading/seeding. Have landscape companies out to evaluate best, most cost effective options but I would think they could top the low spots with pulverized top soil, match grade and then seed. I would recommend you find a contractor that can hydroseed in this case. Google the hydroseeding process. It works great and won't blow away etc. Dresen Landscaping in Franksville, WI has the hydroseeding equipment and can also handle the soil and grading. 262-886-5055 ask for Mike Dresen

Option 2: Rent a bobcat and you tackle yourself or get the yards of top soil delivered and hand do it. This is a lot of work if you choose to not rent a machine. If you can, take some pics. Regardless if you use the machine or not, you will need a large landscape rake (flat, large width) for spreading top soil, pulverized top soil, wheelbarrows, shovels, etc and then really good contractor-grade seed (buy from a nursery, landscape company etc). Seed is CRAZY expensive for good quality stuff. IE $60-85 a bag. So depending on the area we are talking, you might have 5-6 bags of seed + supplies. You might be able to get a good landscape company to fix this for you for not much more.

The thing to remember with "patching" is you want to match the grass type and get the top soil applied correctly to insure long term you don't get settling etc.

[badass88gt]

Shit, I still have a foot of snow in my yard. Not even thinking about my lawn yet...

[jbiscuit]

Get that Crabgrass preventer down!

[jbiscuit]

How is everyone's lawn doing? Dandelions just starting to pop up. Get your weed n feed down now

[WickedSix]

have 18 dandelion blooms in the front yard and the rest has greened up...finally.... back half acre is a mess of dead grass from leaves and clovers

[badass88gt]

I'm out of town this whole week, I NEED to get the Plus 2 down NOW, I know I have dandelions because I saw 1 or 2 of them the day we left for vacation. I just put down the crabgrass preventer about 3 weeks ago, I'm hoping its not too soon for the next application. I was hoping to get it down and then Milorganite Memorial weekend.

[95 TA - The Beast]

I figured I would bring this thread out of slumber with an update...

Well, considering the scope and cost of the backyard redo, I figured I would shelve it until either late summer or next spring... Just too much going on...

So, I decided to focus on the front yard, which in and of itself was pretty well ravaged by not only last summers heat and lack of rain, but also because this place hasn't had proper groundskeeping since 2009 or so (before that it was not owner-managed, but managed by a landscaping service, so you know they went overboard on the various treatments and basically made it so when they didn't do it any longer it went to hell quickly, basically like a drug addict that can no longer get a fix)... and that was the biggest thing I got from talking to a few landscaping friends, is that you can go overboard on lawn treatments which is all fine and dandy until you stop at which point your lawn can easily thatch up and go half-dead... Your best bet is reasonable treatments on a fixed schedule and dealing with the various weed issues with either a spot treatment or a seasonal treatment. Doing the broad range weed treatments as a preventative on a schedule is actually quite bad overall. The only time you should use the weed and feed stuff off-season is if you are dealing with a bigger issue that comes up mid-season or something radical. Most services go with a broad spectrum approach that just causes an addicted lawn that will need it's fix... Great for repeat business, sucks for cost efficiency and a healthy, hearty lawn.

So, to deal with all the spottiness and such I initially tried the simple overseeding at the beginning of may... not enough, consistent rain so it did help some, but not as much as I would have hoped.

So, this last weekend I decided to go with an all-out approach. I dethatched the larger areas by hand, filled in certain low-spots with quality black topsoil, racked it all smooth, seeded with Pennington Sun & Shade, added more topsoil in a think layer to help it germinate properly, raked it a little, threw some more seed on top and have been watering for a couple hours a day for the past few days. I am hoping that within a week or so I have some decent additional growth and some solid leveling of the chunkiness of the lawn in general. I also planted a half dozen rose bushes of the tea cup hybrid variety by the fence on the side of the yard using a good mix of potting and garden soil and have already noticed some nice growth out of 4 of the 6 bushes... Hopefully the final two will have some visible growth by next week, otherwise I may have to replace them if they were bad... I know it will take a couple years for them to get decent sized, but I like the idea of growing them instead of buying a mature bush...

If this works on the main part of the front lawn and the one side yard, I will then finish off the rest of it in the same fashion as well as the other side of the driveway... That side will be more work since I need to get rid of some ruts from the dumptruck as well as resetting a paver parking slip... That will need some serious top soil and paver base material to fix properly...

[wikked]

On a semi-topical note, my 3rd Catalpa that I grew from seed (January 2012 - and transplanted later in the summer), has come back, and is blowing up nicely :]
The first died from some critter eating everything off it (no fence on that one), and 2nd one didn't survive winter.
Third times a charm!

Should be 2-3ft tall by the end of the year, as they are medium/fast growers.

[pOrk]

Grow food not lawns, hah! I have up on the perfect lawn and started a huge vegetable garden and planted a few grit trees. Growing food is kinda like printing money for us

[jbiscuit]

Nice work on the lawn Dennis. Its amazing what a little work will do. Most of my neighbors pay for chemical treatments and lawn service and I do my own from fertilizing, seeding, shrub maintenance, lawn cutting etc and I'd like to say mine looks just as good as theirs. Nice thick green lawn. I'm actually having to cut mine a little higher than I would like to because its so thick! I do have one neighbor that has decided not to take care of his grass and it quickly turned into a weed farm. He has crazy stuff in his grass almost like mini trees. Yuck. No way I would play with my kid on that. Loose an eye if he tripped and fell.

A really nice lawn is great for playing with the kiddo. We spend hours out there every day. Lawn care is part of home ownership. Doesn't take much plus great to be outside this time of year.

[95 TA - The Beast]

Yeah, when we moved in here last summer this place was in sad shape. Luckily I can envision things pretty well and knew with some work it would turn out nice.

There was just so much to do, both inside and out in this place I pretty much took a piecemeal approach last year and attacked as much as possible all over. The bushes were so far overgrown that I cut them all back pretty good and trimmed them up as far as I felt would be reasonable. This year they are coming back in quite strong so in fall I will cut them back to where I think they need to be as they are still a bit larger than I would like. I am amazed at how much growth there is out of all the pine-bushes around here. I thought they pretty much kept their size and shape overall with minimal growth through the years, but this year they all have grown shoots at least 6-8 inches off every branch and stub. I was also concerned about the raspberry bushes on the side of the house, as I left all the healthy stalks last fall, but man have they come in and grown like weeds, so much that this fall I will cut them all down and let them start fresh next spring.

We also have a Japanese tree in the front on the left side that I was concerned about since last year the heat did a job on it. It has also come back in with a vengence. I don't feel bad about cutting out all of the dead growth in it as it is spurring it to grow new in those areas like gangbusters.

About the only concern I have is in the backyard there is a row of tallish bushes where the pool was. Turns out the two end bushes looked like they died off last year. It was strange enough because they actually looked like they were poisoned, as the green moss on the weedbarrier at the base of one of them was brown as well. One came half-back and the other that we thought was totally dead is actually having fresh sprouts on about 1/10th to 1/8th of the top. I think I will let that one go for a while and see what comes of it. I actually think the guy behind was the one that poisoned them since he has a fence section just to the side of them and with those two gone would have a view out on that side. Turns out the guy that built this house didn't get along with a few of his neighbors. I just think you have to be a pretty big asshole to poison foliage not on your property. I don't care if a bank owns it for a while or not. In retrospect, I guess it coudl have been from pumping concentrated chlorinated water from the pool before they demo'd it, but still kinda strange that only those two took a hit.

But, yeah, if the front yard comes in nice and it levels out nicely I will be quite happy. I am just sick of the lawnmower bouncing all around while trying to mow because the lawn is so damn uneven with blank spots and such. Makes it looks like I can't mow in a straight line. I even have one of those Briggs & Stratton 7hp mowers from Menards with the big rear wheels that is self-propelled and I can only imagine how bad it would be with a mower with small wheels all around.

[badass88gt]

Just got my Milorganite down, this is my third feeding. First was Scott's Crabgrass, then Scott's Plus 2 Weed & Feed, now Milorganite. Hoping for Scotts Summerguard and Milorganite to round out my season.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

[michelle]

Cut some of the backyard with the smaller mower. Have the Ford 8N out to cut the rest, but getting around the trees with the 72" belly mower is not my idea of fun. Backyard always looks so green and nice considering nothing is ever done to it.

[jbiscuit]

Everyone's lawns should be nice and green with the amount of rain we have had this year. Looking to do my 3rd application of milorganite soon. My lawn is nicer than the carpet in my house. Thick and greeeeeeen

[michelle]

We threw down some milorganite on the front yard the other day. Does that stuff go on sale randomly throughout the year? Can it sit in the shed for awhile if I stock up?

[jbiscuit]

Usually only goes on sale at Steins in early May. Think thats the only sale I know of, 5 bags for $29. I think their regular price is $6-7 which still is pretty good. Yes it will store just fine. I'm looking into a pallet for next year with a neighbor.

[badass88gt]

Menard's has it on sale for $5.99, I bought 12 bags, used half now, half in a couple months.

[95 TA - The Beast]

Well, I can happily report that just over 2 weeks later the front lawn is looking great. A bunch of weeds flourished along with the new grass, but there is a ton of new grass growth and all the existing long-term grass is thick and lush. I do think a bunch of the seed I put down at the beginning of May also came in thick as well...

I mowed it on Sunday at the highest height my mower goes to (it is pretty high, damn mower looked like it was in 4x4 mode) and it cut down a ton of seeded grass. I figure I will mow it this coming weekend one notch down from that.

In regards to the weeds I found a herbicide that you can use while seeding that is also supposed to attack one of ugliest issues in a yard, that being quackgrass. It is supposed to affect the weeds ability to do photosynthesis so you want to fertilize with heavy nitrogen for a bit before and during treatment to keep as much of the weed in the blades. I used a 29-0-4 fertilizer when I seeded two and a half weeks ago and then did another application late last week in preparation of doing the herbicide. If it works out well I will let everyone know what I used. As it stands I have a 3ft across area in the middle of the front lawn that had the worst burn-out from last year that became overgrown with quackgrass. I did seed heavily in that are and the new turf seems to be coming in thick there, so hopefully this herbicide and some further growth of the turf and it will choke out the quackgrass effectively. Most people end up using roudup where quackgrass is and starting from scratch. I am hoping to avoid that.

Next thing for me is to get a solid plan on dealing with the backyard and sideyard with the parking slip figured out in regards to filling it in and putting in some decent topsoil and then relaying the parking slip bricks by hand once it is all back to where it needs to be. I would love to do the sideyard/rest o fthe front yard across the driveway, but I am concerned that whole area will take a beating getting the backyard back in shape.