# Nnnnnates Lawn Journal



## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

I documented my yard install in this thread over in the landscape section.

Now that the yard is pretty much in I wanted to get more focused on the lawn and getting it to fill in and look nice. The backyard is rough despite it being sodded May 2020. The colors are blotchy and it did not fill in very well. Front and back are irrigated with an in ground system. I had been mowing at about 3" from install date to the middle of August with my honda rotary mower.

Front Yard: 1200 sqft kbg mix, installed as sod in June 2019.
Back Yard: 2500 sqft kbg mix, installed as sod in May 2020.

Pics at the beginning.






I started the deep dive at the beginning of August on here to figure out how to up my lawn game. I had previously been a fairly solid Tier 1 guy but I need progression on this front. I thought I was going to do some overseeding but with my KBG quickly found that wasn't necessarily the best course of action. I found the nitrogen blitz guide and later that morning bought a bag of urea from the farm supply store down the street. I really do feel like I have a lot of holes that I want to fill in so I'm following the "PS" application rates in that guide. I've applied doses of .5 lb/k of the urea the last two mondays and will do my third tonight after work.

I'm in the Salt Lake area and temps have been hot here still so I probably should have held off on starting when I did but I decided to just go for it. Because of that the lawn growth hasn't really blow up yet but I did notice the back yard did green up a bit after I did the first dose of nitrogen. I dropped the HOC to 2" in front and 1.25" in the back. That might sound drastic but in the back there were only patches that really got much cutting and the rest just skimmed the top because it hadn't been growing well. I've mowed 2 to 3 times a week and like what I'm seeing.

I bought a Sun Joe refurb unit and put the scarifier blade when it showed up. I did a couple passes on Saturday 8/29/20. I knew what to expect but wondered if I'd get as much detritus pulled up since its a new yard. I got plenty.



As I was doing this work I started to wonder if this was the best idea since I was actively also trying to thicken the lawn up and this was thinning it out. I told myself that the lawn would benefit from getting the garbage cleaned out and continued on.

In the back something that had bothered me was there are a lot of dead/dry stalks sticking up that look bad. I've tried to pull a few and they are hard and don't break easy and they don't pull out of the ground easy either. I don't know what they are but they annoy me. I had hoped that dethatching would pull them up, some were removed but there are still a lot of them hanging around.



The other thing that really pissed me off is dethatching pulled up a ton of little pebbles and rocks that were in the back yard sod. I knew there were some but I spent a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday walking the yard picking them out of the grass. I paid for "good" sod and got garbage.

Finally. I had started to look for a reel mower and brought one home this weekend. I believe its a 2008 Toro GM1000. (I forgot to take a pic of the serial to look it up...) Its in good shape and John showed me how to backlap the reel and really helped me out a ton with it and my other silly noob lawn questions. I'm trying to decide whether to reel mow tonight or hold off another bit to let the lawn recover from the dethatching before I drop the HOC any more.

Here is the back yard after cleaning up the thatch on Saturday. Again, its cut at 1.25" with the rotary.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

Lawn Applications:

I'm wanting to use this as a reference guide for myself so I'm going to continually update this post with each application.

*Front:*
8/17/20 Urea 0.5 lb/k nitrogen for 1.4 lbs total spread, HOC 3"
8/18/20 Humate 15 lbs spread
8/20/20 HOC dropped to 2"
8/24/20 Urea 0.5 lb/k nitrogen for 1./4 lbs total spread
8/29/20 Dethatched 2 directions

*Back:*
8/18/20 Urea 0.5 lb/k nitrogen for 2.5 lbs total spread, HOC 2.5"
Humate 30 lbs spread
8/20/20 HOC dropped to 2"
8/24/20 Urea 0.5 lb/k nitrogen for 2.5 lbs total spread, HOC dropped to 1.25"
8/29/20 Dethatched 2 directions


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

saved


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## ludawg23 (Aug 10, 2020)

beautiful house/yard


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

@ludawg23 Thank you. We built this house with my inlaws so that we could help my MIL out as her health deteriorated. Unfortunately she passed last December. Its been hard to not question our decision now with the space we don't necessarily need and the mortgage we'd be happy without but its a nice house with great neighbors and the yard is getting there so we're managing and counting our blessings each day.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

I decided to try and wreck my lawn last night. From certain angles it seems like thats exactly what I accomplished. I know it'll bounce back in a couple weeks but it looks rough, particularly the front yard.

Previously this was at 2" HOC. I cut it to 1.25" then .75" with my honda rotary which was hard and slow going. The bag filled up so quick so I had to keep emptying that but also I was bogging down with how low I was getting that it just took a long time. To be honest I was eager to mow with the reel (the gm1000 is set to .75") so I attempted it after cutting to 1.25" but it didn't go well. The reel got jammed and I quickly decided to needed to get to .75 with the rotary first. Going this short really exposed a lot of holes and uneven spots. Even more than the dethatching did on Saturday.




Previously this was at 1.25". I cut it at 1.25" then down to .75" with the rotary as well before doing a pass with the gm1000. It actually doesn't look too bad in general. There is a large hump on the right side which I knew about and some smaller holes throughout that I need to level.




My wife came outside while I was struggling up front and was a champ. I had previously tried to explain what the process was, scalp, wait, then hopefully it'd grow back and look good after a couple weeks. She didn't freak out or anything and said something along the lines that you could tell a good lawn was in there somewhere. Like I said, she was a champ about it.

At this point the plan is to work at getting some sand before the weekend and do some spreading and leveling. I've got a landscape rake but nothing to drag. The yard isn't big enough to tow and I don't have a 4wheeler so I'll have to see how good I can get it with the rake. I guess I should probably aerate before sand too. In a video I watched yesterday the lawn tools said the to sand about 1 ton per 1000 sqft. That would be just under 4 tons for the front and back. I'm going to focus on the front I think and get some in the back but I don't know that I have the time and ability to level both like I should and want to do this fall.

Its interesting how timing works because we've been waiting for a neighbor to help get us going on a backsplash since March and last night he asked how Saturday morning worked for us. Obviously we aren't going to turn that down so I'll be doing that between all this yard work that also needs to be addressed. He said it should only take a few hours (hes a tile guy by trade) but after a few days in the 70's we're supposed to climb back up to the mid 90's for the holiday weekend. By the time I get outside to work it's going to be hot hot hot.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

Here is a pic of the Toro Greensmaster 1000.



I feel like a bum for not at least hosing it off after the maiden cut yesterday but I was in a hurry to get burgers on the grill for dinner so I could make a youth activity after dinner. Maybe I'll wheel her back out tonight and give her a quick shower.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I think you should hold off on sand for a week. Let the grass recover first. You should also do some nitrogen (urea or ams) now to help with recovery.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

The soonest I probably have time to sand is Monday so that should work out. I put down my third weekly application of urea this past Monday for the fall blitz. I've been doing 1 lb urea per 1k lawn. I've been spreading it dry but had kind of been planning to dissolve it and spray this next week. Do you think I should bump up that application date or just keep on the current track @g-man ? I probably started the blitz too early but I haven't seen any adverse affects.


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