Garden Week 4: Planting Grass Seed and Stuff

When I checked the weather on my phone Monday morning I noticed it was supposed to rain for the next 3 days.  What would your first thought be?  Mine was, “Perfect time to plant some grass seed!”  We only have two grassy areas in our yard and they both look like crap.  Our last house was 90% grass and I took such good care of it.  At this house it is totally neglected.  The only lawn mower we own is this reel mower.Oh and I guess we use our weed wacker a lot too.  I LOVE the cordless RYOBI trimmer, especially since I got better batteries.  (post HERE)

But anyway… I went to Lowe’s Monday morning to buy grass seed, fertilizer, and top soil.  And that’s when I made my big mistake.  I bought bags of $1.18 top soil, 15 of them to be exact, to fill in some of the bare spots on the grass.  Too bad this stuff sucked!  A good rain revealed that the stuff was filled with LOTS of rocks, glass, plastic pieces.  I was so disappointed.  🙁    So the lesson is — buy quality STARTER SOIL for grass seed, not top soil.  I told you, I’m not really a grass person!  Whatever.I did everything else right.  I pulled and dug up weeds until I couldn’t take it anymore.  (I am smart enough to know you can’t sprinkle a weed preventer on the grass at the same time as new seed or nothing will grow. See I’m not that dumb!)  I raked and de-thatched until I couldn’t take any more of that either. 

I used the thatch and leaves I raked up to fill in an area in this berm.  I’ll put soil on top, but I figured I’d save a little soil by using this.Then I filled in the low (sad) spots with my yet-to-be-known crappy soil.Here it is sprinkled with seed and then sprinkled some fertilizer.   I had given my rolling broadcaster spreader to my brother a few years back because we have such a little amount of grass.  I have a little hand-held jammy now, similar to this one.I also over seeded the grassy areas, it wasn’t only on the top soil.   The good news is I didn’t have to water it for 3 days!  Not until it stopped raining Thursday.  On a happier note, Smart Jr finally planted that peach tree from last week.  She had a friend help her and the two of them had a lot of fun.  The only thing I had to help with was loosening up the roots.Cute gloves, ladies!  These are my new favorites, a 5 pack for $10 at BJ’s.  Now if only I could remember to put on my gardening gloves!  Even with gloves I am a magnet for splinters.  My friend Cindy the nurse had to come over to get one really bad one out this week.  Hubby pulled 3 more out, all in the right hand, which is tricky for me to get out myself.More yard projects are on the way!!

Smart Girl