- 1. Sketch Your Landscape Plan<\/a><\/li>
- 2. Get Down With Your Dirt<\/a><\/li>
- 3. Check Your Slope<\/a><\/li>
- 4. Install Wiring and Power Cords<\/a><\/li>
- 5. Pick the Right Grass, Plant at the Right Time<\/a><\/li>
- 6. DIY or Call a Professional<\/a><\/li>
- 7. Plant Grass in a New Construction Lawn<\/a><\/li>
- 8. Care for Your Newly Planted Lawn<\/a><\/li>
- FAQ About Post-Construction Lawn Care<\/a><\/li><\/ul> \t\t\t<\/div> \t\t<\/div><\/div>
1. Sketch Your Landscape Plan<\/h2>
![\"landscape](\"https:\/\/www.lawnstarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/landscape-plan.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Andy Dean Photography<\/a> \/ Canva Pro \/ License<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure> Start by thinking about what your final landscape should look like. This is your chance to redo what was there before (in the case of a remodeling) or start anew (with new home construction). You\u2019re not obliged to stick with the starter plants or landscaping ideas that the contractor put in the ground or to plunk down more grass right where it was before.<\/p>
New House<\/strong><\/p>
If you\u2019ve just had your new house built, you\u2019ll likely already have a set of plans from your home builder. These plans probably include architectural drawings and a site\/plot plan with exact dimensions of the location of your new house on the property, property lines, utilities, etc. <\/p>
Pro tip:<\/strong> Having this information to refer to can save you lots of time when developing your overall landscape plan.) <\/p>
Remodeled Home<\/strong><\/p>
If you\u2019ve just had your house remodeled or renovated, depending upon the extent of the renovations, you may or may not have architectural drawings or a site plan. <\/p>
Note:<\/strong> If you don’t have any blueprints from the home builder, you’ll have to take measurements of your house (for foundation planting). This includes locating doors, windows, air conditioning units, and decks and measuring their respective heights from the ground. Knowing the distance from the ground will help you determine where to plant shrubs underneath them.<\/p>
Here\u2019s how to sketch your landscape plan:<\/p>
- Rough out a plan for your house and lot.<\/strong> For your new home landscaping, you\u2019re going to need to measure and sketch out your lot and your house (or use a landscape design app like iscapeit.com<\/a>).
The materials you\u2019ll need are a pencil (with a good eraser), paper, steel 50-foot measuring tape, and a clipboard (to hold your paper in place and a firm surface to draw on).
Your drawing can be crude as long as you understand your own measurements and squiggles. Those squiggles might even boost your home\u2019s curb appeal<\/a>.<\/li>- Indicate where the sun comes up and where it goes down.<\/strong> If you happen to have a sunny day at home and a camera, make a sun map. Take a series of pictures every hour during daylight hours so you can see how the sun and shadows cross your lawn. Inexpensive sun-tracking apps, such as SunSurveyor<\/a>, can help.<\/li>
- Include in your drawing any features<\/strong> such as hills, retaining walls, and the neighbor\u2019s trees if they might affect your landscaping plan.<\/li>
- Sit down with your plan and start playing with ideas,<\/strong> keeping in mind your ultimate goals. Is a pool or water feature<\/a> a must-have? How about a play area for the kids? Are there low-sun areas where you\u2019ll need to plant shade-tolerant plants<\/a>?<\/li> <\/ul>
You want to end up with a good notion of how you want everything to look years down the road after you plant trees and when the bushes have filled in. Landscaping design software and professional landscapers can further refine your new construction landscape ideas.<\/p>
2. Get Down With Your Dirt<\/h2>
![\"soil](\"https:\/\/www.lawnstarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/soil-g67ddc50da_1920-1.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure> Next, consider your soil. That dirt may look ready for planting, but it\u2019s probably not. Unfortunately, the soil around a new construction or newly renovated house often suffers from one or more of these three conditions:<\/p>
- Poor soil quality.<\/strong> Contractors frequently bring in fill dirt to elevate new homes, fill in depressions, and provide a slope to get water to flow away from the house. The fill dirt can come from a variety of sources. It could include some topsoil, but more likely, it is mostly subsoil from the immediate area or trucked in from elsewhere.
The subsoil hasn\u2019t been watered or worked over by microbes, worms, insects, organic material, and nutrients \u2014 your garden assistants, all of which are required for a soil structure plants can sink their roots into.
What to do about it:<\/strong> Improve the soil. In the case of remodeled homes, if you are lucky, the contractor may have scraped aside the existing topsoil and you have some good soil to layer back over your yard. If not, you will have to build your own topsoil. Get a soil test<\/a> to find what nutrients you lack and adjust your soil amendments accordingly.
<\/li>- Construction debris.<\/strong> Fill dirt isn\u2019t just poor-quality planting material because of what it lacks. It\u2019s notorious for what it contains. Dig down into it to plant an azalea, and don\u2019t be surprised if doink!<\/em> Your spade hits a rock or a piece of construction debris.
What to do about it:<\/strong> Remove it as best you can as you prepare the soil. If you find a lot of it, expect an expense. While some municipalities will haul it away, many will not.<\/li>- Compacted soil.<\/strong> Grass roots need a loose soil structure for their roots to grow and take hold. Heavy equipment and constant walking over the area compact the soil. In fact, having compacted soil<\/a> is a plus for builders because they don\u2019t want a building settling as they build it.
What to do about it:<\/strong> Any area where you will be planting grass requires tilling to loosen the soil before planting. If you have a layer of compacted subsoil and you\u2019re adding topsoil to it, you\u2019ll want to till deeply enough to blend the two. Otherwise, you\u2019ll discourage your new lawn from setting down deep roots, which will weaken it.<\/li> <\/ol>3. Check Your Slope<\/h2>
![\"retaining](\"https:\/\/www.lawnstarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/rsz_32379317727_f805c4dfb1_c.jpg\")
Photo Credit: Redi-Rock International<\/a> \/ Flickr \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure> Some contractors are more diligent than others about properly grading the lawn, and your own soil-amending<\/a> activities may tilt things a bit, too. So if a recent rainstorm has shown you have an issue with the slope of your lot, now is the time to fix it.<\/p>
You want to make sure your lawn is sloped enough to help water flow away from the house but not so steep you\u2019ll have to landscape on a slope<\/a>.<\/p> \n
- Construction debris.<\/strong> Fill dirt isn\u2019t just poor-quality planting material because of what it lacks. It\u2019s notorious for what it contains. Dig down into it to plant an azalea, and don\u2019t be surprised if doink!<\/em> Your spade hits a rock or a piece of construction debris.
- Indicate where the sun comes up and where it goes down.<\/strong> If you happen to have a sunny day at home and a camera, make a sun map. Take a series of pictures every hour during daylight hours so you can see how the sun and shadows cross your lawn. Inexpensive sun-tracking apps, such as SunSurveyor<\/a>, can help.<\/li>
- 2. Get Down With Your Dirt<\/a><\/li>
![\"electrician](\"https:\/\/www.lawnstarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/installing-wirings.jpg\")
![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.lawnstarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rsz_lawnstarter-overseeding-map_1.jpg\")
![\"Warm](\"https:\/\/www.lawnstarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/rsz_ls-warm-season-growth.jpg\")
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