Joined
·
41 Posts
I too like the idea of having a dedicated thread to document my progress of recovering my backyard from a pool install over the winter. Maybe my journey can help some others and I'm sure there will be some great suggestions from you guys that I haven't even about.
My yard looked really nice in 2017, but in October 2017 they started digging for our pool. I took what precautions I could by having the heavy equipment come in to the backyard through a neighbors cattle farm that butts up against our neighborhood. In the below [grainy] video, you can tell I have some browning going on in right where the pool was going in, I had a sprinkler issue that wasn't worth messing with since the pool was going in.
I did allow some smaller trucks and trailers to use my side gate and that caused more damage in my front and side yard than I had hoped it would. I have put down some sand to level out the ruts on part of the side yard, but I still need to add some more.
One side of the pool deck was about a 14" above the grade of the yard, so we had 6 yards of topsoil brought in and my wife and I put down sod. When we put the sod down, the ground was wet and we had more rain in the forecast, so I made the decision to put the sod down anyway to try to keep from losing my soil. I don't know if that was the right thing to do or not. The sod was so lumpy and it was so wet underneath, I couldn't do anything to flatten it out, so I just waited for spring and hoped for the best. Once the soil dried and the bermuda started taking hold in the soil, it seemed fine, but really bumpy. There was no way to mow it with a reel at all. I have smoothed it out with plenty of sand and it seems to be fairly flat now. I have taken the reel over it once since adding the sand and it seems like it will be okay once all the grass grows back in. This photo below was just after adding sand, but before I ran the mat over it. It has since grown in about 80%. Hopefully it wont take much longer to fill in all the way.
On the other side of the pool deck is a huge bare spot where the backhoe sat to dig the entire pool. There is a lot of small rock and bare dirt here. I haven't done anything to this side of the pool deck except add a few squares of leftover sod, fertilize and water. I am hoping it will grow in over the spring.
My last project area is the very back of my sodded area of the lawn. We live on an acre and only the first 50' of backyard was sodded by the builder. After the pool was put in, we had the sprinkler guys come out and redesign the system. I had them move the sprinklers out 10' and put them on a 360° rotation. This increases my watered area by nearly 5K SqFt. This area is all natural vegetation, so I am working on getting bermuda to grown in that area. So far I have done the lazy man's seeding of the area, meaning I scalped it and put seed out. I had a soil test done on that soil which said I needed lots of nitrogen and phosphorus. I have added a 50 lb bag of nitrogen over that area (probably way too much, but I got a little carried away) and about 1/2 bag of phosphorus. Seeding this way may sound like a long shot, but I tested my theory of doing this lazy version of seeding in a 10' x 10' area last year where one of my septic sprayers is and the bermuda came in and took over. I have been able to spray the weeds that weren't choked out and have a nice little area of bermuda there now. We will see if it will work again on the 5K area - if not, I'll come back with a tiller and do it the "right" way.
This is the expanded area. I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow.
Any feedback is welcome. I'm open to ideas and questions.
My yard looked really nice in 2017, but in October 2017 they started digging for our pool. I took what precautions I could by having the heavy equipment come in to the backyard through a neighbors cattle farm that butts up against our neighborhood. In the below [grainy] video, you can tell I have some browning going on in right where the pool was going in, I had a sprinkler issue that wasn't worth messing with since the pool was going in.
I did allow some smaller trucks and trailers to use my side gate and that caused more damage in my front and side yard than I had hoped it would. I have put down some sand to level out the ruts on part of the side yard, but I still need to add some more.
One side of the pool deck was about a 14" above the grade of the yard, so we had 6 yards of topsoil brought in and my wife and I put down sod. When we put the sod down, the ground was wet and we had more rain in the forecast, so I made the decision to put the sod down anyway to try to keep from losing my soil. I don't know if that was the right thing to do or not. The sod was so lumpy and it was so wet underneath, I couldn't do anything to flatten it out, so I just waited for spring and hoped for the best. Once the soil dried and the bermuda started taking hold in the soil, it seemed fine, but really bumpy. There was no way to mow it with a reel at all. I have smoothed it out with plenty of sand and it seems to be fairly flat now. I have taken the reel over it once since adding the sand and it seems like it will be okay once all the grass grows back in. This photo below was just after adding sand, but before I ran the mat over it. It has since grown in about 80%. Hopefully it wont take much longer to fill in all the way.
On the other side of the pool deck is a huge bare spot where the backhoe sat to dig the entire pool. There is a lot of small rock and bare dirt here. I haven't done anything to this side of the pool deck except add a few squares of leftover sod, fertilize and water. I am hoping it will grow in over the spring.
My last project area is the very back of my sodded area of the lawn. We live on an acre and only the first 50' of backyard was sodded by the builder. After the pool was put in, we had the sprinkler guys come out and redesign the system. I had them move the sprinklers out 10' and put them on a 360° rotation. This increases my watered area by nearly 5K SqFt. This area is all natural vegetation, so I am working on getting bermuda to grown in that area. So far I have done the lazy man's seeding of the area, meaning I scalped it and put seed out. I had a soil test done on that soil which said I needed lots of nitrogen and phosphorus. I have added a 50 lb bag of nitrogen over that area (probably way too much, but I got a little carried away) and about 1/2 bag of phosphorus. Seeding this way may sound like a long shot, but I tested my theory of doing this lazy version of seeding in a 10' x 10' area last year where one of my septic sprayers is and the bermuda came in and took over. I have been able to spray the weeds that weren't choked out and have a nice little area of bermuda there now. We will see if it will work again on the 5K area - if not, I'll come back with a tiller and do it the "right" way.
This is the expanded area. I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow.
Any feedback is welcome. I'm open to ideas and questions.
