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Question about landscaping


Scout Finch02
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My lawn was more quack grass (or crab grass??? not sure which is which) than blue grass when I bought my house seven years ago and has gotten worse over the years. I have always kept it mowed, but would like to have a nice lawn of blue grass. I was thinking about getting rid of the old grass and having new sod put down. I heard about some tool you could use to kind of scrape off the old sod. Anybody know about this? Anybody got any ideas, opinions? Thanks in advance.

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LOL! With this Florida sand, sun and heat - if it'll grow in my yard it's welcome! :biglaugh:

I guess that's not what you wanted to hear, eh?

Seriously though, you can take soil samples to your local cooperative extension office and they'll tell you what your soil is, what you need to add/use as fertilizer and how to get what you want to grow to grow - or even better - they'll help you plan a xeriscape yard that maximizes the conditions of your yard and native plants while keeping it pretty and low maintenance.

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The last tool I recall being utilized for removing unwanted sod was called a Fellow Laborer of Ohio!

I would suggest trying the Scott's Weed & Feed before you go to all that effort. Plus the fact that once you do sod, this spring, you will have a ton of expense, labor, and maintenance, not to mention watering to look forward to. Where we live, it's been dry, and sodding would have been a nightmare.

We sodded once, when we bought a brand new house in Charleston SC. What a pile of work that was, and on a small city lot to boot. And the freakin' fire ants found corners that were not properly stomped down and made ant piles anyway! Plus we had to water and water and water that summer to get it going properly. By fall, though, our front yard did look less like a patchwork quilt and more like a lawn.

I would suggest you consult your local nursery for suggestions.

WG

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I was looking for something like that myself awhile back. I think there is a power tool that will do that, but I'm not aware of where to get it, sorry. Not sure what the cost would be to rent either.

I didn't find it, and I'm still considering the standard method of Weed killlers. I was advised to mow it down as short as possible, apply the Weed n Feed or crab grass killer and then let it kill the crab grass.

Prepare by using a dethatcher to break up and remove some of the undergrowth thatch if there's a lot. Dig out any thick spots. Apply the C.G. weed killer and wait till it's dead.

Then roto till the whole lawn, turning the soil under and then rake and level it. There's power tools you can rent to till and level it if you have a large lawn. Fertilize it and the lay down sod, roll by roll, for fast results. Or seed.

We did buy some plugs a few months ago and try that route. I dethatched and prepp'd the lawn and then put in plugs of new "super" grass, plugging about every 3 feet. Our front lawn's small but I still put in about 50 plugs or so.

The "super" grass didn't make it. I may have waited too long, couple days, after buying to get the best results but supposedly that was okay. But they just got swallowed uo.

Flip side - mowed and waters, the mix of crab grass and lawn grass doesn't look that bad, to be honest, so I'm living with it til next year. Good luck!

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