Watering

The yard was looking a bit dry. We had our friends and neighbors from across the street (Annie and Becky, mother and daughter expert-gardeners and members of a three-generation household) over giving us some tips on what to do. They explained that part of the reason to cover the new seeds was that seeds like to germinate in the dark. Because my soil-laying operation yesterday wasn’t even in its coverage, Dana brought out more soil and filled in some of the uncovered patches. We then ran the sprinkler until the ground was nice and wet.

Watering

Without setting an alarm clock I was up at 6:45. (What ever happened to the days when I could sleep till noon?) I threw on some clothes and went out to turn on the sprinklers. The grass was a little moist but in case that was only morning dew I ran the sprinkler again. When it was done there was some water pooling in some areas. Perhaps that was a bit too much. It’s supposed to be hot today (80s) so maybe that’ll be ok. We’ll wait until the grass looks like it’s dried out a bit before we water again.

Watering

Dana arrived with a GreenThumb brand, Medium Duty, Flexible Spray Tube, Variable Pattern, Oscillating Sprinkler. After we figured out how to adjust it Dana hooked it up and turned it on. For some reason the water pressure wasn’t enough to cause this super-dooper-sprinkler which is supposed to be able to cover up to 4000 square feed and is only being asked to cover slightly less than half that. Dana readjusted it and set it to cover just the 2/3 norther portion.

about 15 minutes later she moved it to the remaining 1/3. With both sides sufficiently wet she turned off the water. It was still early enough that it was not yet dark and hopefully that means the yard won’t end up rotting or attracting bacteria.

Seed away

Dana came to visit as I finished working. It took nearly 4 hours to prep the yard. What a mess but wow does it look better now. With the yard prepped it was time to seed. I started by filling the hand spreader and, though the instructions that came with it suggested using setting 1 out of 5 on the spreader for seed, Mary Jane at ACN suggested something in the middle. I experimented and decided that 3 or 4 gave me a better spread. Also on Mary Jane’s suggestion I walked rows back and forth across the yard one direction while spreading and then turned 90 degrees and crisscrossed the yard. I could see the seeds between the existing grass and it appeared to be what Mary Jane said I would need.

It was time to add the soil. I emptied the two bags into the wheelbarrow and used the shovel to sprinkle the soil over the top of the seeds. Our front yard has a concrete walkway running from the front door to the street which divides the grass into roughly 1/3 on the south side and 2/3 on the north side. I ran out of soil about 1/2 of the way through the 2/3 side. I returned to the garage with the wheelbarrow and grabbed another 5 bags. I finished covering the remainder of the front yard with soil and grabbed a broom and dustpan to remove the remaining debris from the walkways. Before beginning to water.

With cleanup done, I attached the hose to the faucet and attached the sprikler to the hose. I turned it on and the sprinkler died on me. I called Dana who was on her way home and she agreed to pick up a replacement on her way home. When she arrives watering will begin.

Preparing the yard

I managed to get the afternoon off from work. It was warm but only partly cloudy and I decided, after it had rained for the last couple of days that it would be a good time to take the next step in the yard. I came home, changed clothes, and loaded up a wheelbarrow with a metal-forked rake, a plastic rake, a few bags of soil, the hand spreader, the seed, a shovel and a couple of garbage bags. I headed for the front of the house to begin.

My first step was to rake away as much of the debris as I could with the plastic rake. I filled two monster garbage bags. Next I used the medal-forked rake to distress the ground. This actually pulled up even more debris which I cleared away. The gorund started looking darker as apposed to its previous burned out light brown. Next, seeding.