Lawn Renovation: From Starting to Leveling
Should you renovate your lawn or a customer’s lawn? In this article we will look at what a lawn renovation is, why and when it should be done, and the basic steps to prepare the lawn for seeding.
While seeding warm-season grasses is possible, cool-season Northern lawns are seeded on a regular basis so this article will focus on Northern grass replacement. Preparing for sod can be very similar, but we are focusing on outlining the steps with the goal of seeding.
What is a lawn renovation?
Basically, what a lawn renovation is killing an existing lawn and starting over completely fresh.
Why on earth would we do a lawn renovation? Killing off all of someone’s grass just sounds crazy. They pay to have their lawn taken care of, not killed. But, there are multiple reasons why complete lawn renovation is the right choice.
First Do A Lawn Evaluation
Most of the time when lawn renovation is necessary there is a severe issue in the lawn, or multiple issues and it is better to start over. Some of those issues could have more weeds than grass in a lawn.
They might as well just kill it all and start over. Sometimes the lawn is full of hard to kill weeds. Maybe they have weeds like poa triv or poa annua that has taken over. Grassy weeds like that are hard to get rid of without killing the wanted grass. Some cool-season grasses get diseases every single year and ends up looking bad and dying off every year.
Sometimes there is new construction like adding a pool or homeowners have installed a new irrigation system which tears up the entire lawn. These are some of the reasons for a complete lawn renovation
When is the best time to renovate a lawn?
When it comes to cool season grass, it's going to be easiest to reseed it in the fall. You can do it in the spring, but it is more challenging. I have worked with lawn care business owners that completely guarantee their seeding that is done in the fall, but not in the Spring.
Some guaranteed half the amount in the Spring and no guarantee for seeding done in the summer. You can even do it in the middle of summer but it's going to be much more challenging with many more variables working against you. You will be fighting weeds more and watering can be more of an issue.
For most cool season grasses you will want your seed down around August 15th. Check on a weather website like Weather Underground and it will tell you the average first frost date for your area. Work backwards. You're going to want 10 to 12 weeks before that first freeze to establish that new grass coming up.
Preparing for renovation services
I suggest you start shopping for seed, buying seed, starter fertilizer, getting all your materials at least at least 6 weeks before your renovation. If you are going to be seeding after aeration, make sure your machine is serviced and ready to go.
You're going to want to do your research on what seed would be best for you area and circumstances. The last thing you want to do is kill your grass and start panicking when you can't find exactly what you need or what you need isn't in stock. Make sure you have all your material before you actually kill your grass and start this renovation.
Getting Started - Kill the grass
Obviously if you're going to kill and start over, then the first thing you need to do is kill it. The easiest way to kill your existing lawn is to put glyphosate on it. This has been the go-to product for renovation for many years. The most cost effective way is to buy it in concentrated form.
Glyphosate is generic Roundup. The formulation has changed in the last few years and the price is high just because of the brand name. It makes a lot more sense to buy generic glyphosate 41% and mix it yourself.
In my Lawn Care Management course that focuses on minimizing expenses and maximizing profits, there is a video about choosing generics for as many products as possible and examples of price differences, which are huge.
Now, when you go to kill your lawn, you want a slow kill on the lawn. You don't want to over apply the glyphosate. If you over apply, you'll most likely only get top burn and it won't go and kill the root system so you're really defeating the purpose of killing your lawn. Follow the label rate on the glyphosate and that will work for both top and roots.
Now this is a lot slower of a walking speed than most applications call for. Most weed control applications call for 1 gallon of water per 1,000 square feet. Insecticides are usually more like 2 gallons per 1,000 sq ft.
The label for complete kill usually calls for 1 gallon of water per 300 square feet so you have to walk 2 thirds slower or you even better you should recalibrate your sprayer. Depending on your spray rig pressure regulator, your nozzle, or JD-9 gun, etc., you may have to do both. You can start with calibrating based on walking slow
I suggest you also add surfactant so that the product sticks to the leaves better and covers them better. Check the rate and make sure you adjust it based on you covering at 1 gallon per 300 sq ft instead of 1,000. Depending on your spray rig pressure regulator, your nozzle, or JD-9 gun, etc., you may have to do both. You can start with calibrating based on walking slow.
I always suggest adding a blue dye so that you can see where you have covered. I suggest a high rate since you will be seeding anyway. I was out checking lawns that had been killed with the first spraying and we found several with patches that were missed. He had to send someone back to those and spray the patches. Lesson learned.
Chances are that your customers have neighbors. When you're spraying you're going to want to use some type of barrier to block any overspray into other lawns or into any shrubs for flower beds. You can use carboard, paint shields, whatever works. Plan on spraying on a day that isn’t expected to be windy.
You can notify the neighbors on either side of the upcoming renovation. First, notifying them will help avoid any misunderstandings. You don’t want them to think something is wrong with the lawn you are working on. When you are seeding and putting up any barriers to keep people from walking on the new seed, you may be stepping on their property.
Secondly, this is a good time to sell them a lawn renovation or spot seeding. When you tell them what is getting ready to happen next door, a high percentage will ask you how much it would cost to do theirs also. In most areas, you can’t do door-to-door sales, but you are allowed to notify neighbors of work like that.
Wait And Watch
After you put down that first application of glyphosate, you probably won’t see any effects for at least 5 days. You want a slow kill to happen, so it gets down in the roots and translocates completely. If you're seeing that it's dying after 2 or 3 days you probably over applied and will need to put down another application Within a few days to stay on schedule. Usually you will see browning in 7 to 10 days depending on the temperature.
After that first application have the homeowners keep the lawn watered well. This will encourage weed seeds to germinate. After watering the lawn for a couple of weeks, it will be ready to spray again. You want to do this because the last thing you want after you put down seed and new grass is coming up is having weeds try to take over again.
You want to make sure you get a 100% kill. You may have to spray more than twice. Sedge nutlets may still be under the soil, but otherwise you should be able to get the majority of weed seed to germinate.
Bring in the Topsoil or Sand (or Both)
Now if you're bringing in topsoil, I would suggest killing the lawn at least 4 to 6 weeks at the minimum before you bring in topsoil because you're going to want to kill everything, then spread the topsoil, then start the watering and spraying routine again. This is really important because topsoil and sand are notorious for being full of weed seeds.
Nutsedge loves wet sandy areas. When they dredge the sand up to sell, it can be full of nutsedge and Kyllinga. Plan on spraying after the topsoil at least once, probably twice. Now we are up to the lawn looking bad for 6-8 weeks at least.
For optimum seed germination and success, you have to have great seed to soil contact. If the grass is tall it will make contact less likely. Especially if it is thatchy.
If you're not going to bring in topsoil, I would 100% recommend scalping the lawn. This means cutting it down as low as you possibly can to try getting down to the soil layer. Even better, if it was really thick, dethatch the lawn and rake the dead grass so there will be as much soil showing as possible.
Leveling The Lawn
Leveling is optional. It can be expensive, it is a lot of hard work, there's some negatives that come with leveling a lawn, but the positives usually outweigh the negatives. If the homeowner is going to pay for a new lawn you should at least give them the option for a complete fix.
If they are having disease issues in low areas, it really isn’t optional. They might as well pay to have everything leveled because this is the best time to do it.
The media you use to level the lawn will depend on your area. I suggest getting a soil test so you can incorporate everything that is needed while you are renovating. Get a soil test that will show you the organic material percentage.
Most lawns can use more organic matter and this is a perfect time to add peat moss or compost. You may also need to adjust the pH of the soil. You can add lime to adjust the soil and any other soil adjustments that are needed.
In many areas of the North, the main choices are sand or black dirt. It is ok to mix the two. That way you get the optimum leveling with the sand which settles well and the nutrition and microbes in the black dirt.
Equipment for leveling will also depend on what is available in your area and what equipment you have. If you can rent a motorized soil spreader that is a great way to go. Just fill it up and walk behind. If the area is free of obstructions you can hook up a type of drag behind to your riding mower or other riding equipment and use that.
In corners or for small lawns, just use a level rake and rake it out. If you are doing a couple of lawns, the rakes and wheelbarrows or Gorilla carts is sufficient. I used to have a Gorilla cart that would hold several hundred pounds and dumped and loved it. It wasn’t very expensive and is very handy.
Rake or drag the areas several times if possible. The media will keep falling into the soil and the leveling with be automatic. Kind of like using self-leveling concrete.
After leveling you will want to pack it down, so rain doesn’t make it shift. You can use a lawn roller and roll your entire lawn a few times to make sure you get that soil nice and compacted. If you selling seeding, you will get your money back quickly on the purchase.
If you are just getting started, they can usually be rented. You will probably be using it again to help the seed make contact with the soil, they are also good to use with sod, so it is multi-use.
Conclusion
This article has gone from deciding that a lawn needs a complete renewal to having the soil prepped and ready. The most important take-away is to spray the lawn as many times as needed to eliminate weeds and weed seeds. We must make sure the homeowners understand the process and are watering in between spraying to kill grass and weeds. A lawn renovation is a big process, but it will give your customers a new healthy lawn at a relatively low price. They should only need spot seeding for years to come.