Young House Love

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Seeding Some Bare Dirt Spots To Grow Grass

Back on this hosta post I left a not-so-subtle indication that we were planting some fresh grass ’round these parts.

Mailbox 12 Grass

Though as pretty as superimposed text looks in that area (not), we’ve been working on getting the real thing for a while now and it’s finally (mostly) photo-ready. But let’s head back to the beginning, which is actually one step before the photo above… when it still looked like this:

Grass 1 With Liriope

Yep, we still had some weird liriope lingering to the right of the brick path, so we dug that up (to the point where it was even with the stone border on the other side) and called this area ready for grass seed.

Grass 2 Liriope Gone

Here’s the strip from the other side of the house. If you recall, this is where we used to have a line of boxwoods making the pathway look very, um, boxed in.

Grass 3 Front Porch Before

The area near our front porch wasn’t the only spot in need of grass seed. We also had a stripe of dirt (and ivy) where our “bush fence” once resided at the front of the property.

Grass 4 Street With Ivy

So once we ripped out all of the ivy, this area was also ready for some serious seedification.

Grass 5 Ivy Gone

Because this is not a good look. And we’ve been living with it like this since last fall. And we’re pretty tired of being “the house with the dirt path to nowhere.”

Grass 6 Street Cleared

As for actually spreading the seed, we didn’t use our usual routine of starter fertilizer followed by grass seed in a broadcast spreader (detailed here). Since we were getting towards the end of the grass growing season (once it gets really hot the seed can burn before it begins to grow) impatience got the best of us and we bought this “seeding mixture” that has fertilizer and seed in one. I think it was about $20 per bag (sorry, lost my receipt to double-check).

Grass 7 Seed Bag

I worried my broadcast spreader would waste a lot of seed by tossing it way beyond the bare strips. So instead I just tossed it by hand – kinda using the motion I imagine one might use to feed a bunch of chickens. Not that I’ve ever done that, so maybe I’m way off.

Grass 8 Seed Sown

Once it was all spread, I got my water on. Again, since it was such a small area I skipped our usual sprinkler routine and broke out the hose. So picture me out there once a day (usually in the evening or the early morning, so the sun wouldn’t just burn it off) soaking both areas.

Grass 9 Watering

Now, to force a little bit of delayed gratification in this story (since it there was about two weeks of daily watering that delayed any real life gratification) I’m gonna switch gears momentarily. Let’s talk about these random ferns that pop up under our magnolia tree.

Grass 10 Ferns Before

We both like ferns. Just not in this spot. It just looks messy to us and we have other plans for under this tree someday. So we dug them up.

Grass 11 Digging Up Ferns

They were actually a bit of a pain to get up – and there were lots of them too. I filled two whole wheelbarrows full of them (which I hauled to our naturalized side yard, where I’d be happy for them to take root). I also like how this photo unintentionally looks like our West Elm ceramic speaker-pig is trying to escape up the tree to avoid the wheelbarrow. #PigProblems.

Grass 12 Fern Wheelbarrow

Now it’s a big empty round of dirt – but at least it doesn’t have those gangly ferns creeping all over the place anymore. And someday we’d love to plant some green low-lying groundcover for a more seamless look (that screams big-ring-of-dirt-under-a-tree-where-grass-won’t-grow a little less). Someday.

Grass 13 Ferns After

Okay, now back to grass mode. It took about 10 days for any hint of grass to start showing up. A bit longer than our past experiences (which were usually seven on the dot), but we chalked it up to being late in the season when it was a bit warmer out.

Grass 14 Starting To Come UP

Here’s a farther-away shot of the area just starting to get a subtle green tint to it around ten days in.

Grass 14 Starting To Come Up Far

Fast forward another week or two and things are finally filling in pretty nicely:

Grass 15 After From Driveway

You can still see the distinction between the fresh grass and the mature grass, but once the new stuff starts to grow out of its neon green newness it should be less obvious.

Grass 16 After From Street

We can’t tell you how much this excites us just to see a carpet of grass here, totally unobstructed by bushes, ivy, or dirt. Kinda wish it hadn’t taken 18 months of living here for this to finally get done!

Grass 17 After From Street Angle

It’s also much easier to mow now that I don’t have to weave around a bunch of bushes (these pics were taken right after mowing, which is why you can see some fresh wheel lines in some of the shots).

Grass 18 After Close Up

The stripe closer to the house is having a bit of a rougher go at filling in. The area by the street is lower, so water runoff seems to go there – which makes all of the grass down there a little lusher. We might end up overseeding this path area another time this fall, just to help it fill in more evenly.

Grass 19 After Front Porch Angle

Here it is from the other side. Again, not perfect…

Grass 10 After Front Porch Liriope

…but definitely an improvement!

Path2

And while we’re looking at old before photos, let’s take a peek at how the view from the front has improved. Here’s a before shot taken about a week after we bought this house (even before Sherry trimmed up the magnolia).

Magnolia Before1

And here we are today.

Grass 16 After From Street

It’s pretty grass-tastic if you ask me. And thankfully since it’s only a three-foot strip of grass out front and next to the path that we added in place of all those bushes, it only takes a few more runs of the mower to get ‘er done (five more mowing minutes are definitely worth the curb appeal that we gained).

Has anyone else played the grass seed game yet this year? Or have you had any past triumphs (or trials) with planting grass around your home? Are you slowly inching along with outdoor improvements? It used to make us so sad that outside things seem to take forever, but we learned with our first house that a lot of little updates over a few years can definitely make for some dramatic results. So keep the faith. And make sure your ceramic pig isn’t trying to run off…

Comments

  1. Lisa says

    It looks great!

    About the ferns: we were given two, and only one took, we were sure the other one had died. But over a year later it literally just shot up! It’s super cool how plants can be dormant for so long, and then just decide it’s time for a comeback. My mum had a frittallaria that was dormant for over 20 years, then it suddenly started coming up every year- how freaky is that?!

    Reply

  2. Shanna says

    We did the polar opposite this weekend and took out a bunch of grass and planted beds – it was definitely a “dude get on that challenge” because we have had nothing in our backyard for 3 years – not even a spigot to speak of. We had 2 red bud trees put in on either side of our back gate, 2 spigots put in, cut out beds and made berms with the cut out sod for futures plants and a dog wood tree, planted about 28 plants. It was all very exciting – because its such an instant makeover. Your guy’s place is looking awesome inside and out! The before and after of the yard is already such a huge difference! You can see all the pics from our Landscaping Bonanza Extravaganza here:
    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4167370751590.2177201.1503820523&type=3&l=17b877de0c

    Reply

  3. Laura says

    Wow! I had no idea planting grass could be so easy. We’ve got some major grass-needs in our backyard and I figured it would just take a few years for the grass to spread and fill in. I’m totally shocked by this. I’ll be forwarding this post along to my husband. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!! Oh, and the stainless steel counters yesterday? Also a problem solver for us. This blog is awesome. :)

    Reply

  4. Corie says

    Oy! You know you’re not a kid anymore when you’re jealous of someone’s grass, no? ;)

    THAT LOOKS SUPER!!!!

    We have 2 spots with grass-growing needs and they aren’t doing as well. They’re doing something, but not THAT. :)

    Reply

  5. Lori says

    New green grass and yellow door…….I’m loving it!! In the early fall you might consider aerating and reseeding the whole yard, especially if you are using fescue. It gives the grass time to come in and get a good root system before winter and then in the spring you can use your pre emergents (I’m sure there are natural choices out there) to take care of the new weeds that start to grow. Your grass will be sooo pretty and thick next spring.

    Reply

  6. Suzi says

    We rotatilled and reseeded our small front yard last fall. Unfortunately, someone-cough-husband didn’t smooth out the soil as advised by his naggy wife, and it will have to be redone this fall as we actually trip over the uneven ground. Oops! :)

    Reply

  7. Tirsa says

    What a difference in the front yard. You guys have really done a lot of work and the result is sooo pretty. Love that yellow door too.

    Our new to us house came with a front yard that was mostly weeds plus 35 years of wild growth around the perimiter as well. We took care of all those trees andd bushes last summer and we are reseeding and trying to get rid of the weeds on the lawn, but we took too long to figure out what to do with the slope that now has a bunch of stumps trying to grow back plus some ivy as well as poison ivy. We finally realized putting grass in that area will have the biggest impact but it is too hot now so we’ll probably have to wait til fall. In the meantime we have to spend some $$ getting rid of all those stumps. Someday it will be pretty to look at. I just try to remind myself how much better it already is… :)

    Reply

  8. Athena says

    One of the things that’s always amazed me is how great you guys are at taking the outside of a house and totally transforming it. I’m impressed with the insides of your two houses as well, but when you’re decorating the inside of a place, I feel as if you have a lot more freedom to manuever and “screw up” as you figure out the perfect way. But, you two must just have amazing imaginations to see beyond what a house looks like from the outside to what it could be if things were just very different. The transformation, slow and natural though it’s been, is just AMAZING. You two have really taken this house so far!! I think that your neighbors actually think of you two as THOSE neighbors–the ones who took that boring, odd house and made them wish it was theirs.

    Reply

  10. Christine says

    I was looking under the magnolia at the big round “spot” if you will, and wondering how a rock garden would look. You could line it with brick or edging, and fill in with rocks, or even just mulch, for a more intentional look. Just a thought. :)

    Reply

  11. Nichole says

    Looks awesome! Makes me want to tackle our completely bare and unfenced back yard (with 2 chihuahua’s no fence is a challenge).

    You may have answered this before, but what are the bushes close to your front porch with the red and white flowers? Are you planning on keeping them? We’re looking for something to add some color to our blank slate. Looks like yours might only bloom in the spring though since the seem to be flower-less in later photos…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Those are giant azalea bushes! They’re sort of huge in comparison to other things, so we might try cutting them back or transplanting them to an area in the back that needs larger shrubs. Not sure yet!

      xo,
      s

  12. Michelle says

    But was John out there watering the grass in his bathrobe every morning scaring the neighborhood children?? That’s what my husband has been doing. Sigh.

    Reply

  14. renee says

    Nothing like yardwork to make you feel like a grown-up!
    I just finished a major landscaping project in my front yard and am so very proud of it. Hosting my son’s graduation party next weekend and wanted some seriously stellar curb appeal. Congrats on cute baby grass :)

    Reply

  15. Abby says

    Growing grass might be the most infuriating part of mine and my husband’s lives right now. We will definitely be overseeding our from-scratch back yard that was seeded in April, and our sod front/side yards (that were sodded a year ago during the hottest and dryest summer in recent memory. Fun!). We’re ready to have mature grass that isn’t at risk of dying.

    But your curb appeal is a million times better than from when you bought the house! That’s vision.

    Reply

  17. Meagan {Green Motherhood} says

    I can’t believe the changes y’all have made and how good they look! I know it seems like it took forever to y’all, but you’ve done so much out there.
    Does it ever bother you to have the big picture window so visible from the road? I’m a nut about people looking in my house(I guess because that’s what I do, ha!)
    Also, do I spot lighting in the dining room? (maybe? If so, yay!)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oddly enough, we don’t mind the view from the road into our window since it’s so far back we’re the size of ants. Haha. The lighting you see is actually the pendants in the kitchen (now that we opened that big doorway between the dining/kitchen you can see the big pendants from outside when they’re on). I think we’d feel more exposed if the living room was in the front (or our bedroom) but since those are where we really unwind and those are in the back and can’t be seen, we’re ok with folks seeing us walk through the kitchen – especially when we’re tiny specs since there’s a long way from the curb to the house.

      xo,
      s

  18. Julie M. says

    One of my main reasons for viewing your blog is for your landscaping and outdoor work you do. To me, that stuff seems so much harder to do and maintain that indoor renovation stuff. It looks great. What a difference of the before/after. Really looking forward to the deck work coming up!

    Reply

  19. Amanda says

    You guys could start selling plants from your natural side yard on craigslist. Though, something tells me ferns and lilirope are pretty easy to find (for free) in Richmond, huh? =)

    Great job on the yard. You guys are working so hard. As for me, I am pleased with myself for just watering 15 potted plants about twice a week. You guys really kick it up a notch.

    Reply

  20. gotta garden says

    This spring I had more than a few dog spots to fill in our front yard. As it happened, I tried all three seed-with-stuff mixes, Pennington, Rebel and Scotts. My experience was that Scotts was far and away the best. Who would have thought the ads were right! Ha.

    Also, just thought I’d mention that a while back I ordered some glasses from West Elm that I saw recommended in a magazine (recycled glass, etc.). Well, they came oddly packaged with one broken (two sets, each a different size and color). They replaced the broken one with a whole new set right away. The second one, I didn’t discover the chip in it until later (it was the other set, naturally) and as I write, I’m awaiting the replacement set for it as well (has been on backorder, but they’ve kept me updated). I think that’s pretty fantastic c/s. Just saying for the benefit of the folks who are having issues with their pigs…

    Reply

  21. Sherri says

    The yard looks amazing! I love that soft, fluffy grass. Here in Orlando, we have St. Augustine which is anything but soft. Because we have had more drought-like conditions in the last few years, even that is hard to maintain. We all do a rain dance when we get rain like we have today! What a contrast in the before and after pictures. I don’t know how you even saw the house from the street when you were house-hunting!

    Reply

  22. Shanna says

    My husband and I did an absolutely ridiculous happy grass dance earlier this week. The funny thing is the more our grass grows the more we make fools out of ourselves dancing around in celebration. We live in the high desert where grass is a challenging thing so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it grows from the peach fuzz that it is now to a full carpet of green. (Our yard was dirt, roots and tree stumps when we moved in two months ago. Then it went to a dirt pit full of holes from all of our digging. Now the slight tint of green has us smiling ear to ear.)

    Reply

  23. Jen D. says

    It feels like 10 pounds lift off my chest when I look from the “before” to the “after”. Love the changes.

    Reply

  24. Vanessa says

    Its looking great, love how green your yard and how warm and inviting your home looks. I REALLY loved your old house, but I think this one is turning out to be my favorite. You have so much room inside and out to entertain.

    Reply

  25. Kinsey Michaels says

    I have a completely off-topic, but important question! In your Stool Musings post, I noticed a white ceramic piggy :) Is this by any chance the pig iPod speaker from West Elm? I noticed it on their site a couple of weeks ago and have been contemplating ordering it, but I wasn’t sure if the sound quality would be any good.

    Reply

  26. Jen says

    John is hilarious with his #PigProblems. I literally LOLed. You guys are dream neighbors. What a huge improvement in the 1.5 years that you’ve been there. Although I’m a bit sad because your outdoor posts always inspire me to work in our yard and it’s been raining for almost a week here due to Beryl! Oh well, at least your pending deck posts are looming over the horizon for some future-inspiration. ;)

    Reply

  27. Lisa says

    Looks great! Rob is painstakingly transplanting juniper to the hill in the front of our yard so he doesn’t have to cut grass on the hill. This is after the tree guys hauled away several trucks full of packed down leaves that used to be there. Slowly but surely we are making improvements also.

    Reply

  28. Amy in Pittsburgh says

    Totally feel your pain with the grass. My other half decided he wanted to re-seed the whole backyard last year…we’re talking tiller, deliveries of dirt, extensive grass seed research, etc. In one word: painful. Not so much waiting for the darn grass to grow, but leashing up the dog for every.single.bathroom.break. For a dog that has a urinary problem and can’t go “normal” stretches between potty breaks. :) I think the key is just to be vigilant and to keep throwing seed down for the patches that aren’t taking. Not over-doing it, but just keeping at it until you start to see results.

    Under your tree looks like a really great spot for pachysandra…I have a very weird affinity for the stuff. You can buy flats of it and it will grow like gangbusters compared to a lot of other stuff. Something to think about!

    Reply

  29. Missy G. says

    Perfect timing for this post! Hubby and I have a full landscaping, outside day planned for tomorrow. I don’t even have a full list of all the things that we want to do. We’re just going to try to tackle as much as we can! We have a lot of deferred maintenance pending: mow the lawn, transfer the overgrown St. Augustine runners to our bare spots in the back, trim the hedges, rake up leaves (from the fall, oops!), chop down trash trees in the far back, etc. Gah! I filled up the fridge with Gatorades last night. :)

    Reply

  30. katalina says

    so much better! very welcoming now.

    I love the herb, sweet woodruff–as a ground cover with white flowers. It does die back in the winter but it is a less invasive ground cover.

    I also really love the perennial–cransbill/geranium and saw big green mounds of it between trees with purple flowers at a nursery and I am thinking of planting that between trees in a side bed. Another plant that looks beautiful under my japanese maple tree is deutzia–low growing with white flowers.

    I actually like the dreaded lilirope under trees in my built up berm (suppose to divide it before it gets huge) with alliums, tulips and butterfly weed and salvia and bushes (nandina and spirea) popping up between!

    there are also low growing sedums— I have one that traveled from another bed to the circle under my fringe tree. Your yard does not look like full sun to me with all the big trees. Do you know what exposure it is?

    I am in DC area so maybe zone is different? I go to a a garden center has secret gardens that inspire my own gardens… as I photograph.

    Reply

  33. Sue says

    I love the cleaned up look of the yard, but do you ever feel kind of exposed? The former yard was way overgrown but did offer some privacy…

    Just bought a house and have wide open front and back yard-retired neighbor gives me a running commentary whenever we meet “Oh, I saw you putting up a bird feeder!, I watched you play with your dog” etc. etc. I hate that everything I do out there is open to prying eyes…I should do an underwear run and see what they say.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We generally love that our first house and second house are so far back from the curb. From the street during the day if you try to look into the windows all you see is a reflection of the outside, and in the evenings you might catch a glimpse of us but because the street is so far from the house we look like ants. Haha. We also typically hang out in rooms that are in the back of the house at night (the living room and our bedroom) so we don’t mind if people see us walk through the dining room for a second, but they can’t watch us watch TV for hours or anything! As for hanging outside, we generally are on the patio or in the back, so our neighbors can’t really see us since there are big shrubs and fences. I imagine anything we do in the front is easy to see (like all that grass seeding, haha) but we don’t really mind!

      xo,
      s

  34. Jules Klimek says

    On my “to do” list – planting grass! Ugh! Got bare patches just like you did, so this gives me hope! I’m a little nervous because my bare patches are where the soil is full of clay. I wonder if I should try and rototil in nice dirt, or just throw some seed down and pray!? LOL!

    Reply

  35. Amanda says

    Ohhh how lovely those last two photo show downs were. SUCH an improvement. And that yellow door? I love! But then again, yellow is my faviourite colour …

    Reply

  38. Dawn SC says

    We’re headed in the opposite direction and are trying to get RID of grass to do our little part to help conserve water in SoCal! We’re planning on getting rid of some grass in our parkways (replacing it with a combo of gravel and pretty, native, drought-resistant plants) to reduce our water usage. Although, the second step of that is to then replace the pretty much dead front lawn we currently have. Yeah, we’re those people. I can still use the excuse of having no time due to a “newborn” (ahem, 9 mos old) right? :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- we perpetually fluctuate between a giant weedy mess of a mailbox garden and a pretty one with mulch and plants! Haha. It’s ok to be those people!

      xo,
      s

  40. EngineerMom says

    Yay!

    We are so excited for our new grass, too. Two months ago, we finally, after two years in this house, grassified the half of our backyard that was covered in gravel when we moved in.

    Last weekend, we hosted a little Memorial Day goodness that involved setting up a kiddie pool on our new lawn.

    It. Was. Awesome.

    Our yard isn’t big (our lot area is something like 5500 sqft, according to zillow!), so doubling the grass area of the backyard made a big difference.

    We were so inspired by the success that a couple of weeks ago we started the process of converting a chunk of our front lawn back into grass. It used to be the underside of a pair of hemlock trees. When we moved into the house, one was dead and the other was dying, so we had them removed and the stump ground out. I thought I would convert it into yet another garden (we already have SIX garden areas, don’t know what I was thinking), but I came to my senses and we have grass growing where there used to be dead hemlock!

    Reply

  41. Michelle DuPuis says

    We tore up a patch of wood chips next to our deck to plant grass. Not sure why the wood chips were there in the first place since it obviously wasn’t a garden, and it only made that side of the yard look worse. The grass is so much better! Now my son sits at the window and watches the bunnies eating clover on the lawn!

    Reply

  43. R says

    Your grass looks awesome! And the whole before and after transformation looks great too. That’s an amazing amount of progress in 1.5 years.

    Out here in the desert, grass is always a bit of a gamble. Even established lawns can die in the heat/dought/dryness. I’m living vicariously through your gorgeous lawn!

    Reply

  44. Jenny says

    You certainly did a great job together. I think the grass looks plush and beautiful. I also like the brick path in front of your house and the plants you added. Definitely looks terrific (and like it was a lot of work).

    Reply

  45. Maureen@The Parkland Project says

    Tearing out all those bushes really makes your house more of a showcase. No reason to hide your home. Be proud, say it loud! Looks amazing!

    We’ve been doing somethings very similar to our home this spring. We had to regrade our front yard and then reseed it. Not so fun. I’m actually posting my grass upgrade shortly here. :)

    Reply

  46. Susan says

    Wow! Love that green carpet you have in those areas now. :) Did you do anything to prep the soil or did you just throw the seeds down? We have a bare spot (read: entire back yard) that needs grass, too.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      After digging things up we just leveled the dirt out the best we could and seeded! Thankfully we tend to have good soil here (less clay than our first house had) so it seemed to do well!

      xo,
      s

  47. Emily says

    Your yard looks wonderful! Especially when you compare that before-and-after pic! My husband & I moved into a new-build home last year, so we have been playing the grass seed game this spring. The builder seeded & put down straw in April. And the very next day (no joke) we had 20-30 mph winds and torrential downpours (wha whaaaa). So we’ve been filling in the bare patches to the best of our ability. We are also experiencing a two-toned yard, since we bought a different brand of seed than our builder used. But all-in-all, it’s coming in nicely! I’ve actually been debating a grass-growing post on my own blog! Thanks for the inspiration/proof it will eventually fill in nicely! Good luck with the rest of your outdoor plans!

    Reply

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