Hydroseeding in Ralston, NE

Hydroseeding in Ralston is mostly lawn renovation on compact lots. The whole city covers about 1.65 square miles and is surrounded on three sides by Omaha, with La Vista on its south side, so there is almost no raw farmland left to turn into subdivisions. What there is instead is a lot of mature tree cover and older turf that has thinned out beneath it.

A town that started with trees

Ralston's founder, Dr. George Miller, bought his first 280 acres in 1867 and dreamed of an English country estate. He acquired 40,000 walnut, catalpa and oak trees from J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, and called the place Deerfield. Planting on that scale set a pattern, and many Ralston yards today are shaded for most of the day. Kentucky bluegrass sold as full-sun seed struggles there. We shift the mix toward fine fescues, raise the seeding rate a little under the canopy and keep the mulch light enough that seedlings can find the light.

Roots and compaction

Under big trees the soil is crowded with roots and usually compacted by years of foot traffic. We do not rototill near trunks. Instead we core aerate, rake in a thin layer of topsoil or compost and hydroseed over it. Where a tree has come down, the stump grinding leaves a mound of chips that needs to be pulled out and replaced with soil before any seed goes on.

The accidental lake

Ralston has an odd piece of history: businessmen drilling for oil or minerals hit water at 1,440 feet near what is now 73rd and P streets, and water rushed up at thousands of gallons per hour. A dike was built in a hurry to control the flooding, and the result became 47-acre Seymour Lake. Lots near the lake and other low parts of town can stay wet; on those we fix the grade first so water moves to a drain instead of sitting on new seed.

Rebuilding one lot at a time

In 1936 the city gave away 678 lots to people willing to build homes, so much of the housing stock comes from the same era. Teardowns, additions and replaced sewer laterals are steady sources of bare dirt now. After that kind of work we clean up, regrade, add topsoil and hydroseed so the patch matches the yard around it.

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