Topic: Grass Repair Advice

[82juguete]

Quick background: I bought my first house a couple of months ago. My fiance and I made the bold move of deciding to have our reception in the backyard since we have the space (the lot is just over a third of an acre). Anyway, since the weather has heated up here in Fresno, several dead spots have appeared in the lawns.

The bottom line, the lawn should really be zero-scaped and completely reseeded; obviously this isn't an option, since the wedding is in September. Instead I need to quick fix these areas:






Just wanted to see if anyone has had great results with a particular method, seed, mulch, etc. Sod isn't really an option since the edges will blend horribly with the existing stuff. And I have my doubts about someone hydroseeding such small areas (vs. the whole lawn). Open to any advice to get this patched up decently by September! Thanks.

[86rustbucket]

I know this is Fresno and there is a severe shortage of them around here but how about asking a landscaper?    

[brainlessfool]

what kinda sprinklers do you have? fan heads? that would be my guess.  you'd have to change over to some type of rotor stream head.

[86rustbucket]

I was just kidding man.

  I've heard good things about this stuff. The only thing is we have at least another 6 weeks of 100+ weather here in beautiful Fresno. Thats gonna be the hard part right there.

[stihlmohawk]

What i would do is get a steel rake and scrape the ground you need to repair and go get you some hybrid Bermuda seed or something that does real good in the sun/shade what ever the landscape provides most of and spread the seed in the desiered area. Get a couple bags of top soil and cover the seeded areas but not to much. Just enough to protect the seed and keep it from blowing or wasing away. Try not to walk on it and keep it moist not soaked and make sure not to was it away. Dont bother wasting you money on fertilizer  it can make matters worse at this point.... it might cost you $100 bucks or so apposed to who knows what a landscaper might charge. Or just ask your neighbors Gardner when hes around to do it for you.....

[stihlmohawk]

Or get the ezseed.... lol.

[emsvitil]

green paint............
 
 
 

[82juguete [OP]]

Exactly... that's why I'm more interested in the types of mulch to retain moisture and protect the seed. Peat moss, paper-based, wood-based. I may give that EZ seed a shot and just make sure to lightly water before and after work in addition to the regular sprinkler cycle. And brainless, they are fans. I want to redo with some gear-drives later.  BTW I know that one spot is due to improper sprinkler patterns, which im fixing. The others were my fault; I took a skip-loader back there to bust-up some concrete and it left it's mark.

[82juguete [OP]]

Yea, i'm reserving the green rustoleum for the last resort, day-before fix, haha

[stihlmohawk]

you can buy the top soil by the yard if you got alot of area to cover and as long as you keep it moist top soil is what you want and its about $40-$60 a yard... good luck and congrats...

[Rocksurfer]

Looks hard pack so you may want to a aerate your entire lawn, then reseed it. Doesn't look like it is getting enough water or oxygen and really needs a good deep watering. Aerating will help with both of those issues and should be done yearly. Get a good filler seed so that the bare areas will fill in after you aerate it.

[stihlmohawk]

aerating is a must...

[82juguete [OP]]

Great, thanks guys. I'll report back with what I try and the results I get in the upcoming weeks.

[Shamb]

Amonia sulfate and alot of water

[Cheesemaker]

I'm glad I don't have to worry about watering my lawn.     It stays green almost year round.  The month of August is usually touch and go if I have to mow the dandelions.   

[BLACKDOG]

rough up the ground, and dump that ez seed on it.  We had some bad patches in our yard, and that stuff worked wonders.  We have dogs, and put up chicken wire around the seeded areas, and watered 2x per day every other day. (required during the summer up here).  I may or may not have run water on the spot more often than that by accident   It worked great