Thread: The Perfect Lawn

Many of you fine fellows on the site will likely have a yard, and may even have a lawn that demands as much upkeep as a well shaven face.

When I became a new home owner I went through a number of years of trial and error/failure with the lawn in my yard.

Last year after white grubs, sod webworms, and other pestilence decimated my grass once again, I vowed to see if I could establish a 'Perfect Lawn' the next opportunity I got.

I'll admit, I live in zone 8b, and am keen on establishing a cool season grass variety.

Now in doing so I joined another forum and through the fine advice I got there I am hopefully on the road to a fine lawn for the years to come.

So last year, after the decimation, I winter seeded an elite perennial rye grass (Harrier) which was excellent as a winter over grass, but was only a quick fix to the situation.

In the spring I installed an underground sprinkler system with Hunter MP Rotator spray heads. Got a soil test done, and made the appropriate soil amendments. Things were one a roll.

At the beginning of August I told my wife that it was time for me to start the lawn renovation and that it would take several months, where the kids wouldn't be able to play on the lawn space for as long as 2 months. That didn't go down well... but in the end she agreed and I sprayed a non-selective herbicide (Round-up Maxload) on the entire lawn. I made good use of the sprinklers by watering the dead and dieing lawn in promoting weeds to attempt a take over of the yard. Two weeks later I applied a second blanket of round-up to kill all of the weeds that had made a go for it.

I used 2 yards of top soil to level and regrade the space and rolled it with a water roller. Seeds went down, fertilizer went down, soil conditioner went down, and I topped things off with 1000 liters of peat moss. Set the sprinklers and prayed.

In the meantime a typhoon has struck several times, and the temps have been a little erratic, but with the miraculous containment by Tenacity (a selective herbicide) the perfect lawn seems to be on a path to a long life.

Here are the post round-up and grading, and last week shots of the yard.


(click to enlarge)





Here's a link to the thread I have for the lawn renovation: http://aroundtheyard.com/renovations...an-t12214.html