# Gaddis' Lawn Journal



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Well, I probably should have started this a year ago but I finally have a little free time on my hands to get it done. I thought a little background would be in order before I get into the lawn details. I live on the south shore of Long Island, right on a canal. I've been in my home for 20 years and have always tried to maintain at least an "acceptable" lawn. I could usually keep it fairly green throughout the growing season but there were weeds from time to time. I would occasionally throw down some northern mix grass seed and generally managed to get in 1 or 2 applications of Scott's fertilizer during the year. I sometimes had to repair a bit of Canada geese damage (poop and excessive munching) or having saltwater on the lawn (I had 4 feet of bay water on the yard during Hurricane Sandy). I really had no idea what I was doing but because the yard had irrigation, I was able to limp through the season without major issues. I was content.

Then I woke up one morning in July 2018 and discovered that 3/4 of my front lawn was dead. I mean totally toasted brown. At the time, I had no idea what had happened but right then I vowed to learn about proper lawn care and that this would NEVER HAPPEN TO ME AGAIN! I started watching YouTube videos, I discovered Alan Hayne (aka the lawn care nut) and eventually stumbled onto this forum (the single best resource I've found). I began to learn the basics and was amazed by some of the lawns I saw homeowners manage that were even better than professionally landscaped properties! Who knew you could grow a fairway style lawn right at home?!? I saw Connor Ward's accomplishments and I was hooked. So my lawn obsession started right there....with a huge invasion of brown patch!


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Recovering from Brown Patch - Fall 2018

Having learned that there wasn't much I could do to fix the huge dead area during the heat of the summer, I sourced some supplies and grass seed and waited for the cooler weather. I decided to begin migrating my lawn to TTTF and ordered 50 lbs of 4th Millennium seed. I played with the idea of going with KBG but thought the long germination times might be too difficult to deal with. I wasn't ready to attempt a full renovation just yet so I focused on a major overseeding project. I raked out lots of dead brown grass, roughed up the soil as best I could, threw down my seed with some starter fert and covered it all with peat moss. It turned out better than I could have expected and it gave me confidence to keep trying new things.


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Having learned that there wasn't much I could do to fix the huge dead area during the heat of the summer, I sourced some supplies and grass seed and waited for the cooler weather. I decided to begin migrating my lawn to TTTF and ordered 50 lbs of 4th Millennium seed. I played with the idea of going with KBG but thought the long germination times might be too difficult to deal with. I wasn't ready to attempt a full renovation just yet so I focused on a major overseeding project. I raked out lots of dead brown grass, roughed up the soil as best I could, through down my seed with some starter fert and covered it all with peat moss. It turned out better than I could have expected and it gave me confidence to keep trying new things.

Fall 2018 - 4th Millenium TTTF Overseed Results


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

I kept reading and studying lawn information throughout the winter of 2018-19 and convinced myself that I could manage a renovation project. I have a strip of turf between my house and my neighbor that is roughly 1000 sq ft. It was loaded with big patches of Poa Triv, Poa Annua and Creeping Bentgrass. It was a mess! My neighbor had raised the elevation of his house after Hurricane Sandy and it created a runoff area that kept my side strip soaking wet all spring. It turns out the Triv loved these conditions and spread like wildfire. So it was this area I selected to try out my first Reno project. I decided that I wanted to try growing a monostand of KBG. I had never grown KBG before and was excited to see if I could pull it off. After lots of research, I decided to give Mazama a try so I ordered up a bag of it. I wanted to try mowing low and it appeared that this cultivar would handle that perfectly. But first, I had to solve the water runoff issue. Shortly after smoking the existing strip with glyphosate in mid-August, I ordered a huge amount of topsoil that got dropped off in my driveway. After the existing grass was dead, I scalped it with my Honda mower and spot-treated a second time with glyphosate. I then spent an entire day moving topsoil from driveway to the side strip in an effort to somewhat even up the level of my yard with that of my neighbor. Then I went crazy with an R&R leveling rake (36 inch width). Once I was convinced the soil was as smooth as I could make it, it was Mazama seed down at 3.5 lbs / K. I rolled the seed into place, hit it with a dose of Tenacity and covered it with a couple of bails of peat moss. I had never used a roller before and could not believe what difference it made in the germination rate! I saw germination in 5 days but quickly hit the frustrating "spout and pout" phase. My wife was convinced the Reno was going to fail but I told her this was normal and expected. My patience was rewarded because I had a beautiful mono stand of Mazama in a few weeks.


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Leveling and Seed Down on Aug 30th






Germination at day 5




Sept 12th




Oct 1st


Oct 4th


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Then in late December, right after I had finished my nitrogen blitz, I woke one morning to find roughly 50 geese feeding voraciously on my Mazama! I don't know how many of you can truly comprehend just how much damage 50 hungry geese can do to a 1000 sq ft of grass in just a few minutes. I chased them but the damage was done. Virtually all of my hard-earned KBG was gone. Eaten right down to the ground. Crowns and everything. That area went from dark green to earth-colored in one attack. I looked at the area closely and it did appear that the roots were still intact. So I crossed my fingers and knew I had to do some work and some praying to try and bring the Mazama back in the spring.

And that's where I am today. Still working on bringing it back to life. It wasn't really dormant when the geese mowed it down so I'm sure it was heavily stunted at a minimum. And although I've been trying to nurse it along with spoon feedings this year, it has been very slow to respond. Right now, my TTTF is kicking it's butt! But I knew Mazama was not a particularly fast-starting variety when I researched the NTEP reports. It's been relatively cold on Long Island the last 2 weeks so I'm hoping I can recover my nice full stand of KBG by Memorial Day.

My intent is to keep up a proper journal going forward. I hope this was helpful to understand what I've been working on. I hope to renovate either my main front lawn or back lawn this fall. I'm not sure which one I'll do yet. I'd like to go full Mazama KBG everywhere but I wanna t to see how it handles the summer prior to making a final decision.


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Lessons Learned

Like anything in life, the first time you try something, you're going to learn from some mistakes. There are 2 clear lessons I took away from my experience in managing my first Reno. First, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't use straight topsoil for my leveling. The amount of Poa Annua seeds in the soil I added was absolutely incredible. In my 1000 sq ft side strip, I've hand pulled 3 five-gallon buckets of Poa Annua plants so far this spring. Never again. Next time I'm going to order compost and sand and mix both of them myself. I've got to believe the heat of composting kills most of the weed seeds present. The second thing I learned is never forget about your rain gutter drains when you plan your Reno. I neglected to consider them and had 2 fairly major washout areas even after a fairly gentle rain. I located some corrugated plastic pipe at Home Depot and after some creative trenching, I was able to redirect the gutter runoff onto my driveway instead of my seedbed.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Awesome looking property. With new soil, it is great to fallow it. You basically water it like growing seed to get all the weeds to grow and then kill them with round up.


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Thanks g-man. I actually did know about fallowing when I did the Reno (I read your awesome guide!) but I was having difficulty getting my wife to agree to let the side strip go without any grass for so long. I had to cut a corner there and put the seed down right away in order to get agreement to do the project. I probably should have put down prodiamine in the late fall to fight against all the Poa but I was afraid it was going to injure the rooting of the young seedlings. I've successfully hand pulled 99% of the Poa this spring, but my lord, what an effort!


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Mowed the entire yard today. Got some clippings off of the TTTF in the front and the back but the Mazama side strip reno is just completely stalled. Spoon feeding (0.21 lbs N / K weekly from Ammonium Sulfate) has gotten the color to darken but it just isn't growing yet. Can't wait to get this section moving so it can thicken up after all of the goose damage. I noticed some considerable red thread In the back yard today but I'm not going to treat it. I know I can grow it out as soon as the turf begins the spring surge. Patience is hard when you NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE!


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

First nice day in quite a while. Sprayed Depth 10-0-10+ at the 1.5 oz /M rate on the entire lawn. Interested in experimenting with peptides this season and this product claims to have it.


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Lots of rain and below average temperatures here on Long Island for the last 3 weeks. Everything is a little behind where I had hoped after an encouraging start in a very warm early March. My Mazama side strip is finally showing signs of regrowth the after a mow-down by Canada Geese in December. Some weeds are starting to show up in the renovation area but nothing I shouldn't be able to handle with 1 blanket application of Speedzone and some hand pulling. I have some Anuew PGR that I'm anxious to try but I want to get everything growing vigorously before I put it down. Poa Annua is terrible this year and I hope the Anuew can help me by knocking it back.

Mowed the entire lawn today. Put down my annual Grubex granular treatment as I found a bunch of the little buggers a few days ago while expanding some garden beds. Sprayed my weekly spoon feeding of 0.21 lbs of N / M through AMS which I tend to use until the temperature warms up a bit. Tank mixed the AMS with the last of my FEature stock at 1.5 oz / M.


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## TheWestminsterClub (Sep 17, 2019)

How's the KBG doing side strip? Let's see some pictures. I'm on long Island and have PRG 75% & KBG% and was thinking of increasing my KBG percentage for my fall over seed.


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## UMStevo (Aug 25, 2020)

Pictures please! Mazama fan right here!


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

My apologies. I guess I totally neglected this thread! Here are photos of how my 2019 Mazama monostand renovation turned out. These were taken during various points this spring and summer. The lawn adjacent to mine is my neighbor's professionally maintained KBG sod. I couldn't possibly be happier with the results. The Mazama handled the summer heat without a hitch and seems very resistant to fungus. Unfortunately, my 2020 results won't match these, at least for a while, due to a devastating rain event 4 days post germination.


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## UMStevo (Aug 25, 2020)

Jesus that's gorgeous! I expect you're happy with it? Great color!


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Yes, I'm very, very pleased with the result. The thing I like the best about having a monostand is the uniformity of everything. The color, the growth rate, the blade diameter all look the same everywhere. This makes it incredibly easy to spot things that aren't supposed to be there and deal with them right away.


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