I've read quite a few messages on this forum and it seems to be a wealth of information, so I'm hoping some kind souls out there can help me with some advice. Last summer, I bought a house on 2 acres in south-east MI. This is my first house with anything close to this much land. Unfortunately, the house needed a new septic system and the construction ended up tearing up most of the yard. The septic wasn't finished until October, so the yard has been mostly a mud pit (or a snow covered mud pit the few times we had snow this year :-) all winter.

Now that spring is arriving, I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the yard. Well, at least the front half. The back half (where the septic field is) I'll just throw some seed on (if that) and keep whatever grows from getting out of hand. For the from half, I would like to have grass, but I don't want to put too much money or time into it. I'd like something that the kids can run on without breaking their ankles, but I don't need it to be Pebble Beach. Also, we're just settling into the house and the wife has dreams of a rather large garden, so investing a lot of money in a lawn that might be half torn back up in a couple years is something I'd like to avoid. The guys who did the septic (very nice guys BTW) said they would come out and grade/topsoil/hydroseed at their cost, but I'm not sure I even want to do that. Maybe I can spend that money on a smallish lawn tractor (maybe something like a JD x300 or x500) and do it "good enough" by myself.

In addition to being new to the countryside, I'm new to MI having grown up in the California desert, where nothing grows by itself.

Any advice would be great at this point.

Also, I have some pics, but I'm not sure how to upload them...

Thanks!

If you have full sun, the Kentucky bluegrass is the turf that will hold up to the kids best. It is a sod forming grass, meaning it spreads to fill in weak spots. Fescue is a bunch grass that might spread to fill in by the time of the next ice age.

Ask your wife where she might like to have the garden before you do the lawn. She'll want the sunniest place.

Here is the 1-2-3 of grass growing as found in these forums over the past decade.

1. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.
   


2. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above. By mulching you help return fertility to the soil.
   


3. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.
   

GardenWeb does not host pictures. If you have pictures hosted somewhere else on the Internet, GW can link to them. An Internet photo hosting site might be tumblr, photobucket, picasa, or some others. Then you need to use the correct HTML code so it shows up here. Here is that code.

<img src="YOUR PHOTO URL GOES HERE">

You get your photo URL by bringing up the photo (in your browser at the host's site) and right clicking on it. Select Copy Link Location. Then paste that location between the quotes in the code above. The quotes are necessary for this to work. Don't leave them out. The photo URL should look like this

http://www.photobucket.com/yourphotos/photoname.jpg

Putting it all together it will look something like this...

<img src="http://www.photobucket.com/yourphotos/photoname.jpg">

Then post your message like normal.

One thing about watering here in MI. I've noticed that some people don't water at all up here. Grass is green in the spring and early summer. Goes brown for a couple weeks if we get a heat wave in the late summer and is dormant in the winter. In the burbs where there are "real lawns" I see sprinkler systems galore. But here in the sticks they are few and far between. Would not having sprinklers present any issues?

Here's a few photos:

Is that sand I see everywhere? If so then you could probably regrade it yourself.

There are people all over who believe lawns should never be watered - that they should survive on their own. That's fine if you don't mind bare spots that will eventually become weeds. Those people generally do not ask for advice on lawn forums, but sometimes they come through. I have hoses and oscillating type sprinklers at my house in San Antonio. They work great and put out water very slowly. If you have a lot of high wind, then they are not so good.

I still like the idea of KBG simply because it is a sod forming turf. Bentgrass is another sod forming turf that might work for you. Sod forming means it will creep into areas you might not want it, but the beauty in your case is it will hold the sand in place. Fescue is a bunch grass that does not spread to cover the soil. Another possible alternative is a mix of bentgrass and Dutch white clover. Clover has white flowers that attract bees. It also stains clothes when you slide into home plate. Many people consider clover a weed, but if you are going to try to minimize the cost, clover is your friend. With a clover mix you will never have to fertilize and may never need to water if you are mowing it high. Mow it once a week or never. Clover stops growing at about 5-6 inches high. It has a rolling appearance rather than a carpet appearance.

Which desert in SoCal did you grow up in (location)? I grew up in Riverside, which in the 1950s was somewhat like desert. In the 80s my parents moved to Palm Desert. We also had a lot in Apple Valley but the low desert was always our playground.

I spent my time growing up split between the San Gabriel Valley (Monrovia mostly) and Desert Hot Springs. I went to HS in Palm Springs (apparently DHS has their own these days; makes me feel old :-).

The soil is mostly clay. Makes awesome mud for the kids. Also, it doesn't drain at all. Puddles last for weeks sometimes. It doesn't help that the water table is about 10 feet below the surface. Michigan is like a whole different planet that what I am used to from the desert, that's for sure... The washboarding effect is from the tracks of the heavy equipment used to build the septic field and from the low angle of the sun (it was almost sunset).

I like the idea of a sod forming turf and I'm not worried about it growing anywhere in particular so that sounds like a good idea.

Run a jar test on your soil to see how much clay you have. It won't make much difference in how your handle it but you'll know if you have clay or something that acts like clay. You can search this forum or GW, or the Internet for jar test. It involves soil, a jar, a ruler, and a camera.