Getting a nice lawn after construction

9 years ago

We bought a new construction for our first home and I was never really satisfied with the lawn, no matter what I did it never really seemed to get really thick and lush and weed free. In our last house we had a little bit of grading work down and I don't think there was any grass in the seed the guy spread b/c it grew up almost completely weeds.
So now that we are building a house and are starting with dirt, I want to know what do we need to do from the beginning to get a great lawn.
There are some rocks from the gravel they had brought in to construct the house. The soil is red clay, it use to be a pasture and every time the bull dozier gets out there you can smell the manure but I have no idea if that good soil is still there if if it's been hauled away.
We have a horse farm next door, so I had thought that if it'd make a huge difference I could ask them for some manure.
We will be putting this lawn in in August in Western North Carolina...so that will present some problems with the heat.
Anyone successfully done this with new construction without spending a fortune?

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Comments (6)

Bungalow14
9 years ago
Seeding in August (the later the better) should actually be a good thing, given your location. After all, September is when core aeration and over-seeding take place here in the Tar Heel State. If you put down seed & straw in August, it'll germinate and take hold through autumn and by March you should have some pretty hardy grass. Using tall fescue, I presume?
nini804
9 years ago
Well, we are in the piedmont in NC and our construction finished at the end of August in 2011. Our lot is not large (slightly less than 1/2 AC) and to save $$ we chose to sod the front only, we had the landscaper seed the back. Almost three years later, the front is absolutely perfect- thick, weed-free, lush. We are still struggling with the back! We use a lawn service, and they faithfully aerate every fall, and over seed in the fall AND in the Spring. They fertilize, lime, spread fungicide (to prevent brown patch) spread pesticides, weed killer...and the back is slooooowly looking better. Dh is such a grass guy, lol, and mutters to himself about how much he wishes he'd sucked it up and sodded the back, too. Soooo, unless you have acres and acres of future lawn...I really think sod is your friend!
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tulips33
Original Author
9 years ago
Oh dang, I was hoping that wouldn't be the case @nini804. We have almost an acre and was hoping if we prep it right we could get nice grass.
@Bungalow is tall fescue the best to use to get that lush green lawn look?
nini804
9 years ago
Yes, fescue is what you will want to use. I didn't want to be discouraging...I am sure you can eventually get the lush lawn w/seed...but it will definitely NOT look lush the first few years. You will need to do a lot of overseeding and aerating plus weed control. Are you installing irrigation? That has been a God-send with all of the overseeding we have had to do in the back.
pixie_lou
9 years ago
We had to replace the front half of our lawn after a septic installation. It was done at the end of June - not the optimal time. The key was having 6" of loam delivered. It was a pain to water that first year, but our lawn is really nice now.
cardinal94
9 years ago
Contact your local extension office. They should be able to do soil testing for you and make recommendations based on your area. Your tax dollars at work -