Planting a New lawn from Seed the Right way

So your decision is made to save some money and plant your new lawn from seed. This route may take a little longer, but it gives a better degree of control in what will be going on in your lawn for the next couple of months. Unlike when you sod, seeding gives you a chance to remediate a problem area in your soil without having to remove a dead patch of sod. The best time to plant your new seed is in the late summer or early fall. This type of climate with warm days, cold nights, and increased rainfall, provides an ideal environment to germinate your new turf seeds. Another benefit of this timing is that most weeds will have stopped germinating by this point and will not compete with your new seeds for nutrients and water. If late summer or early fall are not an option then the next best time to plant would be early spring. One thing to note here is that if you do plant in the early spring your planting steps will be a little different. For more info on early spring planting consult a local nursery or gardening center for specific info on you region.
Seed selection is another area you can benefit from your local experts. Do to advances in recent years in agriculture, your choices for grass have increased dramatically. No longer do you have to settle for a strain that you don’t want because it isn’t “right” for your climate. To get even more foolproof results you can go with seed mixtures. Seed mixtures will give you the best results because you will get a variety of various species that are selected for a specific trait. These mixtures will provide you with your best chance for a successful lawn if your yard has a combination of different types of soil (ex. Wet, dry, sunny, or shady).
Now it’s time to get dirty. Before you can begin planting your seed you need to make sure your soil is prepared and up to par. To find out more on this go check out some of my other entries in this blog. I cannot stress this point enough, final soil prep, seeding, and insuring your seed is planted at the proper depth is absolutely critical. The soil should be raked free of all unwanted debris. Large stones or clumps of soil will prevent good root propagation in the area so make sure you remove undesirable material. Large stones may also become a safety hazard upon your first few times mowing your new law so take extra care in this area.
Next step is to spread your seed. Whatever the recommended seed count (per square inch) is, divide that in half and set your spreader up for that seed count. Once you have your spreader all set up, going in one direction only, completely cover the area where you want to have your lawn. With that done, prepare to do a second pass but this time make your pass perpendicular to your initial pass. This method will give you your best coverage. Now that your seed is down you need to rake your seed to approximately a quarter inch in depth and then use a water roller that is only a quarter full to lightly pack that soil down on the seeds.
Now all that is left is for you to ensure your soil stays moist. The top two inches must stay moist until your seeds have good root development. Some slight drying on the surface is fine but should be kept to a minimum. To aid in moisture retention you can use multiple light waterings and straw mulch that stays moist and prevents moisture evaporation. If straw is used spread it out so you can see about a third of the soil through it.
You may also consider using a herbicide for weed control. Make sure to use a product that is labeled for Newly Seeded Lawns. If you do not feel comfortable working with chemicals there are numerous professional pesticide applicators for hire in the phone book.

To Seed Or Sod, Which Way to Go?

Here it is, you have a beautifully prepared chunk of land that you want to put grass on but the question is still bothering you. Should I seed or sod? This question is not hard to answer you just have to be honest to yourself when it comes down to a couple of questions. You should ask yourself if you can afford to do the option of sod. If you do not have the money to do sod then do you have the extra time to put into doing seed?
If you are on a budget seeding is the way to go. Seeding does have an initial start up cost (especially if you have never done it before). The tools required are not too expensive but are a necessity. If you really wanted to you could probably rent some of them to help lesson some of the costs. But the basics I would recommend you buy are a decent seed spreader, a round point digging shovel, a spade shovel, and a good garden rake. I do want to note here that seeding is a lot more time consuming than laying sod. You do need to make a judgment call here to determine if you have the time in your day to put into this method. There are alternatives to putting in all that time. There are several ground covers on the market that you could use that require little or no mowing. But to save time costs you money, so make your choices carefully.
Planting seed is best done in the late summer or early fall. The cooler temperatures and added precipitation allow for accelerated germination of the seeds. Different grasses grow in different climates. To make sure you choose the proper seed, make sure you talk to a sod supplier or nursery that knows the growing conditions and temperature of your area so he can suggest the right type. This is not a part of the lawn you want to cheap out on here. This is a great example of you get what you pay for. Considering the seed is the cheapest part of the lawn anyway, so what if you spend a few more bucks. You will be rewarded with a nice healthy lawn year after year.
Starting a lawn from sod is by far the fastest way to have a lawn. The truck pulls up, unloads and you start rolling, right? Well sort of. You will have that lawn right away but there is still a lot of work to make sure it looks good year after year. First thing to know is you have to lay your sod in either the spring or the fall. Never lay sod in the heat of summer or the end of the season. The heat can burn the sod and the cold will kill it if the roots have not had a chance to take hold yet. Sod is a great alternative to seed on sloping areas too. Seed tends to wash down the slope from watering and raining.
So it all comes down to Both sides have their pros and cons but whichever way you decide to go with your lawn(if done properly) will give you a beautiful and healthy lawn you can be proud of.

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Soil Prep For Your New Lawn

So you have decided to redo your lawn. There is nothing more important to your new lawn as how well you prepare your soil. This one part of the whole process can negate any future efforts if not done properly. In this article I will try to help you through these steps to aid you in having a luscious green lawn.
The benefits to preparing your soil properly will pay you back tenfold with good uniformity and density to less use of fertilizer and water. Let’s not forget the most important part, less maintenance. There is a bit of a balancing act involved with growing a beautiful full lawn that you need to know in order to prepare your soil properly. The four factors in this balancing act are; air, water, nutrients, and sunlight. The sun typically will take care of its self so all you need to worry about is the air, water, and nutrients. These three factors all come from the soil which you are responsible for. Too much or too little of any of these and you will have problems sustaining a nice green lawn. Unless brown is more your color.
Now let’s start to work. The first thing in soil prep for your new grass will be removing the existing overburden on the land. Weather it is rocks, weeds, or an existing (albeit frustrating) lawn, you have to remove it in order to get the ground right for planting. This is where most people get cheap. I cannot stress this enough, if you do not want all your hard work and efforts in planting your new lawn to be in vain then you have to prep your soil properly.
For a new lawn the recommended depth of new soil should be between 4-6 inches. So to start you need to remove all existing sod and any material in the soil that is 2 inches or bigger (ex. Stumps, rocks, debris). If you are doing a small plot then you could accomplish this step with nothing more than a spade shovel and a rake. But for a full large lawn you may want to go down to your local rental shop and ask to rent a few things. First you will need a sod cutter to remove all existing sod and roots. This will help prevent old grass and weeds from growing through your new lawn.
Once you have all the overburden striped off the land then you will need to have your soils pH tested. You can usually have this done at a local nursery or garden center in your area. While you are there you should ask them what type of soil you have as well. This bit of information will help you in deciding what amendments (fertilizer, lime, sulfur) you will need to put in your soil in order for your roots to grow into it well. Most likely you will need to add something to your soil in order to have an ideal bed to plant your grass on. Due to differences from place to place when it comes to soil type, temperature, and precipitation, I will not get into the different types of soils and amendments in this article since you can get all this info from an expert in your area.
Now it is time to go back to the rental store to rent a tiller and water/lawn roller. First you should start by tilling all the compacted soil in the area you stripped earlier, remembering to pull out any rocks or debris that are over 2 inches in size. After tilling is done you should rough grade the land so there are no low spots that will collect water. When rough grading you need to take into account the slope of the land. Make sure your lawn is not going to drain water to your house and if it does you need to fix this problem. If substantial grading is required you may need to consult with a local landscaping company so you get this part right. In some municipalities it is illegal to divert water runoff onto someone else’s property so you may need to put in a retaining wall and/ or drain tile to deal with excess water runoff/build up.
Next step is to start spreading out a starter fertilizer and soil conditioner. Once again your garden supply store or nursery will best suited to tell you how much you will need for your climate and soil conditions. On a side note, if you have enough, compost can be used for a really good soil conditioned and it will save you money at the same time.
Once all soil amendments have been added you will have to go back to the till and till the amendments into the soil. Now that your amendments have been added, a little more rough grading will fill in any of the low spots your may have missed on the first pass. With that part done the last step is to roll the area with the water roller to compact the soil to a light firmness.
Your nursery or garden supply center may suggest to you that you will need to add topsoil to your yard in order to get the proper soil conditions. If that is the case you may be able to just till the ground and add your soil. This method should get rid of the need for amendments in your lawn. Like before, your nursery or garden supply center will know best for the area and you should listen to their recommendations over any other.
Thank you for taking the time to read through my article and I am sure with a little hard work and determination you too can have a lawn your neighbors will envy.

Home Composting, time to get creative

Hi again, I have now taken you through the in’s and out’s of building your first compost. Or have I. There is a lot you can know when it comes to compost. My goal is not to make you an authority on the subject, but to give you the knowledge to grow and use your compost in the most effective way possible.

Let us start with temperature. Some people feel the need to keep their compost in a hot (sunshine) location. They say the heat speeds up the digestion by the microbes in the compost pile. This is not necessarily true. Although good composts will be slightly warm to the touch it is not from the sunshine it will receive but from the collective body heat from the billions of microbes digesting your compost. Not to say you cannot put it in the sun but you will have to make sure you have a sufficient size of a pile to keep all those microbes busy. If you go this route a pile in the size range of one cubic meter will be needed (roughly 3feet X 3feet X3feet). You don’t want these guys to run out of material to eat and die off so this is why I suggest keeping the pile in a cool place. Most people don’t generate that much yard and kitchen waste to keep a pile this big going strong so just use a nice small one that is well taken care of and you will be just fine.

How to tell if your compost is done is not an exact science. It really does not matter for a garden if you can still decipher what some of the small bits are. Any remaining material that is not decomposed will be finished off when you add your compost to the garden, but when it comes to starting seeds you want to make sure your compost is “well done”.

There are huge benefits to adding compost to your garden. The best part is no matter what soil type you have it can be helped by adding compost. For sandier soils it aids in water retention by adding organic material to the mix. Or for Clay soils it makes the soil more porous so the water can drain a little quicker so you don’t wind up with a layer of concrete on top of your garden.

One other point I want to bring up is that all of your composting does not have to be done in a bin. When you get a lot of material all at once (cutting a large lawn or autumn leaves), you can till them into your garden to allow it to break down there. Or you can bury your kitchen waste in a trench in the garden at least 8” deep so your kitchen waste can decompose right where the plants will be planted next season. If you were to go with either of these routes make sure to do this in the late fall or at least two months before you plant to make sure the material is broken down enough.

I would have to say the best part of composting is the various ways to which you can use it. There are the obvious ways of taking your compost and mixing it in with your soil in your garden to improve your plant growth in the next season, or when used as a topper that will be slowly incorporated into the soil. Then there are a couple of other ways to use it that are my favourites. You can actually use your compost as mulch. Unlike using it as a topper as I mentioned above mulch is meant to cover the entire area of soil around the plants instead of just a dressing around the plant. This will add nutrients to all the soil in the area instead of just at the plant. My favourite way to use my mulch is to make a tea out of it. All you have to do is make a 50/50 mix of compost and water and let it sit for a week. After that drain the water in to another container and use it for a boost of nutrients to sick plants. The leftover compost mush at the bottom can be thrown into the garden as mulch. Tea can also be used on young seedlings but I recommend you dilute it well first to avoid damaging the seeds.

The last thing for me to talk about is the types of compost systems out there. You can by one or build one it all depends on how much compost you want to make and how much you want to spend. Or you could go without any bins and just make your compost on the ground. I just caution you if you choose to build your own bin to make sure you do not use treated lumber. The chemicals can leach into your compost and later contaminate your garden.

In whatever system you use there will be advantages and disadvantages. Although these differences between many of these bins are usually just ease of use and aesthetic the compost you will get from most of them will be fairly comparable.

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Home Composting, the Good the Bad and the Ugly

I hope you found my last article on composting informative but there were a few things I didn’t go through last time that I would like to touch base on now. You found out last time that there are basic needs that you need to give for a compost to be productive. Those basic needs are air, food, and water. Now that we have the basics down, and we know how to properly deliver these basics I will now get a little more in depth into what you should and shouldn’t put into your compost.
Let’s start off with what you shouldn’t put in your compost bin. This is an area I really could have used some more knowledge in my first time using a fresh batch of compost in my garden.
1) Any wood product that has been chemically treated (pressure treated lumber) should be left out of your compost. When the wood or sawdust from these types of wood get broken down the chemicals that were used to treat the wood leach into the compost and will ruin the garden or plants that you use the compost in.
2) Diseased plants may infect your garden if the compost was not hot enough to kill off all of the disease. So unless you want to play Russian roulette with next year’s garden I would stay away from composting diseased plants.
3) Human and pet waste should never be used in a compost by a back yard gardener. Although possible to effectively compost these materials you take the risk of your pile not being hot enough to kill off all of the diseases that are carried in the waste. There are people who do this type of composting but they are well trained in hot composts and know the temperature and time it takes to safely decompose this type of matter. For the back yard enthusiast I would recommend staying away.
4) Fatty foods and meat waste (including bones) should be left out as well. They will take forever to break down and the local rats and mice may make your compost their new watering hole. If you want to still use these materials you can bury them in your 8” deep in your garden. This will make sure the little vermin can’t smell and then get at your leftovers.
5) Pernicious weeds can be a particular pest to compost because even if you chop them up really well these types of weeds will still be able to sprout new roots while in the compost. But there is a way. After weeding leave the uprooted weeds in a pile in the direct sunlight for a couple weeks until they are nice and brown. Then they are safe.
Remember How I said I could have used some of this info in my first compost bin. I found out #5 the hard way. I chopped up a few morning glories into my first compost and the next season I was pulling dozens of them out of my garden where there was none before.

The next thing to learn is what you should put in your compost.

1) Grass is a good material to put in your compost but I have always found it easier to leave it on the ground to help the lawn. But if you decide to use them in your compost make sure to add your grass in thin layers, and mix thoroughly to avoid a slimy layer that will not want to break down.
2) If you want a great material to put in your compost bin, kitchen waste is the way to go. Form fruits and vegetable leftovers, to tea and coffee grounds, this stuff is great to compost. One thing to consider is to make sure your compost bin is secure so this type of waste does not attract the local vermin population like meat products would. Although this type of kitchen waste will break down a lot faster than the meat products will it may still be tempting for a mouse or rat so you may want to think about a bin with a secure top. Avoid milk products as well since this also is a big lure for rats and mice.
3) Leaves can be a great source of material for your compost. Just to think people just rake up and throw away this stuff. If you are feeling energetic why not rake up the neighbour’s lawn too. Think of all the point around the block you could earn with your neighbours. Like grass leaves should be mixed in well to avoid clumping up and turning into a big mat in the middle of your bin.
4) Hay and Straw will make an ideal “Brown” ingredient to your mix. Not only will they supply a good nitrogen source for all the little microbes to feast on but they also help your pile from packing down and not allowing enough air to the center of the pile. Remember when you have a “Brown” ingredient in your pile you will also need “green” ingredients (grass, fruits and vegetables) to make the decomposition go quickly.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article on the materials best suited for your compost bin. I will be writing one more article on composting to go along with this and my last one so I hope you will come back soon to check it out.

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Home Composting, Getting the Mix Right

The concept of composting has been around for quite a long time in the forests. Leaves fall to the forest floor, decompose, and their nutrients will be absorbed back into the trees through the roots. Farmers and Gardeners have been taking advantage of the nutrient rich by product from this decomposition for thousands of years and you can too.
Composting is a great way to add nutrients to your garden or potting soil. Not only is it good for your garden and plants, it also is a good way for you to help reduce your overall garbage going to the dump. There are no hard and fast rules in what you should do your composting in. In fact you could do it in a pile in the yard, although it will probably not be well accepted by the rest of your family. While you can go out and buy a commercially sold unit that will do well for all your composting needs, I prefer to save a few bucks and build one myself.
The real hero's in the world of composting are the fungi, bacteria, worms and other insects that will take your yard and kitchen waste and turn it into the black gold you want for your pots and garden. Now it is in your best interest to keep these guys in good conditions so they can digest the food you give them. Their basic requirements are just like you and I, they are food, water, and air. If you want to help these insects and microbes along, keep your compost in a nice cool corner of your yard.
To better understand these basic needs for your compost let's start with the food. Essentially there are two types of food. There are the brown foods that include straw, autumn leaves, wood chips/sawdust, and dead plant material. These materials mainly consist of long chains of sugar molecules that the microbes digest and use as a source of energy. There are also the greens such as green grass and weeds, kitchen fruit and vegetables, coffee grounds, and tea bags. These materials have a lot more nitrogen in them than the browns. This nitrogen in your compost pile acts as a source of protein to all those microbes for them to feed off of as well.
The next part is the air. It is very important to get good airflow into your pile. The microbes you want to decompose your pile cannot do this without air. If there is no air supply then other microbes will move in. They will also do the job but they work a lot slower and tend to make the compost smell like rotten garbage. So unless you want your backyard to smell like the city dump you will have it "fluff" your pile. "Fluffing" your pile is easily done with a spade or a garden fork. You will have to completely break it apart and then pile it back together leaving it in a "Fluffy" condition.
Some "food" like grass clippings or wet leaves will sit heavy on the pile and not allow good air flow through that portion of the pile. You should mix this sort of ingredient into the pile to avoid a spot that won't decompose very easily. Straw is a great ingredient to add to your compost because unlike grass they will not mat down into slimy layers and add to the airflow.
Water is the last important ingredient in your compost. This is where it gets a little tricky. You need to get the water just right to aid and not hinder the work of the microbes. Too wet and the pile gets too heavy and the airflow gets cut off to the middle of the pile. Too dry and the microbes will not be able to break down the waste as easily. Ideally you want to get every particle wet but not saturated. In wet climates you may need a lid or a tarp to avoid saturation.
Having a good mix of the greens and browns is a good thing for a few reasons. Not only does it supply all your little microbes with a good diet, but it also helps in airflow since the browns are dry and "light" and the greens are wet and "heavy".

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Your guide to gardening journals

It is early spring and it is time to plant the garden again. You try to think back and remember “did the cucumbers like the mulch I used last year “and “What day last year did I plant the tomatoes”? These are both good things to ask because they can both be used to fine tune your planting schedule because you never plant a vegetable garden all in the same day.

With all the hard work you put into your garden wouldn’t you want to know your effort is producing results? The only way for you to keep track of your efforts and analyze what you have done is to keep a gardening journal of some type. Your journal can be as easy as what and when you planted, right down to the amount of time put into weeding and how much natural rainfall you are getting. Other items that can be recorded could be trimming, fertilizing, temperature and hours of sunlight. It all depends on how in depth you wish to get into your garden.

You could easily buy a garden planner or organizer from a local nursery or gardening supply shop but if you are like me and like to save a few bucks when I can, it is not hard to come up with your own design.

You can be as organized as you wish. It can range from throwing little bits of paper into a shoe box to full spreadsheets of info. Some people prefer to use a computer to do this but I don’t use a laptop and to haul my computer outside would be a pain in the butt so I just find it convenient to use a book.

The funny thing that happened to me was during my first season of gardening I didn’t know what info I would need for the next season. So I saved all of my seed packs and transplant tags in a shoebox and kept them so I could remember what I planted. But then I started to have questions. I remembered in my second season asking myself what month I planted my tomatoes because I didn’t get much of a yield from my plants in the first year so I wanted to plant them a little earlier. That was my first realization that I needed to find a better system.

When I put together a new book every year, I just use a binder and printed out chart that gives me all the basic info that I need. The chart is simple but effective. It lists out all the plants I have planted that year along the left side and various info that I feel is pertinent along the top. In mine I will record the planting date for each plant, the watering schedule, weeding schedule, yield of vegetables per plant in the year, and the amount of fertilizers that I use.

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Starting a New Organic Garden

Starting a New Organic Garden

For the first time gardener it seems like a lot of work and skill will be required to develop a good and bountiful harvest. What I will do for you is to break it down into a short list of steps to follow to go you on the go.

There are a few steps to first put some thought into before you start to buy your plants. Fist of which will be, is the garden for fruits and veggies or is it for flowers. This is important because the amount of sunlight can have a dramatic effect on your outcome. If at all possible try to place your garden in an area that allows you to view it. Your ability to see it even when you are not working on it will help you stay motivated and it will also help you see the fruits of your labour (so to speak). Although you can plant in a completely shaded area you will be very limited on your plant choices. For most vegetables and flower beds at least 6 hours of sunlight should be given to them for best results.

Once you have figured out where you want your garden the next step would be to lay it out on the ground. You could use a hose or a rope or even a can of marking paint from the hardware store. Whatever method you use take into consideration the amount of foot and animal traffic you get in the area.

Next step is soil prep. I know this is not the most fun part of the job but it is the most important part to have a beautiful Organic Garden. The first part to look at is the ph of the soil. Somewhere between 6.2 and 6.7/6.8 is an acceptable range for the bulk of the plants and flowers for the average garden. If you are not sure the ph is usually found on the plant tag. To find out the ph of your soil you can usually find a nursery in your area that will test your soil for a small fee. You should also perform this test before you put lime on your lawn in the spring. Too much acidity in the soil can contribute to your lawn dyeing.

Depending on weather you decide to remove the existing lawn/weeds that are currently where you want your garden, this will dictate when you should decide to start on your new garden. If you remove them use a spade shovel to cut the ground and pull up the sod bit by bit. If you decide to till in the existing sod make sure to do it in the fall so the organic matter has a chance to start to decompose during the winter. Most likely you will see some grass in the spring and summer start to sprout up due to this method so I would recommend either removing the sod completely or smothering it.

Removing all the sod and hauling it away is a lot of backbreaking work so if your soil is already in good shape as far as the ph is concerned you can always take the easy route and build on top of it. First lay out eight to ten layers of newspaper on the ground where you want your garden. Next wet it all down and turn it into a thick pile of wet newspaper. Once the paper is good and wet, cover the paper with six inches of good quality soil. Over time the newspaper will break down and the grass will have become sufficiently smothered.

The next step is to decide whether or not to use mulch. There are numerous types of mulch to choose from. There is organic mulch like chipped bark, shredded leaves or straw. These mulch types give multiple benefits to your soil like good water retention, helps discourage weed growth, and keeps the soil cool. There are also examples of non organic mulches like plastic sheets that help keep the soil warm for warm season crops. Whatever your mulch choice is make sure to lay it right after planting and keep some distance from all plant stems to avoid rotting them. This also helps deter moles and mice.

Now that that is done, it is time to start planting. To give your plants the best fighting chance, water them thoroughly the day before you intend to plant them. An ideal day to plant is on a day when it is cool and overcast. Do not take them all out of their pots at once. Take them out one at a time as you put them in the ground. When you take them out of their pots their roots will probably be tightly compact. Tease the roots out gently before placing it in the hole to ensure good root growth through the soil. Bury them to the same depth as it was in the pot it came from. Too deep and you can get stem rot. Too shallow and the roots can dry out. When you cover up the root do not press down on the soil. Normal water flow from the surface will do this naturally. Once in the ground make sure to water well, one to two inches per week depending on conditions and heat. Let your plants do the talking here. If they wilt a little at high noon that is to be expected but if this happens in the evening then there is something wrong.

I hope this post helps you take the right steps to start your own garden from home. Who knows not only may you enjoy it but if you are really good you may even be able to make some money at it as well. If you are interested in finding out all sorts of little tips and tricks to increase your harvest and maybe make a little money on the side try some of these links out and see if you can bring your harvest to the next level.

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