Friday, October 16, 2015

Next Year's Lawn Starts Now‎

It's been about five years since our yard has had professional care, and it shows. At least half of the green stuff is weeds of one sort or another. In an effort to improve the turf on our estate, last week  we had lawn renovation work done.

My original plan for the yard was far less complex. It was to have a load of compost delivered so Hubby Tony and I could spread it ourselves. We ran out of time and energy to do that, so I contacted our local composting company to get a list of lawn service companies they recommended. They gave me names, and I requested estimates from them.

When they came out to do the estimates, the company representatives were nice enough not to laugh at our scraggly yard. They did indicate that it needed a lot more than just a layer of compost. When one of them mentioned it could take years to get a nice looking lawn, (which could add a substantial amount to the price we could ask should we decided to put the house on the market) Tony and I decided to let them do core aeration and overseeding work and addition to the topdressing.

Two days before the work was scheduled I spent the day watering the very dry soil. The next day Tony mowed the grass short. When the lawn company came, their first step was to use the core aeration machine to relieve the soil compaction. Next, they top dressed the lawn. The last step was to spread seed over the entire area. Then they left. The rest of the work turf renovation work was on Tony and me.

For the grass to germinate it had to be kept moist. We did that by lightly sprinkling it twice a day. For the last week one of us has been out there in the late morning after the dew dried up, and again in the afternoon shortly before or right after dinner. Each sprinkling took about 40 minutes, but I found it very therapeutic.

Yesterday I noticed a few tiny green sprouts, and there were even more today. Now we'll be able to switch to a sprinkler and water less frequently, but a little deeper. If Mother Nature doesn't send us rain, we'll be keeping the job up until it gets too cold for grass to grow. It will still be a chore to move the sprinkler on a regular basis, but I bet before long even that task will be part of the schedule.

Five years ago today: Vegetation

6 comments:

  1. I've never been good about watering the lawn and it definitely shows in the back yard. My parents used to lecure me about how I was bringing dow the property value of my neighbors homes because I didn't care for my lawn better, but it all fell on deaf ears. I do try to keep the front lawn looking nice though and fortunately it's fairly small. One of these years I hope to have automated sprinklers installed and have my front and back yards reseeded and start all over again. Don't know if it'll ever happen, but it's one of my future goals. Then maybe my neighbor will finally stop criticizing me so often.

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    1. One of our neighbors really keeps their yard nice. The other one looks more like ours, so I never felt too bad about it.

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  2. I gather you don't have an automatic sprinkler system? Makes watering very easy.

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    1. No, we've never felt the need to put in a sprinkler. In this area it has to be put to bed in the winter and turned back on when the weather gets warm. Too much work for me.

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