Preparing Surface for Seeding

pumpkinpatch

I'm wanting to prepare my yard surface for seeding of the best lawn I can seed. However, the current state of the surface is extremely rough, dry, and has thick grassy chunks in it. I'm attaching a photo of the surface where I want to seed.

What kind of work am I going to have to do on this surface to prepare it for seeding? Is digging up the grassy chunks and weeds, then pouring over some horse dung likely enough? Or, do I need to do more?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan.

Attached Thumbnails

 

downunder

1. What size area are you planning on doing?
2. How much work do you want to put into it?
3. Can you operate any equipment- rototiller, tractor, etc.?
4. What is your budget?
5. What grass do you want to plant?
6. Where are you? Always give your location on landscaping posts!

__________________
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. If you wouldn't put your name on it, it ain't done right!

pumpkinpatch

1. What size area are you planning on doing?

*** I plan on doing about 3 acres or so, so a quite large area.

2. How much work do you want to put into it?

*** I'm ready to put in as much work as it requires, and do it all myself, so long as it's cost-effective.

3. Can you operate any equipment- rototiller, tractor, etc.?

*** No, I'd want to do it mostly by hand without any major equipment.

4. What is your budget?

*** About $2000 to $3000.

5. What grass do you want to plant?

*** I have no idea, I'm in Western Montana, so anything that would grow here and that looks great. I'm planting the grass mostly to improve the re-sale value of the property.

Thanks . . .
D.

D-2.5-GT

3 acres....by hand!?!?

pumpkinpatch

3 acres....by hand!?!?

*** No silly, with a shovel of course. :-)

no1hustler

I'm in the process of doing something similar but on a much smaller scale. I'm reseeding about 2500 sqft of my yard. It was full of weeds so I killed all the grass/weeds with round up. Then I removed some stumps (as much as I could). This coming weekend I'll rent a rear tine-tiller and go over the parts that don't have roots. Once that is done I'll have some topsoil trucked in and I'll spread that over the stumps and roots so I have enough cover for the grass to root. Then I'll plant the seed and cover with straw. I'm hoping that all of the seeding will be done by September 19th. Blah.

pumpkinpatch

How exactly are you killing the weeds? What is "round up"?

Dan.

no1hustler

I used Round-Up Concentrate.


I bought a $15 tank sprayer and mixed 1 gallon of water with 6 oz of RO. I had to spray some things a couple times to kill it.

pumpkinpatch

Thank you, that's helpful. I'm going to remove as many rocks as well and tough patches, but I like your idea of laying down top soil thick enough so the new seeding can take root. I'll check the phd balance too. I'm wondering if there's anything more complicated about it. Why are you laying hay after you seed?

no1hustler

I'm going to put straw down to help keep erosion at bay. It also helps keep the seed cooler so it doesn't dry out.

This is what it looks like after the grass/weeds have been killed. I took the stumps out this past weekend.