On August 31 the lot was tilled, the “junk” removed (roots, bricks, rocks, more glass), more soil added, smoothed, grass planted and a straw erosion blanket added to protect the seedbed.
The grass type is Rhizomatous Turf Type Fescue (RTF) seed mix, which is supposed to require less water and fertilizer and should also do well in full sun. It’s used as the rough on golf courses. I hope it’s not too coarse. I really love the no-mow fine fescue I have in the rest of the yard, but it doesn’t do as well in full sun as it does in shade and also doesn’t hold up well against weeds.
The grass needs to be watered twice a day for 30 minutes on each sprinkler. That seems to work OK – the soil isn’t supposed to dry out – and I’ve been evaluating if it’s still damp before the next round of watering. I’m using a timer with a single output on an every-12 hour schedule that runs for 60 minutes each time. Since there are two sprinklers, I purchased a hose splitter and will have to manually switch between the sprinklers halfway through. I could have purchased a timer with 2 outputs that run consecutively (to ensure sufficient water pressure for maximum coverage for each sprinkler), but I couldn’t justify spending that on something I’ll only use for 3 weeks and then rarely (hopefully) again.
The grass should germinate within a week, and I can start mowing when it’s 4″ tall.
And now that all the heavy work is done, except for the fence that will go in around the end of November, I can think about starting to plant.
