My Lawn is Dying. Help
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2002
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From: South Jersey
Originally Posted by 6T6CPE
Let's see. It's been raining alot and not very hot at all. The perfect condition for cool season grasses. Your grass should look it's best right now. If yours looks terrible then it needs plenty of work and it can't be done in one day.
Your job is to install underground sprinklers by the end of August. Apply Roundup continually until then to keep killing what you have. Then I will lend you my TroyBilt to rototill the soil to the depth of 6 to 8 inches. After that till in some soil additives to a depth of 2" that you get from the landfill relatively cheap. Rake the lawn out nice and level. Then rent a roller from Rental Country and roll your yard to smooth it out. It's a roller you fill with water and push or pull manually. Do not rent a steam roller. I say again. Do not rent a steam roller. Now spread a good high quality seed and starter fertilizer. Lightly rake the two into the ground. Go to a feed store for animals. Not ACME or Shoprite. Buy straw and not hay. Break apart the bale and lightly spread that over your newly seeded area. Lightly spray the area by hand with a hose and not the new underground irrigation. You want to keep the soil moist and not create puddles and wash away the seed. You will need to lightly spray the area several times a day. You will start to see the grass germinating in about 5-7 days. Continue watering by hand until the area fills in and then you can change over to the underground irrigation.
Let me know when you get to this point so I can give you more instructions.
Your job is to install underground sprinklers by the end of August. Apply Roundup continually until then to keep killing what you have. Then I will lend you my TroyBilt to rototill the soil to the depth of 6 to 8 inches. After that till in some soil additives to a depth of 2" that you get from the landfill relatively cheap. Rake the lawn out nice and level. Then rent a roller from Rental Country and roll your yard to smooth it out. It's a roller you fill with water and push or pull manually. Do not rent a steam roller. I say again. Do not rent a steam roller. Now spread a good high quality seed and starter fertilizer. Lightly rake the two into the ground. Go to a feed store for animals. Not ACME or Shoprite. Buy straw and not hay. Break apart the bale and lightly spread that over your newly seeded area. Lightly spray the area by hand with a hose and not the new underground irrigation. You want to keep the soil moist and not create puddles and wash away the seed. You will need to lightly spray the area several times a day. You will start to see the grass germinating in about 5-7 days. Continue watering by hand until the area fills in and then you can change over to the underground irrigation.
Let me know when you get to this point so I can give you more instructions.
So yo umean I have to have a crappy looking pile of dirt all summer. No friggen way man. Cant I just till it up, rake it smooth and then lay sod? Will that work? I just can't have a pile of dirt for my BBQ this summer. Oh yeh, whats weird is that my yard looks like crap in the front, right up to my neighbors yard, then its like someone drew a straight line in the grass and mine is crap and the neighbors is green..WTF is up with that? Its all the same grass, we dont have anything dividing the lawns.
The Italian lawn is sounding better and better.
THANKS JIM......My problem is solved
BREW
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 481
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From: Westminster, CO
So I watered last night for 17 minutes per zone. I put a bunch of mid-sized buckets around the yard. I got about 1/4 inch of water in each bucket except for one which got almost 1/2 inch. I think I read on allaboutlawns.com that I need an inch of water to get 6-8 inches into the soil. That would take about an hour per zone or 4 hours of watering. That can't be right.
There are like 12 Rainbird heads in the yard and it measures about 70ft x 100ft.
There are like 12 Rainbird heads in the yard and it measures about 70ft x 100ft.
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,156
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From: S.E. Michigan
Alot of factors here with his yard. One that i see if he power raked his yard in the spring, he damaged his root system. Spring is when it grows, and he killed off his new growth. I was told power raking is bad period. If you need to areate, do it in the fall, then overseed heavily. They say only about 10% of the seed will germinate. Then reseed in the spring and use a fertilizer that has no pre-emergent.(HALTS) You will need to measure your yard correctly, and fertilize accordingly. I do not use Scotts products anymore due to Having Scott's lawn company did a lousy job last year on my yard. I spent over 600.00 to let them do my yard, and it looked the worse that it ever has. So i went back to doing it my self and it looks great. I use Vigoro products that i buy at Home Depot. Watering is key when seeding, it must be done several times a day. After it is established, deep watering is the best. I seed with a sport mix that i get from a nursery. You can fix this, but it is going to take some time and work.
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 437
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From: Jersey shore
Originally Posted by UrbanCowboy
So I watered last night for 17 minutes per zone. I put a bunch of mid-sized buckets around the yard. I got about 1/4 inch of water in each bucket except for one which got almost 1/2 inch. I think I read on allaboutlawns.com that I need an inch of water to get 6-8 inches into the soil. That would take about an hour per zone or 4 hours of watering. That can't be right.
There are like 12 Rainbird heads in the yard and it measures about 70ft x 100ft.
There are like 12 Rainbird heads in the yard and it measures about 70ft x 100ft.
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 437
Likes: 0
From: Jersey shore
Originally Posted by BREWDUDE
So yo umean I have to have a crappy looking pile of dirt all summer. No friggen way man. Cant I just till it up, rake it smooth and then lay sod? Will that work? I just can't have a pile of dirt for my BBQ this summer. Oh yeh, whats weird is that my yard looks like crap in the front, right up to my neighbors yard, then its like someone drew a straight line in the grass and mine is crap and the neighbors is green..WTF is up with that? Its all the same grass, we dont have anything dividing the lawns.
The Italian lawn is sounding better and better.
BREW
The Italian lawn is sounding better and better.
BREW
Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 87
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From: Yukon, Canada
I just skimmed through the thread and looked at the pic of your lawn. I never noticed the mention of the previous winter. Do you get snow usually? How much? Did you get less this past winter, or did you have anything laying on the lawn over winter, or did you remove any snow from the lawn, for like a skating rink?
If any applies, then I would say it is winter-kill.
If any applies, then I would say it is winter-kill.
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Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,618
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From: Atlanta, GA
Do this next spring right before it greens, if it won't **** off the neighbors.
BURN IT. I mean burn it all. Use a little propane torch and burn every square inch. If, after that, you don't have the best most lush green yard, you have something seriously wrong that will be pain in the azz to fix. I used to burn mine every year, but then right before the grass was turning green this year 6 houses in my neighborhood burned down, and I figured it'd be best not to this year.
BURN IT. I mean burn it all. Use a little propane torch and burn every square inch. If, after that, you don't have the best most lush green yard, you have something seriously wrong that will be pain in the azz to fix. I used to burn mine every year, but then right before the grass was turning green this year 6 houses in my neighborhood burned down, and I figured it'd be best not to this year.