How to Plant New Grass With Peat Moss

Whether you have a brand new house with a muddy soil mess where a lawn should be or an older home with a patchy weed field instead of a lawn, planting a brand new lawn is a good way to get a fresh start on your green space. The first thing you should do when planting a new lawn, no matter if you are planting a seed lawn or sod, is to prepare a soil bed with good amendments that include peat moss.

• 1

  Dig up soil samples over your landscape by taking one quart of soil with a shovel from 10 locations across your yard. Mix these samples in a bucket and spread them over a newspaper to dry. Scoop 2 cups of soil into a paper bag and take it to your nearest county extension service for sampling. Your county extension agent will help you to package the soil and prepare paperwork to send the soil to a agricultural college-run soil testing laboratory. The laboratory will instruct you on your soil's structure and pH and will make recommendations on which amendments you should add to your soil in addition to peat moss.

• 2

  Break up your soil to a depth of 12 inches using a lawn tractor with a landscaping plow attachment. For smaller yards a rototiller may be sufficient to break up your soil.

• 3

  Spread a 4-inch layer of peat moss, as well as the other amendments that your soil test recommended, over your soil. In general you should use a 3 ½ cubic feet bale of peat moss per 1,000 square feet of soil. Peat moss will aerate your soil and will help hold moisture. Good additional amendments for all soil types include compost and fertilizer. You can also add dolomite lime to raise the pH of soil, or sulfur to lower the pH.

• 4

  Smooth over and grade the soil with a landscaping rake attachment. Your yard should slope away from your home at a rate of 1 descending foot per every 50 feet in distance to carry water away from the foundations of your home. Check with local or state regulations to see if there are any local laws concerning the grade of land.