Overseeding is probably the #1 thing you can do to a lawn to make it look great. Overseeding is simply planting grass seed over the top of your existing lawn. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but in this article I am going to go with what I did to my lawn last spring as I had just incredible results. My lawn went from bare patches, lots of weeds, and dead areas to people asking me if I had my yard sodded.

When to overseed
Overseeding is best done in early spring (hopefully after the last frost) or in late fall when the brunt of the summer heat has left. You will also want to make sure that you have not put down any preemergent fertilizers (pretty much any non-organic fertilizer) as almost all non-organic commercial lawn fertilizers/weed killers have chemicals in them that stop seeds from growing. Seeing as how we need our new grass seed to grow you will want to be very sure that enough time has passed for the effects of the Scott’s or whatever you use on your lawn has worn off. That’s why spring is probably your best best if you use those products.

Preparing your lawn for overseeding
The first thing you need to do is to mow your lawn as short as your lawn mower will go. This is very important because the new grass that you are planting needs access to sun light and a fair shot at growing without your existing grass choking it out. Note your lawn will look like crap for a couple weeks.

The next thing to do is to remove thatch that has built up in your lawn and work up the soil. Thatch is basically dead grass that accumulates on the top of the soil below the grass. Thatch is more of a problem with lawns who use chemical versus organic fertilizers, because in organic fertilized lawns there are many more microbes which actually love to feast on the thatch. So if you have a super healthy organic lawn thatch is a non-issue, another reason why you should consider organic lanwncare as in the long-run it actually is less maintenance. Anyway dethatching your lawn can be done 1 of two ways. Rent a dethatcher that can be pulled behind a riding lawn mower, or grab a rake and get a good workout. You will likely be surprised at how much thatch you have in your lawn. If you are too frugal to rent a dethatcher and too lazy to rake your entire lawn by hand you can just concentrate on the problem areas in your lawn (bare spots, very thin grass, etc). It is still important to make sure you work the soil a little bit so that the sees have a chance to settle in and establish themselves.

The next thing to do is to buy grass seed. Here is where you can use your digression. Many people recommend that you buy the best grass seed possible as it is going to be a little more difficult for this grass to take root due to the existing grass in place. That being said it’s grass seed so I’m not exactly sure a company can make a seed grow better than the next one, it’s sort of out of their hands. Anyway you will want to make sure you don’t buy a bag of annual ryegrass or anything like that. Even though ryegrass does very well and grows very fast, if you buy the annual type you will have not accomplished anything long-term. My advice here is go ahead and get a Kentucky Bluegrass or something that does well in your region, looks very good, and hopefully matches your existing grass.. The good news with overseeding is that you are not going to use a ton of grass seed so the expense is not going to be that great. I overseeded the heck out of my entire lawn last summer and still have over half of the big bag of grass seed that I purchased.

Another thing that you may want to do is go ahead and pull any weeds that may have sprouted in your lawn. I actually purchased a weed hound last summer and while it’s not perfect it gets the job done most of the time. You want to set the weeds if there are any back as far as possible that way if they do actually recover, hopefully your new grass will have taken hold in that area and will be able to drown out the weed permanently. If you have a super thick lawn, which you will if you overseed a few times, weeds become less and less of an issue because they simply don’t have a fighting chance against your super thick carpet lawn.

A word of caution. By the time you get to this point your lawn will look like crap. Don’t be discouraged, it’s only temporary and within a couple weeks it will be back to normal and a month later your neighbors will be asking you what you did to your lawn because it looks so great.

How to overseed
You can technically overseed by hand and spread the grass seed in the bare spots. Be careful that you don’t spread it too thick as if you have too many seeds in one area they will have to fight with each other over resources and may actually be weaker grass as a result of it. General rule of thumb is you don’t want more than 15-20 seeds per square inch.

What I recommend though is that you use a broadcast lawn spreader and spread the seeds over the entire lawn. The advantages of using a lawn spreader are that you can do a more even job and it’s not that much work to do your entire lawn. Trust me you will want to do your entire lawn as even in the thick areas there is likely room for improvement and your entire lawn will look great.

Note: if you used your lawn spreader for spreading weed killer or other chemical lawn product you will want to wash it out very thoroughly otherwise your grass seed may not grow due to the preemergent chemicals left over in the spreader. Better safe than sorry.

As far as what setting to set on your spreader I’m not going to try and guess and give you a setting as every lawn spreader is different. My best advice is to pick a setting and go over a really bare spot in your lawn. Then use the rule of thumb from above that you should have about 15 seeds per square inch. If you don’t have a bear spot my advice I guess would be to go to a lower setting as you can always store the left over grass seed and use it again in the fall or again next spring.

After seeding it wouldn’t hurt to take another pass over the lawn with the dethatcher or rake just to work the soil a little bit, although I didn’t do this last spring and still had great results.

The only other thing you really need to do is make sure this new grass gets enough water. Hopefully a rainstorm or two is in the forecast, but if not you will probably want to water the grass immediately after overseeding, and then it’s up to you as far as what you think of spending money to water your lawn. I probably watered 15 minutes a night for 3 or 4 nights in the first week and then after that I sort of let mother nature take over. Obviously if you live in a very dry climate you will probably want to do more watering. Just use your own judgment here and make sure your lawn has enough moisture to support these new seedlings.

Now it’s time to just sit back and watch as your lawn transforms itself into a super thick green masterpiece. Overseeding is something that can and probably should be done a few times, but honestly after the first time you should see very very noticeable results.

Mulch
Mulch is an important part of most frugal landscaping plans.  Mulch is not only a cheaper alternative to things such as gravel or stones, it is a lot less likely to cause you issues if it creeps out of your landscaping and into your lawn which it most likely will do.  Think 2 inch rock in lawn mower versus piece of tree bark.  Mulch is also much better for your plants and flowers as it is a natural material which will help retain moisture (less watering) and slowly break down and release nutrients for your plants and shrubs.

Also if you want a certain color or aesthetic look to your landscaping plan, mulch comes in just about every imaginable color these days.  Beware though that this mulch is usually lower quality wood and is artificially dyed.  Usually after a summer or two the dye fades quite a bit and it is necessary to keep putting a new layer on top to keep the bold color.  For that reason alone I suggest going with a natural wood mulch. 

Almost every landscaping, home improvement store, and nursery carries mulch.  Heck I’ve seen a lot of gas stations that carry mulch too.  Obviously when it comes to mulch you are much better off purchasing it in bulk (by the cubic yard) that you are buying it in the individual bags as the price will be a fraction of the cost.  If you have access to a truck, picking up your own mulch can save you quite a bit of money versus having to have it delivered, especially if you live quite aways away from the source.  If you don’t have access to a truck you may want to consider talking with your neighbors and see if they would be interested in going in on some mulch together to save on delivery costs (I have seen this done in my neighborhood).

Before you run out to the local landscaping center it may be frugal to call some of the local tree trimming companies and see what they do with their wood chips.  Some of these companies pay to dispose of the wood chips so they may be happy to drop them off in your yard for free.  Also some local city and county recycling/compost sites offer free mulch for residents so there is a good chance that you may be able to get some or all of your mulch for free.

   

Plants/Bushes/Shrubs
If you plan on mixing plants into your landscaping plan there are a couple ways you can save money on the costs.  As with the mulch you should see what you can get for free before you actually pay for anything.  Often bushes/shrubs/flowers can be gotten from friend/family/neighbors/etc.  Many bushes such as the Hosta can be split, moved, and both the original and the new bush take grow like nothing happened.  The same can be done with many varieties of flowers, and even shrubs.

 

After you’ve exhausted all of your free options, probably the next best thing is to start your plants from seeds.  This can save you tons of money in the process as seeds can be gotten for a couple cents per plant in most cases.  It just takes a little planning ahead and patience, but you can get all the beautiful plants that you want for a fraction of the cost.  Not to mention it’s really easy and fun.  You can purchase seeds online and at most retail stores.  Some sites that I ran across are (valueseeds.com, and dianeseeds.com) If you look around online at various garden forums or maybe even local garden clubs you can probably get seeds for free as from what I’ve seen gardeners like to help other gardeners out.

You can start seeds in your house in late winter/early spring and can help you get over the winter blues if you live in a northern state, kind of gives you the hope of spring being right around the corner.  Just Google “starting seeds indoors” and you will get all you need to know about starting seeds. Like I said it’s cheap, easy, and fun.  Seeds can be started in just about any small container and all they need is warm temperatures and access to sunshine or halogen lights once they sprout.  Often setting them next to a window sill will be ample sun light, but some people who really go to town set up halogen shop lights over their plants in their basement to make sure they get all the light they will need. Check out this person who is truly frugal and didn’t even need to buy potting plants, she just reused old toilet role cores. Got to love how frugal gardeners can be!!

Bare root ordering
If you do order a tree/bush/plant online or even your local landscaping company you may want to ask to see if they offer bare root tree/shrubs/plants.  Bare root is basically a plant that is not planted in soil which renders the plant dormant.  The beauty of bare root is that is saves a ton in shipping costs and from my research these plants have just about as good of chance of surviving as a potted plant.  The good news for you the consumer is the price is often cut in half if you go bear root.  When we had Mr. expensive landscaping company come over and quote out our landscaping they offered bare root and it was about exactly half the price due to the ease of delivery and less potting supplies they had to supply.  They stood behind these plants and they had the same warranty and same success guarantee as the plant trees/shrubs.  They also said that they would grow and flower just as well as the plotted variety.  So be sure to ask about bare root options whenever purchasing landscaping plants, especially if you have to pay shipping costs ordering online.

Well this is probably getting a little long so I’ll continue the rest on in Part III

Landscaping isn’t all that bad as according to Free Money Finance it can increase a homes value 7-14% (which for my home would be $11,000 – $22,000) – although I personally have some reservations about those estimates so I’m not going to go ahead and blow $15,000 on landscaping with the thought that I’ll easily get this money back when I sell my house. Personally I’m just hoping it will make my lawn easier to mow as I won’t have to go around downspouts or try to mow right up to the edge of my house. Also I think I would enjoy growing some of the plants also.

My landscaping idea
I personally would like to incorporate as much edible landscape in our plan as possible. I always like it when things can serve more than one purpose and honestly many of the fruit bearing and edible plants can be just as pretty as the standard landcsaping plants. Nothing wrong with being able to save on some grocery costs in the process and from what I know people generally get a lot of enjoyment on growing their own food, so to me adding a bunch of edible landscaping to the mix would be a great idea. My wife has some concerns though and obviously for her landscaping is all about beauty so I have to go ahead and convince her that blueberry bushes are beautiful too.

Blueberry bush in fall

Blueberry blossoms in spring

Ways to keep costs down
Obviously doing it yourself can save you money if you know what you are doing. To be honest landscaping doesn’t appear to be so difficult as that the average Joe can’t do a pretty descent job if they do their homework, which I plan to do. According to the article referenced by Free Money Finance purchasing big ticket items in the fall will get you the best prices. Also explained was breaking up your project into a multi-year project, which wsa something I had already planned on doing. This gives you a chance to learn from your mistakes rather than making a mistake on your entire landscaping project. Obviously shopping around on the internet can allow you to save money on plants, but be very careful with this method as your plants have a lot less likelier chance of surviving if they were grown in a climate that differs greatly from yours. For example I live in Wisconsin I probably don’t want to be buying too many plants from a nursery in Georgia. Find your hardiness zone to determine what plants/trees will survive in your climate

Another thing to consider when determining the cost of landscaping is maintenance. If you plant a lot annuals you will be paying replacement costs every single year to keep up your landscaping looking good. If however you plant perenials and treat them right you should be able to get many years of enjoyment out of them without having to head off to the garden center each spring. Another thing to consider is to buy as many drought resistant plants as possible. This means you will have to spend a lot less time making sure your plants are watered and a lot less money on your water bill. Planting plants and trees that are appropriate for your region and don’t require a substantial amount of water to keep looking good means less maintenance, lower costs, and more enjoyment for you out of your landscaping. Also making appropriate use of mulch can help keep the moisture in by your plants and reduce the amount of weeding you have to do.

Well honestly at this point I don’t have enough personal knowledge about landscaping to add more than just the basic things I’ve talked about so far (thus the dreaded – Part I tag). I will be researching this topic pretty hardcore the next couple weeks so look for more articles from me as I try to find a low-cost, low-maintenance, home-value improving, multi-functional landscaping plan for my house.

See part II here

So I started down the path of researching how to care for my lawn. Houses IMO are just a bad excuse to waste lots of money on crap you would never think about if you were renting and well lawncare/landscaping is probably towards the top of the list. So in my research I wanted to accomplish two things (1) Find as cheap as solution as possible (2) End up with a lawn that I didn’t have to worry whether or not it was safe for my 11 month old to play in the yard.

Now granted I am still a complete novice and don’t have a ton to show for my efforts yet at this point, but I did run across a bunch of very usefull information that has me optimistic that I can accompliish both of my goals. Turns out that organic lawncare provides a safe and natural way to care for your lawn and if you do a little homework you can get the supplies and peform the work for signifigantly less than purchasing a store bought chemical fertilizer/herbicide. I’ll probably just give you a high level overview and get into the details in other series of posts (yeah I know my realistic rate of return series is incomplete – just been having too much fun enjoying the summer weather and spending time with the family)

Basically what I did was found out that there are lots of common vegetables/beans that if left to break down on your yard will provide your lawn with all the N-P-K (Nitrogen, Phosporous, Potassium) it needs.  Some of the common organic fertilizers used are crack corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, etc.  The other great thing about organic fertilizers besides being safe and cheap, are that you don’t have to worry about over fertlizing your lawn and burning it or making sure to do it early in the morning or late at night so that your grass doesn’t get killed.  Plus from what I’ve read the food your lawn gets from organic fertilizers is much better for it than the chemical fertilizers (I believe someone compared chemical fertilizers to soda for humans – just a bunch of empty calories that over the long run aren’t the best for the plant).

Anyway I went ahead and put soybean meal down on my lawn.  Got it from the local feed meal at 100lbs for $13 and was able to put it on my lawn with a normal lawn spreader.  For those that don’t know “meal” basically is what’s left after the original plant/bean was cut/processed.  So its all of the slivers, shavings, crumbs left on the bottom of the processing machine.  They bag this up and its traditionally used to feed barn yard animals.

The only real negative is that the stuff doesn’t kick in over night.  It typically takes about a month before the process comes full cycle and you see the results in your lawn.  Well it’s been about a month and I can honestly say that my lawn is much greener, thicker, and growing much faster than my neighbors on either side and I know one of the neighbors used some chemical fertilizer earlier this spring.

Anyway I just wanted to give you a general idea of what I am up to, I’ll try to give you some more details in the next series of posts.