landscaping question

[Sam1]

We've got a decent sized area on the side of the house with a nice sitting area and sidewalk made from paver stones going over to the pond.  Over the past few weeks, I've been working at digging up the dead shrubs, and pulling out the rubber mulch (there was a metric **** ton of rubber mulch everywhere).  I did however leave some of the mulch (few inches deep in some areas) to level off the ground.

 

Started to put down weedblock and was going to fill in everything with some kind of river rock or pea gravel, but got to thinking about just seeding it and growing grass.  Question I had was, if I just dump a few inches of top soil on top of the dirt that is there now (and the mulch in some spots), then seed it, is that enough, or would the ground need to be tilled up a few inches?  The dirt is pretty hard from being packed under that mulch for probably 7-10 years or so.

 

 

[Murgatroy]

I am curious as well.

 

What I am reading is that you would be best to till the soil, level it, then come back with builder's sand to fully level the yard. 

 

This is probably the route I will be taking through the course of this summer. Part of the thoroughness on my part is the requirement to properly grade the yard to keep the water away from the foundation of the house.

 

I would be interested to hear from professionals, or at least those with more experience than myself.

[Hozzie]

You will need to get rid of all of the plastic mulch. This will just act as a drain under the soil and you grass will dry out and die quickly. I would remove all of it, bring in a. Truckload of top soil to level and then plant grass if you want that. I would not personally put rock. It's a bigger pain than mulch.

[peejman]

Dirt on top of rubber mulch won't work. As mentioned, make sure the ground slopes away from the house. A slight slope is all that's necessary. And I agree, I'd do grass over pea gravel any day. Pea gravel grows weeds like crazy.

[Sam1]

Why is it never easy??!

 

Guess that project is turning into an all summer long thing. dangit

 

Rubber mulch should be banned.

[hkusp40cal]

Unless you are going to install sod, it is best to wait until fall to seed anyway. 

[peejman]

Unless you are going to install sod, it is best to wait until fall to seed anyway.

I disagree. The type of seed sold in the fall won't make it through the hot summer. I have a few spots in my yard where I've patched them with seed in the fall. The grass comes up and looks great until June, at which point it turns brown until October.

[Sam1]

So when is the best time to seed something?  Or does it depend on the type of grass?

 

Sorry for the silly questions but I've never done anything other than maintenance kinda work on the yard. 

[JPR1959]

So when is the best time to seed something?  Or does it depend on the type of grass?

 

Sorry for the silly questions but I've never done anything other than maintenance kinda work on the yard. 

 

Does this area receive full sun during the summer?  If so, I'd go with Bermuda of some variety.  If it's shaded, you could try fescue or Kentucky bluegrass.  Fescue is best started in the fall, but if in full sun in the summer, must be watered like crazy or it will die.

[Sam1]

It's in full sun most of the day, bermuda is the short stuff, right?

[Hozzie]

Don't use Bermuda unless you already have it. It will eventually take over, but in the spring and fall you will have a big Brown patch where the Bermuda goes dormant months before bluegrass. I would simply put in whatever you have now and water it as needed until it gets established. Water in the early mornings and it will be fine.

Once Bermuda gets started , it's almost impossible to get rid of. Edited May 17, 2015 by Hozzie

[Sam1]

Here's a satellite pic of it, sorry can't zoom in any closer:

 

 

The red part is what I need to address; the front has some 8' hedges for privacy, then down to about 6' on the side away from the house.  The back is a small retaining wall that houses a waterfall into a pond, then another retaining wall & there's a minimum of 12' of concrete around the entire thing so no worries about it spreading.

 

There's a large paver stone patio in the middle of that spot with a sidewalk going to the pond and one of the worries about doing dirt/grass was digging up the side near the stones and making that unstable - don't want that to erode and the bricks start sliding around on the edge. (that was why I was just going to do weedblock & rock of some sort.

 

Would be awesome if I could just dump some dirt on it and grow grass, because removing the rest of that mulch is gonna suck...  then hauling in more dirt to level it back off.

 

And as you can imagine, not knowing anything about landscaping helps out dramatically!

Edited May 18, 2015 by Sam1

[peejman]

Don't use Bermuda unless you already have it. It will eventually take over, but in the spring and fall you will have a big Brown patch where the Bermuda goes dormant months before bluegrass. I would simply put in whatever you have now and water it as needed until it gets established. Water in the early mornings and it will be fine.

Once Bermuda gets started , it's almost impossible to get rid of.

 

 

Yes, very much so.  Bermuda has pro's and con's like anything else, it's slowly taking over my yard.  It's very aggressive and spreads quickly.  It's very drought and heat tolerance and doesn't require much maintenance.  It's very durable.  It turns brown at the first frost and stays that way until temps hit the 70's.  If the brown bothers you, it can be over seeded with winter rye that'll stay green.  Personally, I don't care. 

 

 

 

Sam, For your enclosed area I'd definitely use the typical fescue type grass.  Given how small that is, you could probably sod it for a reasonable price. 

 

Now is the perfect time to do it.  It's not too hot yet so the grass will have time to get established before the heat of summer arrives.  You'll have to water it almost daily for a the first few weeks.  The sod folks will tell you what to do.