How do you start fresh with a back yard?

Question

I moved into a new place and my back yard has almost no grass but is full of stubborn weeds. Mostly violets. What is the best way to get a full, green lawn? I'm considering roto tilling then seeding, or maybe sodding. Ideas?

Answer 1

Roto-tilling is a good idea, but you'll want to be careful how you do it or you will just be tilling weed seeds right into your lawn. I'd recommend using a rear tine roto tiller and setting your depth setting so where the tines dig just deep enough to scrape the grass off without digging up your dirt. Once you get the grass scraped off loose pile it all up and hall it away or make a big compost pile out of it. You want to get rid of it to get rid of your weeds and not just till their roots and seeds back into your dirt.

After getting rid of the grass then go back and till the dirt. Then I'd recommend adding some topsoil or compost on top of your yard to help the soil. Afterwards spread some starter fertilizer on your yard with a descent percentage of phosporous. Then some pelletized gypsum and pelletized lime on your lawn. Then spread a good grass seed on your lawn such as Kentucky Bluegrass if you are in the middle to northern portions of the US. Then take a garden rake and kind of rake the seed in a little bit or cover with a light covering of more topsoil with some sand added to it. The sand will help warm up the soil and get the seeds to germinate a little better. Then top your ground off with some straw to prevent the ground from washing away and to help keep the birds from eating all the seed.

I recommend against sodding. Sodding typically has more seeds and in a year or two the yard you seeded will look twice as nice as the sod. The company that built my house sodded my front yard and I seeded the back yard and the back yard looks so much better than the front yard, plus it's cheaper to seed than sod.

As far as keeping it green, fertilize it well in the early spring with a mainly nitrogen based fertilizer. Grass grows best in the spring and fall, not the summer. Fertilize sparingly in the summer. Keep it watered in the summer so between rain and watering it gets about an inch a week. In the fall, fertilize with a fertilizer more evenly distributed between nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium like a 10-10-10 fertilizer. The potassium and phosphorouse will help build the root system of your grass for winter. Fall is also the best time to combat weeds. The weed killer may partilally kill the weeds off then the cold of winter finishes normally tough to kill weeds off because the weeds are weakened going into winter by the weed killer. Just remember to be careful where you spread the killer whether it be a weed and feed fertilizer or a spray. Young trees and flowers can be killed or damaged by a weed killer if not careful. In the early summer treat your yard for insects such as grubs. This will help prevent brown patches in your yard where they eat the roots and it will prevent a large infestation of Japanese Beetles into your yard also that like to eat plant leaves and flowers. I've heard that the grubs are Japanese beetle larvae that turn into the Japanese Beetles. Whether this is true or not I don't know.

Answer 2

First thing you want to do before tilling is to kill off anything that is growing, kill it off rake it up and remove it as well as possible. If you just till ove the existing weeds they will come right back. Then take some samples of your dirt to a service in your area that can do soil analysis so you can find out what it needs, if you are going to the trouble to till the soil amend it as well. after you till down a good 6 to 8 inches then you are ready for a new lawn.