Summer is in full swing here in northeast Ohio and so are the outdoor summer projects. Haven't been on FHC for a bit because of starting a new and better job, working endlessly on the house, and of course - sawing wood. (Wait till I post my wood pictures - lots of splitting to do but I think I have enough sawn for 2-3 years - woohooo!! - ouch my back hurts) Anyways, one of my large summer endeaours is to have some dozer work done around my house to help drainage. Once complete, I plan to completely redo the lawn since I already have the mess. Total area amounts to approx 0.75 acre although I need to check that for exact material quantities. Although it's not a HUGE area, it's still a lot of work. I plan to kill everything, have the grading done, till as much as possible with 5ft 3pt. tractor tiller, pulverize with 3pt. Tractor implement, possibly rent or borrow rock hound, drag fencing, final rake by hand, seed with high quality seed/ fertilizer, roll, then of course endless watering. Big project... luckily I have the tractor and most of the implements. The one thing that's really got me thinking is what would be the most effective way to kill all the existing grass???? Chemical Killer is obviously on the top of the list but I only have a pump hand sprayer which would not be efficient. I'm going to look into a ATV mounted sprayer. This will be a pricey method considering the area to be killed. I'm also going to have to be very careful not to kill my trees, plants, pines, ect.. Anyone have any other suggestions? I've considered tarps, spreading fire, scalping with the mower, and burning with torch. All of which pose their own disadvantages. So far, the killer with a large rented sprayer seems to be my best bet. That or not kill it at all..... Ideas? Your 2 cents??
Rent a sod cutter? Someone may actually be interesting in buying the sod? Should eliminate the need for tilling. I'd hate to spray that much chemical that close to home. Vinegar instead of chemicals maybe?
I've got a similar setup to this one mounted on my golf cart at home: NorthStar ATV Boomless Broadcast and Spot Sprayer 26-Gallon Capacity, 5.5 GPM, 12 Volts | Northern Tool + Equipment The boomless nozzle works well enough that I'm not worried about any other plantings around the yard when I'm going after broad leaf weeds. If you don't care to own something like this maybe call a landscaper and hire out the glyphosate spraying. Actually, if you're traveling back and forth through the Syracuse NY area you can borrow my spray setup if you like.
A Harley rake will pretty much destroy sod, remove rock, and level ground. They have them for 3 point attachments..
Any kind of application of chemical is going to take about a week to be effective - before doing any tilling and such, need that time to be absorbed by the plants. The vinegar(20% not the store bought stuff which is at max 5%) plus a cup of salt ( table salt or salt from snow removal (note rock salt takes too long to dissolve not Epsom) /gallon of vinegar & around a shot glass full of concentrated soap ( makes it stick to plants acts as a surfactant) will do just as much as any of the fancy stuff. You want this on the leaves not soaked into ground.
Why do you need to kill everything first if you are going to have a dozer come in? Can’t the dozer just move things around. Even if you kill it, you’ll have to deal with the sod (grass and roots) which in my humble opinion makes it difficult to till as it tends to get wrapped around the tiller... never done this before myself.. eager to see he project as you progress...
You can seed the day after applying glysophate. For what it's worth your plan is a lot more work than what you have to do. I've done a few renovations so I know what I'm talking about. Do you have irrigation? How many square feet of lawn do you plan on? What type of seed will you be using?
I think you plan sounds thorough and good. The sprayer Bret Hart mentioned is the same one I have-it also comes with a handheld gun. When I am spraying food plots, I use any leftover mix around my property. Just sit on the seat and spray with the handheld gun. Been precise enough that I haven't killed anything I didn't mean too!
You could also look into buying a small pull behind boom sprayer. You might need it later for the yard anyway. Sometimes friends or family will pitch in to buy it and share it since generally, you don't use it too often. Northern Tool sells them. Glyphosate will work well and has virtually no soil activity so you can plant within a week after spraying. It works through the leaves and won't go through bark. I would not recommend spraying bark but a little drift will not harm trees if it does not hit the leaves. .75 acres will not take very long with one of these.
You can rent those small boom sprayers pretty cheap. I don't see how killing the grass helps anything...the root clumps will still be there when you rototill...
You don't need or want to rototill for renovating a lawn. You bring up lots of weed seeds doing that as well. I can give more detail when the OP comes back but after he gets it graded properly all he has to do is 1. Glysophate it. 2. Scalp it all 2 days later and bag the grass clippings 3. Run an aerator over it a few times 4. Broadcast seed or rent slid seeder. I like to do both. 5. Apply starter fertilizer 6. Top dress with topsoil, compost, or peat moss. 7. I highly suggest using a pre-emergent that doesn't affect your seed. Tenacity is perfect and it's 65 bucks for a bottle. 8. Water, water, water, water water. There's some other things you can do to make a renovation more successful. Some hard-core lawn guys like to do a fallow period of a few weeks after they nuke the grass. Google it for more information. I would also do 2 rounds of glysophate. Do it about two weeks before seed down day. Then 2 days before seed down day to hit any thing left or new. This is a lot of work, it's even more work if you don't have irrigation. I'd break it into 2 years if no irrigation. Dragging hoses and watering 3/4 acre is a ton of work. You want to keep the soil wet for 2 weeks straight. 30 days with Kentucky blue grass. You want to have sprinklers going off 3 times a day until it's all germinated.
I'd suggest getting a tow behind boom sprayer as well. Liquid applications are your friend when you have that much grass. Pre-emergent products are one fifth the cost of a granular product. Same thing with fert and weed control. I'd also get a few soil tests done and start amending the soil in preparation for seed.
Wow! Lots of great replies here! Thanks gents! Honestly, I'd love not to have to kill the existing grass. I would save some cash on chemicals, save a step, eliminate the need for a sprayer, and not have to keep the dog away for a few days. The general consensus is that I should kill though. I looked into the Harley rake. Super cool! I called around to all the rental outfits and no-one has a 3pt. unit available. They have skid steer equipment but it's out of my budget and I don't really want to screw around with rental/borrowing a 3/4 ton truck/ect. The company I buy seed from, Green Valley Seed, is not too far down the road. I will give them a call and hopefully they can do a soil test for me. I planted some small areas near the house earlier this spring and it is thriving but it still never hurts. So as far as buying a boom sprayer goes, you guys are telling me that liquid fertilizer and weed&feed is cheaper than granular? In the past I've always had great luck with Scott's weed and feed. It is pricey though. Thanks for all of the advice! The only thing is, besides the areas that are getting dozed, the rest of the lawn is terribly bumpy, full of holes and ruts. My plan for tilling was to only go a few inches deep but I'm not sure how well that will work. I also though about disking but I don't have the implement available. After that, I will run the pulverizer around numerous times to smooth out and kick up rocks. Then i will york rake and finally hand rake and collect all rocks. Might have a rock hound available but either way I think a final hand rake is best.
Yes, this is all a tremendous amount of work but I have some time off so I should be able to knock it out. As far as watering goes, I have a large sprinkler that is capable if watering the entire lawn with only a few moves. I also have an old surface spring pipe that I'm considering drawing additional water from to relieve some strain off of my well and well pump. It's a surface spring that is setup for livestock to drink from back in the old days. I'm thinking if I can hook up a sump pump in there I can have yet another source if water and pressure for watering.
