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| Hello,
I'm brand new at this whole owning a house thing and it is great! Basically, I need to do the sprinklers and sod. I've been looking online as far as what I needed to do. Thus far, my wife and I have been pulling out the weeds and that is not working. Recently, we bought the Ultra Kill concentrate, place it in one of those spray bottles and set it on 3oz per gallon setting. I have sprayed the yard and plan on doing another round in a few days. I've looked into a tiller and was planning on tilling the whole yard in hopes to get rid of all the weeds. Then do another round of the ultra kill (unless I should buy something else?) I was then going to get a trencher for the sprinklers, do that whole thing. Then I was reading to buy the soil, lay it down and do the tiller again. Then basically just prepare it for the sod as far as getting it all nice and wet and that's pretty much it...I need to level some areas but I think that's the idea....how does that sound? Please let me know if I need to do something else or any other suggestions. Thanks!!! Andy |
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| Andy, my experience with tilling says not to do it. It fluffs the soil up and makes it difficult to get it level again. It takes a while for the soil to settle back down to its normal level. If you must till, don't till deeply. |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Sun, Jun 26, 11 at 11:53
| In order to provide you with accurate advice, we will need to know what area you are located (city or zip code). And one more thing..... DO NOT TILL!!!!!!! You will regret it if you do. Also, unless you have experience at installing an irrigation system, you might want to consider hiring a reputable contractor for that work. There's more to it than you might think. Especially if you are within a city limit, there are usually city/county codes that must be adhered to. If your water source is from a well, then you may be able to avoid having to adhere to some of those codes. Ask lots of questions here. There are knowledgeable people here who will be more than happy to help.
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sun, Jun 26, 11 at 14:07
| Thank you so much for presenting your plans before the damage was done. Tilling is a mistake. I don't know what you're reading elsewhere, but the consolidated opinion of the ages on this and other lawn forums, is that tilling for turf is a mistake. The reason is that it is impossible to hold the tiller steady as you go. The underlying untilled surface is bumpy. When you level off the top, fluffy material, you still have the bumpy under-surface. In three years the fluffy top will have settled back down and will match the bumpy under-surface. Then you will have to level it at the surface. In other words, back where you are right now. Bringing in topsoil is almost always a mistake. But you say you have an uneven surface. Would you call it bumpy so that the mower scalps the lawn, or is the profile change more gradual? If it is bumpy, then level it now. Search this forum for other threads about leveling. Where do you live? As nearandwest said, this is pretty important. If you live in "Los Angeles," please give the real name of the community. SoCal has too many zones to give specific advice without knowing the real location. What kind of grass do you want? How big an area are we talking about? Can you post pictures here? If you can post them to a host site on the Internet, we can help you view them here. There is a special HTML code you need to know. Anyway before you bring in soil, it would be nice to see what you have to start with. Putting in a great sprinkler system is contingent on getting the profile really good first. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sun, Jun 26, 11 at 14:41
| You do not need to till. If you think you have a weed problem now, go ahead and till and that is all you will have. You need to grade, not till. Once you have the area graded you are ready to lay sod. I also agree do not DIY the irrigation, hire a pro after you have the landscape plan down finalized. To add irrigation and do it correctly you will need to add another water meter and that involves pulling permits and codes to follow for which you stand ver little chance of passing inspections let alone even have a functioning system. |
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