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Reseeding next to street curb

17 years ago

I have about 350 feet of grassed area adjacent to the concrete street curb. After the winter I had either snow mold or damage to the turf due to highway salting. That left bare ground for a foor or two down that entire length. The rest of the lawn is fine.

I am going to add some topsoil where I notice the grade is slightly under the lip of the curb, but I was wondering if I should even bother to seed that long strip now.

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Comments (6)

kachinee
Original Author
17 years ago
I forgot to mention I have KGB in Zone 5.
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mrgrinch
17 years ago
I have the exact same problem as you except more along my driveway. Due to the large snowbanks on either side during the winter it's always a real chore to get it looking good again once the summer rolls around. Usually with good care and fertilizer it eventually comes back... but who wants this problem every year? If it's quite thin in your case you could also try overseeding.

To be honest one of the things I am contemplating is cutting out a 1' strip of the sod out down both sides of the driveway and putting in some nice decorative river rock or slate stone if this continues each year. I think it would look just as good as the lawn and wouldn't have to deal with a thinning lawn each year.
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decklap
17 years ago
I too live in zone 5 and have yet to
see the municipality that cared more
for grass than they did the hip joints
of the elder citizens navigating the
sidewalks.....

You have two options I think.

1.Reconcile yourself to the notion
that 350ft of your yard will have to
be ammended and re-seeded every year
or....

2. Make lemonade. I personally like the
idea of adding some gravel or whatever
floats your boat to the area and going
forward from there. Salt and grass are
entirely incompatible.
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User
17 years ago
I too live in zone 5 and have yet to
see the municipality that cared more
for grass than they did the hip joints
of the elder citizens navigating the
sidewalks...

Well, they best get on that, now hadn't they? What's a hip or two to nice, green grass? :-)

KBG lawn with the same issue. At least half of each side of the driveway is now perennial gardens, with things that don't care about salt or snow piles (coreopsis and the like), and that can take the heat baking off the driveway. Fortunately, I don't have a curbside problem, but if I did I'd probably mulch it and forget about it.
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Billl
17 years ago
Some people report using gypsum to minimize salt damage. Obviously it won't bring back dead grass, but if you are going to grow more grass, you might try applying it before the snow falls and see if it works for you.
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turf_toes
17 years ago
Morpheuspa,

Check out Moonlight KBG. I've read that it tends to be fairly salt tolerant.

For what it is worth, I have Moonlight as part of my KBG blend (Midnight II, Moonlight and Bedazzled) and I haven't had any "hell strip" issues since I killed the old lawn and planted this stuff. (Despite getting the regular salt treatment during the winter months)
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