Beatiful brown lawn. You planning on fallowing at all?

 

Yeah, I'm going to build a drag. I have a low spot in the hell strip, and the main yard has a cliff at the sidewalk that I hate. I've got a bit of grading to do.

 

I don't have a machine to pull a harrow, but I'm young enough and the exercise is good for the body and mind. I didn't drag much tonight, I have a bit of raking to do and maybe another pass with the mower lower.

 

O to be young. If i pulled that by hand i would have to be put in traction. nice job.

 

What is that contraption doing exactly? @bgillroy

 

What is that contraption doing exactly?

Hopefully breaking up the ground and helping me level everything out. I need to get more of the dead grass out first, it's just tangling in the tines (nails).

 

I burned the dead grass in the side yard today, it was much more efficient than mowing it up. A light raking helped the appearance. My wife is starting to get nervous about what I've done to the yard, maybe embarrassed is the right word?

I'm going to take the time to level the dirt and get it level with the sidewalk before seeding.

 

Lawn rebel!

 

I got the side yard level and prepped! I removed about 8 wheelbarrow loads of dirt to get everything down level with sidewalk and driveway.

 

@bgillroy That's awesome and looks like waaaay less work than raking!

 

Seed down in the side yard boys! I got peat moss and Scott's starter +Tenacity down but it was too dark for a picture.

 

@bgillroy giddyup! Good luck and keep us updated!

 

Do you have hose timers? Orbit timers worked well for me, although I wish they could go more frequent than every 6 hours.

 

Do you have hose timers? Orbit timers worked well for me, although I wish they could go more frequent than every 6 hours.

I bought Orbit hose timers. Mine say they'll go as often as every hour, but I haven't hooked them up yet. I bought a single and a double outlet, but ended up needing 3 hoses for the side yard instead of the two hoses I planned. I'm not sure what I'll do about it yet. I might get a four outlet and get rid of my multiple Y-fittings. I work from home full-time, so I can turn the hoses on for a few minutes here and there.

 

Do you have hose timers? Orbit timers worked well for me, although I wish they could go more frequent than every 6 hours.

I bought Orbit hose timers. Mine say they'll go as often as every hour, but I haven't hooked them up yet. I bought a single and a double outlet, but ended up needing 3 hoses for the side yard instead of the two hoses I planned. I'm not sure what I'll do about it yet. I might get a four outlet and get rid of my multiple Y-fittings. I work from home full-time, so I can turn the hoses on for a few minutes here and there.

In case it's helpful, my four valve orbit can be set for whatever time you want with three programmable cycles. I did one manual cycle before I left for work, ran the three programs while I was away, and did one more manual when I got home if needed.

@bgillroy man, if I worked from home, I'd probably be out looking for baby grass all the time and get nothing done!

 

Action shot!


And the other perspective.

 

You'll be having grass babies before labor day.

 

You'll be having grass babies before labor day.

Hoping for Monday! I have to say, I'm not very impressed with the peat moss so far. It's drying out and rolling off the seed worse than I expected. I think I'm going to get a couple bags of GreenView Seeding Mulch and put those down, it's what I've used in the past on my seeding efforts.

 

@bgillroy thanks for the heads up on the peat. I was planning on buying some. Still not sure if I'll use a top dressing. Irragation has been pretty decent at keeping things damp. I got a couple days to decide.

 

I can't seem to get my peat moss to stay put. I did have some heavy rain though but it seems that it wants to bunch up pretty easy.

 

Yeah, @iowa jim. It's almost hydrophobic. The water hits it and blows it away. It's my first time using it, but it wasn't much cheaper than the GreenView I prefer.

 

I'm having really good luck with peat moss this time around...I did slowly water it by hand before irrigating with timers as to make sure it was thoroughly soaked...I've had minimal washout on a 5-10 degree slope and heavy rains the other night. I did use M-binder tackifier which helps. Are there different grades of peat moss?

 

I considered tackifier @drenglish, I'm sure it would help. I don't know about grades, I just bought the cube at Home Depot.

 

Peat is hydrophobic, at least until you wet it real good. Gotta give it a good soak at first. I'm not a huge fan either and use compost myself, but peat is what a lot of folks use...

 

Good to know @STL