Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Phase 5
Monday, May 18th, i spread the seed. the weather called for rain the day before, so i didn't want to chance it all getting washed away by doing it then. instead, while Andrea was at our weekly Community Group meeting (Bible study), Oscar slept and Krusty and I did our thing.
There are no pics of the "post-smoothed" yard, but it's not hard to imagine: barren dirt, but somewhat smooth instead of lumpy. not all that picture worthy. But before seed could be spread, it needed to be roughed up a bit, and that took nearly an hour. i went over the whole yard with a garden rake and took the opportunity to remove more clumps of dead grass and dirt, to facilitate further smoothing of the surface. then, it was go time. 15 pounds of "shady mix" grass seed into the spreader and i was off.
in the beginning, i was trying to be all careful, but after a while, i was just zig-zagging all over trying to ensure no square inch was left unseeded. there was another whole 15 pound bag and the plan was to use some of it, but i ended up using all of it, too. so...30 pounds of grass seed later, it was time to spread some starter fertilizer. this stuff looks like rabbit food and didn't spread as easily as the seed, but is a necessary ingredient.
Monica gave me a partial bale of hay, which didn't cover the whole yard, but was better than nothing (i have since purchased a bale and completed that step).
the soaker hose i bought was completely worthless. i mistakenly thought it was the "sprinkler" style, but as the name implies, it just seeps water out into the ground. it would be perfect for a huge garden, but terrible for a new lawn. as luck would have it, Steph came home right about that time and said she had a sprinkler head they didn't use, so i gave them the soaker hose in trade. it's now in their huge garden, doing what it was meant to do. thanks, Bob and Steph! Witchger's to the rescue, again. or should i say, to the "Fescue"?? huh? huh?
Here's the yard after seed and hay application:
see the caution tape? i decided it was necessary what with all the foot traffic the yard gets. all the mail boxes in our neighborhood are on our porches, so the mail man walks from house to house, cutting through everyone's front yards. i felt like a jerk blocking off his path, so i left him a "Thank you for not screwing up my yard while the seeds sprout" card. oh yeah, and $20. hey, a little palm grease never hurt anybody.
we found a few grass blades yesterday. check 'em out!
not too impressive. but before you judge, check out the picks from a few minutes ago:
by my best and most conservative estimate, i'm thinking tomorrow it should look something like this:
nothing like lush grass to attract the neighborhood cows. i'll deal with them when the time comes. tomorrow.
as per the stipulations of the watering permit i purchased from the city for $50, i am allowed to water between 6 and 10 (am and pm) every day for 45 days. we have year round water restrictions, so without the permit, i would only be allowed to water 3 days a week. there's no way that would sustain a new lawn, so it was a non-negotiable.
you may be thinking "it's too late in the season to plant grass seed, you idiot!". that's fair. but in my defense, i say: nuh-uh. the night i seeded was the beginning of an unseasonably cool streak, thereby simulating optimal seeding conditions. add to that the absence of young-lawn killing thunderstorms, and i'd say the pieces are in place.
more pictures and less talk in the coming days.
There are no pics of the "post-smoothed" yard, but it's not hard to imagine: barren dirt, but somewhat smooth instead of lumpy. not all that picture worthy. But before seed could be spread, it needed to be roughed up a bit, and that took nearly an hour. i went over the whole yard with a garden rake and took the opportunity to remove more clumps of dead grass and dirt, to facilitate further smoothing of the surface. then, it was go time. 15 pounds of "shady mix" grass seed into the spreader and i was off.
in the beginning, i was trying to be all careful, but after a while, i was just zig-zagging all over trying to ensure no square inch was left unseeded. there was another whole 15 pound bag and the plan was to use some of it, but i ended up using all of it, too. so...30 pounds of grass seed later, it was time to spread some starter fertilizer. this stuff looks like rabbit food and didn't spread as easily as the seed, but is a necessary ingredient.
Monica gave me a partial bale of hay, which didn't cover the whole yard, but was better than nothing (i have since purchased a bale and completed that step).
the soaker hose i bought was completely worthless. i mistakenly thought it was the "sprinkler" style, but as the name implies, it just seeps water out into the ground. it would be perfect for a huge garden, but terrible for a new lawn. as luck would have it, Steph came home right about that time and said she had a sprinkler head they didn't use, so i gave them the soaker hose in trade. it's now in their huge garden, doing what it was meant to do. thanks, Bob and Steph! Witchger's to the rescue, again. or should i say, to the "Fescue"?? huh? huh?
Here's the yard after seed and hay application:
see the caution tape? i decided it was necessary what with all the foot traffic the yard gets. all the mail boxes in our neighborhood are on our porches, so the mail man walks from house to house, cutting through everyone's front yards. i felt like a jerk blocking off his path, so i left him a "Thank you for not screwing up my yard while the seeds sprout" card. oh yeah, and $20. hey, a little palm grease never hurt anybody.
we found a few grass blades yesterday. check 'em out!
not too impressive. but before you judge, check out the picks from a few minutes ago:
by my best and most conservative estimate, i'm thinking tomorrow it should look something like this:
nothing like lush grass to attract the neighborhood cows. i'll deal with them when the time comes. tomorrow.
as per the stipulations of the watering permit i purchased from the city for $50, i am allowed to water between 6 and 10 (am and pm) every day for 45 days. we have year round water restrictions, so without the permit, i would only be allowed to water 3 days a week. there's no way that would sustain a new lawn, so it was a non-negotiable.
you may be thinking "it's too late in the season to plant grass seed, you idiot!". that's fair. but in my defense, i say: nuh-uh. the night i seeded was the beginning of an unseasonably cool streak, thereby simulating optimal seeding conditions. add to that the absence of young-lawn killing thunderstorms, and i'd say the pieces are in place.
more pictures and less talk in the coming days.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Lawn Project Update!!
Phase 4 - Subphase 1
as per the last post, Bob lent me the family tiller again and i went over the yard. it was great! the tines got lowered down to several inches, since it had to go through the new layer of topsoil to get to the original surface. it was fun to get the two layers mixed in and i could really feel the dirt moving. the hard part was going back over it with the garden rake and smoothing it out.
Phase 4 - Subphase 2
today i rented a manual "sod roller". it's just a ~22 gallon drum with a drain plug you fill with water. and a handle. not much to it. the cost for 4 hours was $11. it didn't exactly pack the dirt down the way i had hoped, but it did a decent job. as Andrea put it, once the grass comes in, the variations in smoothness won't be visible.
from the rental place, i went straight to Lowe's and got 30lbs of "Shade Mix" grass seed that's guaranteed to grow. we'll see. also picked up several bags of starter fertilizer. i called my dad on the way, as he's the lawn king. he did the same thing to his yard a few years ago that i'm doing now, rather successfully. he encouraged me to keep going and said everything sounded like it was going as it should. i was gonna seed today, but it's supposed to rain pretty hard tomorrow, so i will either wait until evening, or Monday.
all the pieces are in place. i'll put up some pics of the smooth dirt yard later. and should this all fail (too late in the season to plant, deluge washes away dirt/seed, etc), i can just do it again in the fall. all the hard work has already been done. going forward, it's just maintenance.
as per the last post, Bob lent me the family tiller again and i went over the yard. it was great! the tines got lowered down to several inches, since it had to go through the new layer of topsoil to get to the original surface. it was fun to get the two layers mixed in and i could really feel the dirt moving. the hard part was going back over it with the garden rake and smoothing it out.
Phase 4 - Subphase 2
today i rented a manual "sod roller". it's just a ~22 gallon drum with a drain plug you fill with water. and a handle. not much to it. the cost for 4 hours was $11. it didn't exactly pack the dirt down the way i had hoped, but it did a decent job. as Andrea put it, once the grass comes in, the variations in smoothness won't be visible.
from the rental place, i went straight to Lowe's and got 30lbs of "Shade Mix" grass seed that's guaranteed to grow. we'll see. also picked up several bags of starter fertilizer. i called my dad on the way, as he's the lawn king. he did the same thing to his yard a few years ago that i'm doing now, rather successfully. he encouraged me to keep going and said everything sounded like it was going as it should. i was gonna seed today, but it's supposed to rain pretty hard tomorrow, so i will either wait until evening, or Monday.
all the pieces are in place. i'll put up some pics of the smooth dirt yard later. and should this all fail (too late in the season to plant, deluge washes away dirt/seed, etc), i can just do it again in the fall. all the hard work has already been done. going forward, it's just maintenance.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Operation Rejuvenate Your Crappy Front Yard - Phases 1 through 5
Andrea and i have been sick of our front yard for a while now. the previous owner either didn't have gutters, or had gutters that served no purpose (which was the case when we bought the house). the result: run-off from the roof cascading down the slope of the front yard toward the street cutting ravines and stealing precious top-soil. what little grass there is grows in tufts and small islands, 2 to 3 inches above the surrounding dirt.
Phase 1 - Infrastructure
we replaced the gutter along the front of the house last year. without that, it would have been pointless to try and do anything with the lawn. this was an easy step, as it needed to be done anyway and didn't require tearing anything up, yardwise.
Phase 2 - Kill
with my Dad's encouragement, I proceeded to the next step from which there was no return: apply RoundUp everywhere and kill everything.
Phase 3 - Till
Two and three go together, really: "Kill 'n Till". but they are two distinct steps, so i've broken them up. Bob let me borrow the Witchger Family Tiller last weekend. Here are some photo highlights:
Before:
During:
After:
Phase 4 - Dirt
we're down to mostly clay and rocks in our front yard. i found a place that would deliver 10 cubic yards of dirt (that's 270 cubic feet) for a reasonable price, which they did this past Friday. check out the action:
Bob and i were mesmerized:
Bob stuck around after the dirt was dumped and helped me blow through that big pile in no time! we got it spread all over the yard in a few hours:
it took me the whole rest of the weekend to recuperate from Friday. Saturday Andrea managed to get to the Farmer's Market and buy some fresh veggies, as well as veggie plants for our garden. we even got them in the ground! Sunday we cleaned up inside and out. but all the while, my back was complaining. Friday really beat me down. Bob, on the other hand, helped another friend of ours MOVE ROCKS Saturday. oh, to be 29.
the next part of this Phase...the 1st Sub-Phase, is to till again, trying to make the 2 layers of old and new dirt into one super layer. the 2nd Sub-Phase is to rent a big hand powered roller to go over and smooth things out.
Phase 5 - Seeds!
not quit there yet. i'll let you know when it happens and expect lots of pics to monitor growth. it's a little late in the season to be doing this, but i've got no choice now. gotta keep moving forward!
Phase 1 - Infrastructure
we replaced the gutter along the front of the house last year. without that, it would have been pointless to try and do anything with the lawn. this was an easy step, as it needed to be done anyway and didn't require tearing anything up, yardwise.
Phase 2 - Kill
with my Dad's encouragement, I proceeded to the next step from which there was no return: apply RoundUp everywhere and kill everything.
Phase 3 - Till
Two and three go together, really: "Kill 'n Till". but they are two distinct steps, so i've broken them up. Bob let me borrow the Witchger Family Tiller last weekend. Here are some photo highlights:
Before:
During:
After:
Phase 4 - Dirt
we're down to mostly clay and rocks in our front yard. i found a place that would deliver 10 cubic yards of dirt (that's 270 cubic feet) for a reasonable price, which they did this past Friday. check out the action:
Bob and i were mesmerized:
Bob stuck around after the dirt was dumped and helped me blow through that big pile in no time! we got it spread all over the yard in a few hours:
it took me the whole rest of the weekend to recuperate from Friday. Saturday Andrea managed to get to the Farmer's Market and buy some fresh veggies, as well as veggie plants for our garden. we even got them in the ground! Sunday we cleaned up inside and out. but all the while, my back was complaining. Friday really beat me down. Bob, on the other hand, helped another friend of ours MOVE ROCKS Saturday. oh, to be 29.
the next part of this Phase...the 1st Sub-Phase, is to till again, trying to make the 2 layers of old and new dirt into one super layer. the 2nd Sub-Phase is to rent a big hand powered roller to go over and smooth things out.
Phase 5 - Seeds!
not quit there yet. i'll let you know when it happens and expect lots of pics to monitor growth. it's a little late in the season to be doing this, but i've got no choice now. gotta keep moving forward!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Oscar - The First Hundred Days
it's hard to believe 100 days have passed since Oscar was born. he's gone from a wrinkled red ball with really long fingers to a happy little baby of normal skin tone. he loves to eat and sleep (like his Daddy), as well as smile a lot and sing (like his Mama). he's fascinated by his hands and just last night used his fists to hold his bottle for a few seconds! he likes playing "super baby" and has great core strength, keeping his body flat and parallel with the ground when we hold him up over our heads.
nothing melts our hearts like seeing his smiling face in the morning. or during the day, at night, or any other time. he's a great baby and he's growing up so fast!
all in all, i'd say the first hundred days have been a major success.
nothing melts our hearts like seeing his smiling face in the morning. or during the day, at night, or any other time. he's a great baby and he's growing up so fast!
all in all, i'd say the first hundred days have been a major success.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
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