[supafamous]

Anyone here build a lawn from scratch? Raccoons totally destroyed my yard over the winter and I'm doing research on whether to start from scratch or to just get new sod on it. My dad redid his front yard himself so he's offered to work with me to redo it and I have decent amount of free time. The underlying soil quality isn't great from what I can gather (my previous lawn was super patchy).

https://i.imgur.com/jQRfAjN.jpeg

[Hondaracer]

Imo sod is trash and not a long term solution unless it’s installed and maintained absolutely perfectly

Imo the strongest lawn needs drainage and then seeding

It looks like you might have a sump in that back left corner, if you really wanted to go crazy you could tie in some perforated pipe, and lay out like an H of drainage that drains into the sump. Cover the pipe with gravel, landscape cloth, lay down a nice base of 50/50 washed sand and soil and then seed and seed and seed

This is gonna be a multi year process but it will yield a lawn that will last. Sod, raccoons and crows are just going to destroy again.

Also start doing whatever the best thing is to remove those chafer grubs

[Traum]

Don't have a recommendation specifically about which route would be more suitable for you, but I've been growing patches of grass here and there on my lawns for the past 3 years, so here are a couple observations I've noticed from my own experience that would only apply to growing my own lawn.

1. I always start as early as I can (and this year, I sowed the seeds ~3 weeks ago in early March). This is weather-dependent, of course, but I need enough time for the grass to grow before the sunny and dry weather sets in. IMO it takes at least 3 months for the newly grown grass to be thick and dense enough to have any chances of surviving through to next year.

The problem is, growth is quite slow, and during the initial "baby period", the newly grown grass is high maintenance in the sense that they are both pretty frail and are pretty sensitive to the amount of moisture that is available to it through the soil. Too much rain means there is not enough sun, and then they don't grow. Not enough rain either means there is not enough sun, or there is too much sun and the soil dries out, so again they don't grow.

They are picky little bastards.

2. By May / June, the newly grown grass are gonna start looking unhealthy again bcos they don't have enough water. By June / July they are gonna brown out and die. Grass lawns are insanely water-intensive, and with the lawn watering restrictions that we have every year, lawns just turn brown every year. If the newly grown lawn isn't mature and strong enough by the time the dry weather starts arriving, they are not growing back the next year. I pretty much lost most of my newly grown patches this way in my 1st year of lawn grown bcos of this.

3. Once the water usage restrictions hit, you can only use an automatic sprinkler at some ungodly early wee hours once a week during the weekend. A similar rule applies for manual watering. No lawn is gonna grow from scratch with that little watering when the weather starts drying out.

I think you can purchase a lawn watering exemption licence from the City, but even that only affords a pretty minimal amount of extra watering time.

4. Get good bulk soil from a proper gardening place if you want the grass to grow well, and your lawn to look good. None of the pre-packaged soil from any of the standard big box stores are good. In fact, they are all crap. Their so-called garden top soil is mixed with so much sticks, wood chips, and mulch that those junk can take up anywhere between 20 - 40% of the bag. Those may work well for growing shrubs or something (I dunno -- that's just my guess), but for grass, they are horrible in my experience. The grass really doesn't grow well when the non-soil junk ratio gets high.

The quality of the soil within the same brand is also lacking -- the bag of Vigoro or Scotts soil that you buy 3 months ago could be very different than the bag you buy 3 months later (in terms of the mixture of soil and crap). The consistency only exists within the same batch of soil.

That is to say -- if I buy 6 bags of Scotts premium black earth at the same time, I can expect the contents of those 6 bags to be largely the same. But the next 6 bags of Scotts premium black earth that I buy 3 months later would not have the same mixture ratio.

And this applies to all the different brands that I've tried -- Vigoro, Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Crappy Tire / Superstore specials.

5. My immediate area seems to attract / have a lot of birds -- I really enjoy their presence. The flip side is -- I'm sure those guys eat up at least 50% of the grass seeds that I sowed. My kid and I get a good laugh out of it every time we see them pecking away on the soil, and we laughed a lot from this LOL~

In your case if you decide to grow your own thing, you'd definitely want to put up some sort of nesting to discourage / prevent racoons from digging up your lawn again -- at least during the growing period. IMO, nesting is not going to deter birds from pecking away at the seeds though.

[sonick]

I used beneficial nematodes last summer for grub prevention to avoid my lawn getting dug up by crows and racoons and it worked wonderfully.

I didn't treat my front lawn and it got torn up but my backyard was untouched.

I suggest getting bulk yards of good quality top soil from landscaping centres you will probably need to level it out. Get a sand mix for additional drainage.

Get good quality seed, starter fert which is higher in phosphorous.

Also suggest getting a mail-in soil test analysis so you know for sure what levels of fertilizer you need.

[Hondaracer]

Costco is by far the best deal on seed. You get double the seed for the same price as Home Depot.

Also imo, that coated seed is actually worth it and not just a gimmick, in my experience it grows wayyyy better/thicker

This old hippy landscaper I used to work with had a saying, you seed 3 times. One for the birds, one for the wind, and one for the grass. In terms of how much seed you’re actually tossing down

[supafamous]

Imo sod is trash and not a long term solution unless it’s installed and maintained absolutely perfectly

Imo the strongest lawn needs drainage and then seeding

It looks like you might have a sump in that back left corner, if you really wanted to go crazy you could tie in some perforated pipe, and lay out like an H of drainage that drains into the sump. Cover the pipe with gravel, landscape cloth, lay down a nice base of 50/50 washed sand and soil and then seed and seed and seed


Yep, we have a sump on both sides so it's an option - drainage doesn't seem to be much of a problem for us though (our neighbour who has an identical house does have a drainage problem but it's from the neighbouring yards that are draining into his yard. This is probably way more work than I'd want to do though pops has experience with that kind of stuff.

Get good bulk soil from a proper gardening place if you want the grass to grow well, and your lawn to look good. None of the pre-packaged soil from any of the standard big box stores are good. In fact, they are all crap. Their so-called garden top soil is mixed with so much sticks, wood chips, and mulch that those junk can take up anywhere between 20 - 40% of the bag. Those may work well for growing shrubs or something (I dunno -- that's just my guess), but for grass, they are horrible in my experience. The grass really doesn't grow well when the non-soil junk ratio gets high.

Thanks, my neighbour did a pallet of bagged soil to patch his lawn and I don't think it worked well and my back of napkin says I probably need 6-9 cubic yards of dirt/sand (2-3 inches) which probably does mean buying proper stuff.

In your case if you decide to grow your own thing, you'd definitely want to put up some sort of nesting to discourage / prevent racoons from digging up your lawn again -- at least during the growing period. IMO, nesting is not going to deter birds from pecking away at the seeds though.

I think I'll do a blend of micro clover and regular grass plus the nematodes treatment going forward. We probably could have avoided the problem in the first place if we used micro clover in the first place but my wife didn't want it so here we are.


Also suggest getting a mail-in soil test analysis so you know for sure what levels of fertilizer you need.

Any suggestions on who to send it in to? I started looking but the ones I've seen seem like they only do industrial testing and not consumer testing.

[SSM_DC5]

My lawn looks almost like that. I probably help bring down property value in my area.

[sonick]

I got this test kit from Amazon https://a.co/d/4dXoe6f

First time trying this one, the other one I used last year shutdown unfortunately but it was quite useful. Hoping this new one is just as good.

[supafamous]

Ok, looked further into it and thought about the advice here and I'm gonna do a re-seed by myself. Rip out the existing turf, do a soil test, put a new layer of top dressing on top (from a quality source), and I'm going to plan a different blend (https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/bee-turf?variant=8709232328764) that's chafer beetle resistant and much lower maintenance than regular grass (less water, less fertiliser, and less mowing). Wife finally agreed to a non-standard lawn and will accept clover as the alternative was a browned out lawn during the summer.

Pops got his rototiller fixed up so I can get the soil ready this week if the rain eases up.

[Hondaracer]

I got this test kit from Amazon https://a.co/d/4dXoe6f

First time trying this one, the other one I used last year shutdown unfortunately but it was quite useful. Hoping this new one is just as good.

What did the other one provide you back?

Like was it something you could understand in terms of amending the soil appropriately?

[sonick]

What did the other one provide you back?

Like was it something you could understand in terms of amending the soil appropriately?

Yes these were my results

https://app.rxsoil.ca/kit/ca-001014

You mainly look at phosphorous and potassium. Nitrogen varies too much by external factors and is generally something you add on a regular basis

You take the guide of how many pounds of NPK each, and find the right fertilizer mix to fertilize the lawn with. In my case I needed to find something about 3 parts nitrogen to 1 part phosphorous to 1.5 parts potassium.

[unit]

if it's such a problem maybe consider just getting rid of grass altogether? thats definitely my long term plan

[Hondaracer]

To replace that square of lawn with something most people would deem “acceptable” and prep, compact, and purchase the fake turf, even a small area like that is probably $6000+

When you actually go look at the products out there, only the top third are a quality that even resembles grass. Which is why most people opt to battle a regular grass lawn over and over again, im guilty of it as well lol

[sonick]

Ya last year I made a point to try to rejuvenate my backyard lawn to see how successful I would be, and if not I would just plan to nuke it with something lower maintenance.

Time and cost of it was less difficult than I anticipated and the results were decent enough that I've decided to continue on for this year. Its not golf course or professional lawn but it was equal if not better than most.

Based on research my rough schedule last year was this:

Spring
- lime (early march, 1 month before overseeding)
- corn gluten pre-emergent (late March/mid April, applied wet and few days of dry)
- dethatch (early April)
- overseed (mid April)
- beneficial nematodes (early April 10 deg soil temperature)
- fertilizer

Summer:
- killex weed killer (above 19 degrees)

Fall:
- lime (early September)
- aerate (early September)
- corn gluten (early September)
- overseed (late September)
- fertilizer

[unit]

yeah for me i wouldnt choose turf i would choose some sort of mulch/rock garden with some perennials in there.

[supafamous]

if it's such a problem maybe consider just getting rid of grass altogether? thats definitely my long term plan

In my case I'd like a natural lawn (or similar) for the look and use - eventually we'll make it more like a garden but that's as my kid grows up and stops wanting stuff like the bouncy castle to be out all the time.

I'm hoping the seed mix I'm getting (which is a mix of wildflowers, clover, and grass) provides enough beetle and drought resistance that I have a usable lawn this summer and for a few more summers. After 2030 I figure more of the yard will turn into a garden (the seed mix is designed to grow into that too).

[Mikoyan]

I filled in/reseeded my chafer beetle attacked lawn with micro clover/creeping fescue mix and it's held up well against the beetles over the last few years. I still do get the occasional spot dug up by skunk/racoon/crow, but they're loonie sized spots, rather than the large turf chunks it used to be.

[van_city23]

I used beneficial nematodes last summer for grub prevention to avoid my lawn getting dug up by crows and racoons and it worked wonderfully.

I didn't treat my front lawn and it got torn up but my backyard was untouched.

I suggest getting bulk yards of good quality top soil from landscaping centres you will probably need to level it out. Get a sand mix for additional drainage.

Get good quality seed, starter fert which is higher in phosphorous.

Also suggest getting a mail-in soil test analysis so you know for sure what levels of fertilizer you need.

When's the best time to use the nematodes? Like what month in the summer?

[sonick]

Anytime it's consistently over 10 degrees celsius. You also have to keep the lawn moist for the first few weeks so ideally before the water restrictions.

That said most communities you can buy a water exemption license if you can show proof of purchase of nematodes.

Costco sells it around this time, you can also buy from local guy here 1http://mylawn.care/

Highly recommend, worked very well for me this last season no grub turf damage at all from crows or racoons.

[Hondaracer]

Just water at night. Unless you have dickhead Neighbors 20 minutes of watering a patch like that isn’t gonna hurt anyone.

If you actually want a lawn to grow and survive/thrive you’re going to have to water outside of your restricted times. I just water at night 3 times a week or so for about 45 minutes total moving my sprinkler 3 times. Eventually I just get tired of doing it but your lawn is just going to die off and turd to mud again if it isn’t blowing up in July/August and establishing roots with all the sun

[sonick]

Yeah I bought a wifi water timer plus an automatic sprinkler and just ran it at like 3am fortunately with the way my lawn is shaped I don't need to move anything.

you can buy a few of these and then daisy chain them to get full coverage which is what I use

https://www.rona.ca/en/product/rain-bird-16-in-irrigation-rotor-on-spike-32sasp-32025078?viewStore=08140&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=22320342186&cq_con=&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&&cm_mmc=paid_search-_-google-_-aw_ecomm_seasonal_pmax_pla_en-_-&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-qi_BhBxEiwAkxvbkC_EjM9CxQhVa1YFG_t6FhQjzL-oXqBkRxAgM_Z5vC0lllFlB9u6RhoCDqgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Hondaracer]

Ah yea never even thought of wifi timers..

If I didn’t have to move my stupid sprinkler that would be perfect

[supafamous]

Yeah I bought a wifi water timer plus an automatic sprinkler and just ran it at like 3am fortunately with the way my lawn is shaped I don't need to move anything.

you can buy a few of these and then daisy chain them to get full coverage which is what I use

https://www.rona.ca/en/product/rain-bird-16-in-irrigation-rotor-on-spike-32sasp-32025078?viewStore=08140&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=22320342186&cq_con=&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&&cm_mmc=paid_search-_-google-_-aw_ecomm_seasonal_pmax_pla_en-_-&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-qi_BhBxEiwAkxvbkC_EjM9CxQhVa1YFG_t6FhQjzL-oXqBkRxAgM_Z5vC0lllFlB9u6RhoCDqgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

What's the coverage like? My yard is 25x40' and I find my Costco oscillating sprinkler cannot cover the yard in one go - best I can do is about 25x25.

[Euro7r]

Ever since I bought my house 2 years ago, the grass has been deteriorating from the neglect. I've been too lazy to want to fix it up. I did the backyard last year and re-seeded some areas which has grown grass back up, but it's a different shade of green LOL. Then my dad-in-law being a smart ass told me don't put too much seed because I won't have enough for other areas. Now it looks like it's bald because I didn't use enough. Oh well, it is what it is. I can relate to OP frustration.

[supafamous]

Got the lawn ripped out and I'm putting in a Rainbird DIY in ground sprinkler system. Did a test run today to see how well it worked and it worked liked a charm - took less than 30 mins to get setup and tested. The kit comes with 4 sprinklers and I only need two so I've got backups when they break.

https://i.imgur.com/Bzwr0Yb.jpeg

https://store.rainbird.com/32he-sprinkler-system-with-click-n-go.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqE6N_nW2PSDdyttQch6lcxtYJyBv 0t_0o5lN3IxDczkHeWsgh6

I could really use a few days of dry weather that lines up with my schedule - they dry days keep coming up on days I'm not available to work on the lawn. I don't really want to work in pouring rain but I might have too as it's almost mid-April now.

[Traum]

Great work in ripping up the existing lawn! Roughly how long would you say it took you to do the work?

I've just re-seeded and re-soiled all the spotty areas on my lawn on Sat when it was dry. IIRC, there should be some drizzles this week, so I am hoping the rain will take care of the watering for me.

Fingers cross on how that'll turn out...

Good luck with the seeding and grading!

[supafamous]

Great work in ripping up the existing lawn! Roughly how long would you say it took you to do the work?

Time wise it wasn't too bad - I think it was probably 10-12 hours of labour to rip it out between my dad and I and then we hired a guy to haul it away for $200 (he claims it ended up weighing about 500kg which seems high).

It took some trial and error to figure out what the best way was to rip it out - as the sod was only 3.5 years old the netting from it was still there in some places so I started with just yanking by hand before progressing to a shovel then a pick axe as the roots got deeper and deeper (making yanking by hand too hard).

[supafamous]

So the good weather meant I could finish the job finally. Tilled the yard to facilitate fixing the soil conditions (lime, lots of fertiliser), dug out a trench to put in a sprinkler system (found a huge rock while doing it too), ordered in 4 yards of top dressing (about 4000-5000lbs) that I had to cart to the back one load at a time and then redistribute and wrapped up yesterday with seed, grub killer, and more fertiliser.

The sprinkler works pretty well though I just barely get to the back left corner (testing didn't show this problem) - my house doesn't flow a lot of water (only 5GPM which is less than the 6GPM that Rainbird says is the minimum) so I'll probably just live with it as is - I otherwise would have to dig up the sprinkler and move it out another foot. I got a timer off Amazon and am watering every 6 hours for now.

Fingers crossed now that we'll have a functioning lawn come summer time.

https://i.imgur.com/qzViJe6.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/k0dTmex.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/HjxNNVK.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/3kMbE4n.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/stk77S7.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/fWVNiwI.jpeg

[Eff-1]

I wish I had seen this thread earlier but I am also redoing our front lawn this year.

The old lawn wasn't terrible but it was a mix of grass, weeds and moss and I thought having a nice thick lawn would be an improvement.

I've been leaning on my dad's advice for this. Our method is not very complicated. Time will tell how successful this becomes.

Step 1 - Apply some weed killer and mossout to burn off as much weed/moss as possible.

Step 2 - Power rake the whole thing, then clean off the clippings.

Step 3 - Applied new soil on top. Ordered a couple yards from headwater. Shared with the neighbours.

Step 4 - Seed with Scott's Turf builder. Then apply Scott's lawn starter.

Step 5 - Water 2x per day. Always keep the soil wet.

Step 6 - Cross fingers and toes. If this fails, wife will be upset.

https://i.postimg.cc/ry51R1mR/IMG-4526.jpg

[Hondaracer]

Fuck got me wanting that watering system now even though typically those things are always disasters…

How do you purge it? Your lines are above the frost line so that shits gonna freeze if there’s any water left over. Just with compressed air or?

Nice work the base looks great now though no reason shouldn’t turn into a nice lawn by next summer

[underscore]

You blow them out with a big air compressor at the fitting on the side of the house. Either DIY or there's loads of people who will come around and do it fairly cheap.

[supafamous]

Fuck got me wanting that watering system now even though typically those things are always disasters…

How do you purge it? Your lines are above the frost line so that shits gonna freeze if there’s any water left over. Just with compressed air or?


There's a drain at the end of the line and with the slope of my yard I think that even if I don't do anything for it that it'll dry out by the time frost season shows up.

[snowball]

I commend you guys for the work you did on your lawns. I also redid my lawn from scratch 2 years ago, but I couldn't commit to the work it takes to keep it perfect so I just mow everything down now.

Once or twice a year i go through and rip out the dandelions, but my neighbours have so many other random ass weeds that fly over like spanish bluebells, creeping buttercup, horsetail, birdseye pearlwort, bindweed...

[EvoFire]

Compliments to you all. Ain't got time for the lawn with 2 young kids. Maybe in my next life time, or just the next house. Our backyard gets minimal sun due to being nestled between the house and the garage, and the garage is a story higher than the lawn.

[supafamous]

5 weeks in and it's about halfway to where I'd like it. I'm using a seed blend with micro clover and wildflowers so it looks denser than it really is so far - it's still fairly patchy up close. I figure another month and it'll be a usable lawn (like I can put the bouncy castle out on top of it). I think I'll have to put a layer of sand on it in the fall to even out the bumpiness though as it's not settling very evenly so far.

https://i.imgur.com/TlyYi5o.jpeg

[Traum]

Holy that's looking freaking awesome!

[supafamous]

Thanks! It seems to grow really well at night (or maybe I just stare at it too much during the day). The micro clover and wildflowers really change the look of it - up close it looks more like an "afro" than it does normal lawn but it feels really nice because of that density (it feels sorta plush). The blend is supposed to be both chafer beetle resistant and mostly drought resistant so I'm hoping it can survive the summer without turning completely brown. So far no crows or raccoons have returned so it seems like things are working.

https://i.imgur.com/gerNevF.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/iXFTRbG.jpeg

[Mikoyan]

I spot fixed and overseeded my lawn with a micro clover/chafer beetle resistant fescue mix. It definitely reduced the beetle issue.

[snowball]

Where'd you get the seeds from? Thinking about getting some to crowd out my weeds

[Mikoyan]

Where'd you get the seeds from? Thinking about getting some to crowd out my weeds

I got mine from Gardenworks Burnaby at Marine Dr and Nelson.

[supafamous]

Where'd you get the seeds from? Thinking about getting some to crowd out my weeds

I ordered direct from West Coast Seeds (https://www.westcoastseeds.com/collections/lawn-solutions) but Gardenworks sells their product in smaller quantities. I used their Bee Turf since I wanted something more drought resistant.

The micro clover is only 10% of the seed mix for the bee turf and their chafer resistant blend but it grows in pretty thick relative to the rest of the grass.

[Hondaracer]

Yea shit has been growing like crazy recently with the bit of rain then few days of good sun.

Some places I’ve over seeded that have a hard time growing in the past have completely filled in over the past month or so. I’m going to have to look into this clover mix though seems much more versatile long term especially if you don’t get the full sun on the lawn

[supafamous]

7 weeks in and it's grown really tall - 7-9" tall in some spots so it was time for a cut. Because the seed blend includes wildflowers the lawn smells really great - it's fragrant and the bees love coming by. The micro clover does a really great job holding onto moisture - the leaves provide a lot of shade for the grass below so I can see why it's considered a drought tolerate blend. There's still a few dead patches which I won't address till the fall when watering restrictions go away.

https://i.imgur.com/wjcwHhA.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/6Et052X.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/hixqcNo.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/cIRQjTS.jpeg

[underscore]

What's long-term care for stuff like fertilizer and weed-killer like for that sort of thing? That looks exactly like what my wife wants our lawn to be.

[supafamous]

What's long-term care for stuff like fertilizer and weed-killer like for that sort of thing? That looks exactly like what my wife wants our lawn to be.

The claim from the maker says:

"This blend requires less water, less fertilizer, and less mowing than conventional lawn grasses. It has better resistance to weeds and is unattractive to chafer beetles." (https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/bee-turf)

As I understand it needs less water due to the clover leaf providing shade for the other plants while it needs less fertiliser because it naturally locks in nitrogen. Now that it's settled in I'm going to adhere to watering restrictions and see how it does.

It's not hardy for high traffic areas though - not a problem for me as the lawn will only be used during summer weekends (basically the bouncy castle comes out). I really like the texture of it - the diversity of plants works really well to make it feel "friendly".

[snowball]

Updates on bee turf? I want to plant it on my front slope this fall but I'm afraid it will look like a giant bush.

[supafamous]

This is what it looked like a few days ago which was 3 weeks after I cut it down to 4" - it grew to about 10-12" in that time so very fast growing (not too surprisingly considering the weather lately). My wife described it as looking and feeling like a meadow, I call it pasture. The clover is definitely bigger than I expected - I've learned that "micro" doesn't really mean "micro". The canopy it provides means it does a great job retaining moisture - I can see why it's considered more drought tolerant and if I let it stay tall I'm sure I wouldn't need to water it at all (my clippings are almost soaking wet even after a week of dry days).

https://i.imgur.com/UtCE6Na.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/xJ5s5pi.jpeg

This is what it looks like as of yesterday after I roughly (I did it in a hurry) cut it down to 3" and after having kids play around it (with a bouncy castle on top). It's not a grass that holds up well to traffic (I knew that going in) but I'm going to spend more time keeping it regularly trimmed to 3" for the rest of summer to see how it looks when it gets a chance to be stable. Once Sept comes I'm going to let it grow out - I really like how it looks (and smells) when it's tall. The bees also love it.

https://i.imgur.com/XcuJakT.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/CMtEsWr.jpeg

Overall, I like how it has worked out. It's really nice to sit in, doesn't really need water, smells great, and looks nice when it grows out. It's not as traffic friendly as I'd like but I'm ok with the tradeoffs.

[bcrdukes]

Sweet Jesus, that looks awesome!

[Eff-1]

I wish I had seen this thread earlier but I am also redoing our front lawn this year.

The old lawn wasn't terrible but it was a mix of grass, weeds and moss and I thought having a nice thick lawn would be an improvement.

I've been leaning on my dad's advice for this. Our method is not very complicated. Time will tell how successful this becomes.

Step 1 - Apply some weed killer and mossout to burn off as much weed/moss as possible.

Step 2 - Power rake the whole thing, then clean off the clippings.

Step 3 - Applied new soil on top. Ordered a couple yards from headwater. Shared with the neighbours.

Step 4 - Seed with Scott's Turf builder. Then apply Scott's lawn starter.

Step 5 - Water 2x per day. Always keep the soil wet.

Step 6 - Cross fingers and toes. If this fails, wife will be upset.

https://i.postimg.cc/ry51R1mR/IMG-4526.jpg

Pretty happy with how my lawn turned out this year. It's definitely turned into a little hobby of mine and I am enjoying maintaining it.

Mid May, about 2 weeks after seeding
https://i.postimg.cc/L4t50h0G/IMG-4580.jpg

Mid June
https://i.postimg.cc/3x7cCf0P/IMG-4818.png

Early July
https://i.postimg.cc/CK5Jm3h6/IMG-4839.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/sgwwPjrh/IMG-4840.jpg

Late July
https://i.postimg.cc/SRh6F344/IMG-4957.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/KznTNfMH/IMG-5053.png

Today
https://i.postimg.cc/dVyVr1dW/IMG-5051.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/65T36zQx/IMG-5052.png

Overall quite happy with the result.

[EvoFire]

I can't help but think, you know you are old when...... :whistle:

I can't be bothered with my lawn right now, maybe in a few years when the kids are older.

[Traum]

I can't be bothered with my lawn right now, maybe in a few years when the kids are older.
Personally, I'm far less concerned about my lawn than I am about the trees around my house. By my own guestimate, there are at least 3 BIG trees that would destroy our house and kill us should they ever collaspe. It isn't so bad this year since we have mostly been having a pretty mild summer (on top of a very wet spring / early summer), but in the past several years, those trees have been showing obvious signs of heat & drought stress. I try to do what I can to mitigate the effects of those heat and drought stress, there is only so much I can do.

My neighbour from across the street has an even BIGGER tree, and he doesn't give a damn about its well being at all. If any of that tree's big branches snap on him, it is not gonna be pretty.

I came across this scene while I was running errands in July, and this is precisely the kind of thing that I would want to avoid:

https://scontent.fyvr3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/516322971_10171893417765228_4597298996338818432_n. jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s720x720_tt6&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=jMpcke9BhukQ7kNvwHj1g2L&_nc_oc=AdmEc9atOZst5_tuzIKlgDEunbZ2nL3GgZtlFUT3jIk xDqdifeyAYHcFehi2HjuJWTc&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr3-1.fna&_nc_gid=fIoxKj-tUTGjxNFrZpYZ-A&oh=00_AfW9lL69PPiRMGoK08Sw3PP8r9pERfl4f9kSO3kEe6Xv sQ&oe=68A57D7A

Unfortunately, I have been seeing this sort of thing around the neighbourhood every now and then in the past couple of years.

[Eff-1]

My property is surrounded by trees and we've had a lot of conversations with the District about them. They've actually been fairly open to conversation, but they will do anything to avoid coming out and doing work at their own cost. But go figure, they agreed to give me a permit so I could trim and remove THEIR trees at my own cost (was totally worth it).

So if it's that worrisome, might be worth getting a tree company to take a look, give you an assessement and as estimate, and take to the city to convince them the trees are a risk. Best case is they take care of it. Next option is they let you do it at your own cost. Or worst case, none of the above, but you have nothing to lose. And at least then, the city is "on notice" that if something happens in the future, they'll risk being negligent.

[supafamous]

So I decided to stop watering the lawn to see what happens to it - I think we're now about 2 weeks since the last time it rained and about 2.5 weeks since I last watered it and it's still plenty green (photo is from Sunday)

I cut it half of it last night so I could put the bouncy castle out today and the clippings were wet - not soaking but what you'd expect when you cut the grass on a late October morning. My neighbours' lawns are mildly brown (watered several times a week) or completely brown (not watered at all).

I'm going to stop watering for the near future and just let the weather take care of it and see how it plays out - half the lawn is now cut down to 4" while the rest is about a foot tall. We'll see how much a big a role the clover leaves play in providing canopy to the rest of the lawn.

https://i.imgur.com/zlKH8fI.jpeg

After a summer of having this lawn a few conclusions I can make of this seed blend:

- It's much lower maintenance than regular grass as it needs less watering and doesn't look like shit when it's long. Because it looks fine when it's tall I haven't bothered cutting it much, I only cut it when I need to put out the bouncy castle or the slip and slide and I'm otherwise fine with it being a foot tall.
- It grew much taller than I expected when I didn't cut it, maybe this is because the soil quality is really good at the moment (I gave it a lot of fertiliser at the beginning). I think its natural height is about a foot or so - I'm not gonna cut it for a few more weeks to see how tall it gets.
- It's not very traffic friendly. There was a time when a section of it went brown and kinda died off for a couple weeks b/c of kids playing on it but it's grown back fine. If you want the "perfect lawn" look this is not it - the traffic makes it look trampled on (the photo shows my daughter making a maze). To make it more traffic friendly I'm going to add a bit of ryegrass or tall fescue to it come spring.
- The name of the blend is Bee Turf and you have to be ok with having LOTS of bees and wasps etc coming by. It's not really a lawn, it's more like a flower garden.
- Fuck, it smells so good. I smile every time I'm out there when the scent comes up, it's SOOOOOOOO nice, like walking in some country meadow out in the sticks. No lawn in the city has a right to smell this nice.

Overall, 11/10 would it again. Other than the trampling with traffic it's been really great.