I just spent the weekend replacing grass that had died when our house was vacant (bought a foreclosure). It got completely roasted in the S. Arizona sun. We have an edged area that's about 300 square feet.
Here's what I did:
- tilled the soil down to about 6 inches, and tilled in some steer manure for fertilizer. The soil looked surprisingly good.
- raked it all smooth. After tilling it was about 4 inches above the level of the rest of the yard.
- seeded with bermuda, and covered the seed with a thin layer of manure.
- currently watering it profusely.
I think that all sounds OK, but my worry is that it will be too lumpy once the grass is established. It was smooth after tilling, but i had to walk all over it when seeding it and covering the seed. All the footprints are 2-3 inches lower than the areas that I didn't walk. I didn't want to rake it again, since I had just carefully laid and covered seed. Does anyone know if that will eventually flatten out, or should I just rake it smooth again and fill in any bare spots later?
I can post pictures this evening if I remember...
Here's what I did:
- tilled the soil down to about 6 inches, and tilled in some steer manure for fertilizer. The soil looked surprisingly good.
- raked it all smooth. After tilling it was about 4 inches above the level of the rest of the yard.
- seeded with bermuda, and covered the seed with a thin layer of manure.
- currently watering it profusely.
I think that all sounds OK, but my worry is that it will be too lumpy once the grass is established. It was smooth after tilling, but i had to walk all over it when seeding it and covering the seed. All the footprints are 2-3 inches lower than the areas that I didn't walk. I didn't want to rake it again, since I had just carefully laid and covered seed. Does anyone know if that will eventually flatten out, or should I just rake it smooth again and fill in any bare spots later?
I can post pictures this evening if I remember...