Our lawn is looking worse than usual these days. No, it’s not due to drought, grubs or cinch bugs - it’s because we finally had some topsoil delivered to fill some low spots and now there are large brown patches of that topsoil everywhere.
In the winter time I’m only too happy to have a riding lawnmower with a snowblower attachment for cleaning the driveway, but in the summer when it comes to mowing the lawn with that same riding lawnmower, I’ve never been quite so thrilled. There were so many dips, valleys and low spots that getting an even cut was next to impossible. With a push mower you can maneuver it around by hand to get at awkward places, however, the width of the mower deck on our garden tractor doesn’t offer any flexibility. Leveling the ground just to get a perfect cut has simply not been a huge priority. That’s one reason. There’s also the fact that working on the lawn is nowhere near as much fun as working in the gardens.
When it comes to lawn maintenance, our thoughts have been more along the line of ‘if it’s green, it’s okay’. (Green refers to grass and weeds.) I know some people would cringe at such a cavalier attitude. You know the people I mean - the ones who insist on having their lawn resemble the flawless putting greens at golf and country clubs. To each his own I suppose. To us it seems the perfect lawn is really becoming a thing of the past. With pesticide bans, increasing drought, and the rising cost of gas, the effort and expense of maintaining a patch of grass is prohibitive. For environmental reasons alone we should all be considering converting our lawns to drought-tolerant gardens. Mom and I would love that!
So why all of a sudden are we working on our lawn? Well, there was actually a series of events which contributed to the decision to finally tackle this small attempt at lawn improvement. It started last fall with a burst water supply line in the basement. The break was temporarily fixed with the hope that it would last until spring. Thankfully it held and once spring did arrive and the ground thawed, we had someone come in to replace the line from its connection point to the town’s water supply at the street to the inside of the basement wall. Replacing that pipe involved digging up a fairly substantial section of lawn. Now, since the trench has been filled in and the dirt has had numerous rains to help it settle, it’s time for operation clean up.
Mom and I haven’t completed our design plans for a lawn to garden conversion yet, so that meant re-seeding. And since we needed to top up the area that was dug up, it also meant topsoil. It was only natural that since we were getting topsoil anyway, we’d get a little extra to fill in the low spots to help alleviate my lawn cutting woes.
Living in a small town really has its advantages at times. A quick phone call to a local construction company, some minor negotiating, and within 20 minutes I had three cubic yards of screened top soil delivered in the bucket of a loader and dumped exactly where I wanted it on the front lawn. Excellent service and the price couldn’t be beat. My total cash price came to $65.00 including delivery. Any closer to Toronto and I would have paid a minimum of $25.00/yard for the topsoil alone. Heaven only knows what the delivery charge would have been.
It took me a while to distribute the three yards with my trusty two-wheel wheelbarrow, but a visit from Mom and Dad came at the right time and together we finished spreading and smoothing the soil. Jimmy (my dad) sewed the grass seed and my mom ran the garden rake over every patch one last time to give the seed a little covering of soil. Conditions this past week have been ideal for germination - hot, humid and lots of rain. I’ve only had to water twice. The seed went down last Wednesday evening and is sprouting quite nicely already.
Tips for Planting Grass Seed
Just out of curiosity, I had checked the internet to see if there were any specific instructions for seeding. Here are some of the tips I found helpful from the Scotts site:
- choose the type of seed most suitable for the areas where you are planting - ie. shade varieties for shady areas
- unless you are filling low areas, adding topsoil is unnecessary
- ideally, soil particles should be pea size to marble size (don’t work it too finely)
- spreading seed by hand is not recommended - use a handheld, drop or broadcast spreader
- rake the area lightly after sowing seed
- watering - only the top inch of soil needs to be kept moist, so water frequently as opposed to deeply
Most interesting to me was the information on watering. Kind of makes you wonder why people turn their sprinklers on for several hours to water newly seeded areas.
There was only a little bit of water wasted during the watering of our newly seeded areas. That would be because my master lawn waterer really wanted to help.
I guess I can’t really consider it a waste as he had to have a drink and the over-spray did wash his face!
I hope the new grass grows as well as this little green sprout!
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