# The Alpha lawn/farm restoration



## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

It's been a busy nearly 12 months on my old but new to me horse farm. The property was previously owned by an older couple and in some disrepair. This summer has been year one of lawn care. Not a ton of good news on that front. Weeds have been knocked back a reasonable bit. We've been on a borderline drought for the summer. With 2.25 mapped acres to cut I do not have irrigation, so it's been a tough year. As it sits now I'm busy with a newborn in my arms and a very injured back.

My "backyard" is a total wreck. This is not in my mapped lawn yet, it's final size is yet to be determined, what's being seeded (late) this year hasn't been measured yet. SSS low light fescue is being planted here. The septic was previously replaced with a traditional contractor grade grass mix brought in. There is far too much tree coverage in the yard, which I have been thinning out. This week was supposed to be final tree removal, soil amendments and seeding. Moss was, sprayed and raked out in June with very little returning since. With my track loaders arrival still pending, rentals being booked out and my back being out nothings gotten done. Bummer. My friends kid did an expert job shooting down roundup for me, I've since remedied that.





Im debating between adding a live edge garden in the woods or matching the hard scrape that ties in to my pool area. Buckthorn/briars we're cut out last fall. Garlon 3 is going down in this area any day now, just gotta nurse my back a bit, or load my Enduraplas in the Back of the UTV and use the wand. After initial burn down I will basal treat last years stumps, the goal being to rot the stumps root system out by spring so they can be pulled out. More trees will be removed this fall, but not too many, I want to maintain shade around this part of the home and do a low light ground cover garden. The generator is being replaced next spring, I want to obscure it some but have not decided what to plant around it.







Pool hard scape as a comparison. I would use a single corse of stone, I don't want to raise grade enough to create a terrace effect.



The main lawn lining the driveway and outdoor arena. It's really not that bad. The cultivars are old bit presentable enough. There is a lot of orchard grass that I want to eliminate. Some tree lines need to be worked back over the winter to remove poor growth pattern trees, but there's plenty of daytime light. The plan moving forward is total renovations. TTF's for good drought tolerance. One day irrigation will be added and i will add *** once I can support it with proper irrigation.









This is the first area of grass down below that I want to renovate. There is some shade so TTTF would do well here. It's BUMPY! I cannot stand mowing it. Next summer I want to spray this off in June. Work the soil over a bit, smooth things out, spray off a few times and reseed come August.



Fast forwarding a year or two more this strip on the left side is on my hit list. Adjacent to my only neighbor. The dip will be removed so my mowings be very tidy. The strip will be 18 feet wide. The remaining field will be switched to wildflowers.



More too add later!


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

:thumbup: It looks like a nice project.


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

Bad back and all I got two trees down today/removed. Most of the others on my hit list are smaller trees, hopefully tomorrow I can get them down if my back is up for it





Seed from United and GCI is here too. SSS has been here since spring time. Another roundup app coming shortly. I'll be adding Drive XLR8 too, roundup isn't doing as well in some broadleaves as I would like. Tenacity will go down at seeding, which I'm cutting very close this late in the year.


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

Good stuff. Lots of work ahead and I'm sure it'll turn out great.


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

Thank you. It's been a fun project!



Liquidstone said:


> Good stuff. Lots of work ahead and I'm sure it'll turn out great.


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

Progress made over the weekend. There is light now! Still no track loader or reasonable rentals, so I'm using my wheel loader and tractors to get materials out and in to the area. I ordered a drag for behind the UTV or lawn tractor. I'll really rough spread things with a front end loader and landscape rake and finish off with a drag. I've still got to cut some stumps down. I'll grind them out next spring. 














Post cleanup today. Got out my Ford 4630 for the loader work. That old girl eats!


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

I could also use a little help. I'm ordering in sand to fill in previous washouts and obviously need topsoil. But what should I look for. The sand obviously, is there a topsoil with sand that would be better to use than normal screened topsoil? Any advice would be much appreciated!


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

I wouldn't overthink it, and go with screened topsoil that is available. The key is to get the seed to establish quickly, in order to hold the soil together. I would include a small portion of prg to get quick germination. If your mix doesn't have any, you can buy a bag or two to spread separately at seed down. It will pop a few days quicker than the TTTF to stabilize the soil and reduce chances of a washout of the TTTF seed. Don't worry if it fries next summer, the TTTF should tiller to take up the space as long as you keep the percentage of rye low (~10%).


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

Thank you very much @Chris LI! I was able to get a screened topsoil mix brought in on Thursday and Friday. 120 yards is daunting to bring in one bucket at a time. On the plus side the soil is very nice clean. On the downside is supposed to rain a bunch this week. Figures.


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

It's been a week to move dirt if there were one. I have plenty left to move but the flat area for my daughter is close to being wrapped up. Most of the area has a skim coat of soil on it, I'll round it out after flattening off lower landing. 








This is what the previous owners called "dirt". I'm sure my mower blades would have loved it.



It's slowly starting to look like a yard again. I'm much happier with the light the area receives, I hope to do a KBG over-seed next year.


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## ALPHA (Aug 25, 2021)

More dirt moved today, I'll grab more pics tomorrow. Following on what @Chris LI said and taking it further, I think I might do a 100% rye stand this year for fast germination. Next summer I can allow all the weeds that are lurking in the new soil come up. Spray off in/through July and renovate in August with TTTF and KBG. I'm simply running too short on time this late in the year. I'm also very surprised at how much sunlight I gained in the area which does allow for a KBG to be added when previously it wouldn't have grown well at all in that area.


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