Lawn Planting Time

If your lawn is looking tired, is loaded with weeds or has brown spots all over, it may be time to consider replacing it. And fall is the ideal time to put in new lawns -- whether you want to plant by seed or lay down "instant" grass in the form of sod.

Replacing lawns now is ideal because our weather is still warm enough throughout California for roots to get established fairly quickly. At the same time, it's not blistering hot to where tou have to be out there watering the newly planting grass five times a day!

Whether you decide to plant grass seed or lay sod, be aware that preparation takes the same amount of work. And, believe me, preparation for a new lawn is a lot of work! This involves not only removing the old lawn, but rototilling, adding fertilizer and other soil amendments, then leveling and rolling. Take it from me, preparing your yard for a new lawn is 90-percent of the work. You also have to take into consideration sprinklers. I wholeheartedly recommend installing automatic sprinklers before you plant. It will save plenty of heartache later and assure that every part of your new lawn will get well watered.

Of course, even the best plans can go astray.I remember putting in my sprinkler system. I must have driven to the hardware store six times that day, getting that lone piece of pipe or fitting that I didn't think I would need. Take it fromme, buy much more than you think you need in etrms of pipes, fittings and more. You can always return the unusued ones afterwards.

Another word of caution when it comes to preparation before seeding and sodding: do it only if you're younger than 40! OK, I might be kidding a little bit here. Truth of the matter, though, it is hard work. We're talking about hauling soil around, rototilling, fertilizing, leveling and rolling. I don't know about you, but when it comes to hard physical labor, I often tend to take shortcuts. And most shortcuts can get you into trouble.

My shortcut primarily involved trying to get my ground level. After mixing amendments, I spread it to all corners of the yard. Unfortunately the low spots needed much more soil and soon I had an undulating sea of brown. I rolled everything with a water roller I borrowed from the nursery. I still had an undualting sea, but it was a tightly packed sea.

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