# spaceman_spiff's Journal - Episode 1



## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Hello TLF,

First post here. Been spending the past couple weeks trying to absorb as much info from this site as possible. It's been an amazing reference so far, especially the Cool Season Lawn Guide!

We purchased our home last year, and I'm trying to really tackle getting the lawn in good shape. I've got toddlers that play outside all the time, so I'd like it to be nice and healthy instead of dead and matted down; somewhere between tier 1 and 2 of the lawn guide. I've got a Rachio 3 controller, and have it dialed in pretty well. I've spent entirely too much time reading about dirt, ET, and all the soil properties 

I'm located in the Sacramento CA area, and the cool-weather grass is primarily TF and KBG. I've got about 1000 sq ft of grass at the moment. Expanding the grass around the pool is a future project 

History of the lawn so far:
*Summer 2020*: Since I knew nothing really about lawn care, I basically cut the lawn too short then it went dormant during the summer heat. Temps hit 100-110'F here during July/August, so the lawn was nice and crispy. I ended up with a bunch of brown spots and some newly bare spots.

*October 2020*: Read a bit about herbicides since crabgrass, clover, and nut sedge started exploding everywhere. Ended up getting Tenacity and Sedgehammer+. After 2 sprays 3-4 weeks apart, all the weeds were dead, much to my satisfaction. I felt like a lawn pro 

*November 2020*: Everything went dormant with the falling temps. I gave it a final mow and called it a year without knowing about fall PreM. Oops.

*January 2021*: Air temps started to hit high 50s/low 60s toward the end of the month and we had a bunch of rain. Random weeds started sprouting up everywhere in my mulch areas, and Poa Annua started exploding everywhere. This is when I started spending my nights reading about lawn care, much to my wife's annoyance and jokes. This is when I found TLF.

*February 2021*: Trying to figure out how to nuke my Poa. Since it's cool-weather grass, it seemed there wasn't a whole lot of stuff that selectively killed Poa, and the good stuff that does, isn't able to be shipped to CA. Boo. So, I bought some Roundup QuikPro and was going to spot treat it. Haven't gotten around to that just yet as it arrived yesterday.

Spring to do list:

*Dethatch*. I just purchased the Greenworks corded dethatcher. There's a nice layer of junk that needs cleaned up.

*Aerate*. The ground is super compacted. I purchased one of those core step tools since I don't have a massive lawn.

*GrubEx*. I've got a skunk that's digging up my back yard, much to my annoyance. I'm planning on throwing down some GrubEx to kill whatever grubs it's looking for.

*PreM*. I have Tenacity, Sedgehammer+ on hand, and just received Prodiamine 65 WDG. Do I just use the Prodiamine as specified in the lawn guide, or hit it with a combo?

*Patch*. I've got a bunch of dead nut sedge that I need to pull, and probably some Poa once I hit it with the Roundup. I'm planning on laying some top soil, laying some new seed (not sure of the product yet), then leveling it out since it's all bumpy.

*Fertilize*. Not sure of the product yet, will have to read more.

Questions:

Trying to figure out the order in which to do things based upon what I've read in the lawn guide and elsewhere. Is this a decent order to do things in? Spot treat Poa > pull up dead sedge/Poa spots > mow low > dethatch > aerate > seed bare spots/overseed > GrubEx/PreM > water water water.

All the cool-weather calendars I see on the web basically say to start everything in March. Since I'm in CA, we get warm weather pretty quickly. It's going to be mid-60s for the next week, and the soil temperature is currently 49'. Does it make sense to shift the calendar left by a month and get started on everything a bit sooner?

Here's a few pics of the initial state. 
I've got a massive oak tree in the back yard that likes to dump acorns and leaves ALL over the place for 5 months of the year, starting in the summer.

Front yard:



Other side of driveway:


Back yard:


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Spent my toddlers nap time spot treating the Poa with Roundup QuikPro, as well as all the random weeds in my mulch areas and around the pool.

It was dying after only a couple hours, much to my satisfaction:



While they were playing outside, I sharpened my mower blade for the first time in 8 years. Man was it mangled. I filed it by hand and it easily took over 1000 strokes per side.

Before-ish. After about 50 strokes:




After:





Slight improvement.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

First mow of the season. Took it down to around 2". Bagged everything and next steps are to use my new dethatcher and use my new core aerator step tool after my green waste bins are emptied on Friday.

Hopefully the dethatcher takes the dead sedge out. If not, I'll have to pull it up manually. I've got some more poa to spot treat in the back yard (light green patches by the concrete stepping stones).


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Holy smokes, this dethatcher absolutely thrashed my lawn, even on the highest setting. In a good way. When I mowed the whole yard a couple days ago, I had a bag and a half of clippings. I dethatched just the back yard today and I had 3 bags full of dead grass and leaves. Wow. This thing rules. I need to wait til the weekend to dethatch the front yard since my green waste bins are overflowing.



After dethatching:




After cleaning up:




It definitely left a lot of bare dirt patches where it picked up a ton of junk.

Next steps are to do more Roundup QuikPro spot treating on the Poa, pull dead sedge/Poa, drop top soil, level, aerate, then seed/PreM.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Dethatched the front yard on high today. Pulled up a ton of junk. Cleaned it up then did it again on medium setting to see how it did, and it pulled up even more. Crazy that there was so much junk on the lawn.

I suppose laying top soil and leveling are the next steps.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Dug up some dead nut sedge spots in the back yard. Got a handful of bare spots back there. 
Laid down Prodiamine for PreM everywhere but the bare spots. I'll seed those in a couple weeks. 1/2" of rain expected tomorrow, so perfect for getting the Prodiamine into the soil.


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## ccarlos19 (Jan 25, 2021)

I want to detach my lawn this spring too but I'm worried is going to stress the lawn and die. What was the ground temperature when you detached your lawn? Did you notice any stress in your lawn? 
I'm a newbie and I just bought the house last year and I was planning on seeding next month some bare spots in my backyard. I have a sprinkler system.
Any recommendations?


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## ccarlos19 (Jan 25, 2021)

I'm located in Virginia


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

@ccarlos19 
Not a lawn expert 

That said, it looks real ragged afterward since you're pulling up all the junk you're used to seeing on a daily basis. If you have a ton of thatch you'll probably end up with a lot of thin spots like me. Since I just laid down PreM today, I'm going to have to wait until the fall to overseed and hope the KBG can fill in a bit in the meantime. I also used blue dye with the PreM, so my lawn is blue and ragged. My HOA probably loves me right now.

I used the Greenworks corded dethatcher:
https://smile.amazon.com/Greenworks-14-Inch-Corded-Dethatcher-27022/dp/B0030BG1HM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=greenworks+dethatcher&qid=1613017286&sr=8-1
Got it on the Greenworks website for 20% off during a sale 3-4 weeks ago. I had been eyeing it for some time on Amazon, but didn't pull the trigger until I saw the sale. Seems to be working great! Just make sure you buy a heavy duty extension cord. Mine is 12G and 75' in length.

My soil temp was 55'F when I dethatched. Air temps were in the 60s. My grass (and weeds!) had been growing slowly over the past month. Northern CA winter


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

I dropped ~4tsp of Prodiamine over ~3k sq ft of my yard (only ~1000 sq ft of actual grass), minus the bare dirt areas from where I dug up dead sedge. I've got a lot of mulchy areas with shrubs and whatnot where weeds like to grow, like under my giant oak.

Also ordered a seed blend from Seed Super Store as well as some starter/regular fertilizer. The seed was 90% of their SS1000 TF sunny blend, and 10% midnight KBG. Once I get my seed, I'll seed/fertilize all my bare dirt areas.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Added 6cu ft top soil and leveled off the bare spots where I dug up the dead nut sedge, then used the rest on the low parts of the back yard. I was shocked at how quickly I went through the soil.

Next steps are to lay Tenacity on the bare spots, then drop my seed/fertilizer whenever it shows up from UPS. The shipment is currently delayed, probably due to the weather.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Bought a bunch of Hunter MP1000 rotator heads to retrofit all of my current sprayers. I'm getting a fair amount of waste/overspray/misting with the regular nozzles. I'll probably retrofit the back yard first and dial everything in with respect to my Rachio settings before I expand to the front.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Decided to go all out and bought enough pressure-regulated Hunter PRS40 irrigation heads to match my MP rotator nozzles. Just didn't want to deal with any pressure issues since my irrigation system is a hodgepodge mix of Rainbird and Orbitz heads and nozzles. Haven't ever done a catch cup test (I also ordered these), but I'm willing to bet I don't have uniform water distribution.


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## Wiley (Dec 2, 2019)

You've been putting in a lot of work. When are you going to try and get your seed down? Get those sprinklers dialed with your cup test to ensure the best results going into summer.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Wiley said:


> You've been putting in a lot of work. When are you going to try and get your seed down? Get those sprinklers dialed with your cup test to ensure the best results going into summer.


Waiting on UPS delays unfortunately. I've been itching to get it down, but the seed and fertilizer have been stuck in UPS' hands for 10 days now, and the tracking just shows delayed  Just trying to fill the time, hence the sprinkler head/nozzle splurge. Although, it was badly needed since the sprinklers I inherited from buying the house are a random hodgepodge on different types and brands.

There is one absolutely moronic sprinkler head placement in the front yard. It's like 3 feet from a corner, so of course it's a 180' and is way over-spraying into my RV access, which caused a lot of weeds over there. If I get a real itch, I'll dig it up and move it to the corner with some funny pipe and just use it as a 90'. Not something I've done before, but I watched a YouTube video or two on it, so I'm practically an expert


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## Wiley (Dec 2, 2019)

Relocating with funny pipe is the easiest way to go about it. Good luck!


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Dug up all 20 sprinkler heads in my yard today and replaced them with PRS40 heads and MP Rotator nozzles. Went pretty quickly, all things considered, but a few of the front yard heads had tree roots wrapped around them. Thick ones. Had to bust out the chainsaw to clear the area. Got them all in the ground and adjusted. Now I'm completely soaked and muddy, ha.

Still waiting on my grass seed from UPS. Getting annoying wasting good weather.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Did a catch cup test to test out my new MP Rotators and I got some wild results.

Back yard averaged 0.405 in/hr, which seems in line with Hunter's specs. My Rachio wants to dump water for 1h10m now without a soak cycle. Seems like a ton of water for clay loam to absorb at one time, but maybe it doesn't absorb faster than 0.4 in/hr?


Front yard was crazy. Had a couple cups with not enough water to register, and not much water in general, which was very surprising. Ended up with an average of 0.195 in/hr, so my Rachio wants to hit the front lawn for 2h18m at a time :shock: I'm baffled at my readings. There's 3 trees in the small front yard that can mess up the line of sight, but #7 reading 0 is wild.


And since I have my Rachio set to end before sunrise, it wants to start watering at 2AM now, which sucks. I think I'm going to have to tell it to start at 6am instead of ending before sunrise.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Re-did the catch cup test today since there was a little less wind, and I extended the throw of some of the sprinklers. Numbers looked a bit more reasonable, but the front was still a bit under what I'd expect at 0.36 in/hr. Rachio wants to water for 1h20m without any soak cycles despite me telling it that it's a steep slope (it's only slight to moderate).

Back went from 0.4 to 0.45 in/hr.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

1) I dont think you should do an average. The areas with less water (eg. 0.05in) will get less water and dry out. The Rachio will determine the duration base on precipitation rate and your soil settings (root depth, soil type, etc).

2) I dont think you will get 0.4in/hr from the MP unless you get head to head coverage per their design guide.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

g-man said:


> 1) I dont think you should do an average. The areas with less water (eg. 0.05in) will get less water and dry out. The Rachio will determine the duration base on precipitation rate and your soil settings (root depth, soil type, etc).
> 
> 2) I dont think you will get 0.4in/hr from the MP unless you get head to head coverage per their design guide.


Yeah, you're exactly right now that I think about it again. I'll base it on the least-watered sections. I've been tinkering with the arcs and distances since the readings to try to get a more uniform distribution. There's lots of ridiculously-placed heads and there's a few areas that are triple and almost quadruple covered. Spots 1, 9, and 10 on the back yard, for instance. But for the most part, there is head-to-head coverage.

I'll watch for dry spots and tinker as needed.

That said, today I finally got my seed/fertilizer delivery from Seed Super Store. Overseeded my thin spots, and seeded my bare spots. Afterward, I mixed my fertilizer bags up somehow and laid down my 23-0-20 instead of my starter 19-26-6 by mistake. Didn't realize it til I was putting both bags away and wondered why my starter bag wasn't open :x I'm guessing its not a huge deal, but whatever.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Tried to cap a Hunter head in my back yard with a Rainbird cap. Home Depot reviews said it worked. It didn't, and it flooded 10% of my rear lawn, pushing the new top soil, seed, and fertilizer to random places. Not cool. Swapped an old Rainbird head back into the spot and capped it. Hoping this reduces the precipitation rate of spot 10 in my pics. It was getting hammered by 3 nozzles.

I've got a couple that are kind of tipped at an angle in the soil. Tough to move them without fully digging them up, which I really don't want to do. I might just jam a couple rocks between the head and the soil on the low sides and call it good.

Other than evening out the precipitation rate across my lawn, the next few weeks will be boring. Just waiting for new grass to grow.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Nothing substantial to report. Just watching the new seed sprout and trying to keep the birds off it. I've got some new sprouts here and there, but still large patches of top soil. It's only been 9 days since dropping seed/fertilizer, so I know I'm just being impatient


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Just noticed my soil temps have been hovering around 50' this past week, so I guess that might explain the slow seed germination. Which is good, because I started questioning whether I'm watering too little or too much, if I missed something, if my fertilizer wasn't working, whether the kids have been stomping around on it, and 1000 other things. Nope, just impatient


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Bah, got some Poa popping up in the back yard. Maybe I was late on the PreM? Annoying. I'll have to mix another batch of Roundup.

e: I mixed up a tank of Tenacity and blanketed the whole lawn. There was too much Poa and clover everywhere to spot treat, so I brought out the nuke. From what I can tell, Tenacity will work on Poa, but only in the first month while it's smaller?


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Tons of little grass sprouts all over the yard finally! Woo!

14 days post-seeding:


One of the sprinkler heads in my front yard shot off like a rocket yesterday. It snapped the male-threaded connector in half, so now I have to dig it up and probably replace the 90' elbow feeding the head. I'm sick of driving to Home Depot


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Dug up and replaced the male to male riser coming out of the PVC. It was stuck in my sprinkler head, so I had to buy a new PRS40. All is right in the world now. Until the next thing breaks.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Man, I got some Perennial Rye Grass (at least I hope that's what it is….) in the back yard mixed with my TTTF and KBG. It's super annoying because it's like 6" long right now and my new grass sprouts are only maybe 1" max. What the heck do I do here?



And in the front yard, my stupid trees are dropping flowers all over. Not being able to mow is getting annoying, haha.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

My new grass sprouts are around 1.5" tall, while the surrounding TTTF/PRG are growing wild now. I think I need to mow soon to keep it from getting out of hand, but will obviously avoid the bare patches with the new sprouts.

After taming the existing grass, I'll be laying down GrubEx1 in the next day or so since I noticed a bunch when digging up sprinkler heads. Just ordered some Merit 0.5G to try to kill existing grubs. Haven't seen my friendly neighborhood skunk in a while, so hopefully this will keep him away for good.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Laid GrubEx1 down.

Notice the squirrels are digging up my new grass patches to find the acorns from my oak. Sigh.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Just occurred to me to post a progress pic. Lawn looks worlds better than the beginning of this log!

Just waiting on new grass patches to fill in in the back yard. Most sprouts are 1.5-2" tall now. Got some nice patches of Poa that I've blasted with tenacity a couple times now.





Pic of my massive blue oak for good measure. This thing rules when it dumps acorns and leaves all over for like 4 months straight.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Mowed a handful of times at 3".

Cut back the jungle of shrubs in my front yard and tore the whole drip irrigation that was running through the roots of everything and broken in a bunch of spots. Laid 160 ft of new emitter tubing throughout, and shockingly worked perfectly with no leaks! Pretty sure there was about a decade of dead leaves in the area, so I've got like 200 cans worth of green waste sitting around waiting for the cans to be emptied.

I've got a crew out here tearing out the mulch, shrubs, and a tree around my pool, laying irrigation, and top soil. They'll be rolling out sod tomorrow.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Sod and irrigation installed around the pool. Looks so much better than the wasteland it used to be! They buried my lighting cables underground and re-configured all the irrigation.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Guess I gotta update my signature with 415 more sq ft of lawn


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