Grass growing tips

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BC, I started a new thread "Grass Growing Tips" and just copied this post to it. I left the original where you posted it to keep the flow of that thread. Doc

Doc said:
Feel free to pass on grass growing tips if you have any.
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When I plant grass where conditions aren't ideal (be it slope or dry or whatever), I do all the prep, seeding and hose it down to get it good and wet (but without over watering where you get run-off).

I then take 4 mil clear plastic (or similar) and cover. This keeps the moisture in and also acts like a greenhouse of sorts. I remove the cover every couple/few days and re-water. By doing so, the area stays moist, warm and your seed won't run-off if you get a heavy rain. I remove the plastic after the grass is 1" or so. At this point, it won't wash away and can handle mother nature.

I wouldn't want to do this for a couple acres but areas of 1000 sq/ft or smaller, it works well.

I dug a 80' trench last week, buried (2) 4" drain pipes and re-covered. I'll be seeding, watering and covering with plastic tonight.
 
BC,
Are you saying you use the plastic instead of straw or do you put the straw under the plastic?
Where do you get the plastic? What sizes is it available in?
 
I normally do straw first but it's hard to come by this year since all the farmers are running short for their own requirements so I just use it without straw to hold the moisture in.

More often then not, whenever I seed, soon thereafter we get torrential rains which washes away all the seed and a lot of the topsoil. The plastic protects against these conditions.

4 or 6 mil plastic can be purchased most anywhere (HD, Lowes, hardware stores...). It's translucent in color but lets ample light through. It can be reused for many projects.
 
Excellent suggestion. I need something to keep the seed on the hillside, and plastic might work better than straw. It's windy up on our hill, and I'm sure that is part of the problem.
Do you stake down the plastic or just set rocks at the key points?
 
Which department of Lowes would have the plastic? Does is come in rolls?
 
Probably painting supplies as it's commonly used for drop cloths. It'll be rolled but not in a fashion that you can just unroll. I buy it in 10'x100' rolls but it's rolled up into something pretty small.

I don't see it on their site though...
 
Doc,

The other place you can find it is around the isulation as it could also be used for vapor barriers. These are usually bigger boxes/rolls of it. That is where I found mine when I put it down under the floor of the garage. This is typicallya little heavier than the plastic drop clothes so it will be more expensive, but it also makes it easier to spread w/o ripping.
 
Good tip Jim. Thanks.
I got a little over an hour of seat time getting dirt from my mini forest. Some trash coming with it but when I spread it with the blade the trash mostly stays with the blade. :thumb:
I plan to have the seed down by this Friday.
 
If I ever finish my project, I might try this trick. This time of year the leaves are beginning to fall. The plastic would help keep the maple leaves from preventing the grass from growing. Certainly will make it easier to remove the leaves. By the way, does the straw contribute any grass seed or is it just used to protect what seed you lay down?
Bonehead
 
OK, I did a little yesterday.

Pictures below.

Area was already graded and raked. (BTW - Another tip is to get yourself a good, wide aluminum landscape rake to pull the rocks and debris out).

Since the area is has a large amount of clay, I put a skim coat of compost over the top to give the seed more nutrients.

As pictured:
1. Load it good with lots of seed.
2. Water the area.
3. Cover with plastic.

I ran out of plastic last night so I just used a plastic tarp for one area. I was thinking of running out and getting more clear plastic but I think I'll leave the tarp to see how it does (compared to the clear plastic). I'll let you know the results in a week or 2.

PD - Hey Doc, do you have the auto-resizing on? All my original pics (about 230K) failed to upload due to size. I thought they would get re-sized automatically.
 

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Bump

OK, it's been 8 days. Normally (at least for me), using the straw method, the perennial seed may just start popping up.

Well, below is pics of 8 days under the plastic. Using straw, it takes me about 3 weeks to get this kind of progress.

A couple things:
We had a torrential rain storm on about the 3rd or 4th day. Due to the slope this is on, some water did go under and probably washed some seed down hill. I left an area uncovered and all the seed washed away.
Except for that rain, no watering was done since the day the seed was laid.
The area where I used the green tarp (since I ran out of clear plastic) worked just as well (and maybe even better).
I was going to buy a 12x100' roll but the price seemed high to me (About $75) so I just left the pieces I had.

I pulled the plastic last night and let it breath for a couple hours. I re-watered and recovered (as there's no rain in the forecast). I'll probably remove in another week.
 

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I found some 12x50 plastic for 12 or 14 dollars a roll. I got two of them and put it down last saturday. Mine is not looking near as good as yours Brian. The wind has blown the plastic off all but one day. I've watered 3 times so far. I'll post pics if any greenery shows up.
 
I've noticed.....

when a patch of lawn is covered over for a few weeks and it just begins to yellow over, when you uncover it, it grows back very strong and thickens up better?
I just noticed recently, a patch of grass in my lawn where the kids had a tent pitched early in the year. There is a patch of lush grass (a square the size of the tent) that now grows a lot more vigorous than the surrounding lawn. I also have a trailer camper that I am minding for my brother at the moment. I have it parked up on the back corner of my garden. Every time I mow the grass up there I have to move the trailer, and each time, theres a patch of stronger grass left afterwards..

If you were to cover a larger area of lawn with say..... black polythene sheet, 20ft X 20ft and leave it for a couple of weeks, then remove it. I believe it would improve a lawn...
Is it a defense mechanism in the grass plant? When it gets a shock, it invigorates itself and comes back stronger...

Have any of you noticed this?
 
Doc said:
I found some 12x50 plastic for 12 or 14 dollars a roll. I got two of them and put it down last saturday. Mine is not looking near as good as yours Brian. The wind has blown the plastic off all but one day. I've watered 3 times so far. I'll post pics if any greenery shows up.
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Be patient Greg. It's pretty rare to have any perennial grass come up in less than a week. Once it does pop up, it'll grow like weeds.

Sounds like you need more rocks at the edges to hold it down. If you have some scrap 2x4's or similar, it may do better than rocks.

If the plastic has blown off and re-watering has been required, it probably slowed down the process some.

What mil plastic did you get? I checked again last night and I was wrong. A roll of 6 mil 10x100' was $51, not the $75 I mentioned previously.
 
quincy said:
I've noticed.....

when a patch of lawn is covered over for a few weeks and it just begins to yellow over, when you uncover it, it grows back very strong and thickens up better?

Is it a defense mechanism in the grass plant? When it gets a shock, it invigorates itself and comes back stronger...

Have any of you noticed this?
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Quincy,

I have noticed that but the effect doesn't last more than a year.

I "believe" that when something is done to grass to cut short its needed requirements (be it water or sunlight) or something threatening (too hot or too cold), the grass goes into a defensive mode. When in this mode, it sucks whatever is available from the grass blades and sends it downward to the roots and sacrifices the blades of grass (which is why they yellow or brown). After the "threat" is gone, the roots then proceed to push out new blades of grass.

Since the adjoining (not threatened) grass wasn't affected, in the growing season, the roots don't retain the same energy and are pushing their resources and stored energy towards the blades instead (hoping to seed). Well, the threatened grass has stronger roots at this point and can therefore produce better blades of grass.

After awhile, the previously threatened grass resumes its normal cycle and the grass will be like the rest of the lawn.
 
Yep, I also noticed that Quincy. We had a trampoline that everywhere it was moved the grass actually grew better. But like Brian said, it does not last.

I forget what mil the plastic is. I"ve tossed the boxes it came in. it is pretty thin though.
I took it off today and watered. I'm leaving it off since I can water daily over this weekend.
 
OK, I planted on the eve of 9/25 and removed the plastic yesterday (giving 13 growing days for the grass seed.

I've removed the plastic for good since we're now going to get cooler temperatures and some rain in the forecast.

Below are a couple pics from yesterday. I'd say for less than 2 weeks, it did well. Some touch-up may be needed in the spring but where it appears there's bare areas, grass is actually coming up.
 

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That is awesome BC. I'm impressed. My results are HORRIBLE so far....and I ended up out of town unexpectedly Sunday and Monday, so it did not get watered. :hide:
 
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