From Raw Land to Lawn and the Steps You Take in Between

[4 seasons lawn&land]

What are your methods from start to finish?

[shovelracer]

Really depends on what you are starting with. In an ideal situation you have good topsoil, the PH is correct, etc. If it is forested around here you are in for lots of rocks, stumps, grading. If you are stripping the land than your best bet is add organics to back into it. On my property I cleared about 1/2 an acre of land that was cleared about 80 years ago. We went in and cleared all the brush, removed the trees and smaller stumps, rough graded it, removed large boulders, power raked it, installed seed and PH correction.

[Cloud9Landscapes]

Remove any trees or large plants using a brush hog.
Irrigate the area using temporary impact sprinklers to germinate all seeds.
Spray area with Round-up or Garlon
Remove all the debris.
Rough grade.
Soil test
Till in amendments and fertilizers.
Irrigation installed: trenched, pipe layed, sprinklers installed, infill.
Final grade.
Sod (good quality, do yourself the favor)
Mow after about 3 weeks. Mow high at first and then slowly take down the height of cut.