That’s Some Good Grass

If there’s one thing that makes the great outdoors enjoyable during the lovely weather months, it’s having some good grass. Our little home was previously owned by a couple of advanced years who didn’t really care about grass – they just let the weed grow wild. And while weed is better than nothing at all (hey, it's free, and it covers the dirt!), most people really want grass covering their outdoor ‘scapes.

Before we even moved in.  Our REA is on the porch.

Sad.

The terrible yard and evergreen thingy bush that everyone loves to hate.

Clear shot of the little trees that are now no more.

So, when the weather started to cool off, and grass-growing season neared, we got to thinking about burning up all that nasty weed and planting some sweet, lush, grass. The first step was to visit the cool guys at The Grass Pad in Olathe (“High on grass for over 50 years” goes their slogan) and learn about what types of grass would suit our needs.

Our needs are simple – we need a grass that won’t be needy. A grass that, with minimal care, remains thick, green, and a pleasure in which to roll and frolic in the nude. We want something that thrives on the water mother earth gives it while we ignore it as much as possible. Free-range grass, we decided, is the key. 

But it still needs to look good. We want the neighbors to be jealous of our grass and encourage it to grow over to their side of the lawn so they can have some of it for themselves. We want the dog walkers to admire it so much that they no longer allow their dogs to soil the knoll nearest the sidewalk, because man, finding turds in your grass is such a buzzkill!  So we settled on a fescue well-suited for Kansas City weather, read: hot as hell summers, snowy winters, and glorious in-betweens.

After purchasing seed and fertilizer, we had to prepare the dirt as much as possible to accept our new grass. After mowing the scrub and weed down as low as possible, I rented a machine called a verticutter to chew the surface of the soil into bits, the better to accept our offerings.

After the chewing up the dirt, I rolled a spreader full of seed around the dirt, followed by fertilizer, and then set to watering the crap out of it. Of course, we would choose to do this during the driest September on record, so mother earth is being a bit of a square and refusing to help us out. Watering, watering, watering, and a few weeks later, this is the grass we’ve got so far.

So much better.

Lovely!

No ugly little trees, either!

Yeah, it’s a bit patchy in places, but overall, this grass is damned near 5000% better than the nasty weed we had before. Hopefully, it will sink some deep roots before going dormant for the winter, and pop back up green and lush next year. I’m looking forward to rolling around in this stuff come spring. I know it’s going to be a hit when we have people over to party, for sure!

Plus, the kids approve.

Great job, Dada!  I can't wait to learn how to walk so I can play in the grass!

Grass makes me smile!

Uh, I'm not totally satisfied, Mom and Dad.  I see an empty spot over there.
And yeah , I'm wearing a bathing suit on Sept 30.
Wanna make something of it?

For those curious, our new yard had the following costs: $190 for seed/fertilizer/winterizer,   approx $35 for the seed spreader, $35 to rent the verticutter, plus watering expenses.  All estimates based on Starr's failing memory.