rcgerard Hatfield

Nice, Al! I am going through a similar process so I know the feeling.

Can you, or better yet, Paul, tell us more about the worm pits? I don't remember reading about them in Paul's cheap and lazy article. Are you doing them all over the yard? Are you adding your own worms? Will the worms spread throughout the soil, between pits?

I am thinking about building a small worm bin, cultivating worms, and manually adding them to my garden and lawn. But maybe there are better ways?

Thanks,
Ryan

The Fiskar Momentum reel mower arrived in a smallish box yesterday. It took 15 minutes to assemble it - super easy. I was done mowing my lawn (for the first time ever) about 20 mintues later. Though my lawn is smaller as we have plenty of landscaped beds, it took the guy across the street at least an hour to mow his on a riding mower.

Some observations...

This mower is made well. It pushed easily, turned easily, and cut my tall fescue easily. Paul will love this - it can cut at 4"! When I was done, a 4" tall lawn looked really tall...don't see many people cutting their lawn at that height. I think this will go a long way in helping my lawn fill in and soil continue to get better.

The one thing it did not do well was cut taller weeds and grasses, some of which have grown in faster than the fescue over the last month, when I first seeded the lawn. The front part of the mower pushes the really tall stuff over and doesn't give the blades a chance to cut it. I knew this would probably happen when doing research before buying. No biggie - I expect the fescue to continue to fill in and the weeds to slowly get choked out. I'll just trim those areas with the battery powered weed wacker in the meantime.

Hopefully the Fiskars continues to perform well. I'll give another report down the road.

Ryan

I am about to buy a mower for the lawn I seeded about a month ago (https://permies.com/permaculture-forums/3854_0/lawn-care/tall-fescue-when-to-seed-new-lawn). Some of you may remember  - starting from scratch, tall fescue, Paul called the lawn fugly (rightly so). I am happy to say that it is actually coming in pretty well in most areas. The back is still bad because the soil stinks, but I am taking all the right steps to make it better. I'll put new pics up on that thread soon.

So the grass is getting high enough that it will need it's first mowing soon. I have researched the cordless electric and reel mowers and have decided that the new Fiskars Reel mower Gary mentioned is what I'll get. Most reviews from users look good, the price ($199) is reasonable, and I can have it shipped to me from Lowes for free (my local store does not stock it).

It may be a couple more weeks before I receive it and mow for the the first time, but I will report back with results.

Ryan

Lastly, two pics of the front yard.

Paul (or anyone else who may be able to help?: What do you think?

We have warm temps ahead and I am itching to seed 

Thank you!
Ryan

One pic of the side yard. You can see there are minimal weeds compared to the back yard.

Here are two pics of the back yard. Keep in mind, this was bare dirt when we filled the lot in late last summer. Since then, these weeds have grown in.

I will attach a few more pics of the side yard and front yard in the next post (you'll see they are all similar, though the back seems to have more weeds)...

My big question now: Do I till and start new, or overseed and try to fill in? I am worried that the soil is very compact from the remodeling we did last year. I am leaning toward tilling the entire thing and seeding from scratch.

I do have the 8.1 ph to deal with, though. Recommendations for bringing that down?

Thanks,
Ryan

Forgot to attach the test results!

Here they are...

Thanks, Paul!

Though, I just got my ph test back and I am a little nervous. Our 'soil' has a ph of 8.1   

I attached the results to this message...

I'll take pics later today and get them on here.

What should I do?

Thanks!
Ryan

After reading Paul's "Cheap & Lazy Lawn care" and doing some research I have decided to seed our brand new lawn with an endophyte enhanced tall fescue. More specifically, a 90% tall fescue / 10% Kentucky Bluegrass mix from Grow Organic that Paul recommended in another thread on this forum:

http://groworganic.com/item_SLL505_Tough_Turf_Lawn_Seed_5_Lb_Bag.html?welcome=T&theses=7199732

We live less than a quarter mile from southern Lake Michigan in southwestern Michigan, which gives us a more temperate growing season. I believe our Zone is 5b. After remodeling the entire exterior of our house, we started landscaping in 2009 and now have gardens or landscaped areas (bushes, shrubs, and flowers with mulch) on about 50% of our city lot. I plan to establish a lawn on the rest.

We are currently waiting to receive our ph test results and should have them within a week. Most of our “soil” is clean fill dirt we hauled in to raise the level of our lot, which was very low and had flooding issues. Raising the level of the lot solved those issues but now I am concerned we don’t have a very healthy soil to start the lawn. The ph tests should reveal more.

In the meantime I have been researching when the best time to plant the lawn would be. Most research suggests fescues are best to start in the early fall, but early spring can work as well. I would rather not go another late spring and entire summer with a bare dirt yard (outside the landscaped areas)...which leads to my question:

- Can I safely seed this spring to have a healthy lawn?

- And if so, in what date time frame?

- Lastly, what can I start to do to prepare for seeding?

I’ll share my ph test results here when I get them. In the meantime, I hope someone wiser than I can make some suggestions.

Thank you!

Ryan