Establishing a New Lawn with a Tractor and Rock Rake

I've always enjoyed landscaping and growing ornamental plants, and that includes lawn grasses. There's nothing more satisfying to the soul than finishing the mowing and weed-eating and looking out over your perfect lawn. It's not all that tough to establish a good stand of grass, but there are a few issues that can trip you up. With a tractor, it's a real easy task to get a nice lawn.

First step is to level the ground so when you're done you have good drainage and easy mowing. This is the place where I usually fail because I'm trying to hurry to get to the next step in the equation. So, a couple of years down the line, I'm usually coming back and adding topsoil, or regrading, basically doing what I should have done the first time. So the best advice here is to take your time with the bucket and get it smooth and graded the way you want it.

Next step is to remove the debris. A rock rake is a good tool for this, but it won't get it totally clean. Go over the area multiple times to get rid of the bigger rocks and limbs, then hand pick the rest of the smaller rocks in the loader bucket. You can't grow grass on a rock.

The next step is the seeding. If you're doing a cool season grass like fescues, bluegrass, or rye grass, fall is the best time. That's because those grasses will get up and flourish in the fall/early winter when there are no weeds to compete with. They don't mind a little cold, they don't like hot weather and weed competition. So, if you sow in the spring, they get out of the ground and immediately have to compete with the weeds and hot weather, and I've never been able to make that work. If you're seeding in shade, creeping red fescue is the best choice, in the sun, a lawn-type fescue of bluegrass is good. Rye grass is usually part of the mix because it comes up quickly and gives you a good stand of something green, but you don't want a high percentage of rye because it doesn't live long. I use a really old cyclone seeder to sow the seeds but I have done it by hand or with a little push-type spreader as well.

Next step is to put the seed in firm contact with the ground. This is where a lot of people have problems. The seeds actually need to be compacted with the soil...not too much, but enough to know they're out of the bag of seed. I recommend one trip across with the tractor tires.

The last step is applying the straw. This helps hold water and prevent erosion. I've tried this process without this step and failed miserably. I'm not sure if there's a reason the new seeds need a light protection from the sun, but I wouldn't miss this. Just a real light covering is all you need, don't smother the ground.

You'll see the final result in the video. Don't be afraid to mow the new grass, but higher is better. I never mow below 4"and it's great for cool season grasses. Finally, remember to keep the lawn mower blades sharp.

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Видео Establishing a New Lawn with a Tractor and Rock Rake канала Tractor Mike