We bought our first house back in May, and have been working on getting settled since then. For me, my big project I've been looking forward to is a lawn renovation.

The front was done in sod, and while it looks "fine,” it needs some work. The back was a disaster. It was contractor seed, terribly thin and covered with matted straw all over the place.

Yesterday, I finally started the project (been waiting weeks for the heat to finally break). I mowed everything super low and bagged all the clippings. This morning, using a machine I purchased, I dethatched the whole lawn and removed all that material as well. I filled 11 of those tall paper lawn bags with waste.

Friday, I will put the seed down. The plan is to put the seed down, rake it in, roll it, put a starter fertilizer down (only in the back) and then start my watering regiment. I'm going to water 4x daily for about 10 minutes each.

Anybody else done a big lawn renovation? I'm interested to hear how it went for you. I've attached some pics of the project so far.

It sounds like you know what you are doing, Deuce.

Lots of TLC and next year it will BOOM!!

1 hour ago, theguru said:

It sounds like you know what you are doing, Deuce.

Lots of TLC and next year it will BOOM!!

That's the plan. I've been doing research for a couple months, and I'm hoping it comes together like I want it to.

In March, our entire yard was torn up so that an old railroad tie wall in our backyard could be taken down and replaced by a new traditional retaining wall (400 square feet). There was a lot of heavy equipment doing the job. We haven't had a yard all summer. Another landscaping company came in and smoothed everything out and put down topsoil and seed. We elected not to do the sod. However, we still watered every day twice a day. There is just too much clay in our yard. Between the heat and the storms washing away the topsoil, the grass has not taken root very well. It looks pretty bad. We are hoping for a better 2027.

4 minutes ago, nkypete said:

In March, our entire yard was torn up so that an old railroad tie wall in our backyard could be taken down and replaced by a new traditional retaining wall (400 square feet). There was a lot of heavy equipment doing the job. We haven't had a yard all summer. Another landscaping company came in and smoothed everything out and put down topsoil and seed. We elected not to do the sod. However, we still watered every day twice a day. There is just too much clay in our yard. Between the heat and the storms washing away the topsoil, the grass has not taken root very well. It looks pretty bad. We are hoping for a better 2027.

You probably made a good choice with the sod. Our neighbor had sod put down in his backyard, and based on rates around here, it would cost about $4000 just to do the backyard. That's way too much IMO. The neighbor's yard doesn't even look that great to be honest.

27 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

You probably made a good choice with the sod. Our neighbor had sod put down in his backyard, and based on rates around here, it would cost about $4000 just to do the backyard. That's way too much IMO. The neighbor's yard doesn't even look that great to be honest.

$35K for the new wall
$5K for the regrading of the yard
$1200 new landscaping bushes so that kids and deer don't go flying off the edge of the wall

43 minutes ago, nkypete said:

$35K for the new wall
$5K for the regrading of the yard
$1200 new landscaping bushes so that kids and deer don't go flying off the edge of the wall

Goodness.

It's been a lot of work and I'm not done yet, but I'm going to be able to seed my yard for about $600 total.