Need advice on lawn

[charliepff]

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I just had to have our septic system replaced on our 1 acre lot. The house is only five years old and the lot was rough graded before this happened. It has a lot of rock and clay in it. After the tank and field was replaced we had the contractor regrade and haul in about 5 tri axle loads of fill dirt. Our issue is we are not sure how to get grass started. The dirt is a clay mix and had grass growing in it before. I have been told everything from hauling in topsoil at 200 a truck load to treating the clay with lime, raking the seed in, and covering it with straw. We are almost at the end of our budget and do not want to spend another 2 grand just to get grass to grow. A rental tiller is about 300 where we are located. I was hoping I could just use the boxblade to loosen the bad spots and the rake to clear the big stones and move the seed around.

Has anyone tried this or has everyone hauled in topsoil? I will try to post pics later this week.

 

[jpm1]

I've put in a lot of lawns and a little lime and some fertilizer will not hurt. Lay your seed and very gently rake it in and then roll it. You don't need straw, any old cheap hay will do just fine, the cheaper the better. Water it each day if mother nature is not cooperating and in about 7 days you'll have growth. Good luck . . .John

 

[shortthrow50]

I do this for a living so heres some advice i can give you. you deffinately gonna need topsoil hauled in there. Your not gonna get anything but weeds or crap contractor mix to grow in fill dirt. There are plenty of places that sell topsoil but most sell sifted topsoil for something like 500 bucks a triaxle load and your gonna need 4-5 loads of that. You can try to find a jobsite that recently stripped topsoil for new development. They will glady sell you some of that for half the price but then you will need someone to haul it. Triaxle trucker will charge about 80 bucks an hour. You can get away with just painting the topsoil over your land. Ive had good success with 1 acre lots by just painting on about 3 inches of topsoil. Grass was growing real good. Just put it on conservitely (money being a factor). Then once it is graded on nice and smooth run a rock hound on it to get the rocks and garbage out of the topsoil. If you get the more expensive sifted topsoil, you wont need a rock hound obviously. I stress, You do need a coating of topsoil or you will have one nasty looking yard.

 

[MissouriSprayer]

You said you are at the end of your budget so hauling topsoil is not an option. Just use your boxblade and work a decent seedbed, apply a light dose of a balanced fert like 10-10-10 and seed with a mix of annual rye and fescue.

Look at pastures in your area. Good grass and no one hauled topsoil. Topsoil is just as likely and maybe more to be full of weed seed and wont make a big difference anyway. Good grass is not complex. Its made complex by people trying to get you to spend more than you need to.

 

[shortthrow50]

Look at pastures in your area. Good grass and no one hauled topsoil.

:laughing:

I dont mean to be rude with the laughing smiley but your post is wayyyy off the charts and wrong

Do you know the difference between topsoil and fill dirt? Fill dirt is typically subsoil or just anything other than topsoil. Those pastures your talking about, have probably 12 - 18 inches of topsoil in them. Hense why it is called "top" soil. Below that is what is called "sub soil" which would be used as fill dirt. When i go into a job to build a new development, I have to go in with a dozer to strip a lot of all its topsoil to get down to subsoil. The stripped top soil will be used to spread over the lot after the house is completed. Topsoil is naturally occuring through decay through many many many years. Unless any peice of land has been developed in any of out lifetime, it has tons of topsoil on it which grows grasss. This guy in this thread has had its lot stripped of its topsoil and has only subsoil on it which has no nutrients to grow good grass.

Heres video of me stripping a what was once an old farm "pasture" of its topsoil down to subsoil back in the fall. I wonder who hauled all this topsoil in 1000's of years ago
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB3T6JRGFN4&list=UUSSFUkguBXBANxXL8YRZx1g&index=18&feature=plcp[/ame]

 

[charliepff]

Thanks guys for the suggestion. The contractor says he can cut me a deal on a load or two since he has some at his house. I will probably till fertalizer into the soil and some lime and go from there. I can rake most of the rock out of it with the rake and if need be revisit the issue next year when we have some money saved back up. My wife and I have learned a very good lesson out of this. Definately check a house from top to bottom when your buying it.

 

[MarkV]

Having to replace a 5 year old septic system is unusual. Sounds like someone screwed up on the install originally.

My thoughts on the yard are that you are getting to the end of planting time for some grasses and you may be better off grading and waiting till fall. I would also get a soil test done before spending too much on fertilizer and seed. In my area we have very acidic soil and if you don't lime to balance the PH you never get grass to grow. Talk to your county extension agent. They have good info on what works best for your area and how to get a soil test done.

MarkV

 

[MissouriSprayer]

I do know the difference. But I understand the difference between being tapped out on cash and needing grass now. Getting grass started will show if any material is needed and if it does it can always be done later when funds are available. The abilty of grass to grow in marginal soil is amazing.

Cadilacs are nice but sometimes a used Impala is all the budget can stand

 

[Looking4new]

Thanks guys for the suggestion. The contractor says he can cut me a deal on a load or two since he has some at his house. I will probably till fertalizer into the soil and some lime and go from there. I can rake most of the rock out of it with the rake and if need be revisit the issue next year when we have some money saved back up. My wife and I have learned a very good lesson out of this. Definately check a house from top to bottom when your buying it.

That is your best bet and exactly what I was going to say. I know what it is like having to scrimp and save for a project only to find out that you've run out of money and the job isn't done.

 

[Fossil Farm]

The contractor says he can cut me a deal on a load or two since he has some at his house. I will probably till fertalizer into the soil and some lime and go from there.

Also, while driving around and you see any manure piles, you may want to see if you can haul some for free. Any organic matter you can add will help. You will get some weed seeds from the manure but the organic matter will really help the fill material since you are tapped out. Not sure about your area, but we have many "horse farms" on very small acreages that are always trying to find ways to get rid of manure without having to pay to have it hauled away. Good luck.

 

[Maxfli]

Well (with no previous experience) I did my yard when the Septic field was new. The grass looked great and we did not top dress but the soil was pretty good already. The issue I have is the yard looked great for 2 or 3 years but now (pine years in) I have had some settling where the field lines run. I am temped to top dress those areas with some sand now to bring them up the level. I am not sure if I should have done anything differently as I don't think you want to compact to lines much.

 

[charliepff]

Actually that is a really good idea. I was also thinking about renting a home depot dump truck and hauling manure and such myself. I will post pics thisevening of the yard.

 

[FF117]

Having to replace a 5 year old septic system is unusual. Sounds like someone screwed up on the install originally.

My thoughts on the yard are that you are getting to the end of planting time for some grasses and you may be better off grading and waiting till fall. I would also get a soil test done before spending too much on fertilizer and seed. In my area we have very acidic soil and if you don't lime to balance the PH you never get grass to grow. Talk to your county extension agent. They have good info on what works best for your area and how to get a soil test done.

MarkV

I agree with MarkV. Get a soil test done and possibly wait until fall if you can. We installed a pond recently and I assumed that lime would be needed on the back side of the dam, but after having a soil test done I was surprised to find that the ph was actually too high. Applying lime would have been counter productive. The local farm bureau here does soil testing for less than $10 per sample. Money well spent. Also, fall is usually better for establishing new lawns and it will give you some time to prepare and save some money. Whenever you do it, make sure you don't skimp on things like seed, fertilizer, straw, and watering because you probably won't be happy with the results.

I worked for a lawn care business for 5 years and have seen the good and bad. I'm no expert, but if you need I can give you a step by step on what has worked for me.

 

[charliepff]

My work schedule is hemming me up this week. I will probably rake the yard and work on the edges on Sunday since there are still some piles of rock and tree chippings from the stump grinder. I was thinking about spreading the tree chips around the yard and mixing them in with the soil. There are still some low spots I need to shovel some dirt into since they are around the deck and wood piles too.

 

[Ranger Rick]

My work schedule is hemming me up this week. I will probably rake the yard and work on the edges on Sunday since there are still some piles of rock and tree chippings from the stump grinder. I was thinking about spreading the tree chips around the yard and mixing them in with the soil. There are still some low spots I need to shovel some dirt into since they are around the deck and wood piles too.

Adding wood chips to the soil is actually counter productive to getting grass to grow. For the wood chips to decompose it take Nitrogen from the soil thus robbing the young grass of the Nitrogen that it needs to grow. If you can find decomposed leaf mulch or manure that would be better. Rick

 

[forgeblast]

My lawn was nice, I regraded everything, (did not bring in top soil) had it limed and fert, and grass was coming up great. It looked like a nice lawn.
Then my wife was home sick, our road master came by and said "Hay we are working on the roads do you want some dirt?" She says sure and goes back to bed. I come home and find bushes run over, and about 100 ton of dirt in plies and mounds in our yard.
I was at a loss for words. Eventually I was able to call the township, they came out and spread the dirt(that guy was a master with the dozer). and everything was regraded.
Pulled the rocks again and reseeded and limed.
the Grass looks great now in what is basically a mix of soil and modifed gravel If your short on $$ grass will grow, will it be baseball park quality, no but if you need grass now it will grow. You could always, once things calm down $$wise, put compost in the yard and reseed.
My modified drive way has grass in it at times the seed seems to grow better in gravel