Lawn, Garden & Home Projects
Lawn, Garden & Home Projects
Everything on this page I actually use. I remodelled my own kitchen and bathroom, and right now I am in the middle of bringing my grass back. Not a finished lawn — a real one, in progress.
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My lawn, honestly
Most lawn pages show you a perfect result and skip the part where it looked terrible. Mine is patchy right now, and there is a reason for it.
Then
When the sod first went down the grass was thick and vibrant. That is what it can look like, and it is why I know it is worth the work.
Now
I killed the weeds with Tenacity. It worked — the weeds are gone. But taking the weeds out leaves bare ground behind, and grass takes its time coming back. So my lawn is thin and patchy at the moment, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
The plan
Top dressing with peat moss and lawn soil, worked in with a roller. Then my grass tea twice a week as a stimulant to wake the soil up. I am still waiting on the big results — and I will keep posting them as they come.
If your lawn looks bare after a weed treatment, you are not doing it wrong. That is what the middle looks like.
My Grass Tea — the seven-day ferment
This is what I am using to bring the grass back. I did not invent it — I learned the method from Amish farmers on YouTube, who have been feeding soil this way for generations. I adapted it to a small DC yard using what I already had.
What goes in
- Grass clippings
- Weeds
- Sea kelp
- Epsom salts
- Raw grain oatmeal
- Blackstrap molasses
- Plants the rabbits chewed, cut into bits
- Old lemon rinds
- Dirt from under a tree, and mixed mulch
- Dry leaves
- Five gallons of water, left covered six days to dechlorinate
How to make it
- Let five gallons of water sit covered for six days so the chlorine gasses off. Chlorinated water kills the microbes you are trying to grow.
- Add everything else to the dechlorinated water.
- Ferment seven days. Stir it twice a day — morning and evening.
- Strain out the grass and solids.
- Dilute one cup of tea into one gallon of water. Do not skip this. It is strong.
- Spray the lawn with a pump sprayer, or pour it on with a watering can.
Why it works: the molasses feeds the microbes in your soil, the kelp and Epsom salts bring trace minerals and magnesium, and the oatmeal and rinds give the whole thing more to eat. Stirring twice daily keeps it breathing — that is the difference between a good compost tea and a bucket that goes sour and smells terrible.
— Kia Gaskins, Washington DC
Spreading & Soil
VEVOR Compost Spreader & Peat Moss Roller
A 24-inch steel mesh basket with an adjustable handle, for laying compost, peat moss or topsoil evenly instead of in clumps. 4.6 stars. This is the one that makes a top dressing look deliberate rather than patchy.
Weed Control
Tenacity Turf Herbicide
This is what I used, and it worked — the weeds are gone. Be ready for what comes after, though: it turns the weeds white before they die, and it leaves bare ground behind where they were. That is normal. The grass fills back in, it just takes patience and feeding. 4.4 stars.