[Evan_Green]

My goal is to reseed the grass in my backyard pitching area which was heavily infested with weeds before- I stated by using Roundup and killing all the existing grass/weeds.

I have then tried scraping the dead stuff out with gardening tools in order to reseed, but the dead material is not coming out as easily as I would have thought. It takes a lot of labor to scrape away just a small amount of dead grass/weeds.

I am wondering if anyone knows a better method to clearing out the dead stuff or if you can just overseed it?

For example, when they killed the grass at Pebble a couple years before the 1992 Open to get rid of the Kikuya grass, what did they do after the grass died- did they manually remove it then reseed, re seed over the dead grass or something else?

Thanks again
Evan Green

[cary lichtenstein]

At our club in Florida, they applied the roundup 3 separate times. Even then, some of the old grass came thru. They just tiled it, did not remove it.

[Jim Thompson]

When it comes to clean up, you only need two words:

"gill rake"

You might be able to rent a skid stear with a rock hound locally as well.  Sounds goofy, but it works.

A seedavater might be a good choice of your going to try the "no till" method.

Good luck!

[Evan_Green]

2 questions:

Cary: How does one "tile" old grass- I am not familiar with the term in that context

Jim: "seedavater" doesnt come up in a yahoo search- where can I obtain that item

The gill rake seems like a good tool but from my understanding you need a tractor to use it- a little to much scale for my project.

Thanks for your input I really appreciate it

Evan

[Steve Okula]

Rent a roto-tiller and run over the lawn about 3-4 times. Most of the tdead grass & weeds will be buried and provide good organic matter for future turf roots.  It will be easy then to rake the surface smooth enough for replanting.

[A_Clay_Man]

Sodding is easier, no? On the Kikuyu question, I wonder if the stolons make it easier to do this type of work?

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Don't rotatil the soil as it will become to soft and lumpy.

The key is seed soil contact.  In preparing the area for seeding some of the dead material will be removed and some will stay. This is fine as the remaining material will actually act as a stabilizer and natural mulch for the new seed.

You can rent good equipment for home yard work these days. Get to a rental place and tell the guy what you are doing and how big the area is.  You need to do some form of core aeration. Get the holes made and core up on top. Then thatch or vertical mow through them to a depth of about .5 - .75".  If they have it, get the machine that drops seed as it slices through the gound. Do this two directions. Sometimes it is wise to change the depth slightly for each direction. Now you will have an area that is cored, sliced and seeded. It will look messy. Rake the area lightly several directions. You want to leave the soil and seed but remove the thatch and grass. Take away the debris. Depending on how much seed the vertical mower was able to put out you now may want to add some seed to the surface by hand. If you do rake this lightly, turning a leaf rake upside down works well. Just mix the seed with the soil.  Apply a recycled paper mulch product like PennMulch or Seed Aid and some starter fertilizer according to the lable rates.

Pebble Beach used Methylbromide to "gas" the golf course years ago. The dead material was left in place and seeded into much in the manner I just outlined.

Good luck

[Jim Thompson]

Evan-

Here's a great link with tool listings:
http://grounds-mag.com/ar/grounds_maintenance_equipment_options/

As for the seedavator, which I misspelled, given your response to needing a tractor it to would be overkill.  How about a small verti / slit seeder?  Check out the link.

Good Luck!

[Norbert P]

 Evan, which climate zone are you in?  

  Will it get heavy sun or shade?

  Heavy or light traffic?
 
  High maintenance or nary a care?

  Which species of grass are you planting?  Blend, mix or monostand?

 As was said, leave the old detritus in the soil, till it in, and amend with Starter Fert (for quick root growth) and perhaps Lime*.  

  *I think Home Depot has Ph test kits for about $3. If you have acid soil, now is the time to sweeten up your medium. If alkaline add aluminum sulfate accordingly to your soil. Of course it all depends on which choice you make for grass species.

  I also have a general question on using sphagnum moss for amendment, thatch and overdressing...  does it introduce any undesirables into a pure monostand?  
  Does anybody prefer straw over it (for thatch covering)?

  Also, in using glyphosate - "Round-up" - if the lawn is left to die will the Chinch bugs and other rascals leave or die as well.  I'd rather not use a pesticide if I can make the lawn uninhabitable for a while.  

[Steve Okula]

Evan,

Are you doing your backyard or prepping a fairway for the U.S. Open?

Rototill to a depth of 6 inches, it will take a few times over to make it right. It's a good time to till in any fertilizers, lime or soil amendments that may be helpful.

Soft is good. It means you've aerated the soil and grass likes airy soil. If it's too much so, rent an old fashioned roller and roll it down, or, if you want to get hi-tech, rent one of those little Wacker-Packer vibrating, walk-behind compactors. Even after running over it with that you'll still be way ahead in the aeration game.

After seeding, the most important thing is to keep the surface wet until you have germination and you see at least two leaves on the plant.

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