# Lawn renovation with NO water! Mission impossible



## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

When I started this I felt like this was a doomed mission. This is a 15k sq.ft area of my property that borders the public street. Even though I am on a private well with endless water we have no irrigation or even a hose in this area due to the distance. It's 1500' from my house so the "grass" in this area was terrible. The problem for me was that I would never be able to water the seed at all once it was down!

I was inspired from the forum here and some local tips I got about renovating this area and decided this would be the year that I would try it. Any improvement would be awesome but the results ended up blowing me away considering the situation. I really felt this project would likely fail.

I couldn't be happier with the results and made a video to share if you may have a similar situation and to show that it *can* be done with the right products and timing. I hope you like it.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Wow! What a great result! Thanks for sharing


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## Mark102 (Oct 6, 2018)

Really nice results. Gives hope for my lawn. Thanks for the info.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

I think it depends on what your looking ro accomplish. You wanted to have grass grow in a really neglected area. You went into it with low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. I have a similar area that I resently just threw some pr seed down. I didnt want it to be bare all winter I only watered once a day and its growing just fine. 
Most of us on here baby our lawns and want to give it the best care we can to get the best results. Grass is a living thing and things that live always find a way to live. That being said it might be a challange keeping that grass looking so good during the heat of the summer months without water. Overall nice job


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Scagfreedom48z+ said:


> Wow! What a great result! Thanks for sharing


Thank you for the nice comment. I have to admit that I had low hopes when it started since everything tells you that you can't do it.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Where abouts in Massachusetts are you?
I also subscribed to your channel. Watched a couple of your videos and I've already gathered up some ideas.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

Great video and nice results... when I was watching throw down seed on that long grass I thought you were in trouble...


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I disagree with your video in a couple of areas.

1) applying lime at seed down could be a recipe for disaster if a) the soil doesn't need it and b) it could mess up the soil pH right when the seeds are germinating.

2) this was an overseed into a fairly well established area with a very atypical rainy early fall into a wood/shaded area. It is hard to tell how much is new grass vs. fertilized existing grass. It leads the impression that not watering an overseed is a sound strategy.

It is looking nice.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Scagfreedom48z+ said:


> Where abouts in Massachusetts are you?
> I also subscribed to your channel. Watched a couple of your videos and I've already gathered up some ideas.


Thank you very much that's great to hear! I am in Southeastern Mass heading towards Cape Cod. Thank you again.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

g-man said:


> I disagree with your video in a couple of areas.
> 
> 1) applying lime at seed down could be a recipe for disaster if a) the soil doesn't need it and b) it could mess up the soil pH right when the seeds are germinating.
> 
> ...


I appreciate the feedback on this. In Mass folks definitely Lime like crazy, doesn't make it right or that it can't cause harm but it is very common here. It seems like everything is acidic. Well water in this area is 5.x as well. Seems to be our nature but I fully agree that a soil test would have been a good move for sure.

Only the shady areas had even 40% or so coverage of "grass" it's tough to tell from the video but the front is VERY sunny, like Martian sun  If you noticed I just planted those river birches up there this year. How did I water them? I brought 5 gallon buckets every 3 days or so on my UTV. They did incredible considering the brutally hot summer we had and the limited water I could give. We didn't get rain for almost 6 weeks in late summer so I was fearful they would be ruined.

Now... I am HOPING that these birches grow as big as I am told and they will hopefully create some shade for the martian section of this area.

Thank you for the nice words and good feedback. I have learned so much from here and I genuinely appreciate it.

Best wishes


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

silvercymbal said:


> In Mass folks definitely Lime like crazy, doesn't make it right or that it can't cause harm but it is very common here.


Lol, yeah...even that guy Roger on "This Old House". We aren't quite as nuts in CT, but you still see people doing it once a year without ever having a soil test. I don't agree with it, but it is what it is.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Green said:


> silvercymbal said:
> 
> 
> > In Mass folks definitely Lime like crazy, doesn't make it right or that it can't cause harm but it is very common here.
> ...


Umass here does soil tests and I need to start with an annual test at least. I have a lot of neighbors with amazing lawns and they do it themselves. I asked one years ago about a test and he said to me, what am I testing for, cholesterol? and started laughing at me and almost fell over. The problem is the guys lawn is like a golf course so I couldn't say much but personally know that tests are needed.

I feel bad for Roger now. There are a few videos of him recently on TOH and the poor guy doesn't seem to be doing well. I watched him for a lot of years. I guess we are all getting older.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

silvercymbal said:


> I feel bad for Roger now. There are a few videos of him recently on TOH and the poor guy doesn't seem to be doing well. I watched him for a lot of years. I guess we are all getting older.


Really? I hadn't seen the show recently. Hopefully it's just wear and tear from landscaping that physical therapy could fix.


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## bosox_5 (Jun 20, 2018)

Yeah, he isn't doing well.

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/more/letter-roger-cook


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Very sad, certainly shared a lot of good ideas with the viewers for a long time. Hopefully he recovers.


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## HomerGuy (Jun 5, 2017)

I've been watching TOH since I was a kid. Started watching when Steve Thomas was the host (wish I could see the beginning episodes with Bob Vila somewhere). That is sad to hear about Roger.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Same here, even though I couldn't do anything back then I used to watch it all the time. Really was a great show, long before the youtube days.


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## Cory (Aug 23, 2017)

It looks nice but no offense, it's not that miraculous. Hay farmers, cattle farmers, and horse breeders plant grass in pastures and fields all the time with no irrigation. Tall fescue, perennial/annual rye, and Kentucky Bluegrass are common grasses in hay fields and grazing pastures. Not trying to discredit your effort just pointing out something you maybe never thought about.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Cory said:


> It looks nice but no offense, it's not that miraculous. Hay farmers, cattle farmers, and horse breeders plant grass in pastures and fields all the time with no irrigation. Tall fescue, perennial/annual rye, and Kentucky Bluegrass are common grasses in hay fields and grazing pastures. Not trying to discredit your effort just pointing out something you maybe never thought about.


I definitely appreciate the feedback and agree that of course grass grows all over just as you described but I found no credible material detailing renovating or installing in a *lawn* this way. I think I counted 20+ videos where you were told that it would fail and not grow. The few I found were just talk and didn't provide much detail, I was totally discouraged since I really can't irrigate this area, I also was very concerned that the turf could last as well due to limited watering as well.

My video was to show how I did it and specificallty what I used and for folks that don't have irrigation and like me don't even have a hose there that it could be done with the right products and timing.

I will be cutting again later today and will share some more photos. Next summer I will provide and update video to see how it had held up.

I might even put down some humid acid today up there, for fun


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

The one thing I forgot to do was to snap a shot of the label as well. I am told that Team Mates Plus is blended for each region. I will stop by Site One in the next few weeks and grab a pic of what varieties are in the blend I purchased. If you have a sit one near you it's amazing so see a mile high pile of seed. They sell a ton of material. I didn't like the prices on Tenacity, it was something like $160 a bottle! 8oz.


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## Cory (Aug 23, 2017)

@silvercymbal You couldn't find info because ideally you want to irrigate in order to have the most even coverage. Also because most lawns are small and easily irrigated with a hose bib timer and some makeshift sprinklers, it would be foolish not to irrigate new seed.

If you would have looked for information on seeding grazing pastures you would have a plethora of information.

There are so many generalized comments when it comes to lawn care like "Mow at the highest setting so weeds can't grow". Except that's not always true and definitely not true with warm season grass. Neighbor mows his Bermuda tall and is full of weeds, keep mine at 1" or lower and have no weeds.

Or "You want to aerate and seed in the fall", also not true with warm season grass but I see it and hear it suggested all the time. Neighbor was out the other day aerating and I could see some seed bags on the ground. Went over and asked what he was doing and he said he was overseeding. The bags of seed were Bermuda. I told him he needs to wait till spring to do that but didn't even need to do it at all because we have Tifway 419 in our front yards. He was told that he was supposed to do it in the fall and he went with it. If I wouldn't have stopped him he would have wasted several hundred dollars of seed.

My point is, just because someone on YouTube says you have to water or you will fail doesn't make it true.

Anyhow, it looks great! I subscribed :thumbup:


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## massgrass (Aug 17, 2017)

Nice work, I'm also curious to see how things hold up for you next year. I subbed to your youtube channel and have been watching a few of those as well.  FWIW, I'm a local from the Fall River area.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Awesome to see someone so close by! Thank you very much for the kind words also! I will be posting pics very shortly. Just got back in and it really looks amazing.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Since there's usually less rain and more evaporation in August, I find seeding in September is a must when I can't water much. The other time of year that sometimes works is March/April (for shady spots that won't be as susceptible to Summer heat). No way would I throw out seed in August without being able to water.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Taken earlier tonight. Needs to be cut but filling in very nicely.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo5QpMGnbbT/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo5QhgNHuOZ/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

silvercymbal said:


> Taken earlier tonight. Needs to be cut but filling in very nicely.
> 
> 
> __
> ...


Incredible transformation! Thick turf!


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Thank you very much, it's really done amazing the past couple of weeks. I cut it to 2.5" since we are coming into the end of the season. I will grab some more pics in the next few days. Funny thing is that I swear the blades look nicer than the Lesco "premium" blend I got for the yard area directly around my house (that is irrigated)


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

A number of people asked for a copy of the grass seed label. I stopped by and took this for everyone.
Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpFzQyBnxnu/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet


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