Hello all, first time home buyer. We love our backyard, but as you can see its a big dirt bowl at the moment.
My current plan is to seed the area and use erosion control blankets within the next two weeks. I think the biggest obstacle will be heavy rain, wind, etc causing the seed to run downhill.
– What blankets work best?
– What type of seed? Ive read tall fescue is good, but I dont know much about it for my situation.
Also, if this area fails to grow, Ill probably abandon seeding alltogether and go for sod. Id just prefer trying to save money first to put in to other areas of the house.
by karateisntreal
5 Comments
dawg, is that a pool and the bottom of your yard bowl?
You’re probably going to be battling a few things aside from the incline, and this comment won’t be very helpful for your main question in how to deal with it, but I’d guess that soil is pretty compacted at this point. It looks like it is, and I would be surprised if it’s not since any of the soft soil would have long washed away by now. The soil will require some work because compacted soil is suboptimal for seedling establishment. So, first thing to ask yourself is how much is your back worth? Going to have a lot of sweat equity to prepare the soil for seedlings.
Next is keeping the soil at the top moist without drowning the seedlings at the bottom. Top will dry out much quicker than the bottom and you’ll need to keep the seedlings wet, so you’ll need to spoon feed the top water so it doesn’t all drain down to the bottom and make a marsh.
My two cents is to just spend the extra money and get the sod and stake them in with something degradable until they’re established. You might still need to do some modest soil prep but not as much as you would for seedlings.
ETA hard to give advice on what variety of grass to use without knowing your zone, but based on the looks of the way the sun is casting I’m guessing you get quite a bit of shade back there so definitely something shade tolerant
Just some straw with tackifier will work. Something like ez straw.
With that type of slope it’d prob be worth hydro seeding. I think there may be diy options if you go that route.
Clover. You don’t mow it. Its either dark green or sometimes little flowers all yearish