Back on this hosta post I left a not-so-subtle indication that we were planting some fresh grass ’round these parts.
Though as pretty as superimposed text looks in that area (not), we’ve been working on getting the real thing for a while now and it’s finally (mostly) photo-ready. But let’s head back to the beginning, which is actually one step before the photo above… when it still looked like this:
Yep, we still had some weird liriope lingering to the right of the brick path, so we dug that up (to the point where it was even with the stone border on the other side) and called this area ready for grass seed.
Here’s the strip from the other side of the house. If you recall, this is where we used to have a line of boxwoods making the pathway look very, um, boxed in.
The area near our front porch wasn’t the only spot in need of grass seed. We also had a stripe of dirt (and ivy) where our “bush fence” once resided at the front of the property.
So once we ripped out all of the ivy, this area was also ready for some serious seedification.
Because this is not a good look. And we’ve been living with it like this since last fall. And we’re pretty tired of being “the house with the dirt path to nowhere.”
As for actually spreading the seed, we didn’t use our usual routine of starter fertilizer followed by grass seed in a broadcast spreader (detailed here). Since we were getting towards the end of the grass growing season (once it gets really hot the seed can burn before it begins to grow) impatience got the best of us and we bought this “seeding mixture” that has fertilizer and seed in one. I think it was about $20 per bag (sorry, lost my receipt to double-check).
I worried my broadcast spreader would waste a lot of seed by tossing it way beyond the bare strips. So instead I just tossed it by hand – kinda using the motion I imagine one might use to feed a bunch of chickens. Not that I’ve ever done that, so maybe I’m way off.
Once it was all spread, I got my water on. Again, since it was such a small area I skipped our usual sprinkler routine and broke out the hose. So picture me out there once a day (usually in the evening or the early morning, so the sun wouldn’t just burn it off) soaking both areas.
Now, to force a little bit of delayed gratification in this story (since it there was about two weeks of daily watering that delayed any real life gratification) I’m gonna switch gears momentarily. Let’s talk about these random ferns that pop up under our magnolia tree.
We both like ferns. Just not in this spot. It just looks messy to us and we have other plans for under this tree someday. So we dug them up.
They were actually a bit of a pain to get up – and there were lots of them too. I filled two whole wheelbarrows full of them (which I hauled to our naturalized side yard, where I’d be happy for them to take root). I also like how this photo unintentionally looks like our West Elm ceramic speaker-pig is trying to escape up the tree to avoid the wheelbarrow. #PigProblems.
Now it’s a big empty round of dirt – but at least it doesn’t have those gangly ferns creeping all over the place anymore. And someday we’d love to plant some green low-lying groundcover for a more seamless look (that screams big-ring-of-dirt-under-a-tree-where-grass-won’t-grow a little less). Someday.
Okay, now back to grass mode. It took about 10 days for any hint of grass to start showing up. A bit longer than our past experiences (which were usually seven on the dot), but we chalked it up to being late in the season when it was a bit warmer out.
Here’s a farther-away shot of the area just starting to get a subtle green tint to it around ten days in.
Fast forward another week or two and things are finally filling in pretty nicely:
You can still see the distinction between the fresh grass and the mature grass, but once the new stuff starts to grow out of its neon green newness it should be less obvious.
We can’t tell you how much this excites us just to see a carpet of grass here, totally unobstructed by bushes, ivy, or dirt. Kinda wish it hadn’t taken 18 months of living here for this to finally get done!
It’s also much easier to mow now that I don’t have to weave around a bunch of bushes (these pics were taken right after mowing, which is why you can see some fresh wheel lines in some of the shots).
The stripe closer to the house is having a bit of a rougher go at filling in. The area by the street is lower, so water runoff seems to go there – which makes all of the grass down there a little lusher. We might end up overseeding this path area another time this fall, just to help it fill in more evenly.
Here it is from the other side. Again, not perfect…
…but definitely an improvement!
And while we’re looking at old before photos, let’s take a peek at how the view from the front has improved. Here’s a before shot taken about a week after we bought this house (even before Sherry trimmed up the magnolia).
And here we are today.
It’s pretty grass-tastic if you ask me. And thankfully since it’s only a three-foot strip of grass out front and next to the path that we added in place of all those bushes, it only takes a few more runs of the mower to get ‘er done (five more mowing minutes are definitely worth the curb appeal that we gained).
Has anyone else played the grass seed game yet this year? Or have you had any past triumphs (or trials) with planting grass around your home? Are you slowly inching along with outdoor improvements? It used to make us so sad that outside things seem to take forever, but we learned with our first house that a lot of little updates over a few years can definitely make for some dramatic results. So keep the faith. And make sure your ceramic pig isn’t trying to run off…
CampDallas says
Your neighbors have to be in awe! What an amazing transformation!!
Karen says
Wow! Your yard looks so great now. Your house doesn’t look shady and suspicious anymore. I can appreciate how hard you have worked. I also have a house and yard in progress. Last year I hired a fly-by-night outfit to chop down two of the biggest spruce trees I have ever seen that lived right outside my back/kitchen door. They charged me $1000.00 a tree. The trees were over my house dropping needles and sap. I balked at the $2000.00, but it took a crew of three four days to complete the task. They couldn’t just “TIMBER” the trees down. Then they hauled away loads of branches and cut up the rest of the wood.
This year I had the two huge stumps to deal with. They were pretty much bossing around the way we could design a patio. Hubby spent two days with a bobcat, chain saw, and a crane before finally removing 6000 lbs of stumps and roots. Now we can have a patio. We are also in the process of putting up a fence. We rented a gas hand held huge auger type thing. We did it, but this is not a job for a girl helper and I will never ever ever help drill another fence post hole. EVER.
We also removed all the chickweed soil that was in the garden when we moved in and replaced it with new soil. Then we planted a vegetable garden and are just watering and waiting to see what happens. Because, between hubby working fourteen hours a day and me looking after daughter and home, I guess this will be easier than me just buying veg at the market. Heehee.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow you guys have accomplished a ton!
xo,
s
Jennie says
Hi John and Sherry,
I’m curious how you feel about fertilizer and other lawn chemicals with a little one. We just moved into a house with a gorgeous lawn and we don’t want to let it get overgrown by weeds creeping in from the neightbor’s lawn. Both of the lawn services I talked to use granular fertilizer that soaks into the earth in 3 hours and just spot-kill the weeds (no more full-lawn spraying). The only info I can find on organic lawn care is embracing the weeds as beautiful. Just curious about your thoughts or if you’ve done any research into organic lawn care. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
We generally avoid all chemical weed killers and just rip them out manually or learn to love them. Haha. There’s a great book called The Organic Lawn Care Book that we like (we even tried compost tea to make the yard more lush and choke out weeds naturally. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Nadine says
I’m looking for a serious nice-looking competitor to fight back the ground ivy, brambles and other sneaky nasty weeds that keep springing up in my garden. That liriope seems to be a good candidate? Does it produce flowers? I’ve seen some specimens at the garden center, they don’t look like fighters, but maybe?
Good job with the grass!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes it has small purple flowers once a year (in the fall maybe?) and they spread so they might work for ya!
xo,
s
Stacy says
No lawn work here. I’ve been intentionally avoiding the great outdoors as the pollen from the pine trees this year has been nothing short of fierce. There is so much of it that for the past two weeks it looks like the air is saturated with humidity, but in reality, it’s pollen. Yuck!
One of our neighbors has two ponds in their front yard. Under normal circumstances, the ponds are pretty, but right now they look like something out of a horror flick. There is a thick layer of pollen on the water surface so when the wind blows, the pollen swirls around like something is living in them other than perhaps a frog or two.
When the pollen issue does finally pass, I get the “fun” job of dethatching the lawn. I’ve discovered that thatch acts like free housing to grubs and grubs are disgusting. I’m fine with spiders and other kinds of bugs, but grubs give me the heebie-jeebies. If I leave the grubs, the skunks will take care of them, but that means having to fill in a bunch of holes. Since I’m not interested in smelling skunk or dealing with their post-dinner messes, dethatching and de-grubbing is the way to go.
Lawn looks good! We use Pennington grass seed. For our area Kentucky blue grass mixes work well and it’s fairly drought resistant for anybody that may have the same challenges.
katie says
The grass looks great! I know you guys love a diy and spray paint.
Would you ever consider making something like this: http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/2012/05/spray-paint-lamps-weasel-wrks.html
It seems like it could be up your alley!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- so much fun!
xo,
s
Violeta S. says
When I look at the pic in your heather I can see the huge difference, love it! Maybe you should change that pic over there :)
Missy G. says
Quick question. The pink and white flowering bushes between the trees closer to your house are azaleas, right? From the more recent pictures, I can see that they’re not flowering right now. When did they flower for y’all?
I’m in Louisiana, and our azaleas flowered back in March for about 2 weeks and they won’t come back until next spring. They’re so popular around here, but they drive me nuts because that means that our house has color in the yard for only 2 weeks every year. (Actually, that’s only one reason they drive me nuts, but this comment is already too long after I started with “quick question,” haha.)
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah, they’ve flowered already this year (maybe back in April?) and won’t have color again until next April. They’re very popular around here too – I also because they grown fast and aren’t very expensive. Sherry and I have never been terribly enamored with them either, actually.
-John
Lauren says
Last year (well actually now that I think of it, it was more like 2 years ago…wow how time flies), my husband removed a tree from out front yard, along with a bunch of bushes and seco palms. The result is a much more open front yard and it was the best decision EVER!
We opted for sod because we (and by we I mean my husband) are too impatient for seeds to grow.
I love the way your home looks, and I’m sure your neighbors do too! I know we got alot of compliments from our neighbors about how “open” it looks now. Not to mention…less leaves to rake in the fall!!!
Stephanie M. says
Looks great as usual! Random question though…didn’t Sherry paint some test spots on the siding by the front door last year? I can never see the spots in pictures and I was just wondering what y’all had decided on that. Maybe I dreamed that happened, lol.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! For book shoots we just had to paint over them to hide them (thankfully we had the house paint in the basement to “erase” our testing- haha). But that’s still on the agenda someday- it got too cold in the winter so we put it on hold and then got busy with kitchen stuff and now it’s deck stuff!
xo,
s
Melissa says
That looks amazing – the before and after is a HUGE change. Great work
brita says
We have an impossibly steep front yard that can’t grow anything but moss and weeds so we’ve taken to planting it in. so far we’ve added two rows of perennial beds, rose bushes, holly trees, apples, and a few different pines. Its starting to look less and less like a barren wasteland. Now to just stop the deer from eating it all! Our house is too exposed to the road and we’re right down the street from a biker bar so we’re trying to cover up a little bit!
Bethany says
First time commenter here… My husband and I just bought our house last Tuesday. I mowed the lawn for the first time yeterday, and it’s an absolute mess! It’s uneven,it’s rocky underneath and it’s weedy– it’s basically just gross.
This post came at the right time, because after my experience yesterday I was thinking that I might just rip out the entire lawn, level and re-seed it. Well, my decision has been made. I’m going for it!! Maybe not right away, and maybe not the whole lawn at once, but I’m taking back my yard :) Thanks for helping me make the decision!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! Good luck with everything!
xo,
s
Naomi says
That looks intense! You guys are such an inspiration. I can’t wait for my husband and I to buy a house. We are looking forward to all the renovating and making it our own.
? Naomi {Starry Eyes + Coffee Cups}
[email protected] says
Ok, who else sees the plant smiley-face in the first photo? I mean, if you guys draw PhotoShop faces from your cabinet hardware, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see one pop up in the landscape, right? Lol! The yard is looking great!
mary beth says
WOW! You guys are real go getters! We bought a flip house and most of the work we focused on was inside and we moved before we could get any real landscaping done. It needed it so bad! AWESOME transformation on yours! Sometimes less, is best. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Mary Beth!
xo,
s
Starr@ The Kiefer Cottage says
I hope your grass survives the summer. We seeded last fall after killing back the whole yard full of weeds. The grass is now being tested by drought and high temps, but I’m glad it had all winter to dig deep and get strong.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, I hope it does too! And that yours continues to do well too!
xo,
s
Jeremiah says
My wife said I should come read your blog. Looking good man!
Bobbi says
The before and after looks really terrific!!!