Grass Seed 101

Most yards in our neighborhood have ugly grass.  It's a combination of lazy homeowners and poor soil conditions.  Those that have put some effort into their yards, however, have made us quite motivated (and a little bit lot jealous) to work on bettering our pathetic excuse for a lawn.

To illustrate:


Back yard

From the front



From the back looking front





Side yard



The weather here in good ol' northern Virginia has been a little persnickety lately, so our original plan to seed the yard right after we did the beds got delayed by several weekends.  But we were finally able to get a few nice days in a row last week, which just so happened to coincide with exam day for me (boo) and a half day for Stephan, so we decided to knock out the seeding on Friday.

As an aside, I've been mowing lawns fairly regularly since I was 10 and finally able to drive the ride-on mower at my parent's house.  I have NEVER had an issue with grass allergies.  Everything else?  Not so much.  But for some reason on Friday while I was about half way finished mowing the oh, 8 strips of grass we have in our yard, I had a massive allergic reaction.  Swollen face, hives, respiratory issues, sneezing, watery eyes - the works.  It got so bad I had to take an additional hit off my inhaler and a Bendryl (in addition to my daily allergy pill) to catch my breath and get the swelling down.  Fun times, fun times.



Anyway, Stephan did an awesome job laying the smack down on the ugly grass.  We used area-specific grass seed and fertilizer and then covered it all with a half inch of specialized soil from Merrifield Garden Center.  (They rock.)  We also installed about 20 feet of sod between our driveway and the neighbors.  We agonized over what to put in that strip for several weeks.  Flowers?  Bulbs?  Creeping phlox?  We actually went ahead and purchased some small shrubs and irises but after we brought it home we realized it was just too tall for the space, and we'd probably scalp most of the plants opening the car doors.  So we decided it was either A:  grass or B: decorative stone.  I vetoed the stone idea immediately.  Ugly and prime real estate for weeds.  So 5.5 pieces of sod later, and it looks great!

And the after (until the grass starts to grow!)



Stephan watering is fresh grass seed



The full monty



 



8 bags of dirt later...



Grow seeds, grow!

Since we don't have a sprinkler system, watering the yard will be a hassle, but we are hoping that all our hard work will pay off and we'll have a yard that makes other people jealous!