# 2022 Colorado Journal - primetimecsu



## primetimecsu (9 mo ago)

I'm a newbie when it comes to lawncare. Been at my current house for ~7 years now, and the lawn started out strong, was fresh sod for the most part, but over the years it has gone downhill due to a lack of effort from me (went with Trugreen for all fertlizing/overseeding/aerating) and wasnt consistent in my mowing. By the end of last summer, my yard was pretty mediocre and I finally got rid of Trugreen and decided to jump on it myself. I'm hoping a lot of the issues stem from Trugreen not doing any real soil analysis to see what my yard needs/doesnt need over the years, and overseeding with a sun and shade mix, when my yard, especially my front yard, is basically full sun all the time.

A pic of the front lawn last summer after I started taking it a little more seriously (thanks in large part to my homemade striping kit), but you can tell the color isnt there in the lawn and there were quite a bit of brown spots. My neighbor, who did even less work to his lawn than me, including only mowing once every other week or so, was also owning me with his deep green color that stuck around all summer.










This spring, I decided to jump headfirst in to the lawn game. With most things I jump in to, didnt do a ton of research right off that bat, and after reading through the forum a lot, I feel I'm behind the 8 ball a little. Hoping to get it caught up though this summer and by next year be looking great.

In early April, started out by cutting everything down with a rotary mower and pulling up a ton of thatch with that and by hand with a rake. Then went to about 3/4" with one of those manual push reels. Used one of those crappy soil test kits from Home Depot, bought some fertilizer based on those results, and started mowing a couple times a week just to see if this was something I wanted to dedicate my time to.


















Decided this was something for me so picked up a used Tru-Cut that needed some adjusting but was in good shape, and got to work.










Still had some thatch sitting in the lawn so rented a power rake and cleaned the rest of the thatch out.










Then gave it a cut at around 5/8"


























In the coming weeks, I'll be getting results from one of the mail in soil testing places that will hopefully give me more accurate info, then be doing some sand leveling and overseeding with ***. Fingers crossed I can get the lawn to a level half as nice as what some of the lawns in here look like.

If youve got any tips or tricks for a newbie, I'm all ears.


----------



## primetimecsu (9 mo ago)

Got my soil test results in. Was on the higher end of the PH scale, low end of N and very low in Potassium and on the low side of iron. hit it with some Lesco 30-0-10 w/ 2% iron a couple weekends back, and overseeded with KBG last weekend. Lawn is starting to green up nicely, compared to what it was, and its finally getting to a point where I think it looks good (at least better than my neighbor's). Cutting around 5/8" on it and thats about as low as i can go without scalping high spots.

Still have a few spots with weeds/crabgrass i need to fix. And I havent had the opportunity to level it (every weekend we've been getting rain). Not sure if its too late in the season to sand level. This weekend supposed to be nice and sunny but in the 90s.


----------



## primetimecsu (9 mo ago)

The month of June, I started applying a PGR (Primo Maxx) every 2 weeks. I cut the monthly dose in half, but havent seen much change in growth rate and still having to cut every few days.

Another round of the Lesco 30-0-10 w 2% iron, some fungicide treatment and weed treatments, and the front lawn is looking pretty good at 5/8 imo. The backyard is needing some more weed treatments, and need to figure out why i have some areas where grass isnt growing. One by the tree i am assuming is tree root related. The ones by the patio, i am assuming are dog related, and ive tried amending the soil in those spots, but i think the dog keeps peeing on them. Im also cutting the back higher ~7/8 since its pretty uneven and was getting some scalping when i go lower.


----------



## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

KBG is just awesome eh? Give it a little love and it will fix itself right up.


----------



## primetimecsu (9 mo ago)

situman said:


> KBG is just awesome eh? Give it a little love and it will fix itself right up.


yeah the last month once i figured out what i needed to be doing and making sure im doing it properly really made a huge improvement.


----------



## primetimecsu (9 mo ago)

Well, had a kid this summer and wasn't able to get everything done I had hoped. But some progress pics for what I did accomplish.

End of July, both front and back yard was looking good. Decided to start cutting in a small putting green in the backyard. Wasnt able to maintain it like i wanted, and ended up letting it grow back out. The plan wasnt to go all out with it, just wanted to see how it would act with the KBG and make sure the shape/size would be enough. My plan for next year is to level this area and seed with bentgrass.

















Mid August we got in to a heat wave and started seeing some signs of heat stress on the lawn. I think I overwatered a little, and then started to see some signs of fungus in the back yard. Took about a week or 2 of fungicide treatment to get that back to where it needed to be.









Mid September, everything was looking great, except around this tree in the backyard. Had hoped it would get better over the summer, but it got significantly worse. Not sure if it was from the drought conditions we were having or what, but roots of the tree seemed to get shallower and grass all died along the shallow roots. Wife and I have talked about removing this tree, we have other trees/bushes in the area so the shade from it isnt needed, and I think I will end up pulling it out this winter/early spring.

















Beginning of October, back in to cooler temps and the lawn looked the best it had. Need to figure out how to keep it looking like this all season.









End of October, I turned the sprinklers off early October, had an early freeze and wasnt wanting to deal with constantly worrying about things freezing and gave it its last mow of the season at the end of October. Raised my HOC up to 1" and will give it another cut here in the next couple weeks to remove the rest of the leaves that have fallen, if we can ever get a weekend where there isnt snow on the ground.


----------



## primetimecsu (9 mo ago)

Overall, learned a lot this year and hope to keep the momentum going in to the spring. For my 1st time reel mowing, and 1st time doing all the fertilizing/weed treatment/etc myself, felt i had some good results. Probably would have had even better results by the end of the season, but the new baby took up a lot of my time, and I wasnt able to spend several days a week working on it. Need to add some lights to the mower so I can mow while shes sleeping.

The plan for this winter/spring is to level the yard with sand and overseed with KBG, redo my edging so my weed treatment in my rock/mulch areas doesnt bleed in to my lawn, remove the tree causing root issues in the back, and work on the putting green area.


----------



## Wile (Sep 17, 2020)

Looks great! I'm thinking about doing a little chipping green if time allows. What height were you cutting the green at?


----------

