Growing Grass

We have a disgustingly overgrown pine tree in our front yard. When I first looked at the house it hit me immediately, this tree must go.

I went out and bought a Remington Electric tree trimmer. I have a tendency to rush right in and use these new tools, but I always force myself to read the directions first. I picked up the direction book and it was all over the place. It is really confusing. They combine three different languages into the same book. So you will read a title in English, followed by the same title in Spanish, and finally French. But in other sections, there will be two straight pages of all English, followed by two straight pages of Spanish, then French. I couldn't take it because I was so anxious. The one tidbit I did get from the book was to put oil in the oil well. Done.

Trimmed one branch. Worked great. Trimmed a second, then a third. Got to the fourth branch and there was smoke and a foul odor coming from the motor. I figured that was normal. Gave it a pause, pushed the button to activate it again - and a big nothing. At this point I had to make sense of the direction book. Turns out you have to manually "prime" the oil after every cut.

I returned the saw and got a new one. I cut about 1/4 of the tree down leaving about 4 feet clearance so I could plant grass seed. We are in the middle of a heatwave and I knew that if I cut the whole tree down and left no shade, the grass wouldn't grow. After three days and three times a day of watering, I have grass!

I used Scott's sun and shade mixture. My neighbor told me that because of the dripping of the sap from the tree, I will need to fertilize with Lyme. He explained to me that the sap will increase the acidic level of the soil and that the lyme will reduce it. I haven't taken that step yet, but will in the near future.