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Prepare For Hydroseeding

Call 206-400-7866 for instant quote, Guaranteed Results, Seattle Hydroseding offers professional hydro-seeding and erosion control services to residential and commercial customers in King County and Pierce County including Seattle, Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Tukwila, Tacoma, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Redmond, New Castle, Kent, Auburn, Federal Way, Sea Tac, Des Moines, Issaquah, Maple Valley, Puyallup, Kingsgate, Shoreline, Lynwood, Edmonds, Ballard, Bonnie Lake, Sumner, Burien

Prepare For Hydroseeding

Why Would I Prepare the Soil?
The first step to a vibrant, healthy  lawn is to prepare the soil for the plant to be able to grow there.  This is the kind of situation where you usually get a better  result if you start out with a better environment for growth.  Think of it as a baby plant that has just begun its life, and  just like a human baby there are some requirements for optimal growth. Good drainage, fertile soil with the proper nutrients, the  right amount of water and food all contribute to a healthy stand of grass.  The time to alter the soil is before planting, as  it is much more difficult to change it after the lawn is growing.
You need to have 3 to 4 inches of new topsoil to have guaranteed results. A three way mix works well.

Surface Clean-up
It is imperative that the surface of the soil  is bare and that all weeds are removed before we hydroseed. It is best to rake up all debris after weed removal and bag it so that  you don’t leave weed seed on the ground.  The hydroseeding mixture (called a slurry) comes out of the hose with the consistency  of a thick pea soup, and it needs to make contact with the soil in order for the grass seed to germinate and grow.

Irrigation
Consistent watering is essential for a healthy lawn  and regulating it with a timer is mandatory. You may think it won’t be too difficult to water by hand before work and after  work every day, but that will get old real quickly.  Also, this is not the area to save the budget by buying the cheapest sprinklers  you can find; that will only lead to broken heads and frustration down the road which will mean frequent repairs and many brown areas  due to lack of water. Do the homework needed here; check the water pressure, do  the math, and get some quality rotators if the budget allows.  Please DO NOT install impact-type rotators (like the old style  Rain-Birds that went CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH), as they tend to disrupt the freshly sprayed hydroseeding mulch in an arc where the water pellets land over and over.  Remember, when we hydroseed your yard we put down everything needed for you to have a beautiful  lawn.  After that, all that is left is for you to water it correctly for it to turn out just the way you wanted



To Till or Not To Till
If your soil is hard-packed and you  can not dig a hole in it with your heel, you probably need to rototill or bring in at least 4 inches of new topsoil.  This will improve drainage and allow the baby roots to  work their way into the soil.  There is a reason why grass won’t grow on concrete and if your soil feels like concrete, you probably  won’t have the beautiful lawn you imagined.  Rent a rototiller from the local home improvement store (a rear-tine tiller is much  easier to maneuver and does a better job) or hire someone to do this nasty job. Try  to till down at least 6”  (minimum of 4”) and watch out for PVC. It is usually better to do this before you install your  irrigation, but if you already have irrigation in place you can locate the pipes and mark them with flags before you till.  If  you are going to add amendment (next topic) you will want to till first, add the amendment and spread around, then till the amendment  into the soil as deeply as you can and mix thoroughly.  If you don’t till the amendment into the soil the roots may want to stay  in the top area where the nutrients and the drainage are optimal, and then you will have a shallow root system that does not produce  a healthy plant.  After the tilling fun is over and your soil is raked and smoothed, you will then want to rent a sod-roller  ($11/half day),
fill it half-way full with water, and go over your yard in two different directions to firm it up.  That will  even up the soft areas (trenched lines over pipes) and make it consistent so your finished yard is smooth and not full of hills and  valleys.  If you can step on the soil and sink in a couple inches, you need to firm it up some more.  Remember, I am coming  out to spray and I will be walking back and forth over the soil with a 2” hose that is very heavy, and I don’t want to step in a sinkhole.   Tilling is a challenging step that you may be tempted to skip, but you can’t do much about over-compaction after the lawn is planted,  and it will be much healthier if the roots can breathe.


Pre-germinate Weed Seed
After you have finished all the previous  steps and your soil is graded, firmed, and raked smooth, you are almost ready to go.One last step is essential for your beautiful  lawn to come in the way you want: you need to kill any weed seeds that are just lying there waiting for the right conditions to pop  up. You may not see them or believe they’re  there, but I can guarantee there are weed seeds in your soil right now. There may even be remnants of weeds and roots from weeds  that you tilled into the soil. They are much
easier to deal with BEFORE we plant the grass seed and if you don’t do anything  about them, what do you think is going to happen when we put down a protective layer of mulch, fertilizer, and growth additives, and  you begin to water 3-4 times a day? The best way to make sure they don’t come up with your new lawn is to germinate them and  kill them before we hydroseed.  Once you are all ready to go, set your sprinkler timer to water your soil lightly 2 times per  day as if you had just planted grass. Set the duration so that it will water down into the soil about 1”;  that  should be enough to germinate the viable seeds. Then after about a week or so of this routine, spray ANYTHING that comes up green  with Roundup.  It is very important to spray the Roundup after the soil has been getting water;  if it has been bone-dry  for months the Roundup will not be very effective. It is absorbed into the plant through the leaves (or blades) and will only  go into the roots and kill the plant if the plant has been moving water up and down inside it's structure.  In other  words, if the plant (or weed) has been in shock for lack of water, the Roundup probably won’t kill it. After you spray the Roundup,  turn off the irrigation for a day or so and we can hydroseed in a couple days. The Roundup has no effect on an ungerminated  seed and will leach out of the soil as you water. This method is tried and true, and will take the weeds out of the equation  so you will not have to be killing them while your new lawn is growing

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  • Home
  • Erosion Control Services
  • Seattle Hydroseeding Gallery
  • Preparing for Hydroseed in Seattle
  • Hydroseed Faq
  • Hydroseeding Cost