# I just want something that's green and doesn't die.



## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Hi all,

I just moved from NJ to MA two years ago. Back in NJ, the soil was predominately clay under a layer of top soil. It seemed like growing a lawn there was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was green, it grew and I had to mow it. If I wanted to grow a bare area, I would scratch the soil, seed with a tall fescue blend and some Dutch white clover, water and voila, thriving lawn!

I now live in an area where the soil is predominately sand under a layer of topsoil. Yard was neglected for many years when I bought the house. There were many bare areas and lots of crabgrass and foxtail.

April 2019 (Sunny areas): I bought a turf type tall fescue blend and some Dutch white clover, scratched bare areas, seeded and watered. Grass came up nicely, but perished as June and warmer temps came around and crabgrass and foxtail took over.

September 2019 (Sunny areas): So I decided I needed some soil amendments. I bought some bulk compost as well as some 50/50 compost/topsoil mix for an area which has really coarse sand used to fill in an old swimming pool. I spread the 50/50 mix about 3 inches thick over the defunct pool area and used the 100% compost 1 inch thick on other areas. I then seeded with a mix I made of 80% Kentucky 31 tall fescue, 10% PF30 hybrid bluegrass and 10% Dutch white clover. It all came up beautiful and thick and was green all winter and well into the spring. All seemed like it was going well until late May 2020 brought daytime temps into the 70's, grass started turning brown and dying back. By mid-June 2020, I had a mostly dead lawn (even the clover died!!!) with a few errant grass clumps. By July 2020, well, as you can probably guess, crabgrass and foxtail started taking over. I kept an eye on the rain we were receiving and watered once a week when we didn't get at least an inch of rain a week. It has been pretty dry here this summer, but grass was pretty dead before drought.

In the meantime.......

April 2020 (Mixed sun and shade areas near and around trees): I got more compost, topdressed and seeded with 40% KY-31, 40% fine fescue mix (40% creeping red, 40 Chewings, 20 hard), 10% PF30 hybrid bluegrass, 10% Dutch white clover. Interestingly, here we are in Sept. 2020 and the shady areas are doing quite nicely while the areas exposed to more sun have died out giving way to crabgrass and foxtail.

What went wrong: I am thinking a few things. I probably seeded the Sept. 2019 grass thicker than I should have. It came in thick, but the blades were always quite thin (KY-31 is a thick bladed fescue grass) which leads me to believe there were too many grass plants fighting for more moisture and nutrients than could be provided once temps became warmer. The grass that came up next to my compost rich raised beds is deep green, thick bladed and doing quite well.

Soil drains quickly around here due to a mostly sandy subsoil. 3 or so days after a heavy rain, soil surface is bone dry around here.

I was reading about issues with soil compaction and while soil is definitely compacted, I can definitely get a garden fork or a large screwdriver to go all the way down with some effort. And the most compacted areas are.........where the grass is doing well!

Grass species: The ones I chose were after doing research on what are the most heat and drought tolerant cool-season grasses. I have thought about trying zoysia which some lawns have around here. Though the trouble with zoysia in Massachusetts is that it is brown at least 8 months of the year, not to mention it can become very invasive. Granted it looks beautiful the other 4 months. In more detail why I chose each species/cultivar:

KY-31 - It is used on roadsides, so I figured it would be hardy and thrive. Yes, I know most people don't like the way it looks for lawns. Personally I don't mind the thick blades and lighter green color.

PF30 hybrid bluegrass - A bluegrass cultivar with claims it tolerates heat and drought better than Kentucky bluegrass. It is also a rhizomous grass which presumably will help make the lawn not look like a group of misfit strangers keeping their distance at a party.

Fine fescue blend - For more shade areas. Creeping red also has rhizomes. Chewings and hard are bunch grasses. Creeping is the most shade tolerant, hard is the hardiest.

Sept. 2020: I am going down this rabbit hole again. Scalping grabgrass, spreading compost (I think I will spread it thicker this time - the compost, not the grass seed!!!). I am going to try mixing RTF fescue with some of the K31 I have left and add some of the fine fescue mix to it. I'm going to try 10% strawberry clover this time as I have read it is more heat and drought tolerant than Dutch white clover.

My take on "weeds": I don't mind a few weeds here and there as long as they aren't bullies like crabgrass. Quite frankly, I wouldn't even mind crabgrass if it didn't die after the first frost and leave large ugly bare areas. I tried spreading corn gluten in the spring and while it didn't totally keep crabgrass from sprouting, the areas where I spread this have more sparse crabgrass than areas where I didn't. I like the way clover looks in a lawn as well as its ability to be a nitrogen fixer. I don't mind other broad leaf weeds as long as they don't totally take over, which they haven't. I spot treated some areas where plantain was predominate with concentrated 30% vinegar and it killed it off quite well. However, the 30% vinegar did NOTHING to crabgrass.

As you can probably guess, the reason I am posting in the organic forum is because I don't want to use harsh chemicals. We have sensitive wetland areas nearby and there are toads and garter snakes around here which are very sensitive to pesticides and herbicides.

This year I did have an infestation of Japanese beetles and I have noticed some grubs in the soil when preparing garden beds. I have just treated my yard with milky spore which worked well for Japanese beetles back in NJ. Not sure if the grubs factored into the demise of my grasses, it was the adult beetles that were a real problem eating foliage on my raspberry plants and fruit trees. I never noticed the grubs in NJ and they sure didn't affect the lawn there!

So if you have read this far, thank you. Attached are some recent pics. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance!

Backyard sunny area (defunct pool area) last Nov. 2019 - 6 weeks after fall planting:


Backyard sunny area (defunct pool area) Sept. 2020:


Frontyard sunny area Sept 2020:


Frontyard sun/shade mixed area Sept. 2020 - thriving!:


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## Powhatan (Dec 15, 2017)

So you probably know the answer already, you need to build up the soil's organic matter and CEC which will take years.

I'm 4.5 years into a new construction home getting the soil and grass into shape. My soil is sandy loam with compacted clay just an inch or two below the surface. Soil is getting better but it takes time; I apply mostly organic mixed fert along with soil improver amendments. Root cycling is a big OM contributor.

My grass is mostly KY-31 mixed with NoMix varieties and clover. I don't irrigate and I've found that the KY-31 is the most durable and lasts through the hot summers. Sure, some areas get brown during hot summer and there's % die off, but I live in the transition zone so it's expected to have to overseed some to fill the cool season turf back in.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Thank you for your reply, Powhatan! Yes, I had soil tests done in various parts of the yard last year.

Soil organic matter is definitely very low ranging from 1.3% in the defunct pool area to almost 4% elsewhere.

Soil Ph was in the 5.4 to 5.6 range.

Macronutrients:

P ranged from very low to mid-optimum range.

K and Mg were very low except for the "good lawn" area where they were at the low end of optimum. Hmmm.

Ca was very low in all areas.

S was very low to low in all areas.

Micronutrients:

B was so low it did not register except in the "good lawn" area where it was at the low end of optimal. This being said, if Boron registers, it's in the optimum range.

Mn, Zn, and Fe were all in the optimum range.

Cu was low.

CEC ranged from 5.9 to 10.3.

I had a soluble salts test done on soil near the street since our streets are treated with salt in the wintertime. This test came in below the upper limit.

I have been using mostly the Espoma organic fertilizers below. I will list the guaranteed analysis as N-P-K-Ca-S since that is what they list:

When I seeded, I used Espoma Organic Lawn Starter 3-6-3-4-0

Last fall, I used Espoma Fall Winterizer 8-0-5-1-1. I also spread some lime and gypsum.

This spring, I used Espoma Organic Weed Preventer (corn gluten) 9-0-0-0-0 Since this is a nitrogen bomb, I saw no reason to use a "spring fertilizer". I also topdressed the fall planted lawn areas with a light layer of compost.


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## corneliani (Apr 2, 2019)

I wonder if you haven't been spoiled with your previous soil experience. What you're describing seems like an exception rather than the norm. I know we get our share of crappy soil down in the southeast, and the Texas folk have their unique set of issues as well. 
At least you know what good soil is and how to get it there. If only there was a quick process!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

corneliani said:


> *I wonder if you haven't been spoiled with your previous soil experience.* What you're describing seems like an exception rather than the norm. I know we get our share of crappy soil down in the southeast, and the Texas folk have their unique set of issues as well.
> At least you know what good soil is and how to get it there. If only there was a quick process!


LOL! Yeah, I probably was spoiled. People used to complement me on how good my lawn looked and asked me what I did. My answer was always that I just mow at the highest setting and mulch the clippings. I always joked that I did nothing, but the grass still grew and I still had to mow it! I had a few weeds here and there, but nothing worth bothering to do anything about. Crabgrass wasn't a problem there like it is around here.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

it looks to me that the top soil or OM is pretty low...in some of the bare spots. Kinda thin, could you show us a shovel of dirt?

Anyway you could add irrigation to those spots and see if it helps. Maybe you could plumb in something from a hose bib on a timer and see if that helped at all.

Maybe try adding some langbeinite for some mag, K and S. It could work. I use Down to Earth products and have been VERY satisfied. I normally mix all my own ferts from single ingredients but I just picked up a 50# bag of Bio-Turf for a good price. Their stuff is expensive but luckily i have a tiny tiny yard (at least compared to most of the lawns on here).

Cheers,
Sean


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> it looks to me that the top soil or OM is pretty low...in some of the bare spots. Kinda thin, could you show us a shovel of dirt?
> 
> Anyway you could add irrigation to those spots and see if it helps. Maybe you could plumb in something from a hose bib on a timer and see if that helped at all.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply, Sean. Yes, soil tests showed very low OM - especially the filled in pool area (see post 3 in this thread for my soil test results). Below are areas I dug today:

Filled-in pool area:


Filled-in pool area:


Frontyard area:


Frontyard area:


As you can see, the filled-in pool area is sand. Last year before I planted grass seed, I put down a 3 inch layer of a topsoil/compost mix. Water just drains way too quickly.

The frontyard area looks sandy, but it's darker, so has a little more OM. I put a 1 inch layer of compost last year before I planted seed. I'm noticing some of the errant tall fescue clumps coming back to life now and of course plenty of crabgrass. Water seems to drain quickly here too.

My thinking is that unless I want to spend an arm and a leg on compost and loam, the best thing to do in that filled-in pool area is to find some drought tolerant prairie type ground cover. Do you think maybe birdsfoot trefoil would thrive there? I just want something to stabilize the ground for erosion control. Even clover won't thrive there!


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Are their any awesome native nurseries near you? Perhaps that area could be a nice native bed. I am not familiar with your native plants so I can't give any advice there. A nice ornamental bed might be the ticket. You could bring in some topsoil and OM, irrigate it however you want and mulch it heavy. It would probably turn out great. I looked up western mass and a bunch of places offer topsoil/composts for decent price...just not sure about shipping. They seemed to be half the price of san diego shops.. you could also try growing some edible mushrooms in your ornamental beds. I've been experimenting with that and its really fun.

Ponds are also amazing both aestheically and for the wildlife they bring in..but thats for another thread.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

OH and if u need help with a pond I'm your guy.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> Are their any awesome native nurseries near you? Perhaps that area could be a nice native bed. I am not familiar with your native plants so I can't give any advice there. A nice ornamental bed might be the ticket. You could bring in some topsoil and OM, irrigate it however you want and mulch it heavy. It would probably turn out great. I looked up western mass and a bunch of places offer topsoil/composts for decent price...just not sure about shipping. They seemed to be half the price of san diego shops.. you could also try growing some edible mushrooms in your ornamental beds. I've been experimenting with that and its really fun.
> 
> Ponds are also amazing both aestheically and for the wildlife they bring in..but thats for another thread.





SeanBB said:


> OH and if u need help with a pond I'm your guy.


I have actually been shrinking my lawn footprint since I moved here two years ago. After all, the lawn monoculture is an ecological desert. I always mix clover seed with the grass seed as clover is a nitrogen fixer and provides something for pollinators. I hope I'm not banned for saying this on a lawn forum. :lol: I've been making beds for raspberries, blueberries and drought tolerant native wildflowers. Also planted some fruit trees as well as shade trees, conifers and native shrubs. It's a work in progress. The yard was filled with invasive plants when I moved here - burning bushes, Oriental bittersweet and multiflora roses, OH MY! Except for a few flower beds in front yard, the rest was barren "lawn" area. Previous owners let the yard go.

I do in fact have a good high quality bulk compost supplier around here. Depending on time of year and moisture content, he can deliver between 8 and 10 yds in one load. I always have him deliver the max since his delivery charge is a flat rate per load. I've already gone through almost 30 yds of compost in a little more than a year for beds and topdressing. The plants love it for sure and looking at my yard, it appears I'm good at growing just about everything except grass, LOL!

But.......I still need areas where I can walk. It would be nice to have something other than bare ground and crabgrass there. I wouldn't even mind the crabgrass if it didn't die and leave bare ground susceptible to erosion. Maybe a desert or prairie cover crop?

A pond? Not sure that would work with my fast draining sandy soil. I would have a dry hole very quickly, LOL!


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Pond liner you silly goose...! Easy peasy...

As far as a lawn alternate...no idea, but maybe you could try microclover? I saw a place near the West side of Mass that carries a microclover sod which may be worth a try. Supposedly drought resistant and hardy. Not shade tolerant though...


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> Pond liner you silly goose...! Easy peasy...
> 
> As far as a lawn alternate...no idea, but maybe you could try microclover? I saw a place near the West side of Mass that carries a microclover sod which may be worth a try. Supposedly drought resistant and hardy. Not shade tolerant though...


Well OK, I guess I know nothing about human made ponds, LOL!

Do you think microclover is more drought tolerant than white or strawberry clover?

I see that you grow seashore paspalum. Looking in my organic lawn book, the growing zones for that are 7-10. I'm in Zone 6A so it might survive most except the coldest winters here. How do you like that grass? I guess it would probably turn brown here like zoysia does.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Ponds are sweet and the microclover might be more drought tolerant than the white or strawberry but Im not sure. A lot of people have stated that they believe it is just a smaller version of dutch white clover.

My grass is sweet and looking good so far. Super soft, but does not like the shade. Its only been in a short while so I cant comment long term but yes, it is supposed to go dormant in the winter. I feel that most grasses that are just put in look great...im crossing my fingers and toes that it stays that way. Im weaning it down to watering 2x per week now instead of EOD. They say paspalum wont be dormant as long as a bermuda so it might stay green for me a little further into the winter.

If that clover place is close by, I would try some of that sod in an area and see how it does...why not?


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> Ponds are sweet and the microclover might be more drought tolerant than the white or strawberry but Im not sure. A lot of people have stated that they believe it is just a smaller version of dutch white clover.


My only objection to microclover is that it is sterile and produces no flowers, so it does nothing to help bees and other pollinators. But hey, it has to be better than bare ground and sparse blobs of crabgrass!

I am once again toying with the idea of planting zoysia in that spot. Although I see the neighbor's zoysia is starting to turn color already, the tan carpet for more than half the year sure looks better than dead crabgrass and prevents erosion better too.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

You probably have plenty of flowers around the yard for pollinators AND zoysia does nothing for pollinators. Also, if you really want pollinators...you should set up a hive. They are super rewarding and fun!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> You probably have plenty of flowers around the yard for pollinators AND zoysia does nothing for pollinators. Also, if you really want pollinators...you should set up a hive. They are super rewarding and fun!


You got me there on zoysia as well as grasses in general doing nothing for pollinators. Even if you let them flower and go to seed, I believe grasses are all wind pollinated.

I actually know a beekeeper in my area. She asked me to call her if I ever see a swarm.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

it is the best, so fun. if you dont mind getting stung too bad...definitely worth it.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> it is the best, so fun. if you dont mind getting stung too bad...definitely worth it.


Getting stung? You do wear a beekeeper suit, don't you?


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Sometimes...


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Update:

I seeded two plots - one on Sept. 14, the other on Sept. 23. I first layered each plot with 2-3 inches of compost. Seeded with a tall fescue/fine fescue/clover mix. I adjusted the mix based on each areas sun exposure using more tall fescue in sunny areas and more fine fescue in shady areas. I used about 10% clover - strawberry clover in the sunny areas, white clover in the shady areas. I fertilized with Espoma Organic Lawn Starter fertilizer, then used the back of a rake to lightly cover the seed and fertilizer. I then used a hand pulled roller less than half full with water to ensure good seed contact - something I have never done before.

Note that these are areas I have not seeded before.

Pics to follow.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Here are the pics:

Newly Seeded Backyard section on Sept. 14:


Backyard on Sept. 25 - 11 days out:


Backyard on Sept. 25 - 11 days out:


Backyard on Sept. 25 - 11 days out:


Frontyard Seeded on Sept. 23, taken on Sept. 25 - 2 days out:


Backyard on Sept. 30 - 16 days out:


Backyard on Sept. 30 - 16 days out:


Backyard on Sept. 30 - 16 days out:


Frontyard on Sept. 30 - 7 days out:


Frontyard on Sept. 30 - 7 days out:


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Looking good so far, good work! The compost should help a lot...especially at 2-3". There does seem to be quite a bit of uncomposted woody debris in in but since you added extra organic fertilizer you should be good to go. Coming in good!


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## dwaugh (Aug 25, 2020)

Looking good! What kind of tall fescue did you use?


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

dwaugh said:


> Looking good! What kind of tall fescue did you use?


The tall fescue I used is Barenbrug RTF. I ordered 25 lbs and they sent 2 - 10 lb bags and 1 - 5 lb bag. The reason I mention this is that the cultivars listed are slightly different on the 5 lb bag than on the 10 lb bags. Each has about 40% RTF cultivars. I mixed them up together as I figure genetic diversity is our friend. See below:


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

That is odd...at least you are easy going. I bet that would piss a lot of people off! Excited to see the clover. Do you ever use any other cover crops?


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

SeanBB said:


> That is odd...at least you are easy going. I bet that would piss a lot of people off! Excited to see the clover. Do you ever use any other cover crops?


Piss me off? Well, I don't know if any of those selected cultivars are really better than the others.  I've read good things about Falcon IV. Since RTF cultivar % is the same in both, I don't feel like I'm getting cheated one way or the other. I suppose the reason they don't use 100% RTF cultivars are either cost or that RTF's have deficiencies that clumping cultivars don't. As with any seed blend, it's really a crap shoot as to which cultivars will work best.

I haven't tried any cover crops other than clover. I was thinking about trying birdsfoot trefoil in the most difficult areas.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Just meant by getting rando bags of seed vs a single 25 pounder. Looking good! Keep posting photos love the progress shots.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

As of today:

My Sept. 14 seeding, grass germinated Sept. 24 - 15 DAG (3 pics):






My Sept. 23 seeding, grass germinated Sept. 30 - 9 DAG (3 pics):


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## dwaugh (Aug 25, 2020)

Is it all in planted in "Reno" areas? Next year I want overseen some TTTF in my ersatz cool season lawn (or by dormant seeding this winter). I'm not ready to commit to a full renovation at this time. Looks good!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

dwaugh said:


> Is it all in planted in "Reno" areas? Next year I want overseen some TTTF in my ersatz cool season lawn (or by dormant seeding this winter). I'm not ready to commit to a full renovation at this time. Looks good!


I guess you can say yes, these are all "reno areas". I initially mowed areas down to 1 3/4 inches, covered with 2-3 inches of compost and seeded a mix of tall fescue, fine fescue and clover. What little "good grass" there was grew up through the compost while the crabgrass was smothered.


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Probably a nice way to build some topsoil as well...and also, quickly. I wonder if in those problematic areas you did that for a few years, how quickly that layer would build up? IE; mow it down, cover with 4" soil/compost, seed - grow lawn, repeat!


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

@Deadlawn,

Two things:

Hart Seed in Wethersfield (they do ship) sometimes has 0/0 KY-31 seed.

I know a lot of seed you find normally tends to have tons of weed and other crop, including Poa Trivialis. Like this one:








It's actually even worse than marked; you have to multiply the percentages by about 1.4 due to the 25% coating.

For grub control, you might want to try GrubGone. It's a preventative and gets put down in early August. I plan to try it. Milky Spore may not overwinter consistently in MA (or anywhere in the Northeast).


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Green said:


> @Deadlawn,
> 
> Two things:
> 
> ...


Until reading a few posts on this forum, I never thought about how many seeds 0.1% is! More concerning are the noxious weeds listed. The bag of KY-31 I bought was from Hancock Seed and had this label even though it was advertised as Pennington Kentucky 31:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/dlf-kentucky-31-tall-fescue-50-lb-6859229?store=604&cm_mmc=feed-_-GoogleShopping-_-Product-_-6859229&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoJX8BRCZARIsAEWBFMJl1oQtgSOH_dTfeDJvJzdTfhu_5N9sAn5fAS8A54_kX7HDH8hNDMgaApWCEALw_wcB

I just checked the bag and apparently I lost the label which states exact percentages. It's not the coated seed.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Yesterday, I did my first mow on my Sept. 14 seed which starting germinating on Sept. 24 (21 DAG). I started at 2 1/4 inches HOC, but then saw immediately this looked too low, so I raised the HOC up to 2 3/4 inches. Even though I rolled the seed, the compost layer is still soft, so apparently mower wheels were sinking into it a bit. That is apparent on some areas where I had to go around trees which caused some gouging. I measured the cut grass afterwards and it was 2 inches!! I purposely chose yesterday for a mow because today is a washout, so the grass should recover well.

There are thin areas for sure, but I'm just going to let them try to fill in on their own. Leaves are starting to come down hard in some areas. Pics below:


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Deadlawn said:


> ...
> September 2019 (Sunny areas): So I decided I needed some soil amendments. I bought some bulk compost as well as some 50/50 compost/topsoil mix ... It all came up beautiful and thick and was green all winter and well into the spring. All seemed like it was going well until late May 2020 brought daytime temps into the 70's, grass started turning brown and dying back. By mid-June 2020, I had a mostly dead lawn (even the clover died!!!) with a few errant grass clumps. ... grass was pretty dead before drought.
> 
> In the meantime.......
> ...


OP, I've read your post and skimmed and scanned the entire thread as key elements of your OP "ring a loud bell" with me. I too was baffled by large areas of turf inexplicably dying and it was sometime before I discovered my soil had been infested with not just grub but something much, much more pernicious: WIREWORMS!!!!   :shock: :?

And come to find out, I was introducing them into my yard via the loads of *LOCAL* bulk top soil (*from nearby crop farms!*) and *LOCAL* compost (*Multi-year old municipal leaf collections!*) I was having brought in!

Ironic thing about it all is that top soil looked like textbook "loam," - you'd see it coming off the dump truck and hear Tarzan's voice: "_Top soil good, Tarzan Like! "Mmmmmm_!" And that compost! Just as black as the richest amendments you can imagine - I'd be spreading it and be hearing Homer Simpson's donut voice in the back of my skull: "_Rich compost, mmmmmm!_"

Bad news: no chemical that kills grubs will even touch wireworms

Good news: Beneficial Nematodes gets em ALL! And they are otherwise harmless to the environment, and harmless to earthworms, amphibians and reptiles!

And, certain suppliers have "blends" of strains of beneficial nematodes that specifically target turf munchers!

https://hydro-gardens.com/product/guardian-lawn-patrol-mix-1-million-5p385a/

https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/omri-NemAttack-Pro-Sc-Beneficial-Nematodes/beneficial-nematodes

That whole experience is still painful to think about and the only thing that ameliorates the knowledge I was bringing those lawn destroyers by the sheer DUMP TRUCK load is having my horizons expanded via use of those beneficial nematodes!

I still have fights on my hands (weed outbreaks, preventing fungal outbreaks, etc.) same as everyone but, I no longer have my entire yard overshadowed by that recurring bizarro "lawn murder mystery!"


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

440mag said:


> Deadlawn said:
> 
> 
> > ...
> ...


Thanks for the reply! Wireworms a.k.a. click beetles? Can't say I've seen any of those and these areas were problematic before I introduced the compost. I find a grub or two every so often while digging and I did see quite a few Japanese beetles. I put down milky spore for the Japanese beetles as it worked for me when I lived in NJ.


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Deadlawn said:


> ... these areas were problematic before I introduced the compost. ...


Well Holmes, THERE GOES my hypothesis (pause to puff pipe) :lol:

Click beetle larvae, that's them (nasty little grass root terrorizing buggers they be, matey)!

https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/garden-pests/wireworm-control/

PS - the article left one other item out, one VERY important to use lawn enthusiasts: *WILD TURKEYS, skunks, opossum, raccoons and ALL MANNER OF NOCTURNAL "turf rip and flippers" LOVE Wireworms - and will raze turf to get to them!* :shock: I didn't mention it earlier but, before we discovered Wireworms were being brought in by the dump truck load, we'd wake up some morning and our yard looked as if a gang of adult men had spent the night going over our yard's newly germinated lawn with roto-tillers!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Update. We had about 1 inch of snow Friday followed by a deep freeze Haloween morning - 19 degrees! New grass looks pretty healthy. We should be back into the 60's by next week!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

OK, I am 3 months since my Sept. seeding and so far, all is looking pretty good. A little yellowing, but I think that's pretty normal for December in western Massachusetts. 5-day soil temperature average is 33.6F, so I think it's pretty safe to say all root growth has stopped. Top growth stopped around late Oct:


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## libertysod (2 mo ago)

I'd love to chat with anyone who has any interest or experience with clover / microclover lawns. I work at a sod farm in New Jersey and we are trying to get feedback on clover lawns as we have a new product- Microclover Sod! If anyone is willing to chat send me an email [email protected] 
Thanks- Katee


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