Budget Buster.. Lawn.

[pigletto]

I just went in the back yard. My lawn is DESTROYED. Compeltely dug up. More dirt than grass

From what brief research I have been able to do.. it would appear we had a lot of bugs/worms right under the surface (we had thatch) and skunks and racoons have completely destroyed the lawn overnight to get at the feast.

We put in this lawn for thousands of dollars only 3 years ago. It's gone. It's going to be a huge project to fix this and reseed and try to figure out the problem.
Blah. I just wanted to whine. Dh could care less.. he's not a lawn guy. I on the other hand really like a nice neat yard. Which apparently is never going to happen.

 

[princessnoelly]

I'm sorry. Wednesday we laid 1,500 sq feet of sod after having our lawn killed a few years ago. We had a 50 year old cotton wood tree with borers and when the tree was taken out and the stump removed the lawn was killed.

I hated looking outside to a dust bowl full of dog poo, tree roots and weeds.

Can you throw down some seed? Call a lawn company to have them look at it? Was it grubs that killed the lawn?

 

[dawson5]

Sounds like our project for this year. Our leech field for the septic started to fail (luckily we caught before it really went and backed up into the house). We have to replace almost all of the backyard grass. This would be after we get out all of the rocks and figure out where the boxes are for the sprinkler system and replace the broken lines.

Have fun. I would love to trade places with you on that. I did that at our house two houses ago. I re-landscaped most of the yard and fixed what was going wrong with our lawn (thatch, weeds and grubs). I'm at a loss with the sprinkler stuff.

 

[pigletto]

Sounds like our project for this year. Our leech field for the septic started to fail (luckily we caught before it really went and backed up into the house). We have to replace almost all of the backyard grass. This would be after we get out all of the rocks and figure out where the boxes are for the sprinkler system and replace the broken lines.

Have fun. I would love to trade places with you on that. I did that at our house two houses ago. I re-landscaped most of the yard and fixed what was going wrong with our lawn (thatch, weeds and grubs). I'm at a loss with the sprinkler stuff.

I called Dh and complained and he suggested exactly what you said. "Let's start a project!"
He is anti lawn because it is ALWAYS something and just a sink hole for money every Spring and Fall. So he started talking about extending the deck, and making pathways and more veggie space and planting trees.
I went from disappointed to excited in one 5 minute conversation.

I am sorry about your sprinkler problems That's got to be a headache.
Some people might find it silly but it's so important to me to be proud of my yard and feel peaceful when I'm out there. Right now I hate it.
I hope you can find a workable solution soon

 

[seashoreCM]

You need to invest in antiskunk compound (e.g. Scott's Grubex). Put it down in late summer when the grubs are small, otherwise you need four times as much (pounds per square yard) in the spring when the grubs are big.

Regular worms don't harm the lawn.

You might as well take the opportunity to get rid of the rocks, one by one.

 

[dawson5]

I called Dh and complained and he suggested exactly what you said. "Let's start a project!"
He is anti lawn because it is ALWAYS something and just a sink hole for money every Spring and Fall. So he started talking about extending the deck, and making pathways and more veggie space and planting trees.
I went from disappointed to excited in one 5 minute conversation.

I am sorry about your sprinkler problems That's got to be a headache.
Some people might find it silly but it's so important to me to be proud of my yard and feel peaceful when I'm out there. Right now I hate it.
I hope you can find a workable solution soon

I love a good lawn project. What you all are doing, I can do. Sprinkler I have no clue on. We can't go forward with the lawn until that is figured, not unless we want to dig it up again.

I used to take great pride in our lawn also, then he put mulch down. We usually try to agree on everything and he wanted the mulch and did it, without my agreement. So now I just stand back from it and let him do it. (When I did the lawn, it looked better ) He might come home some day (or weekend) to having the mulch gone and rock in it's place.

Have fun with that. Glad for you, sounds like he is excited to do this. Sounds like a positive fellow, making lemonade out of lemons.