Yard won't grow

[The Ri Guy]

Plant clover. Dog resistant, dogs eat it, it greens up nicely, helps pollinators, and it doesn't need to be mowed or watered as much.

I'm also converting most of our yard to a mix of crimson and white clover. There's a number of sites that have pollinator lawn/pasture mixes designed for every growing region of the country, some examples:

Northwest Meadowscapes Native Seed

native grass and wildflower seed for pollinator conservation, rain gardens, meadows, and wildlife habitat in Oregon and Washington.

northwestmeadowscapes.com

Lawn Seeds, Grass Seeds, Best Pasture Seeds & More

Green dreams come true! Unearth the finest lawn seed and grass seed selections to cultivate your perfect outdoor oasis with Nature's Seed. Start sowing today!

www.naturesseed.com

Slowly converting our non-forested back acreage to pollinator/wildlife friendly meadows as well. A TON of work upfront to "do it right", but absolutely the right move, especially if you want greenage and color in the heart of summer and don't want to mow or water. We tripled our Mason Bee "harvest" this spring, which is our first year with pollinator pastures and have 4x the amount of Blacktail coming through the back pastures.

The wife and kid love seeing the different flowers, butterflies, bees, ladybugs, beetles, colors, etc. as well as love looking for four-leaf clovers, garter snakes, bunnies, etc. hiding within, and the dogs love having infinite tall things to pee on & bunnies to chase.

11/10 recommend!

 

[IDVortex]

rsgarter snakes, bunnies, etc. hiding within,

11/10 recommend!

I'm good on not having snakes around.

 

[The Ri Guy]

I'm good on not having snakes around.

I don't mind them eating all the pests I don't like!

 

[KurtR]

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who hates yard grass and thinks it is a waste of time. Maybe the fact my dad made me push mow and acre is part of my hatred.

 

[Burnsie]

I hate mowing and doing yard work, but I hate my place looking like a hobo or white trash lives in it more. I haven't worked all these years to build a good life, pay off my home and vehicles ...etc. to have my place look like a dump. I'm not out to impress anyone, but also don't want to be the eye sore of the neighborhood either.
Follow the Menards 1 thru 4 fertilizer application program and after a couple seasons you will have a nice looking yard. I have city water, so watering the lawn is much too costly and wasteful. During summers that are extra dry and hot the grass browns up for a few weeks during the dog days, but greens right up as soon as Fall starts to come on.

 

[Lvthntitall]

What were the soil test results? Guessing it has to do with soil type or a contaminant in the poor areas.

 

[doc holiday13]

Maybe you could try aerating your lawn and mixing in sand to promote drainage.

He actually should add pelletized lime and organic matter like horse manure or leaf mulch about 60-90 days out from temps in his area hovering in the 50-60 degree range(best range for grass to start growing). The organic matter will increase worm activitiy and carbon content of the soil, which in turn increases the water infiltration and retention of moisture that promotes grass growth. Before the winter temps settle in, he should selectively place good topsoil and seed when regular temps are in the 70's or less so grass starts growing and puts out roots before it hibernates.

............
It takes about 40-50 years to realize the carcinogenic effects of a chemical, we’re in for a reckoning in ~10-20 years when we realize we’ve poisoned our drinking water so boomers don’t have to look at dandelions.

I mowed for the first time June 2nd this year and have mowed twice since. Hopefully the weird lawn obsession is something that dies with the boomers.

Grass obsession has moved into the millenials and X'ers already .. People doing stupid shit like this and never bothered to ask "why"

I had to chew out someone who was advising another co-worker about food plots. He started by saying he need to spray broad spectrum herbacide. When I called him out on that he said "this is advice coming directly from whitetail biologist specialist". I said "sure its works but why have we never bothered to question methods and take ownerships of our actions using things like herbacide" When I asked if he truly cared about habitat promotion/improvement he'd use alternate methods of clearing space for food plots because all that herbacide would work its way into the water table and start poisoning all the streams, he was silent after my presentation about the effects of glyphosate type products

 

[TaperPin]

So we tried the soil test method and had to put a bunch of lime down and new seed. Grass till grows spotty. Local yard guy wants us to till it up and start over.

Previous owne had 3 dogs we have one, he pees on our walks and occasional in the yard.

Should I just put the tiller in the back of the tractor and turn it over or does anyone have any input ?

Time and time again I’ve chatted with clients that try all sorts of things to fix their soil that won’t grow grass and I tell every one of them I bet they eventually end up hauling in new topsoil to fix it. Mix in all the fertilizer you want, poor soil might also be contaminated, naturally or not, and will never do well. As the years go by my predictions come true more often than not. Grass in good soil almost grows itself.

 

[IdahoElk]

Pics of yard would help.

 

[doc holiday13]

Paging @Billy Goat because I think he has experience planting grass

 

[BadDogPSD]

I loved having a nice lawn to play in growing up. If it wasn't storming, we were outside. I don't mind mowing.

 

[Billy Goat]

Paging @Billy Goat because I think he has experience planting grass

I have experience with people pissed at HOA's and wanting to plant the nastiest shit they can, but fall into a "pollinator" spectrum so nobody can complain.


Yards, what a waste of energy and resources.

 

[Jmort1754]

Time and time again I’ve chatted with clients that try all sorts of things to fix their soil that won’t grow grass and I tell every one of them I bet they eventually end up hauling in new topsoil to fix it. Mix in all the fertilizer you want, poor soil might also be contaminated, naturally or not, and will never do well. As the years go by my predictions come true more often than not. Grass in good soil almost grows itself.

I am not home to view the soil results. I know ph was 5.1

I just thought about having new topsoil brought in.

The yard in question is 28x30 so not a large yard Just our side yard.

We but down 50lb is pelletized lime, that's what was recommended this spring.

 

[go_deep]

Does the local farmer haul in new dirt for all his fields?
Or does they make the soil that's there right?

 

[Jlamb]

It sounds absurd, but a little dawn dish soap in a hose sprayer worked wonders on some poor patches of grass we had.

 

[TaperPin]

Here’s a wheat field in the UK that’s been farmed for hundreds of years. Over the years I can only imagine how many times they’ve added extra this or that to those bare spots.

 

[Brewski]

It sounds absurd, but a little dawn dish soap in a hose sprayer worked wonders on some poor patches of grass we had.

I use the cheapest baby shampoo from walmart. I have heavy clay soil and spray the baby shampoo after the first rain and then right before the first heavy rainstorm. Grass loves it and the soap improves drainage and reduces ponding.

 

[Danny Hoey]

At any point in time you could probably count 50 bees working a 20’ square of clover.

 

[tony]

Not having to mow is a bonus.

This man gets it.

 

[Oldrifle]

You might want to consider aerating your lawn and adding some sand.