If you have a piece of land with lots of rocky soil, but ideally, you would want grass there instead, there is a way to make it happen. Just because rocky soil is not the ideal soil to plant grass in does not mean it is impossible; let us look at how to plant grass in rocky soil.
How to plant grass in rocky soil in 4 steps: You will first prepare/loosen the soil. Then you will build your soil nutrients levels, then you will plant your specifically chosen out grass seeds, and finally, you will need to keep on watering the area.
There is a lot more planning that goes into each step, though, and planting grass is a much bigger project than most people assume it will be. Let us take a better look at what preparation and planning go into planting grass in rocky soil.
How to Plant Grass In Rocky Soil
Getting grass to grow anywhere can be a pretty big task to take on no matter what the ground and soil situation may be.
Although we see it absolutely everywhere, grass is actually a very high maintenance plant to grow, maintain, and keep.
Getting your grass to grow anywhere may be tricky, but getting it to grow in rocky soil may be even more hard than usual.
Although it may be difficult, it is far from impossible. Let us look into the best way to get your grass to grow in rocky soil.
Step One: Prepare The Ground / Loosen The Rocky Soil
The first step in preparing your ground for your grass is to loosen your rocky soil.
This step will be easiest to complete if the soil is slightly moist, so undertaking this task in summer may be the ideal time to do this as you can do this step after a few days of rain. However, this is not completely necessary; you can also simply water the area.
In the evening or mornings for 1 to 2 days, use your hose and generously water the entire area that you would like your grass to grow.
Water the soil well until you can see the water has properly saturated the soil and the soil has become moist.
Once your soil is well moistened, you can begin to loosen it. To do this, you can use a pitchfork and begin to turn the soil.
You do not need to go incredibly deep; 3 to 4 inches deep will be perfectly fine.
Turn the soil everywhere that you wish to plant grass and remove any large rocks or stones that you may dig up along the way. If you come across any debris while turning your soil, be sure to remove all of that as well.
Do this until the entire area where you wish to plant your grass has had the soil turned.
Step Two: Building Your Soil
Building your soil is the process in which you bring the nutrient levels in your soil up to the best possible standard to ensure that when you plant your grass, it will have all the nutrients that it needs, and it can thrive and grow wonderfully.
If you have the time to do so, you can spend a few weeks building your soil. You can do this by adding plenty of supplements and nutrients to your soil.
As you add the nutrients in, be sure to turn your soil every now and then as well to ensure that the nutrients are getting deeper into the ground, too, and are not just sitting on the surface.
If you do not necessarily have the time to spend weeks building up the nutrients in your soil, another step that you can take would be adding a layer of compost, or a layer of Milorganite, to your soil.
Adding Milorganite or compost to your lawn will help accomplish the same goal of getting your soil packed with nutrients for your new grass.
Once you have built your soil, it is important to make sure that you continue to consistently water your soil; keeping your soil moist is a very important part of preparing your soil in order to plant your grass.
Although, it is important to not overwater your soil too. You want the soil to always contain a certain level of moisture, but you do not want the soil wet or over-saturated.
Step Three: Planting The Grass Seeds
Now, the most important thing to do in this step is to ensure that you are using the correct grass seeds.
If you do not buy the correct grass seeds for your lawn, it could possibly undo everything that you worked so hard at building up to this point.
The type of grass that you buy will depend on things like:
- The area you stay in – Do you stay in a cold environment? Do you receive a lot of droughts?
- The type of weather that your lawn will have to endure – Does it often snow where you are? Do you get heatwaves often or live in a part of the country where it is sunny all year long?
- The environment you will be planting the seeds in – Will the lawn be getting a lot of sun? Will the area be in the shade most of the time?
You may want to consider talking to a professional in your area about the best type of grass seeds you should buy for your lawn, as they will be able to guide you in the best direction and help you choose the best seeds possible.
Remember to also make sure that when you do buy the grass seeds, that the seeds are specific to your country – the shade grass seeds that will grow best in America will not be the same as the shade grass seeds that will grow best in Egypt.
Once you have the perfect seeds (that are specifically perfect for your lawn’s needs,) you can begin the planting process.
Try and collect some loose dry sand from your garden in a bowl. Once your sand is in the bowl, mix your grass seeds in with the sand and make sure that they are perfectly integrated with each other.
Mixing your grass seeds with sand will help the seeds scatter better when they are thrown into the soil, which will help prevent your grass from growing in clumps.
Once the sand and grass seeds are properly integrated, you can go ahead and carefully spread out the seeds evenly all over the rocky soil that you have been preparing for your grass.
Once the seeds have been spread properly and evenly, you can very gently and carefully turn your soil slightly.
You should only turn the soil every so slightly because the goal of turning the soil now is to try and cover as many of the grass seeds as possible with the soil.
This would help improve germination in your grass seeds and will help prevent them from being baked and killed by the sun if they were to just sit out on top of the soil.
Being in the soil will obviously also allow them to draw from the nutrients that you have been so carefully filling the ground they are in with.
So go ahead and turn the soil, but only enough to allow the grass seeds to be covered by the soil, and not so much that they are pushed down too deep in the soil.
Step 4: Water, Water, Water
Your grass is now ready to start growing, and all it needs from you is water, water, and more water.
It is very important to consistently water your garden and keep the moisture levels in the soil at the perfect level.
Your grass seedlings will depend on that water to grow properly and absorb all the nutrients that it needs from the soil.
In order for your grass to thrive, it will need to be well watered, but once again, be careful that you do not over-water your soil; over-watering the soil can actually over-saturate the ground and can cause your grass to drown.
The best time to water your grass will be outside of any hours where the sun is at its peak; watering your grass early in the morning or in the evenings will help the water be soaked into the ground rather than being evaporated.
And there you have it, that is how to plant your grass in rocky soil in 4 steps.
How To Maintain Your Grass And Keep It Growing Well
Once your grass has been planted, and in growing well, the work has really only just begun.
To have a lawn that is full and thrives, you will need to maintain your grass and soil extremely well to ensure that your grass continues to grow well.
How do you maintain your grass effectively and ensure that it keeps growing well?
There are three steps that you need to take when it comes to maintaining your grass well: Watering regularly, cutting regularly, and topping up the nutrients in the soil regularly.
Watering Your Grass
Watering your grass is just as important after it is well-developed as it was trying to get it to grow. Your grass will always need water in order for it to thrive and grow well.
You will need to assess your grass before each watering to check whether or not it does, in fact, need to be watered.
Check the soil of your grass, and if in more than one area it is still very moist, you can skip the water that day.
If the soil is only slightly moist or dry, give your grass good water.
Keep in mind that different times of the year and different seasons will call for different watering routines.
For example, you will not need to water your garden as much in the cooler seasons of the year as the sun will not be as hot, which means that there will be less evaporation and the soil will be able to retain a lot more moisture for much longer.
This kind of weather may call for your grass to only be watered once a week, unlike in summer, where you may need to water your garden every day or every second day due to the high heat.
Cutting Your Grass
One of the best things that you could do to maintain your lawn and keep it growing well is to cut it regularly.
Cutting your grass on a regular basis helps encourage your grass to grow faster, to grow thicker, and helps your lawn, in general, look a lot more full and luxurious.
During your grasses peak growing season, you may need to mow your lawn as often as once a week; and in other seasons where your grass growth slows down, you may be able to cut back on your grass cutting and only cut your grass around once every two weeks.
How often you need to cut your grass will be determined by the preferable length that your species of grass should be kept at.
If the species of grass that you have in your lawn requires to be kept at the height of 4cm above the ground to thrive at its best, then you will need to cut your grass however often it takes to keep your grass at that level.
Try to avoid cutting off too much length at once when you are mowing your lawn, as it could be stressful on your grass and have the opposite effect.
Try and cut your grass so that it is at its maximum height recommended; this is because the longer the shoot, the deeper its roots!
The deeper your grass roots can grow, the more drought-resistant they will become. This is important because it will give your lawn a much greater chance of surviving should your area encounter any drastic weather changes.
Topping Up Nutrients
Every three or four months, add some extra nutrients back into your grass.
You can go ahead and buy some compost or any kind of lawn fertilizer mix and generously add some to your grass.
This is not an absolute have to; however, the more nutrients and minerals that your grass has available to feed off of, the better your lawn will do.
Consider these top-ups as a form of multi-vitamin for your grass; your lawn will be perfectly fine without it but adding those extra minerals and more to your lawn will help give it an extra boost in its growth.
Conclusion
As was mentioned previously, grass, as it turns out, can actually be a really tricky thing to try and grow and maintain; but if it is a priority to you, you can make it work easily.
It is important to know how to treat your soil before planting anything in it; making sure that your soil is in the best possible conditions to grow any grass in before planting your grass can make or break the entire process.
Make sure your soil is healthy, that it is full of good nutrients and minerals, and is kept properly moist before planting any grass seeds.
Once you have found the correct grass seeds that are made to grow in the type of environment your lawn is in, make sure you plant them well; make sure they are evenly distributed and also well covered by the soil.
Once you have successfully planted your grass seeds in your rocky soil, be sure to water your lawn regularly and cut it as often as is needed once it has grown to its ideal height.
References
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