Want to thank for this newsgroup and many others for setting me straight on how to plant grass from seed. Some was misleading as they were in a different zone, different soil type, and subject to their own interpretations not appropriate to mine. Mother nature helped out a bunch this year with heavy cloudiness, intermittent hard rain, soft rain, and drizzle. Heavy humidity most of the time, but no mold, or other associated growth. Well, except some oddball mushrooms out by the driveway.
Location: Central TX hill country. Original conditions: 20 degree grade, limestone rocks and gravel, caliche. Not a yard per se.
Corrective activities: created rock wall at bottom of grade, short from the fenceline, wide enough to comfortably push the lawnmower between the wall and fence. Moved the larger rocks out first, part of the wall. Top of the wall to the house, decreased slope. Filled in with sandy loam. Raked in
5-10-10 fertilizer and grass seed. Over a 6 week period, the bermuda grass has germinated, sprouted, and grown over 5" in height. Today, I finally mowed it. The sandy loam did have added attraction, some kind of plant not typical of my area. I've been pulling up as it erupts.Local landscaper I'm familiar with, told me about using highly degradable mulch for water retention and aiding bacteria and aiding earthworm population for the lawn. He said to use it lightly on an established lawn. Keep it mowed and use the mulching asset of the mower to chop up the mulch. Use the mulch lightly, he said. He said you could also bow rake some in the soil if no lawn is in place yet. Found some bags of finely shredded pine bark at the local feed store, hope that falls in line with that.