Your comments tend to stimulate and help organize my thinking on this project, even if they seem to have no connection with where I'm headed. It is hard to directly address any particular post because of the flood of thought each one stimulates. I considered a piece of raw land and then putting up a 900 +/- sqft abode. I have spent a great amount of time living and working in the bush. I do not want to park there permanently. It is not as Idylic as many people seem to think. If you opt for one of the villages it gets even more complicated. If it is convenient to the city and its amenities, it usually has too many restrictions or is a parcel with too many problems for realistic consideration. With other factors figured in also, it seems that I'm being directed to locate in one of Anchorage's older neighborhoods. I envision it as a reclamation project, returning it to something like its original condition, EXCEPT in a more park like setting. I enjoy the fall colors of the blue berry brush, high bush cranberry, Canadian Dogwood, Bear Berry, etc., as well as the summer succession of ferns and wild flowers. I am aware that the vision is much grander than reality will allow. But, nothing ventured nothing gained. My area is a modified marine climate. Summer days are long. Around here, they reach 19 to 19-1/2 hrs. at summer solstice. The sun is not intense though. And, many days are lost to overcast. I find that the sweetest blue berries are the ones that get the most sun. The story may be different in the interior, say around Fairbanks, where the days are even longer, warmer and with less overcast. After I threw the last of my kids out of the door, I swore that I'd never own a vehicle with room for more than 2 people, a lawn mower or a snow shovel. So far, I have kept that promise and intend to continue doing so. Plus, I am activly busy with things I'd rather be doing than mowing lawn in the summer: getting outdoors, out of town and out of sight of anyone else. I have other priorities. I guess I've ranted enough for now. I've been down with a cold this weekend, so I've had time on my hands to kill. I'm healing up and life will be getting busier beginning tomorrow. I'll try to get back at least one more time. But, I feel the nudging of things that need to be done will eventually take precedence. For those that might like to look. My photo album: http://mr-correll.t15.org/ Take care folks.

Sorry I lost track of this discussion. My preference for fertilizer is plain alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). No mixing, no fuss. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. MorpheusPA likes Milorganite and soybean meal. Those are very good, too. I like alfalfa because I can find it locally and it is less expensive in South Texas. You can mix them or not. The application rate for any mixed grains is still 20 pounds per 1,000. This watering schedule you're on is only for this year and only because you seeded in the spring. This is an attempt to nurse your new seeded grass through the heat of summer. Eventually, deep and infrequent watering will mean that you water a full inch of water, once every week or two depending on heat. Next summer if it gets into the 90s then you should water once a week. Otherwise every other week should be fine. Nutgrass hates this watering schedule, so it must be good. The way you measure one inch of water is to set out some cat food or tuna cans. Turn on the sprinkler and time how long it takes to fill the cans. That will be your target time for watering once the summer heat breaks (next month). When the heat breaks and you know your watering time, water for that time and set your calendar. Watch the grass to tell you when to water next. As soon as you see any part of it drying out (the grass, not the soil surface), water again immediately. Remember the days and reset your calendar. Eventually watering like this will stretch out the calendar and you'll be watering every other week or less. If you do this, you should not need to worry about weeds. Weed seed needs much more water than this to germinate. If you are not germinating weed seeds, then you won't get new weeds. As for current weeds, the broad leaf weeds can be killed with something like Weed-b-gone spray. Spot spray individual weeds if you only have a few. For weeds over a broad area I would still use weed b gone spray. For grassy weeds you'll have to use something else. Someone else can help you with the various chemicals for grasses. After you get rid of current weeds, then you're relying on grass density and infrequent watering to keep the weeds out. With Kentucky bluegrass in full sun, grass density will not be a problem. With anything else in the shade, you will have to overseed in the fall to keep it dense. Good news is most weeds like full sun, too, so the shade helps. Watch the sloped area carefully for runoff. An inch of water can take hours and hours to apply with an oscillator sprinkler. That is actually a good thing because it allows the water to seep in slowly.

I couldn't find a write up by dchall, besides bing an organic furu, he does an excellent lawn seeding write up. If you're interested in a slightly different take, do a sight search for "dchall" and check some of his seeding advice. This one is by tiemco, he is a seed and soil guru, and this is one of the best seeding step by steps: ":RE: The order of rehabing a fescue lawn Posted by tiemco 6ct (My Page) on Mon, Aug 20, 12 at 21:56 Well I seem to do a write up every year regarding this, so here goes. When you kill everything and start fresh it's called a renovation. To do it correctly, one usually starts with a soil test in the spring to give you enough time to add amendments to bring your deficient macro and micro nutrients up to a good level. You said you are adding lime. Is this due to a low pH, or is it just something you generally do? Are you using calcitic or dolomitic? Anyway, lime should be added either way before or way after seeding, say a month at the least. It will take a while for lime to dissolve, and if you apply it at seeding you can get interactions with starter fertilizer and the very top layer of soil can have a much higher pH than you want. So if you are going to lime, either do it now, or wait till a month or two after you seed. For Round-Up to work its best, the grass and weeds need to be actively growing. Watering a few times a week prior to applying Round-up and after applying will make it more effective. Once you notice the grass starting to die, usually in 4-7 days, you will want to mow it as low as you can before it lays down. Once it's down, it's a lot harder to mow. Many people allow a period of fallowing at this point, applying water to get any dormant grass to reanimate, and any rogue weed seeds to germinate. If you aren't going to fallow, that's fine, it's optional. So now you have a brown lawn, and the soil should be fairly moist from the waterings. The next step that I like to do is power rake, especially if you have thatch, or the soil is obscurred by dead grass. TTTF seeds are pretty big, and they can have trouble getting to the soil if thatch is an issue or you have a lot of dead grass matted down. You can skip this step if you want, it's optional, but I like to do it. It also loosens up the top inch or so of soil. After a power raking, either rake up all the loose dead stuff, or use your mower with the bag to remove it. Now you are ready to seed. I like to do all the prep work the day before, and the seeding the next day early. A light watering the night before seeding is also a good idea. So now you're ready to seed. Use a broadcast or drop spreader, whatever you feel more comfortable with. Apply the correct amount of seed, more is not better. If it says 8-10 lbs per 1000 square feet, shoot for 9. Make multiple passes in different directions to make sure you have even coverage. If you do this, be sure you lower the setting on the seeder so you don't put down too much on the first pass. Once all the seed is down you have a few options. One is do nothing. Some people like to roll the seed with a water filled roller. Some people like to top dress the seed. Some people like to do both. If I could only do one, I would topdress. Another thing some people do is apply Tenacity herbicide at the time of seeding. If you have a lot of weeds, or anticipate a lot of weeds it can really help reduce them at seeding. Now that the seed is down, and you rolled the seed and or topdressed, an application of starter fertilizer is a good idea. I like to use a half app at this time, the other half after the first mowing. You can use a full app if you want, but with all the watering you do I feel that you lose a lot of that full app due to leaching. Now it's time to water. Watering is probably the single biggest factor in success. The seeds need to be moist continually until they have all germinated. This generally means three light waterings per day. If you have a sprinkler system, then you are golden. If not, you need to set up hoses with timers. You can do this when you water prior to rounding up. Make sure the whole lawn gets adequate coverage. You are watering to keep the seed moist, so no puddling. Generally this means 5-15 minute watering cycles depending on your water pressure and coverage. Three times a day is generally enough. Then all you have to do is worry about your seeds, and the weather, and everything else that can go wrong. Once all the seed is up, and you see the green fuzz, you can start to cut back on the waterings to twice a day for about a week, then once a day for a week, then every other day, etc. Your first mowing should take place about a month after seeding, or when the new grass is 3 inches tall. Mow it down to 2. I'm sure I forgot some things, so please ask questions, and this isn't the only way to go, but it has worked for me very well." Good luck to you on your project.

After living in my home for 10 years, I'm discovering that some people are just oblivious to anyone or anything around them. My nature [to put it politely] is to simply 'talk' to someone about an issue. I would have asked the mower if he could wait and mow at another time, due to the gathering of those neighbors for an obviously special event. 'Could have been a wedding. Same thing, but a funeral is far more sensitive. Most of my neighbors are very good - thoughtful, helpful, and considerate of our neighborhood. Then, there is always one, it seems, who couldn't care less.