The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Do it Yourself Discussion! => Topic started by: BCBiker on April 26, 2015, 07:52:30 PM
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Our yard has looked terrible in the past years because the drought like conditions from the previous five years thinned it out and killed off spots, leaving crabgrass and dandelions.
The weather forecast was for a nice slow drizzle followed by 50-60 degree F highs. Strangely, the first thing that came to my mind was, "This is grass-planting weather."
Our little yard is only 500 square feet and there are underground sprinklers, so I elected to forego the more automated (and costly) option of renting a tiller. After all, I didn't want to break off a sprinkler head and I highly value hard work ( http://www.businesscasualbiker.com/the-pleasure-of-hard-work/ (http://www.businesscasualbiker.com/the-pleasure-of-hard-work/) ), since my primary occupation does not involve physical labor.
So yesterday afternoon with the rain prescribed for late in the evening, I set forth to my yard with a shovel and a rake. The ground was quite hard and there were tons of roots and rocks so it was much more work than I thought. But before the sun went completely down, I had turned over every inch of the crummy grass and raked through the dirt. The rain set in on schedule and I scattered seed evenly across the freshly raked dirt this morning.
7 hours, $40 worth of seed and fertilizer, 4-8K calories burned, and in two to three weeks we will have some beautiful new Kentucky Bluegrass!
I am quite proud and wanted to share this with you folks. The very easy and more typical route would have been hiring a landscaper and laying saud, which probably would have cost $700-800. A tiller rental for the day probably would have been $100-150.
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Nicely done! You should post a picture in a few weeks with the nice new green carpet...
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I definitely will!
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I suck at lawn work so it took me years to get my front lawn looking near decent from the horrible mess it was in when I bought the house (in the middle of winter).
I learned that grass doesn't grow (or germinate?) if the ground is below 60 degrees (and therefore shouldn't be fertilized until then).
I also learned you can't use weed-killer w/ new grass.
My lawn is all grass now (though 4 different kinds) but my next issue is the lumps and ruts..
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I don't mean to be a downer. Awesome job! But I'd suggest others following in your footsteps to consider more drought resistant varieties than Kentucky bluegrass. Looking at this for some unknow future time:http://ucverdebuffalograss.com/
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I agree that buffalo grass can be a great option for areas with frequent droughts. I actually considered it strongly because it is hardy. It, in my experience, doesn't fill out as nicely as Kent bluegrass and has a pale color to it.
I don't really care to be honest but DW likes to look normal when possible. If it was up to me I would have green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelon growing up front with some pretty decorative flowers. That makes much more sense than a lawn but such is life...
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I agree that buffalo grass can be a great option for areas with frequent droughts. I actually considered it strongly because it is hardy. It, in my experience, doesn't fill out as nicely as Kent bluegrass and has a pale color to it.
I don't really care to be honest but DW likes to look normal when possible. If it was up to me I would have green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelon growing up front with some pretty decorative flowers. That makes much more sense than a lawn but such is life...
Yeah, the big downside is that the uc buffalo goes brown/dormant in the summer (supposedly?) They suggest staining it green. Not sure how I feel about that.