Preparation and Maintenance in 12 Steps

1.  Let whatever you have growing die off.  This is made immensely easier when you have almost 100 days of over 100 degrees and no rain to speak of.  Or really, this step isn't necessarily a 'step' as it has probably already happened, thus the reason why you're looking to install Habiturf in the first place.

2.  Rototill the area you will be placing the seed.  The deeper you can get the better.

3.  Remove whatever stolons, pieces, chunks, and roots of your previous lawn that you can find in the rototilled area.  (note:  If you're starting with lawn and removing it, do that part first.  I'm doing the steps that we took - which is to say, we only thought about replacing our respective lawns because they both died).

4.  Add Compost.  If you're Andrea, purchase 12 cubic yards of compost from the Natural Gardener and have it delivered.  Then spread all of it out within 12 hours of receiving it because your neighborhood had a problem with
'landscaping' businesses coming by and taking whatever piles of material they see because free is cheaper than cheap.

5.  Rototill the compost in.  I guess you really could have spread the compost (step 4), then rototilled (step 2), but again, since this project was started because the lawn died, it made more sense to breakup the soil first then add compost.

6.  Rake relatively level, and then spread the seed.  The directions say to use a seed spreader, but that wasn't working so well - if the holes were set large enough to get the big seed out, then all the little seed just falls through all willy nilly and you really end up with a bunch more of the little seed in one location (where you started) and the big seed every where else; but of course, if the holes were set too small, then only the little seed gets through and the big seed remains in the spreader so again, you end up with a bunch of small seed where you started and a bunch of large seed where you end.  Instead Andrea just grabbed handfuls of the stuff out of bag and hand spread it as best she could.  NOTE:  Do not do this on a windy day.  Oops.  Hope the next door neighbor doesn't care...

7.  Rake seed lightly to both partially cover it and/or to get good contact with the soil.  Be careful with this step.  With whatever rake Andrea was using, it was actually clumping the seed instead of spreading it.  So she abandoned the rake and instead she and Paul (the fiancé) walked around over the seed to get it pressed into the soil (the same is recommended for wildflower seeding)

8.  Irrigate.  Water the area every day for the first 10-15 days, then twice a week for the next month (to a depth of 4"), then two times per month for the remainder of the growing season (March - November) (to a depth of 6").  If you want the grass to go dormant during the growing season that first year, you can allow it to do so, but you have to wait until it is established (3-4 months) and then allow the grass to turn brown and water once every 5-6 weeks instead.  Note:  What the hell type of watering instruction is that? water until a certain depth?  How do you even test that?  Relatively simple - water.  push a screwdriver into the ground.  When it stops going in easily, that's how deep you've managed to water.  Of course, this may be a bit messed up because you did just rototill as deep as you could, which should break up the soil enough to make it easy for you to push a screwdriver into the ground - even unwatered ground.  But still, it's at least a start.

9.  Wait for your grass seed to sprout.  Buffalo, Curly Mesquite, and Blue Grama are all warm weather seeds which means that they need warm soil temperatures to germinate.  So if you plant your seed too early, it will take longer for it to sprout.  This is the stage that Andrea is in since until the last week or so, the ground hasn't been all that warm.

10.  Pull weeds as you see them.  Until the lawn is established, weeds are going to be a problem.

11.  Mowing - mow to a height of 3-4 inches and let the grass seed out (get to 6-8") once a year.  If you let your grass stay at 8" all the time, that's fine, but you won't have a super dense lawn.

12.  Fertilizing - you don't need to fertilize the grass - especially if you mulch mow (leave the grass clippings in the yard instead of bagging them).  You may want to top dress with compost or compost tea and aerate in the fall if your lawn is high use (aka you have kids and/or dogs who spend time outside).

The Locations

The back yard is HUGE (not 1/3 acre huge, but very large for a relatively small house) and there is already a back patio and a large vegetable garden (about 20'x10').  the area that needs to be reseeded is probably  a little more than 1,000 square feet. 

If you've done your research already, both the Thunderturf (tm) and Habiturf (tm) will require 3-4 pounds of seed per 1000 square feet.

The areas being reseeded range from full sun (most of the area) to mostly shade (a small strip along the fence line).  Both Thunderturf* and Habiturf* are labeled for 'full sun'.  All this really means is that we don't expect it to do super fabulous in the shade.  That is fine - areas where the grass doesn't grow are just areas that need plants instead of turf.  Also, what type of experiment would this be if we didn't do the full range of lighting? We're already forgoing the control group.

*It's going to get annoying and Andrea will kill me if I set a precedent of doing (tm) every time we type "Thunderturf" or "Habiturf".  Thus we will have to agree that whenever you see "Thunderturf" or "Habiturf" you will just have to add that TM in a circle after it.

New Beginnings

This last summer was hellacious.  It was a summer which included breaking records for number of days over 100 (85! Go big or go home, I say), hottest July and August ever, and we tied the hottest temperature on record (112 F).  Additionally, we had the worst single-year drought ever (as measured by rainfall); and quite possibly are in the running for worst drought on record (1950-1957 was the worst drought on record)

As can be expected, there were many plants that didn't make it.  One of the hardest hit were the lawns (at least our lawns were - we refused to water them).

After fearing that my lawn was completely dead, it has been filling in pretty nicely with the rain, so I am not re-seeding anything, but Andrea's lawn was decimated.  After hours of research, she decided to reseed her lawn area with Habiturf. 

Habiturf (tm in a circle) is a mix of Buffalo Grass (64%), Blue Grama (30%), and Curly Mesquite (6%) marketed by Douglass King Seed Company and sold at the Wildflower Center in south Austin.  (NOTE:  Native American Seed Company has a similar seed mix of the same types (82%, 16%, and 2%, respectively) called Thunder Turf (also tm in a circle)).  The theory behind using different seed mixes in the same area is to decrease the homogeneity in the lawn thus allowing it to fare better against disease and other forms of attack.

This blog is an account of the trials and tribulations of starting a Habiturf lawn from seed.  We aim to provide pictures and other notes which may be helpful to those looking to create a new lawn using Habiturf (or similar) seed.