Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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ken-n-nancy
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Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 3rd, 2014, 11:58 pm

Hello! I'm new to the BL/ATY website, with this being my first posting.

My main reason for joining the site is to be able to glean some tips from your collective experience and wisdom on lawn care -- there is clearly a lot of hard-earned knowledge present in the readership here!

The areas I really think I need help are with suggestions on soil amendments, fertilization, lawn establishment, weed control, and proper watering. (OK, so maybe I need help with everything!) Then again, since I have so much to learn, there might be more important questions that I don't even know to ask! However, it seems that in order for you to help, it may be best for me to provide a little bit of background...

What got me started being more concerned about lawn care is having had the front lawn regraded last fall (Oct 2013), in conjunction with removal of two huge trees from the front yard and installation of a new porch on the house. We also had an irrigation system installed last fall. The "new lawn" in the front of the house has been a tremendous encouragement to us and I am now tackling the rest of the lawn.

I live in Bedford, NH (Zone 5b) and have 12500 sqft of lawn area, bordered on one side by the street and on three sides by woods (mostly oak and maple trees, but with quite a few other varieties mixed in, too). With woods on three sides, most of our lawn sees quite a bit of shade, but the front lawn does get direct sun for more than half of the day. (See the photo below, taken on "seed down" day last year. (9 Oct 2013))

Image

There are three main sections to our lawn: (1) The front, which was seeded in Oct 2013 on new soil brought in for the regrading. Most of this 6700sqft area sees sun most of the day. (2) The side, which is probably the original lawn installed nearly 30 years ago when the house was built. The grass in this 3300sqft area receives a variety of sunlight, with the center seeing sun most of the day and the edges under the trees seeing very little sun. The side lawn is over our septic system. (As with most homes in our town, we have a well and septic system.) (3) The back, which was 90% weeds or moss until just over a week ago, when I applied glyphosate to the entire 2500sqft back lawn for the impending renovation.

My goal for each of these three sections for this fall is as follows:

(1) Front - Keep this section looking good, helping it to really thrive. Although it looked fantastic in the spring, it has patches with poorer color (paler green) and has a fair bit of brown mixed in since about the second week of July. I'd like to keep the front lawn from regressing.

(2) Side - Get this section looking as good as the front lawn, hopefully without having to completely reseed and start over. This section has responded well to increased care this year. As of this spring, it had been green, but about 25%-50% weeds. I think regular mowing, proper fertilization, and the "Triangle Approach" have the potential to make this section of the lawn acceptable for my current standards (which seem to be increasing steadily from reading this site...) I applied Scotts "Weed and Feed" at the beginning of June (I hadn't yet learned the benefits of separate weed control / fertilizer products) and then "Turf Builder" and "Bayer Complete Insect Killer" (Imidacloprid) at the end of June. The "Weed and Feed" was largely ineffective at addressing weeds. The 2nd week of July I applied "PasturePro 2-4D" to the side yard in a spot application from a 2-gallon sprayer, which worked wonders at eliminating about half of the weeds, except I applied it at way too high of a rate in a few areas, killing some sections of grass. The remaining weeds are mostly wild violet and a bit of clover. With the onset of cooler temperatures this week, I spot sprayed Ortho CCO to the areas of wild violet and clover. My current plan for this fall is to overseed the entire side lawn, with extra seed in the grass-free patches.

(3) Back - Start a lawn here, now that I've killed everything in the back. I'm hoping this will grow better grass now, as many trees were removed around the edge of the back lawn last year, so the sun occasionally reaches the back yard now! I've already purchased grass seed (John Deere Landscapes / Lesco "Shady Select" mix) the same as was put down in the shady areas of the front last year. (It is a mix of approx 35% creeping red fescue, 35% chewings fescue, 20% hard fescue, and 10% prosperity KBG.) A photo of the back lawn just after glyphosate was applied is below.

Image

I found the Steps to Overseeding. Steps to New Establishment article and planned to follow the advice listed there for the side yard and back yard, respectively. I took soil samples from each area on July 16th and sent them in to my local extension (the UNH Cooperative Extension), as recommended in that FAQ. In the time since then, I've learned from reading the Posting a Soil Test for Interpretation thread that soil tests are now suggested to be done at either Logan Labs or UMASS. (Future newbies like me would benefit from the FAQ article being updated to specify the Logan Labs or UMASS tests.) I just received my soil test results yesterday, which I have posted in the "Soil Management" forum, in case any readers can provide suggestions on what to do, even though it won't be an official reading, since it isn't a Logan Labs or UMASS test. My biggest deficiency seems to be potassium; calcium levels aren't good either.

I do have a few questions concerning the two sections of new seeding:

Side Yard Overseeding: I have a few sections with a lot of moss. It sounds like the new seeds need to have soil contact to germinate properly. In places where there is a solid carpet of moss on the soil, should I rake up all the moss to expose the bare soil underneath?

Back Yard New Seeding: I applied glyphosate to kill all the existing weeds and grass, and have subsequently scalped at the lowest setting on my mower. One application seems to have killed most everything, with the exception of the moss (which doesn't seem to have been adversely affected at all) and about a quarter of the wild violets, which seem to have new growth already. In most of the back yard, I only have about 2" of topsoil above the subsoil (I found this out when taking cores for the soil test.) I am planning to add about 2" of new topsoil (actually, a 50/50 loam/compost mix) above the old soil height. My question is whether or not I should do anything to work the new soil into the existing soil, or just lay it right on top of the dead weeds/grass? (When the landscaping service did the front yard last year, they just put new loam down right on top of the old lawn (mostly weeds), which seemed to work out even though it doesn't seem to match traditional wisdom.)

Also, are there any soil amendments I should put down on top of the old soil before spreading the additional 2" of new loam/compost mix? (My back yard is very low on potassium and low on calcium; see my soil test posting for details).

I am aiming for a "seed down" date of August 23.

Thanks for any suggestions you can provide! I look forward to being part of the BL/ATY community!
Last edited by ken-n-nancy on November 13th, 2015, 12:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 4th, 2014, 10:30 am

I have a few sections with a lot of moss. It sounds like the new seeds need to have soil contact to germinate properly. In places where there is a solid carpet of moss on the soil, should I rake up all the moss to expose the bare soil underneath?
Yep, raking it up will work. You do need soil contact. Also, see if you can't improve how much sun gets to that area, as well as how well water runs off that area. If you can eliminate those conditions, that's your best moss preventative. Iron sulfate will hurt moss. You're correct - glyphosate, etc - they do nothing to it.
My question is whether or not I should do anything to work the new soil into the existing soil, or just lay it right on top of the dead weeds/grass?
I wouldn't till it up - you can end up with a very lumpy lawn or kick up more weeds, and it won't make that much difference when it is all said and done.

--------

But I'll back up for a minute. What in your soil test indicated that you had awful soil that would not support a renovation and needed to be replaced with topsoil? And what do you know about the topsoil they're bringing in? Is it soil that will be better than what you already have?

If there was grass and weeds already thriving there, it obviously supports plant life on some level. You do NOT have to have perfect soil before you can have a fantastic lawn. :)
Also, are there any soil amendments I should put down on top of the old soil before spreading the additional 2" of new loam/compost mix? (My back yard is very low on potassium and low on calcium; see my soil test posting for details).
Any way you could post a Logan Labs report? Potassium and Calcium are deficient in many soils that get renovated here without adding new topsoil.

If you do bring in new topsoil, it is often chock full of weed seeds. You have 19 days to see if you can get them to sprout and kill them :)

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 4th, 2014, 11:38 am

Thanks so much for the quick reply! This seems like an awesome community in this forum!
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:
ken-n-nancy wrote:My question is whether or not I should do anything to work the new soil into the existing soil, or just lay it right on top of the dead weeds/grass?
I wouldn't till it up - you can end up with a very lumpy lawn or kick up more weeds, and it won't make that much difference when it is all said and done.
OK, that's good to know that just leaving the old soil underneath would be fine. That matches with what the landscaping service did for the front lawn last year. There's just so much conflicting information in what I read from "professional sites" on what should be done with lawn installations - traditional wisdom all talks about tilling the new soil into the old soil to a depth of 6 inches.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:But I'll back up for a minute. What in your soil test indicated that you had awful soil that would not support a renovation and needed to be replaced with topsoil? And what do you know about the topsoil they're bringing in? Is it soil that will be better than what you already have?
I know nothing about the prospective new soil as far as it having been tested. I really only know what the landscaping supplier lists in their advertisement, which is that it is a 50/50 loam/compost mix. I guess I should ask the landscaping supplier for their soil test results!

There were a few reasons that I was thinking of bringing in 2" of new topsoil. My current plan to bring in more topsoil was developed before I received the soil test results, so the "new soil plan" wasn't in response to the current soil being awful. Some of these reasons may very well be flawed; please correct me anywhere I have botched up!
  1. When taking the soil samples in the back yard, I found that about half of my 10 samples were in places I have only about 1 to 2 inches of topsoil above the subsoil. From other reading on lawn installations, it seems like 4 inches of topsoil is recommended. The side yard seemed to have more like 4" of topsoil, so I wasn't planning to add topsoil there.
  2. I knew from looking at the soil that there was very little organic material in it. It seemed that the easiest way to increase organic material would be to bring in new soil which already had good organic content (i.e. a 50/50 loam/compost mix), rather than spending years topdressing with leaves.
  3. There were lots of medium rocks (bowling ball sized) at or just below soil level in various places in the back yard. (Our yard seems to grow rocks very well!) When digging these out last month, I also discovered that when the irrigation system was installed, the "ditch witch" in some places didn't put the irrigation pipe very deep (in some places only about 2") when it encountered a big rock. I lowered the pipe in a few places where I suspected it may have been very shallow. I didn't dig up all the lines, though, so I figured that adding about 2" of topsoil would help ensure that the irrigation pipes are at least 4" down everywhere.
  4. When getting quotes from landscaping companies last year for the front yard, all the contractors suggested bringing in 2 to 4 inches of new topsoil. They may have been suggesting this to simplify regrading and not interfere with the trees, rather than because the existing soil was awful, but they made it seem like standard practice whenever they install a lawn. The new lawn ended up coming in great with almost no weeds, although the lack of weeds may have been due to a very late seed-down date (9 Oct) which they only got away with due to unseasonably warm weather last October.
  5. There were a few low spots in places in the back yard that I wanted to bring up to the grade of the rest of the back lawn. Since bringing in a few yards of topsoil anyway for the low areas, I figured it made sense to just add new soil everywhere.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:Any way you could post a Logan Labs report? Potassium and Calcium are deficient in many soils that get renovated here without adding new topsoil.
I could collect another soil sample and get that sent off; it seems like I would likely have results about a week after the sample gets dropped in the mail.

I do have a question regarding collecting the soil sample for Logan Labs though. If I understand it correctly, the guidance is to build up the cup of soil to be tested from soil collected from samples taken at the 3-4 inch depth zone. I presume this means that if one takes a 4-inch deep sample, one keeps only the single inch of the soil that came from 3-4 inches down and the soil from 0-3 inches is dumped back onto the lawn. What do I do if I take a sample and find that the topsoil goes down to 2-3 inches and the soil at 3-4 inches deep is all subsoil? This would be the case for over half of the samples I would be taking from my back yard.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:If you do bring in new topsoil, it is often chock full of weed seeds. You have 19 days to see if you can get them to sprout and kill them :)
This scares me, too. I don't know how the pro landscapers managed it, but the lawn they seeded for us last fall had essentially zero weeds sprout anywhere. I'm guessing it was just too late in the fall for any weeds to sprout?

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by JustAGuy » August 4th, 2014, 12:36 pm

Welcome neighbor, I'm a couple towns south east of you. My oldest stepson live in Bedford close to the river and the airport.
If I understand it correctly, the guidance is to build up the cup of soil to be tested from soil collected from samples taken at the 3-4 inch depth zone. I presume this means that if one takes a 4-inch deep sample, one keeps only the single inch of the soil that came from 3-4 inches down
Yes, that works just fine. I dig a hole with a trowel and try to get some soil in the 3-5 inch zone.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 4th, 2014, 1:06 pm

Sounds like you had a great professional landscaper with few weeds! Nice! :good:

Logan is pretty fast. A week is a reasonable estimate. If time's important you could overnight it, etc. And, you are correct - use the soil between the 3 and 4 inch marks for the LL test.

It seems like rocks are pretty common on the east coast!

Your biggest obstacle to a thick, green back yard is probably shade, the type of grass you had, and weed pressure - not soil. I see plenty of things growing in the back there :)

Fescues tend to do better in the shade than other grasses. That doesn't mean you won't have to periodically overseed though.

What happens IF your soil test results come back showing that while imperfect, it will support a renovation this fall as-is? That's a big strategy changer from one of "import a new lawn soil and mix it up with what's there" - to one of amending and tweaking what's there going forward. All of the sudden, you have hundreds more dollars and a day to spend in other ways on the lawn. Maybe even go out for a nice steak dinner :)


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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 4th, 2014, 1:49 pm

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:And, you are correct - use the soil between the 3 and 4 inch marks for the LL test.
Thanks for the clarification. That was what I thought, but I wasn't sure, as it took me about 12 cores to get 1 cup of soil when I was taking the entire topsoil depth (that is what I did for the soil samples I sent off to UNH.) Seems like I'll need about 20-30 cores to get 1 cup with only using 1 inch of soil from each core.

But, what do I do if the soil between the 3 and 4 inch marks is all subsoil? Do I ignore that sample location completely or take the bottom inch of topsoil? From my memory of a few weeks ago when I took a dozen or so samples to get 1 cup of soil, at least half of my samples only had about 2 inches of topsoil.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote:What happens IF your soil test results come back showing that while imperfect, it will support a renovation this fall as-is? That's a big strategy changer from one of "import a new lawn soil and mix it up with what's there" - to one of amending and tweaking what's there going forward. All of the sudden, you have hundreds more dollars and a day to spend in other ways on the lawn. Maybe even go out for a nice steak dinner :)
It would be a lot easier to not spread 15 yards of loam/compost to the back yard, especially since we are planning to do it by wheelbarrow trips from around the side of the garage, since there's no way to get a dump truck into the back yard without taking out the well or septic system! Plus, we love steak. :D

Yet, I'm still concerned that only 2" of topsoil will result in a weak grass. Should I be less worried about this? Will the subsoil from 2-4 inches depth get converted over to topsoil when a lawn is vigorously growing in the topsoil from 0-2 inches depth? For that matter, since the soil tests are taken from the soil at 3-4 inches depth, how does the organic material get built up in the soil at that depth? (I have so much to learn!)
Last edited by ken-n-nancy on August 4th, 2014, 1:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 4th, 2014, 1:57 pm

JustAGuy wrote:Welcome neighbor, I'm a couple towns south east of you.
It's great to know that there's a reader on this forum that's not far away!

Any recommendations on where I can find sulfate of potash / potassium sulfate here in Southern NH for a reasonable price? I called John Deere Landscapes in Londonderry, but they want $84 for a 50# bag. None of the other places I've contacted have any SOP at all but want to substitute muriate of potash (potassium chloride) instead. From reading the soil test interpretations of others with potassium deficiencies, as well as other articles on the net, MOP sounds like a bad idea.

I haven't given up on finding SOP at a reasonable price yet, but I'm out of suppliers I've bought things from before. I'm now moving on to contacting other vendors that would be new to me...

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by JustAGuy » August 4th, 2014, 3:33 pm

ken-n-nancy wrote:
JustAGuy wrote:Welcome neighbor, I'm a couple towns south east of you.
It's great to know that there's a reader on this forum that's not far away!

Any recommendations on where I can find sulfate of potash / potassium sulfate here in Southern NH for a reasonable price? I called John Deere Landscapes in Londonderry, but they want $84 for a 50# bag. None of the other places I've contacted have any SOP at all but want to substitute muriate of potash (potassium chloride) instead. From reading the soil test interpretations of others with potassium deficiencies, as well as other articles on the net, MOP sounds like a bad idea.

I haven't given up on finding SOP at a reasonable price yet, but I'm out of suppliers I've bought things from before. I'm now moving on to contacting other vendors that would be new to me...
I got SOP from JDL 2 years ago(I think I paid $68), this year I bought it from Kelp4less (I'm not needing as much now). BUT I saw Dodge Grain in Salem on RT28 advertises they sell it. You might give them a call.
http://www.dodgegrain.biz/content.aspx?cid=37 scroll to the bottom of that page.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 5th, 2014, 8:38 am

JustAGuy wrote:
ken-n-nancy wrote:I haven't given up on finding SOP at a reasonable price yet, but I'm out of suppliers I've bought things from before. I'm now moving on to contacting other vendors that would be new to me...
I got SOP from JDL 2 years ago(I think I paid $68), this year I bought it from Kelp4less (I'm not needing as much now). BUT I saw Dodge Grain in Salem on RT28 advertises they sell it. You might give them a call.
Thanks for the suggestions! I called Dodge Grain as a result of your finding the web ad for 0-0-50; they ended up not having 0-0-50 (Sulfate of Potash), but instead now carry 0-0-60 (Muriate of Potash). Seems like they just haven't updated that info on their website yet.

I did end up finding a few suppliers in my area that have some SOP in stock:
* $84 for 50# at John Deere Landscapes in Londonderry, NH
* $40 for 50# at Osborne's Agway in Hooksett, NH
* $22 for 50# at Achille Agway in Milford, NH

I went and bought a 50# bag from Achille Agway. I hope this stuff has a long shelf life. They clearly don't move a lot of SOP - the bag I got had been in their warehouse a long time given how much dust was on it - label says it was packaged in July 2007!

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 6th, 2014, 1:42 pm

Had initially made this posting in my Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014 thread, but realized it really belongs here, as it is less about soil management and more about the planned back yard renovation...
andy10917 wrote:How much sun gets into that back yard? The house and tree line would seem to limit that opportunity.
Not much sun gets into the back yard. The back of the house faces to the northwest. The summer sun gets into the back yard over the top of the house pretty well (the sun is high enough in the sky in the summer to get down into the back yard over the top of the house). However, even then, the 5-8 feet nearest the house don't receive any direct sunlight at midday. By about 4pm, the sun has wrapped around to the southwest enough to get into the back yard for a couple hours at best.

In early spring or late fall, the sun doesn't get high enough in the sky to really get down into the back yard much at all.

The satellite photo (see below) really shows the story. The photo was taken in early spring (14 April 2011) probably at about 10-11am judging from the direction of the shadows. There is a lot more light getting down into the yard now then there was when the satellite photo was taken; we had 22 trees taken out around the yard in the fall of 2013. The photo of the back yard in the renovation thread is from this year (after the tree removals).

I am planning to seed the back yard with the JDL/Lesco "Shady Select" mix. Last year's version of this mix is doing very well in the shady sections of the front yard. Indeed, those front lawn sections in the deepest shade are the best looking part of the entire lawn right now. The grass is thinner there than in the sunny sections, but has good color and has kept growing well all summer. The shady parts of my lawn really want cutting every 4 days right now, while the sunnier parts could wait for about 6 days I think. (In the spring, everything needed cutting every 3rd day.)

PS: Oh, and there's also information about my "screwdriver test" findings over in the related Ken-n-Nancy Soil Test - Summer 2014 thread.
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 13th, 2014, 9:49 pm

It's been a week since my last post, so I figured I should update with current status.

Haven't done anything new in the front yard other than continued mowing, although you can just see the edge of the back yard renovation area at the right side of the picture below. The front yard is due for another dose of Milorganite this weekend.

Image

The glyphosate has done its job in the back yard, and has been scalped to as low as I dare with my rotary mower. The edge with the dead grass sure makes the side yard grass look good in comparison! (Still plenty of weeds in the side yard to attack this fall, though!)

Image

Lastly, the view of the other edge between front and back. I intentionally made this edge other than a straight line to hopefully help hide the transition between old and new grass areas.

Image

Assuming that everything dries out enough from the rain being received today, we're hoping to spread the new loam/compost mix in the back yard this weekend to give about 10 days for weeds to start germinating before seed-down. I've never tried to "fallow" before seeding before -- do you think 10 days will be long enough?

I'm presuming that proper "fallowing" is to keep the soil moist continually (but not really wet) just as if one were trying to provide the ideal germination for grass seeds? If so, that will provide a good test of sprinkler settings for after actual seed-down!

I'm anticipating my soil test results from Logan Labs tomorrow -- I can't wait to find out what is needed!
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 15th, 2014, 10:52 pm

With the old grass dead and the re-grading finished, the first 8 yards of loam/compost mix arrived.

Now for the fun task of spreading 16 yards of soil by hand ... "sixteen tons, what do you get?"

Does this count as good quality husband-wife time? ;)

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by JustAGuy » August 16th, 2014, 8:20 am

I had 16 yards delivered yesterday. I've got mine spread but I still need to level it. It was very wet, the hydraulics on my tractor were maxed out.
I got it from a guy near exit 5, it looks nice. I'll send out a sample for testing Monday.

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 18th, 2014, 10:33 am

Well, the 16 yards (tons) of new loam/compost mix are spread in the back yard at a pretty uniform 2 inches depth, it's been rolled, and fallowing has commenced. Wish I had started sooner to have more time to fallow, but it is what it is.

Have the sprinklers set up for short 4-times-a-day watering to keep the soil moist but not wet to try to encourage some quick-sprouting weeds! I really like the idea of having some time to see if the watering schedule is about right before having to "do it for real" on the freshly-seeded soil!

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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 18th, 2014, 10:47 am

You're lucky they were able to deposit it in the back yard for you! I have to haul it from my driveway to a wheelbarrow to the area....

Have fun!

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ericgautier
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ericgautier » August 18th, 2014, 10:59 am

16 yards by hand? WOW.. I wish you the best of luck! :)

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 18th, 2014, 11:02 am

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:You're lucky they were able to deposit it in the back yard for you! I have to haul it from my driveway to a wheelbarrow to the area....
We were fortunate about that -- I had expected to have to wheelbarrow it from around the side of the house, as I didn't think the dump truck would be able to make it under the power line and between the house and the well.

However, when the driver showed up, he looked at it and said he thought he could squeeze under and through. Ended up having a couple feet of clearance under the power line and about a foot on either side to get between the house and well. Saved us a lot of distance on moving the wheelbarrow.

Then again, my sense of having things "just so" (not that anybody else here could relate to that... ;)) would have been less frustrated if the pile weren't in the middle of where we were spreading from -- it is easy to get a nice even depth when bringing soil in one wheelbarrow at a time, rather than spreading out from a pile. In the future, I might want the pile just at the edge of the area in which to spread it.

Then again, with how sore we both were after spreading 16 tons of soil, I don't think we're ever bringing in new soil for a lawn renovation -- let's just use the existing topsoil, even if it is only 2 inches deep!
Last edited by ken-n-nancy on September 29th, 2014, 7:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 18th, 2014, 11:13 am

ericgautier wrote:16 yards by hand? WOW.. I wish you the best of luck! :)
I think we're both going to be sore for quite a few days still!

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gryd
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by gryd » August 18th, 2014, 1:25 pm

You mean to tell me your wife does this with you? My wife won't so much as pick up a stick! In fact she hates the fact that I'm all into lawn care even though I'd probably be a lazy sack if I didn't get out there and work on the yard.
If you don't mind me asking I see you included your wife in your username. Is that because she's involved in lawn care like you (which is cool) or is it because you're so madly in love with her that you must include her in your username? Don't tell me if it's the latter of the 2. I like to think that the rest of the world us b*tched at by their wives like I am! :banghead:

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gryd
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by gryd » August 18th, 2014, 2:10 pm

Ken,
You know I'm just messing with you. You have a beautiful home!
Greg

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