we've got some hard packed bare spots, what's the best way to get some grass growing?

9/5/2009 10:22:04 PM

we had some similar issues with our yard, some areas were seriously compacted, some areas were 100% shade, some 100% sun... core aerated, put down a ton of lime, put down sun/shade hardy mix plus shade mix with starter fertilizer, 8 weeks later put down more fertilizer. every fall we put down more lime and every spring we overseed plus fertilizer. we'll probably aerate again this fall. have a lovely, thick yard now... takes a lot of work tho.

9/5/2009 11:03:12 PM

our soil is pretty acidic, but i am getting mixed things for the best time to add lime

9/5/2009 11:40:51 PM

rent a tiller and plant some sprigs

9/6/2009 12:18:32 AM

I highly recommend doing a soil test to determine how much lime and fertilizer you need. It's free for NC residents and you can submit samples to NCDA. here's a http://www.agr.state.nc.us/agronomi/sthome.htm for more information.

These chemicals do runoff into our stormwater systems and streams and affect water quality. If you can apply only what you need, you can protect our water resources.

What type of grass do you have or planning to plant?

[Edited on September 7, 2009 at 12:16 AM. Reason : ]

9/7/2009 12:15:40 AM

sod

9/7/2009 12:27:11 AM

Quote :

"but i am getting mixed things for the best time to add lime"

whens the best time to add lime?

Quote :

"every fall we put down more lime and every spring we overseed plus fertilizer. we'll probably aerate again this fall."

where do you live? what kind of grass? i have fescue, and its my understanding that you're not supposed to put down seed in he spring since it might not make it through the summer...

Couple references for everyone: http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/
http://www.turfgrass.ncsu.edu/guides/CarolinaLawns2008.pdf

9/7/2009 11:41:45 AM

live in eastern pennsylvania. our yard was in bad shape when we bought the house, compacted with lots of thatch; i don't think anything had been done to the yard for a decade or more (the prev owners weren't very outdoorsy). truthfully i dont know what type of grass - we just get scotts sun/shade mix. we put the seed and starter fertilizer out in late feb. the first year we put out some in fall and had the worst time with birds :shrug: our neighbor suggested putting it out right after a late snow, usually late feb.

9/7/2009 12:08:46 PM

how did you de-thatch your lawn?

9/7/2009 12:38:04 PM

lots of manual labor... bought some metal garden rakes and got a lot of exercise (we have 1/2 acre). yard looked like shit for a few weeks with the aeration and dethatching, but when spring came it looked 1000x better.

9/7/2009 2:37:25 PM

i guess you dethatched, and then aerated?

did you use the springy metal rakes, or the hard fixed metal rakes to do the dethatching?

i heard they have something called a power raker but i haven't looked into it

9/7/2009 5:41:18 PM

you can drag one of these behind a riding mower to dethatch

9/7/2009 9:03:49 PM

figure you need to throw some cinder blocks on top of that thing right?

now i just gotta se if i can come up with a tractor...

9/7/2009 9:55:42 PM

nah we couldn't use one of the mower attachments like that (would have loved too tho!!!). we have tons of mature trees (20+) and some serious hilly areas, thus can't really use a lawn tractor at all. so all manual for us. we used the hard metal rakes - garden, not yard. like:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=95495-302-1813200&lpage=none

dethatched then aerated. like i said, the yard looked like a war zone once we finished, but it made a HUGE difference in the spring.

9/7/2009 10:39:36 PM

yeah, cinder blocks help

9/7/2009 10:53:40 PM