Showing posts with label landscaping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label landscaping. Show all posts
Organic Lawn Renovation - Soil Prep and Seeding
Days 9, 10 and 11 of my organic lawn renovation project were pretty tough. A lot of raking, digging and incorporating compost. I ran into some snags that made it even more difficult but hopefully it will all be worth it when my new lawn comes in.
I was expecting to have seed down by the 10th day but I ran into a few snags. I had the bright idea to do all the work with manual tools since it was only 600 sq ft that I was renovating but it wound up being more tiring than I expected. This post is a few days late as a result. My whole body was sore and my fingers were too tired to type. It was a pretty good workout though. :)
The first major step was to kill off as much of the existing lawn as I could using two organic herbicides instead of RoundUP. (See BurnOut II vs Nature's Avenger.) That went pretty well and both killed a large majority of the existing grass and weeds. There was some weedy looking tall fescue that was coming back too fast and I decided to dig it up before I went on to amending the soil, leveling the lawn and seeding. Details discussed below.
Digging Out Tall Fescue
The first step was to get rid of the nasty Tall Fescue that seemed to be a little too stubborn for the organic weed and grass killers. Some of it seemed to be an improved tall fescue but most of it was unimproved, wide bladed fast growing and ugly. There might have also been some orchard grass in there as well.
It was only in Section 1 which was about 300 sq ft. I keep eyeing a Mantis Electric Tiller
but haven't actually bought one yet. I called about renting a tiller and it was only around $50. I saw this Sun Joe Electric Tiller/Cultivator
which is only twice as much as renting and now renting seemed like a waste of money but there wasn't enough time to get the cheaper tiller. Plus some of the reviews are bad for this model. I decided to just grab a hoe and a rake and start tearing up that section by hand to pull out the clumps of tall fescue.By the time it was half way done I was regretting not renting the tiller because it was very hot that day. Three and a half hours, 1 gallon of water, 64 oz of Gatorade later and I had dug up all the tall fescue clumps and raked them out of the soil.
The amount of wide bladed, unimproved tall fescue I pulled out was enough to fill up a leaf collection bag. BurnOut II and Nature's Avenger killed about 95% of the grass in this section. It did a bit of damage to the fescue but it was just growing back too fast. After going over the area with my thatch rake
there was a lot of bare soil. Once I was done digging out the fescue it was more like 99% bare soil.In hindsight doing it by hand was probably better because the fescue wasn't torn up as much as it would have with a rototiller and I likely got more of it out of the soil than if I had rototilled. This grass is tough and would have reestablished if not removed. Unfortunately digging up the soil like that can bring up weed seeds that had been waiting deep in the soil.
Regrading the Lawn
Since I was putting down new grass seed it seemed like a good time to regrade the lawn. There were some awkward high and low spots that made it difficult to mow. I also had to smooth out Section 1 which I had dug up.
In Section 2 there was this strange hump around the lamp post. It caused a lot of problems. It's a small section and the lamp post is fairly close to the edge of the lawn. This caused a very steep slope from the post to the edge. In the winter water would shed off here and sometimes freeze on the front walkway. If I kept one side of the mower's wheels on the walkway I'd wind up scalping part of the lawn and it would fill up with weeds. If I kept both wheels on the lawn I'd have to struggle to keep the lawn mower from sliding the slope. It was also impossible to get a nice edge. After edging the soil would slowly slump down since it was a couple of inches above the walkway.
It didn't take long to figure out why the hump was there. I kind of expected it but was really hoping I was wrong.
There used to be a ring of landscaping stones around the lamp post creating a small circular planting area. I guess someone decided they didn't like the planting bed any more and rather than remove the stones, they just covered it up with dirt and put down grass seed.
Some soil might have been removed from the back of that section since it was noticeably lower than the other sections. This was a problem because it was up against the foundation where water can pool during rain. Luckily there were never any water issues.
These weren't little bricks that were laid out around the post. These were rocks buried 10-12" into the dirt. It took some work to get them out. On the plus side I'll have some decent looking landscaping stones once I power wash them.
After the stones were removed I used a bow rake to spread the soil out and give the soil a proper grade away from the house while providing a more level surface that I can mow and edge easier.
My plan was to buy a level headed rake but instead I wound up borrowing a bow rake. The bow rake, along with my thatch rake did a good job of moving the soil around to smooth it out. The bow rake was one of the nice old forged ones with a wooden handle that I don't think you can buy any more. I went looking and the closest I could find was this Kodiak Forged Bow Rake
. It's a little more than the welded steel aluminum bow rakes you usually find but if it holds up as long as the one I was using did it's worth it.
Adding Compost To Lawn
My lawn's soil wasn't that great and even with mulch mowing my clippings, fall leaves and spreading organic fertilizers it was a bit low in organic matter so I planned to incorporate some compost.
Since I was only doing a small section of my lawn I couldn't find any place that would deliver that little bulk compost. I had to get bags of compost from my local garden center and since I don't have a truck I had to make multiple trips to bring that 800lbs of compost home.
My plan was to get some plant based compost and some composted manure but when I got to the garden center they only had composted manure. It's not plain composted manure but also has some grass clippings and leaves composted as well. From what I understand it's primarily duck manure.
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| Composted Left/Not Composted Right |
I got enough 40lb bags to spread a little more than 1/3rd of an inch of compost over the sections I was renovating. The composted manure was from Long Island Compost. It was very clumpy and moist and I couldn't see how anyone would be able to topdress with it as the back of the bag indicated. I broke the bags of composted manure in half with my spade and the product practically came out in too big chunks. It smelled fine though. Since I was almost starting with a clean slate I would be able to wrestle it into the ground.
After I was done applying the compost I contacted LI Compost and was informed the Long Island Compost Composted Manure was meant more for gardens and not lawns. When the bags are packed on pallets and sit in garden centers awaiting purchase they get compressed from the weight of other bags on top of them. I was told their Hampton's Estate Premium Composted Manure or Premium Topsoil would be a better fit for applying to lawns. The Hampton's Estate line is double screened and has peat moss mixed in to give it a better texture.
Update: LI Compost provided me with a few samples of their other types of compost and top soil. The Hampton's Estate Premium Composted Manure is very fine and loose. It's a much better material to top dress with. They didn't know anything about my blog or my renovation, just that I purchased a lot of their compost.
Using my thatch rake and Garden Weasel Cultivator
I was able to incorporate it into the soil. It was more labor and time intensive than I thought it would be but the thatch rake made things go smoothly.I'm really surprised by how much I use my thatch rake. I initially purchased a thatch rake to remove ground ivy from my lawn but it has so many other uses in the garden. It can be adjusted to a more aggressive angle that pushes the tines a few inches into the soil which helps loosen it and the cultivator end of the tines (the bent tines) help pull up and incorporate amendments. By working the thatch rake back and forth over a small area, then pulling in some composted manure, breaking it up with the thatch rake, then again going back and forth until the composted manure was broken down into small particles and mixed in with the existing soil I wound up getting a nice layer of rich topsoil that was a few inches thick.
You can see what a difference the compost made in the picture on the right. The top section is Section 3 which had the compost incorporated and on the bottom Section 2 which did not.
The soil in the top section looks dark and rich while the bottom section looks grey. One benefit of having to manually cultivate the soil so much with the thatch rake is that I was able to get out some more of the grass that hadn't been killed by the organic herbicides I used. These 2 sections don't get as much sun as the other section and there was still some grass left unharmed. The majority was desiccated by the spraying and removed with the dethatching but the more aggressive cultivating with the thatch rake trying to get those clumps of composted manure broken down got rid of some of what was left. Some of the grass was just buried in the new soil.
I was going to apply an organic starter fertilizer and lime as well but the composted manure has a guaranteed analysis of 0.5-0.5-0.5 which will provide more than enough nutrients based on how much I applied and the Fast Acting Lime I applied a few years ago is still keeping the soil pH where it needs to be. Before frost hits I might add some Fast Acting Gypsum
to increase the calcium and lower the pH because it's seems a little high.
Planting Black Beauty Grass
I had a hard time deciding which grass seed to go with. I had decided to go with Turf Type Tall Fescue instead of Kentucky Bluegrass. One of the grass seed mixes I was considering was Black Beauty grass seed
from Jonathan Green. It looked like a nice grass and had decent results. I was considering another custom blend but in the end the small patch of Black Beauty I grew in a container wound up looking very good. You can check out my time lapse video of Jonathan Green Black Beauty germinating.The thing that tipped the scales in favor of Black Beauty was Jonathan Green's great customer service, they were a local business in my state and it was a seed I can pick up from my local garden center if I need more. I was able to see more pictures of actual Black Beauty grass seed than I could the other varieties I was looking into.
Before spreading the seed I lightly scratched the soil with my thatch rake to loosen it, then I applied the Black Beauty Seed with my Scott's Accugreen 1000 drop spreader which I don't think they make anymore. The Accugreen 100 has different spreader settings than other Scott's drop spreaders and I had to guess what the correct spreader setting should be for Jonathan Green Black Beauty. I knew how much seed I would need and added it to the spreader's hopper, set the spreader to 9 and made two passes over the lawn in two different directions and still had more than half of the seed left. After increasing the spreader setting to 12 I made 3 more passes in different directions and used up all the seed. More passes than I wanted but the seed went down evenly.
I went over the soil one more time lightly with my thatch rake on a less aggressive setting so I could scratch the seed into the soil to cover the seeds about 1/4" then watered.
Until the seeds germinate I'll be lightly watering 3 or 4 times a day. Around 8am, 12pm and 4pm. The test container of Black Beauty I had germinated in 3 days because it was a more controlled situation out of direct sunlight and since it was sitting on my desk I could water it more evenly. I expect the Black Beauty seed outdoors to germinate around the 7-10 days indicated on the bag.
This was a lot of work and now I have to just wait and water patiently and hope everything works out.
Organic Lawn Renovation: The Plan
Because I was planning on killing and reseeding parts of my lawn last year I didn't take as good care of those areas as I should have. I didn't do anything about the weeds and didn't water regularly. As a result the lawn in one section in particular has gotten very bad and it wasn't great to begin with.
Three sections will be renovated in total. Two are in decent shape but one of the sections requires a bit of regrading and I might as well reseed the other since they're in close proximity and I feel the grass should match.
For the past few weeks I've been gathering all the tools I'll need for a lawn renovation as well as finalizing the supplies and methods I'll be using.
Below you'll find my lawn renovation plan as well as pictures of my existing lawn and description of some of the issues I'm having.
Why Kill The Existing Lawn?
The lawn is old and over the years different types of grass seeds have been used which give the lawn an uneven appearance. Some of the grasses grow very fast while others hardly grow at all and there are a bunch of weeds in one section. There are also sections with depressions as well as bumps that need to be smoothed out. Additionally the soil is a little low in organic matter and the soil structure could use some improvement by adding compost.
It's easier to tackle all the issues by starting fresh with some new grass seed.
The Plan
Day 1
Tomorrow I start killing my existing lawn. I'll be using two different organic herbicides instead of RoundUp/Glyphosate which is normally used in this step. Each of my three sections will be split in half and so that I can compare the effectiveness of each in this process under different conditions.
I'll be using BurnOut II
from St Gabriel Organics and Nature's Avenger from Cutting Edge Formulations.These products work best with full sun and temperatures above 80 degrees. I was going to start today but tomorrow will be even hotter as will the rest of the weekend.
Day2
The weed killers start working within hours. Any areas that I had missed on Day 1 should be apparent and I can spot treat using the appropriate herbicide for that area.
Day 7
Unlike glyphosate based herbicides like RoundUp, these organic alternatives are not systemic and will not kill the roots. They only kill the leaves of the plant but without the leaves the rest of the plant is susceptible. If there is enough stored energy in the roots for some of the weeds and grasses to grow back I will re-spray with herbicide to kill any new growth as suggested by St Gabriel Labs.
Day 8-9
At this point the existing lawn should be sufficiently damaged and if necessary I'll mow the grass at my mower's lowest setting and bag the clippings to remove some of the debris and/or use my Ames True Temper Thatch Rake
to both clear plant debris and start cultivating the soil.Using a combination of tools including rakes and a Garden Weasel Cultivator
I'll start incorporating compost into the top of the soil, fertilize using an organic lawn fertilizer,correct grade issues and probably reshape the garden beds.My soil's pH appears to be fine in those areas but since the organic herbicides I'm using contain acids I'll recheck the pH and add some Fast Acting Lime if necessary.
Day 10
On Day 10 of the process I will put down new grass seed. My initial plan was to plant a good Kentucky Bluegrass mix but I've changed my mind and will be going with a Turf-Type Tall Fescue mix. Unless anything changes I'll be using Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seed. There might be some better TTTF grass blends out there but there were a number of reasons why I decided to go with Black Beauty. One of the primary ones was that it's something I can find locally. TTTF doesn't spread like KBG does so every 2-4 years it might need to be overseeded if thin or bare spots develop. I decided it would be more convenient to use a seed I could find locally.
After seeding I'll follow an appropriate watering schedule. Depending on the weather the first week I might have to water lightly twice a day to keep the seeds moist for good germination. The second week I can probably cut down to once a day. After that I can slowly increase the watering times and decrease the watering frequency.
Existing Lawn Condition
Section 1
Section 1 is the largest as well as the worst section of the three. The soil structure is very poor, there is a wide mix of grasses including everything from fine fescue to tall fescue. This section is in full sun and gets little to no foot traffic.
Section 1 also has the worst weed problem. Weeds in this portion of the lawn include dutch white clover, wild violet, either purslane or prostrate pigweed, some dandelions, crabgrass, some veronica speedwell, something that looks like nimblewill and possibly goosegrass.
This section of lawn also has some issues with what I believe is red thread or some other type of disease which I've been able to successfully control with corn meal.
It gets little traffic and requires more water than I've been applying, especially this year, which caused the grass to suffer.
Section 2
Section 2 receives partial sun. It is shaded by a large tree for about 1/2 the day. The grass here is more consistent. I've been overseeding here regularly with a Kentucky Bluegrass Mix (Jonathan Green Sod Maker) and it normally looks good. There is a bit of crab grass at the edges but that's about it.
The area needs some serious regrading. Some areas are uneven and if I'm not careful get scalped by the mower.
The grass looks much better than the photo indicates but not as great as it usually because I haven't watered or fertilized as regularly as I normally would because of the renovation.
Section 3
This section was regraded and planted with a fine fescue mix because it receives little sun throughout the day. It has been slightly neglected because of the renovation plan but otherwise looks pretty good. The photo also doesn't look that great because of the mix of sun and shade throwing off the colors and brightness. (See my post on how to take great lawn photos for more info.) As with Section 2, Section 3 looks pretty good and just a little bit of care and a little reseeding would make it look great but because these sections can be seen at the same time I'd like more consistency. I also feel Black Beauty might do better in shade than fine fescues.
I'm excited to finally get this process started and will be posting updates as I go.
You Don't Need Plastic Edging
I don't know what came over me but a few years ago I got it stuck in my head that I had to have plastic lawn edging. For some reason that little tube of black separating the green lawn from the mulch just looked right to me. It made sense, it would keep the grass from growing in the beds and it would keep the mulch from spilling over into the lawn. Sounds good right? Wrong!
The problem with almost any type of landscape edging in areas that experience cold winters is that it can pull up if not properly installed. While that little black strip looked good to me, seeing a big black, grey, brown, torn strip of plastic sticking out from the lawn after the frost heaved it up doesn't quite have the same appeal.
I'm a bit compulsive when it comes to buying and installing things that are meant to be in place for years so I read everything I could about landscape edging, went out to look at different brands and models and learned how to properly install it.
If You Insist On Installing Landscape Edging
If there's no talking you out of it this is what I learned
- You need a landscape edging that has a flange to help prevent it from lifting up.
- The edging should be at least 5" tall.
- You also want to use the 8-Inch Metal Garden Stakes
not the plastic ones. The
- edging should be stiff not floppy. It should be the type that needs to sit out in the sun for a little bit to warm it up so that you can manage it easier.
The three landscape edgings I felt would be the best choice were Black Diamond Edging
, Valley View PRO-20
and Master Mark Deep Edge
.I got lured down this path when I saw some cheap edging for $20 for 50'. Figured I could do the project cheap in a few hours. Not as cheap as I thought if I wanted to do it right, but not that expensive either if you really like the look.
How To Edge Landscape Beds
You know, I really feel stupid for even considering installing landscape edging in the first place. My flower beds and shrub beds never had a problem with my grass growing into it. For years I didn't even mulch the beds but I got tired of weeding as much. I was nervous about adding mulch to the beds without edging but the cedar mulch I use does a good job of staying in place and I don't have any problems.< br/>
They way I edge my lawns is to make a V-shaped groove at the edge as shown below.
Step 1: Preparation
If you already have mulch in your beds use a rake to push it back away from the edge to help keep it clean and allow you to see what you're doing.
If this is a new edge, plan out where you want your edge to be and mark the lines to be cut.
Step 2: Vertical Cut
First you make the vertical cut which should be around 4-5" deep into the soil. Past the grass and thatch layer. This cut defines your lawn edge and is the important bit that keeps your lawn from growing into your flower beds.
To make this cut I used to use a garden spade. I'm partial to the Fiskars 9667 Garden Spade
or the Ames True Temper Pony Garden Spade
if you plan on using a spade frequently and are willing to pay a little more.Now that I have a Black and Decker LE 750 edger I use that. The curb guide lifts up into the body and allows me to cut slits into the grass. Very handy.
Step 3: The Angled Cut
Now you need to create an air gap. If all you did was create a slit, it would heal over time and the grass would spread.
To remove the cut side of the grass and dirt I use a hoe like the one pictured to the right. It has a mattock head on one side and a two prong weeder on the other.
I just slowly walk backwards and scrape up the cut side leaving a bit of an angle going up to the beds. The angle of the slope isn't that important and you're probably not going to be able to get a precise angle no matter how hard you try.
If you have a lot of room to work with and have large beds planned you can create dramatic looking beds with long slopes that are higher than the lawn.
Step 4: Clean Up
Clean up the area you just edged. Go over it to make sure the edge looks straight and is deep enough in all areas. Find a suitable location to move the dirt and cuttings to.
Step 5: Mulch
Now with your edge complete it's time to add the mulch. You want to add mulch right up to the vertical cut line to prevent weeds from growing in the exposed soil near the edge from invading your lawn. The mulch should at least come up to the thatch layer.
Before adding the mulch you can use a landscape fabric
to help block weeds further or you can do what I did and just lay cardboard down before you put the mulch.When the mulch is even with the thatch layer it gives the wheels of your mower a nice area to ride on but I also like the look when the mulch is almost even with the grass height. Do whatever looks best to you in your garden.