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devmd01 posted:Next spring, I want to turn the entire drainage swale easement into a wildflower/prarie grass area. It’s about 160’x20’, basically the fence to the tree line. Found some seed mixes from an in-state supplier that are appropriate for my zone and dealing with standing water for a couple of days in spots. Hell yeah, that's great. I'm doing the same thing right now with about 4000 sq ft of very wet area as a test in this yard. Done similar plenty of times before in other places. If I like the results I'll do a legit swale and take over more grass. devmd01 posted:From what I’m reading, you really want to clear the area of all vegetation for the best chance of everything taking, either chemically (hard no especially being the drainage swale), mechanically, or baking it dead with plastic. Um, yeah......figure out a better way. I don't care if it's a drainage swale, properly applied herbicide is not going to cause a problem. Mowing your grass real short isn't gonna do much. I'm at the stage where I applied glyphosate last fall to kill the grass and I just yesterday when in there with a box blade to see if i could scrape up the top soil and turn things over a bit.  It's still too wet, but that's okay....the furrows are gonna help it dry out a bit and I'm gonna go down there with the miniex to dig some swales to make sure everything drains into that main swale in the middle of the pic. I'll york rake this all to a decent finish soon when it's dry enough. In any case, my point here is that the next step after this prep that started last fall is to wait for all the weed seed I'm dragging up to germinate. Then that gets burnt down (chemically) also. If I was trying to do this with black plastic or whatever I guess I'd be waiting another year? But no, I'm waiting 2 weeks for a safe reseed time and then I'll be putting down my cover crop (rye at 30 lbs per acre) and my wildflower mix (at 7 lbs per acre) and rolling it in - slit seeder would be better but would take forever because all I have access to are some 30" wide self propelled things at the rental store. If I had one I could put on the tractor I'd absolutely use it. Good luck, and get over your herbicide thing. The results will be better and done properly none of this is an issue. They are issues in agricultural scales when being over applied year after year to boost crop yield. Not when used for one shot landscaping changes.
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Mar 22, 2023 23:59
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 09:32 |
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The Certified Lazy way would be to quit mowing this year, next spring overseed with your wildflower mix, maybe mow it down next fall or maybe wait another year. Birds and all kinds of critters love big tall grass mixes. At least around here, it's amazing how quickly unmowed stuff reverts back to native plants, and there's lots of important native plants besides wildflowers! If you want to keep it from getting way out of control and going back to woody perennials, divide it into two sets of strips a mower width wide and mow each strip alternate years so you have a mix of 2yr old and new cover to keep the birds and mice happy. This doesn't work so well with a push mower, but a zero turn or other ride on should be able to handle two years of growth. I'd agree with Motronic that if you're gonna start from scratch, herbicides are the way to do it and the one thing about everyone will agree on is that killing invasive species (your grass) is a good and proper use for herbicides.
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Mar 23, 2023 02:55
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Yeah roundup doesn’t stay around terribly long in the soil. If you’ve got a few days of sunny weather (or a week to be extra safe) you’d be alright. Granted if you’re not comfortable with it that’s A-okay too, just a bit more work.
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Mar 30, 2023 14:20
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My front lawn, especially the half between my driveway and front walkway, has problems. It's soft...like, EXTREMELY soft, feels like walking on a sponge at times. Obviously poor drainage, but at this point I'm not sure how to fix it. There are gutters on the roof, and the downspout is about as far away from this section as lawn as it can be but it's STILL soft and wet. I would guess some sort of French drain? I'm just not sure I have the space for that. That section of yard is about 16'x18'?  (from Google Maps)Looking at old town record photos, I can tell up until maybe ten years ago, there was a decent sized tree in that section. It was cut down and I guess the stump was ground down or just pulled out. My batshit crazy guess is that in absence of a large root system "sucking up" more water, it just made things worse? And maybe even old roots rotting underneath the ground contributed to the soft feeling? In just the three years I've lived here, it seems like it's gotten worse. I basically get "frost heaves" in spring, too. I rented a roller and rolled it down once, but that really didn't seem to help.
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Mar 30, 2023 17:20
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It might have gotten filled and then not compacted very well. Add to that, some roots are still there adding to the sponginess. Have you noticed if it's settling at all?
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Mar 30, 2023 17:28
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wesleywillis posted:It might have gotten filled and then not compacted very well. Add to that, some roots are still there adding to the sponginess. Have you noticed if it's settling at all? If anything I feel like it's gotten worse since I've moved in, so...opposite of settling? Maybe if I rented one of those "ground pounder" things? Might be more effective than just the roller?
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Mar 30, 2023 17:39
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When you say spongy is it just soft or is it actually wet? You should look at it in the broader context before spending real money. Are your neighbors lawns spongy? Your backyard? Are you in a floodplain? What’s the soil like? If it storms what happens to the water? Easy solution might be to just plant another tree.
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Mar 30, 2023 19:03
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Without knowing where this house is, spongy can be anything from clay soil to frost heave. Or both.
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Mar 30, 2023 19:07
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Hydrangeas are very thirsty and might soak up water.
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Mar 30, 2023 19:09
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Spongy as in mostly just really soft, but also a bit wet. Now that the snow has all melted (well, for at least a while, I'm assuming we'll get an April storm or two) I can see it does also look like some frost heaves are out there. The lawn is higher in several parts, I'll try and get pictures when I get home. The backyard is fine, it seems firm, no heaving or softness. No clay soil, as far as I can tell...it's pretty much a sandy loam mix? I do have moisture problems, drat near everyone in this neighborhood does. Many people have sump pumps in their basements. Mine isn't THAT bad. It was when I first moved in, but a lot of that was really poor gutter placement. I fixed them, and only once since have I noticed water in my basement. I also had my basement walls fixed and a little bit sealed last winter (all the hydrostatic pressure of the years was pushing in on parts of the cinderblock foundation.) I don't feel like I need a sump pump, but I have a couple houses near me that have ones going basically anytime I walk by in the summer and fall, so...def. an overall wet area. But when I look at most of my neighbors front yards, none LOOK like they're as soft/spongy as mine, especially the two on either side of me. And even the other half of my front lawn isn't as bad as this half. I had wondered last winter if maybe the problem got worse BECAUSE I had that basement wall slightly sealed on the inside, so now the water that previously soaked into my basement has nowhere to go?
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Mar 30, 2023 19:31
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DrBouvenstein posted:Maybe if I rented one of those "ground pounder" things? Might be more effective than just the roller? Don't do this if you ever want to grow something there (grass included). You'll compact the soil to the point nothing will grow.
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Mar 31, 2023 01:10
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Soil compaction is also a cause of poor drainage
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Mar 31, 2023 01:21
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Yeah you may well have a hard pan of compacted soil or clay a foot down or somethin so all the water just soaks into your grass/soil with nowhere to go until the sun can dry it out
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Mar 31, 2023 03:11
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I have moderately-compacted soil on 2005 construction. I areated last year and will probably again this year, but is there a responsible way to introduce earthworms into my soil? I know I can just buy earthworms (eggs) and plant them, but I also understand some of them are considered invasive & shouldn’t be used. Texas panhandle, zone 7.
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Mar 31, 2023 14:29
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Lincoln posted:I have moderately-compacted soil on 2005 construction. I areated last year and will probably again this year, but is there a responsible way to introduce earthworms into my soil? I know I can just buy earthworms (eggs) and plant them, but I also understand some of them are considered invasive & shouldn’t be used. Texas panhandle, zone 7. Whatever university is closest to you almost certainly has a department that can help you pick one. (and will be honestly happy to help!)
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Mar 31, 2023 23:41
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I decided to try the lawn again. I'm sending two bags of dirt, one from my front yard and back, to the Texas A&M extension service to have my nutrients analyzed. When it comes to dealing with weeds such as crabgrass and dallisgrass, are store bought weed killers like Scotts acceptable, or do I need to special order liquid killers for very targeted applications? Is it a waste of time to try and dethatch my lawn? Just use a machine to pull up dead grass, rake it away, and then over seed with zoisagrass with the hope of eventually replacing the common Bermuda. Eh whatever. This afternoon I applied some Killz All to the overgrown mess of weeds coming out of these lovely raised flower beds in my yard, as well as the overgrown flower beds running along the backside of my house. I simply mixed 3 TBL worth of this stuff with 1 gallon of water, and sprayed directly on the green stuff I wanted dead. It has glyphosate in it, which I understand is a non-selective herbicide.  Then I applied this entire bag of for all seasons II to both my front and back yard in an effort to prevent future weeds from popping up later on, and to try and mitigate the current crabgrass already beginning to emerge. It also has fertilizers in it, which I'm going to guess my lawn desperately needs, but I won't know until I get my soil analyzed. As always, lawn care stuff feels like a real crapshoot of just throwing money into a dark room and hoping something meaningful is returned. 
lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Apr 3, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 13:50
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Once upon a time I had a lush backyard I rehabbed when we bought the house Then I built a fence and got another dog and they ruined it  I've accepted it, but during the spring thaw especially they rip a real trail from the deck landing straight to the fence, especially while it's muddy  Any suggestions on how to pretty this path up in a way the dogs won't destroy? A gravel trail? Mulch? Pavers? Astroturf? The perps 
Smugworth fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Apr 3, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 23:30
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My guess is I have a ton of crabgrass nutsedge and Dallisgrass. What kind of timeline am I looking at in significantly reducing the amount of these weeds in my common Bermuda grass lawn?
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Apr 4, 2023 15:00
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I think my lawn problem might be moles.  I had them in my backyard last year, thought I got them, since the mole trails/hills stopped in late summer after some traps and poison, but it seems they just sort of migrated to my front yard? Well, I think it's moles AND a little of of leftover softness/ "sinky"-ness from when the tree was removed and whatnot. Just everything compounded together. I'm actually a little impressed, since to get from the back to the front, on the side of the house they're on, it's like 20' with no grass, just concrete foundation and slab on the house and garage, and then a concrete walkway between them. I don't see any mole trails on the other side of the house where the grass connects. Edit: V V V Yeah, I was avoiding those because poison was cheaper and I wasn't sure if, like, a squirrel, rabbit, or cat walking on the top of it would set it off? I know it wouldn't (shouldn't?) hurt the animal above ground, but just to avoid the trap going off sans mole. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Apr 4, 2023 |
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Apr 4, 2023 17:32
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I have caught so many moles with scissor traps. Just press one in across a fresh trail, and if it hasn’t sprung by the next morning, move it. No poisons, nothing to above ground for pets to mess with. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Aspectek-Durable-and-Powerful-Easy-Setting-Scissor-Jawed-Mole-Trap-and-Eliminator-HR1923/206099444
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Apr 4, 2023 18:12
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eddiewalker posted:I have caught so many moles with scissor traps. Just press one in across a fresh trail, and if it hasn’t sprung by the next morning, move it. Have you ever had wild animals try to dig up the corpse?
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Apr 5, 2023 19:05
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Have you ever had wild animals try to dig up the corpse? I have not. I glance out the window in the morning, and if it’s popped up, I pull the trap out. The body comes up pinched in the scissors and I drop it in the yard waste bin.
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Apr 5, 2023 19:15
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cross posted from the home zone So after tilling and ripping up everything in my yard last June, and choosing to lay sod for a quick install of grass ... it mostly all died despite following the instructions step by step. I'm, really regretting not trying to just grow from seed. I tilled a good 10" deep, multiple passes to really break up the soil. Added sand and compost into my soil to loosen it up a bit. I dug a square foot hole and tested the drainage speed of my soil. It tested really well and healthy. I had foot long earth worms all over the place. It felt very nice and loose, very rich dark black soil without being too clumpy/sticky. When I ordered the sod, it came from a reputable local farm and I installed it as their installers were already booked solid for the season. It was backbreaking work (I had tendonitis in my hand for a few weeks after) but I got it down. Laid it in a brick pattern, overlapping. Ensured to fit the seams very tight so there were no gaps. I watered as scheduled and it grew pretty well during the summer and into the fall. Once the temperatures dropped and leaves started falling, it started to die. I'm in seattle so its not like it was super cold and plenty of rain. I wondered if it maybe got too much water or not enough sun (we do have some tree cover). I overseeded and fertilized, also adding lime to the mix. The seed barely seemed to take root at all. Upon closer inspection, the sod seemed to have an incredibly clay rich soil. I don't think anything is even getting through it. I've tried overseeding several times and nothing seems to bite. I've raked it trying to create some texture in the soil so that the grass can take root. Nothing. I've tried covering the seed lighty with soil. Nothing. The seeds are still there weeks later without any growth. I've tried different seed brands/varieties but its mostly ryegrass/fescue out here that grow well in sun/shade areas. I think it has to 100% be the amount of clay in the soil the sod was grown in at the farm. Its an inch thick layer of clay thats preventing the seed from rooting through. I REALLY don't want to rip it all up and trash it but part of me is about to say gently caress it and call a dumpster. Now I understand why people choose hardscapes. Lawns are stupid. Sorry, thats my rant.
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Apr 6, 2023 01:30
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I didn't see this thread when I made the other one :/ I got a box today   TF is this thing?  Oh yeah.. Keeps the horse poop from getting stuck! https://i.imgur.com/vj1Tgpu.mp4 That little spreader is the bees knees yall.
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Apr 6, 2023 02:26
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We've been slowly letting clover take hold in our yard, but I think this year I'm ready to kick things up a notch and put some seed down to help speed things along. We're in southeast Nebraska, zone 5b, and I'm looking for a good mix that can tolerate shade from a couple of 60' maples in the backyard. Lowe's has a few bags of this in stock https://www.lowes.com/pd/Pennington/5013763393 but it doesn't have particularly great reviews.
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Apr 6, 2023 15:49
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Enos Cabell posted:We've been slowly letting clover take hold in our yard, but I think this year I'm ready to kick things up a notch and put some seed down to help speed things along. We're in southeast Nebraska, zone 5b, and I'm looking for a good mix that can tolerate shade from a couple of 60' maples in the backyard. Lowe's has a few bags of this in stock https://www.lowes.com/pd/Pennington/5013763393 but it doesn't have particularly great reviews. Don't buy seed from big box stores, don't take reviews from people who buy seed at big box stores seriously. Contact your county ag extension and ask them if they have a list of vendors that supply local native seed mixes. Almost everywhere has at least one these days.
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Apr 6, 2023 17:10
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Motronic posted:Don't buy seed from big box stores, don't take reviews from people who buy seed at big box stores seriously. Thank you for this. I was about to ask that question.
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Apr 6, 2023 17:54
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Motronic posted:Don't buy seed from big box stores, don't take reviews from people who buy seed at big box stores seriously. Local county extension office was super helpful, gave me a lot of resources and pointed me to a local seed vendor that is selling 5lb of clover mix for less than 1lb cost online. They seem very eager to help more people get into pollinator friendly lawns.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:39
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Enos Cabell posted:Local county extension office was super helpful, gave me a lot of resources and pointed me to a local seed vendor that is selling 5lb of clover mix for less than 1lb cost online. Yisss...they definitely are. Glad that all worked out.
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Apr 6, 2023 21:14
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I have some areas of extremely compacted soil. This is Zone 7, Texas panhandle. I'll be core-aerating soon, then again in the fall before over-seeding. Should I be adding sand after core-aerating to help with drainage in the future? We naturally have a lot of clay in our soil, and the original builder backfilled with a lot of caleche rock.
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Apr 7, 2023 14:22
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Adding sand to clay makes concrete. Don't do it!
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Apr 7, 2023 14:37
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Adding sand to clay makes concrete. Don't do it! This. Absolutely positively no sand. I have clay soil around here and you add organics. For us that's going to be leaf mould or other finely ground compost (not wood chips). What's available inexpensively in your area may be different. This is another "call you county ag extension" question unless someone here knows your area specifically.
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Apr 7, 2023 15:00
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Well, this part of the yard is already concrete, so it looks like I saved a step. Here's a pic of one of the offending areas: My manual core aerator won't touch it; soil is like rock, and the tubes always get clogged after a single coring.** Water can't penetrate deep enough to loosen the "soil." My lawn guy will use a gas-powered walk-behind, but not until fall. I literally just bought a 3/4-inch auger bit to drill out some holes so the soil can at least relax a little bit until then. Never tried that before, we'll see how it works. I have over-seeded the past two autumns, and power-core-aerated last September. Fert & weed control 4 times a year. ** You can see some good-looking turf back in the corner, which is what most of the lawn looks like. edit: that's a medium-small oak tree on the left. It drops a lot of acorns, but the canopy doesn't really cause any shade issues yet. Lincoln fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Apr 7, 2023 |
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Apr 7, 2023 15:00
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If it wouldn't look out of place, you could try mulching that area and adding some shrubs. The tree would appreciate the mulch. Maybe after some years of that it would be more amenable to other options.
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Apr 7, 2023 15:14
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Fitzy Fitz posted:If it wouldn't look out of place, you could try mulching that area and adding some shrubs. The tree would appreciate the mulch. Maybe after some years of that it would be more amenable to other options. This is one of three similar areas on my lawn. For now I'm content to amend the soil in whatever way I can to re-establish good turf. We have a ton of other shrub/tree projects in our near future, unfortunately. And BTW, thanks to everyone who advised against sand...I would have literally went and bought a poo poo-load of sand today otherwise. For future reference, would it be wise to add organics immediately after aerating? And for that matter, can I core-aerate too often? (Like, is spring and fall too much? For right now, anyway.) My landscaping problems are many...we moved here almost two years ago, the previous owners didn't occupy the home for more than two years prior, so the lawn was poo poo. On top of that, we now live on a golf course, so we get all the detritus from the adjacent fairway...not just weed seed, but bent grass, Bermuda...all the poo poo that is great for a golf course but bad for my lawn. I mean, our back yard literally blends into the rough & fairway:  ...that's the same oak tree from the previous photo, looking in the opposite direction. Behind that nearby little rise is the #18 fairway. Piece of advice to all: never move to a loving golf course.
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Apr 7, 2023 15:31
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So you simply don't have any top soil. There is only one way to fix that.
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Apr 7, 2023 15:38
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Wow, that is significantly more open from the other perspective lmao
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Apr 7, 2023 15:39
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What, just add topsoil when I over-seed this fall? Will a couple of inches of new soil make a lasting difference? Seriously, I'm asking: will that do the trick, long-term?
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Apr 7, 2023 15:40
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Lincoln posted:What, just add topsoil when I over-seed this fall? Will a couple of inches of new soil make a lasting difference? Seriously, I'm asking: will that do the trick, long-term? Not really now that you've shown the extent of the issue. With a lot of new construction around here, the developers will scrape off all the top soil, do whatever grading and then sprinkle a bit of topsoil back on and sell the rest. I don't know where your topsoil went, but this isn't like what I have here: 4-6" of topsoil with clay mixed in. You just don't have any in the spot you're showing (and I guess a few more). So what's the goal here? If it's just "grow grass" and you want to do that without irrigation I'm going to guess you'll need several inches of topsoil to be successful. This will be the third time in 2 days I'm suggesting this in the thread: contact your county ag extension. They will be able to test your soil and have kits or at least instructions on how to collect samples. With the results in hand one of their mater gardeners will be able to tell you what you can amend with or if you just need to start dumping actual topsoil there. In no scenario that I can think of will you be able to effectively do this without killing the existing struggling grass in those areas.
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Apr 7, 2023 15:55
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 09:32 |
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Not real familiar with north Texas, but in much of the SE a few years of growing grasses will in effect build a bit of topsoil even in totally compacted and scraped over to the red clay sites. Grass roots are really good at breaking up clay and will go surprisingly deep. There are also some good plot mixes I’ve seen with some really deep tap rooted things in them to help break up compacted soil. County ag would be a good place to ask about that kind of stuff like motronic said. At least around here, most of the time what is sold as ‘topsoil’ is basically sand with enough dirt in it to turn it brown and after a few rains it’s basically just sand. My first thought was go to town with your 3/4” auger and fill those holes with good compost/rotted pine bark, but that’s a much bigger area that I thought. I have basically done that on a small scale with a good digging fork, but that’s a lot of work over such a large area. What kind of grass do you have? The St. Augustine around here responds really well to top dressing but idk about other grasses.
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Apr 7, 2023 16:31
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