How to regrow my post-katrina lawn?

Question

I'm about to move back home to New Orleans in a few weeks, and my lawn is in terrible shape. As you can imagine I have all types of plants and other things growing on my lawn from the storm. What can I do to restore my lawn to at least almost pre-katrina quality?

Answer 1

Lovely. You'll have to remove all the growies before the new lawn goes in. This will be difficult as much could be perennial at least and woody at worst. I'd start with Roundup and hope that kills all. With Roundup you can get a lawn back in quickly. If you have a lot of woody plants, cut them out.....carefully. Yes, there are brush remover chemicals but I'd be hesitant to use those as they don't break down as quickly as Roundup.

Once your yard is clear, rototill to introduce oxygen back into the gumbo you call soils down there.....phew! Moss or other yuckies thrive in soil without oxygen, so fluffing it will go far in removing the scummy stuff. One warning, wear a mask when working around the soils....just tell your neighbors you are allergic to "things".....you'll be disturbing a lot of mold spores we don't want in your lungs.

I'd almost be afraid of what a soil test would show.......but fortunately, or unfortunately chemical contaimination tests are individual tests and not part of a regular ag soil test.

A soil pH test might be in order to determine if and how much lime.....or sulfur....you might need to add to bring the soil back to around 7 or so. Then use a starter fertilizer and put in your lawn; sprig, seed, sod or however is common in your area.

I'm glad you are going home!

Answer 2

Fluffernut did a good job! Some additional points. Did your lawn flood? If so much of her advice is right on about protecting yourself. You will almost certainly need extra nitrogen fertilizer if it flooded as nitrogen leaches from the soil easily. Even if it didn't flood, all the rain would have have leached N. I wouldn't hesitate to contact your County Extension Agent or LSU Agriculture for advice.

Congratulations on going home and all the best. I'm a Louisiana native myself but live in TX now. Still miss the food.

Answer 3

Congrats on going back - I was there right after rita, and stayed for 4 months helping clean.

I came from michigan with 5 friends - 2 were construction contractors - we seen a lot of bad things, 1 guy left he said it reminded him to much of vietnam.

I would say mow the yard, plant grass seed, and the rest will evolve.

Garden district is nice
burbon street reopened
and everyone was pretty open armed to us while we were there