Take a good look at your lawn. If grassy blades are losing ground to broadleaf weeds, if your sweep of turf is marred by unsightly bare spots or pockmarked with ankle-twisting craters caused by digging gophers or decaying tree trunks, now is the ideal time to put a lawn-rebuilding plan into effect.
“August is a good time to seed,” says Michael Patek, landscape designer and owner of Cottage Gardener Ltd. in Oak Park. “We’re going into a cool season, with warm days and warm nights, when you’ll get maximum germination from the seed, as long as you keep it uniformly wet. Grass likes cool temperatures to grow, and during fall there are fewer hotter days, so there is less water evaporation.”
But before you start seeding or laying sod, peruse your turf and determine whether it needs patching or a complete facelift, advises Susan Grupp, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension, DuPage County.
“Look at your lawn in sections,” says Grupp. You can patch or replant one area, but if your lawn is more than 50 percent perennial weeds such as quack grass, creeping Charlie and dandelions, she says, “it’s probably time to start over.”
Confronted with distressed lawns, homeowners Raymond Nemec and Doug Godfrey did just that, taking their respective Oak Park lawns down to the dirt.
“The lawn was two-thirds weeds and had two big depressions left from ground-down tree stumps,” says Nemec, who replanted his lawn in May (the second-best time for renewing a lawn). “I started pulling weeds and found that I’d pulled out almost a quarter of my lawn. It started getting crazy. I thought to myself `I could spend the rest of my life doing this.’ So that’s when I decided to do the whole lawn.”
After getting advice from Patek, a neighbor, Nemec sprayed his yard with Roundup, a non-selective herbicide. After about 10 days, once the foliage had browned, he Rototilled the soil into a fine powder. He then raked the soil, filling in holes and grading it away from his home’s foundation. He went back over the exposed soil with a roller to level the planting surface and seeded with a heavy-duty lawn blend, designed to stand up to foot traffic and grow in sun and shade. He mixed in some shade seed for extra-shady spots around his yard and scattered a layer of peat moss over the seed to hold in moisture.
“I watered it morning and night for the first seven days and then once a day,” says Nemec, “and suddenly there was this green fog across my yard. Within two to three weeks, it was ready to be cut.”
Godfrey, working with his 11-year-old son, Ben, followed the same process on their creeping Charlie-choked lawn, minus the rolling. He and Ben took on the job for two reasons: to please wife and mom, Jan Snow-Godfrey, and because a landscaper’s bid came in on the high side.
“We had gotten a bid from a professional landscaper, and he wanted to charge us about $2,500 to install sod or $1,600 for seeding,” says Godfrey. “With renting a Rototiller for about $100 and the cost of seed and moss, our actual cost was between $300 and $400.”
Instant gratification
Although both Godfrey and Nemec chose to reseed their lawns, laying sod is also an option.”Sod gives you instant gratification,” says Susan Meier, president of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association and operations manager at Koch and Son Landscape Inc. in Hawthorn Woods. Still, she says, “seed, over the long haul, will give the best lawn because it won’t be so compacted, comes up more naturally and allows water and nutrients to get to the roots.”
Grupp says the benefits to seeding over installing sod include a greater selection of grass cultivars, especially for shady spots, a more moderate cost and a stronger lawn.
“The soil from the sod is different from your soil. Stacking the two creates an interface that water and roots don’t want to cross,” says Grupp. If you do sod this fall, she says, you should core aerate next spring–removing plugs of grass and soil to punch through the layers and allow air and water to reach the roots.For lawns that are in generally good shape, homeowners can simply patch holes or overseed, says Grupp.
To patch small spots, “dig out dead grass and weeds, work the existing soil, and add a little topsoil” before you sprinkle on seed, she says. Or use the prepackaged patch materials available at garden centers.
Overseeding allows you to introduce new cultivars–perhaps more shade-tolerant ones–to thicken an existing lawn. After core-aerating your lawn this fall, Grupp suggests, lightly sprinkle about 1/4 inch of light soil over the grass and scatter the new seed.
Improve your lawn this fall, and you’ll be on your way to perfect barefoot grass come spring.
Lawn tips from landscape pros
Here are some tips for renewing a lawn.
– Before seeding or laying sod, get rid of all vegetation, roots and rocks and till the soil to a depth of 5 to 6 inches, amending it with compost or rotted manure as you go, says Susan Grupp, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension, DuPage County.
– Choose the correct seed mix for the planting site; Kentucky bluegrass works best in sun, while perennial ryes and fescue stand up better to shade. Buy seeds in a blend or mix, not a single variety, says Grupp, and you’re less likely to lose your whole lawn to disease.
– Buy high-quality seed, says Michael Patek, landscape designer and owner of Cottage Gardener Ltd. in Oak Park, and only enough to see you through this year; the seed will become less likely to germinate as it ages. Look for the word “premium” on the bag and choose a mix with a low percentage of annual and weed seeds. A bit of annual seed, such as rye, is good, though; it fills in quickly to block invading weeds.
– If you’re laying sod, call ahead to see when your local garden center or nursery is cutting it, says Patek. Buy it the day it’s cut, while the roots are fresh and moist, and keep it watered. Then lay the sod and water it daily until roots start to form so you can’t pull up the edge of the sod. Water two or three times a week for another month.
– Use a rain gauge to make sure a newly sodded or seeded lawn gets at least 1 inch of water a week through its second season.
— Ann Wilson
Had it with grass? Think again
Grass isn’t the only way to use your yard.
“Instead of turf, rethink what you can do for the natural order of things,” says landscape designer Craig Bergmann of Craig Bergmann’s Country Garden in Winthrop Harbor. “Create mini-ecosystems like a mini-meadow or mini-prairie that can bring butterflies and birds to the garden.”
When you find you’re spending more time mowing and hauling a hose around than with family and friends, you might want to consider some lawn-replacement options, Bergmann says. (Check regulations first, though; some localities limit what can be grown in front yards.)
– Plug early-blooming bulbs such as daffodils and camassia and perennials such as ox-eye daisies into the turf grass. The grass will grow, develop seedheads and meld with the flower blossoms for a miniature meadow, which can still be mowed in early summer for a more manicured look.
– For hot, sunny and well-drained sites, plant a garden with heat-seeking plants such as lavender, dianthus, thyme and sage and mulch it with gravel.
– For shady spots, use shade-loving ground covers such as sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) and creeping lilyturf (Liriope spicata). Other good ground covers for under trees include lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor), winter creeper (Euonymus fortunei), hosta and bugleweed (ajuga).
– For moist spots, plant strong and tall plants, like Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium fistulosum), queen of the prairie (Filipendula rubra) or horsetails (Equistem hyemale) right in the turf and mow just up to the plants.
– For places where grass just won’t grow, Bergmann says, consider converting to hardscape, such as a seating or eating area or a birding station with a birdbath and bird feeders. Anchor the area with a paved, bricked or wood-mulched “floor.”
— Ann Wilson
