My family moved into a brand new home at the end of January, and with the weather finally turning nice, it's time for me to work on creating a nice little yard for my family to enjoy this summer. I know that fall is actually the best time for planting, but I don't think we can go a whole season with just a dirt yard. The yard area will be about 1-1.5 acres so sodding is definitely out of the budget. After getting a rough ballpark figure from a landscaper for seeding the area, I have decided to go ahead and do it myself. I have done lots of research in the past in order to resurrect the lawn at my previous home (take a look at the Lawn Care section of this blog), so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing. In the process, I plan to document my progress on this blog.

First, let's start with the lay of the land.

Here is a picture of my front yard as of early April:


And a picture of the back:


These pictures were taking before the rough grading was begun. The rough grading did not get done in the fall because the snow came in too early this year. Grading needs to be done in the front to slope the ground away from the house. In the back, we have a slope away from the house, but the grading will be done to give us 40-50ft of level ground out the back of the house before going down the hill. My plan is to seed the front and back yard areas including the hill in the back. The grading is actually in progress right now and hopefully will be done be the end of today or tomorrow.

As for my soil, you can tell that it's not "black" dirt. I believe there is a fair amount of clay in the soil, however, I have been happily surprised by how well it crumbles and how loose the top layers are. I have thought about trucking in black dirt or other organic materials to mix in with the existing soil, but the cost has been prohibitive. The person doing my rough grading is going to try to scape up some top soil from the unused portions of our lot to put on the yard area. I do have hope for the soil as there are currently pasture grasses and other plants flourishing on the untouched areas of the lot. So, in short, I've decided to go with the soil that I have and to make the best of it.

Here's a closer picture of what I'll be working with:


I have not done a soil test for nutrients yet because I'm waiting for the grading to be done. No sense in testing the soil that won't even be used for planting.

After the grading is done, I'll need some way to loosen up the top layer of soil, break up any chunks, and level out the "tank" tracks from the bulldozers. Unfortunately, I do not have any heavy equipment and don't intend to buy any right now. I found a person locally that has a tractor and is looking for odd jobs. I plan to have him come out and give me an estimate to run a Gill over the ground. I believe Gill is a brand name for an implement I know as a pulverizer. You pull it behind your tractor and it breaks up the ground and levels it out a bit.

That's where I stand right now. As I mentioned at the top of the article, I plan to document the whole process right here on the blog, so check back for updates. And as always, if you have suggestions or questions, leave me a comment.