# JustGrass' Midnight KBG Monostand Fall 2021 Reno



## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

Purchased a house last year and the yard was a mess. Tried to save it by killing off the weeds with Tenacity, but the repair failed and I decided to give up and just do a full renovation. We did have irrigation put in at the start of spring this year so there is some damage from that too.

I've always liked mowing my lawn, but after stumbling onto some Youtube channels I am going to dial it up a notch. My previous house had a decent lawn, however now I can't stop noticing just how terrible our lawn looks. I love the community here and look forward to any tips and advice everyone has. Thanks for looking!

I decided to go with KBG because of the color and the self spreading nature of the grass. I specifically chose to go monostand as I read through many threads and the benefits of mixing multiple cultivars don't seem to outweigh the look of uniform color and look. Also, I am looking to get into reel mowing so tall fescue was out right away. I did think about PRG but ultimately decided against it because I don't want to have to worry about overseeding, and it seems like after the 1st year PRG seems to struggle a little.



Location: Central Illinois
Area: 5,880 sq. ft.

*Order of reno:* 
1. Glyphosate application #1 - completed 7/7/2021
2. Scalp - completed 7/11/2021
3. Glyphosate application #2 - planned for 7/13/2021
4. Glyphosate application #3 - planned for 7/27/2021
5. Dial in irrigation - whenever
6. Aerate - 2nd week of August
7. Level with top soil - 3rd week of August
8. Glyphosate application #4 - 3rd week of August
9. Seed with Midnight KBG - debating on peat moss as everything is fairly flat - 3rd week of August
10. Tenacity application#1 - 1 or 2 days after seeding
11. Mow once lawn reaches ~2 inches
12. Tenacity application #2 depending on weed pressure

Some photos of the lawn before start (CAUTION IT AIN'T PRETTY)

*Front:*













*Back:*







*Sides:*


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## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

Update 7/18/2021

Still some areas that'll need additional application of glyphosate. The crabgrass seems to be really resilient.


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## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

Quick update: I decided to seed a bit earlier as we have some good weather coming up and not too sunny so I figured it would be better to do it now rather than wait. Also, had my brother in law with us so some help was nice. I have officially seeded as of 8/5/2021. Didn't have time to spread peat moss so doing that today (8/6/2021) along with a round of Tenacity.

Order of reno: 
1. Glyphosate application #1 - completed 7/7/2021
2. Scalp - completed 7/11/2021
3. Glyphosate application #2 - 7/13/2021
4. Glyphosate application #3 - 7/27/2021
5. Dial in irrigation - 7/15/2021
6. Aerate - decided to skip as soil wasn't too compacted
7. Level with top soil - 7/31/2021
8. Glyphosate spot treat as needed
9. Seed with Midnight KBG - 8/4/2021


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## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

Update:

6 days since seed date 8/4/2021. Starting to see some germination. Not very obvious but it's finally happening. Weather is going to cool down a bit too here soon so really happy about the timing.



Once issue I've been running into is the topsoil contains bean sprouts, unfortunately it was my only choice for topsoil so I've been pulling as many of them as I could. I'm hoping the KBG will crowd it out eventually.


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## CaffeinatedLawnCare (Apr 2, 2021)

Didn't see your renovation until today, was going to comment that you should leave a little time for fallowing after you put down topsoil and then hit it with glyphosate again after. I realized you dropped seeds already though.

The one thing I wish I would have done was fallow a bit longer before putting down seeds I think this would have prevented some additional weed growth.

I'm sure you will be able to take care of the bean sprouts later though, I doubt they enjoy being mowed and there is always herbicide and hand-pulling as you have been doing.


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## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

CaffeinatedLawnCare said:


> Didn't see your renovation until today, was going to comment that you should leave a little time for fallowing after you put down topsoil and then hit it with glyphosate again after. I realized you dropped seeds already though.
> 
> The one thing I wish I would have done was fallow a bit longer before putting down seeds I think this would have prevented some additional weed growth.
> 
> I'm sure you will be able to take care of the bean sprouts later though, I doubt they enjoy being mowed and there is always herbicide and hand-pulling as you have been doing.


Thanks for the input. I did want to do another round of round-up but we were getting some nice cool weather coming through for about 2 weeks so I figured it'd be good time to seed. And like you said there's always a herbicide.


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## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

8-14-2020 (4 DAG): more obvious now. Unfortunately we had some heavy rain come through so we had some washout so I'll have to reseed the area. Thinking of presoaking the seeds to help it establish a little quicker.


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## Justgrass (Jun 12, 2021)

I hate those pop up French drains, they always pop off. Might need to switch them out.


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## Robs92k (May 9, 2021)

Let me know if you find something better…hate them.


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