# Pezking's Lawn Journal



## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Just decided to start taking my lawn care more seriously. I'm an engineer and very data/science driven, so I'm out to learn the fundamentals and science behind my lawn care. I would like to have the best lawn on the block with the least amount of work. Not ready to go full-out lawn nut, but, regardless I need to log what I'm doing.

I need to split my yard up better for descriptive purposes, as it's quite large. I might upload a diagram at a later date. Some of this is in regards to creating new grass in my side and back yards, but my primary focus in on the sod in my front yard.

Front yard:
Sod - laid in April 2019
Tall Fescue (I think, I might need to verify this)
5000 sqft

4/12/2020: Seed side yard #1 with professional turf blend (fescue) from Southern States and mulch with straw. Set irrigation for daily watering, 45 min at 7 pm.

5/2/2020: Weed and feed, unsure of application rate, likely very low rate. I think I spread a 15,000 sqft bag over my 3/4 acre lawn.

5/17/2020: Seed side yard #2 with professional turf blend (fescue) from Southern States. Mulch with straw roll and loose straw. Irrigation set for entire area, 15 min per day at 7 pm.

5/17/2020: Mow side yard #1 for the first time since seeding. Some areas not quite mowing height, overall seeding looks very successful.

5/18/2020: Seed back yard #1 with professional turf blend (fescue) from Southern States. Mulch with straw roll and loose straw.

5/24/2020: Apply Scotts DiseaseEx at curative rate to Front yard. Setting 2.25 on spreader, needed 3.5 passes to empty 20 lbs.

5/25/2020: Sharpen mower blades. Mow.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Lawn plot. Dark green is sod, light green was seeded at the time of purchase (May 2019), but since it was summer, the seed didn't take well and this area is now a work in progress.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

5/28/20: 10 lbs of 10-10-10 laid down on side 1 to spoon feed N at about 0.4 lb/k.

I also started a mason jar soil test. As expected it's a lot of clay. I had to physically knead the soil to get some/most of the clay into suspension instead of just balls of clay. I was surprised to find how much sand is in it, though. So right off it looks like sandy clay, but I'll way out the rest for final results.

Here is the source of my frustration. A reverse domination line. 


Side 1 about 6 weeks after oversees. 


Babies look pretty good over here but they need some help, hence the nitrogen today. 


Side 2 babies at 2 weeks after seed down. 


Here is the back yard area. Quite a few good patches of real grass from when the contractor seeded but it's still very weedy and patchy. 


Progress is slower back here. I don't have irrigation set up, but it has been quite rainy so I'm hopeful they may pull through if I can get them some water a few days a week.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

So possibly against the better advice of this forum I have spread 2 bags on milorganite across the entire front yard. It's about 0.7 lb/k N. Spread in two passes, one set at 5 and one set at 2.5.

The area on the front where I spread a bit of extra fertilizer when I spoon fed the side #1 seedlings on Thursday is greening up nicely so I feel that N will help a bit.

I'd like to come up with a plan for the fall to do something a bit intensive. Aerate, spread some
Organic stuff, dethatch, overseed. Maybe can't get all that done. We will see.

Also started spotting some grassy weeds. Positively identified some Bermuda grass on a corner of my lawn by the road, and also some other stuff that I have identified yet.

So today.

-Spread 0.7 lb N on front 1 and front 2
-Mowed at 4"


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

It was a little bit early to drop the Milo, since it has about 40% fast release N (.28 out of the .7 lbs N). Be ready to mow. Since you're in the transition zone, that probably should be your last granular drop for the summer. Other TLF transition zone members will have better guidance for timing. Up north, we typically target approximately July 4th as the last granular drop of an organic like Milo. I will do light sprays of some organics as foliar and soil apps throughout the summer as necessary.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

@Chris LI is it really 40% fast release? I tried to search around for release rates and didn't find anything like that so I hope I didn't goof up.

The transition guys are telling me not to fertilize at all, it's too late. But my grass is struggling and I decided this would be the lesser of two evils. I think most of them would have put on their last fertilizer in late April or early May, the they might do a small dose in July. But, I'm really really new, still learning pretty much everything.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Check the Milo label. Unless it changed it was 6-4-0. For the nitrogen, it's 4% water insoluble and 2% water soluble, so it's 1/3 water soluble. My math was close but a little off, so it's actually 33% fast release (water soluble).

To clarify, when I stated "early", I meant so soon after the recent drop of synthetic you made, not early in the season. I read back and realized that I wasn't clear. The transition zone seems to be entering the heat/stress part of the year, so that's why folks there are laying off the fertilizer.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

@Chris LI the milo was actually in the front yard and the synthetic is on the side yard where I just overseeded. There is one small strip in the front that probably got 0.2 lb N, and I didn't realize the milo had N that was immediately available so I assumed it would be fine!

Oops. Live and learn.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

You probably are fine. That's not a ton of N. You may want to have a preventative fungicide on hand to do an application.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Watered the side #1 yard with about 3/8". Also tried to put about 1/2" down across all of the back area.

I changed the irrigation on the side #2 yard to be every two days and to be in the mornings.

As I look around my yard, particularly side #2, I see 5-6 different kinds of grasses. It's very unnerving to be looking at my yard and only now noticing all these unclean grasses floating around. No clue what this stuff is. Some looks like the rest of my grass that the builder planted, but some looks different. No idea.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

6/7: mowed, tried my hand at edging my sidewalk with a weed eater. Turned out ok. I'm setting sprinklers and going to try to put 1/2" on as much as I can today and tomorrow.

The grass on side 1 is showing a bit of heat stress.

Side 2 is in need of fert and lots of water.

Grass in the back is at risk of being lost. Not sure if it will make it.

I'm annoyed that my soil test is still not back after three weeks.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

6/7: 1/2" irrigation on all of front yard.

6/8: 1/2" irrigation on sides and back.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Not all is lost! Update on comparison to my neighbors lawn is looking for favorable after some irrigation and milorganite. Baby grasses are looking great as well.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Milorganite and a bit of water seems to have done the trick.



It's not perfect but it's a hell of a lot better.

Mowed yesterday at 4.5"
Put down about 1/2 lb N worth of starter fertilizer on side #2.

A lot of the new grass is in jeopardy. Not sure if it's worth it to try and save it. I'm going to try to give everything a good water today, then it's going to rain a bit this week. I will reassess next weekend.

Putting together my fall plan. Trying to decide what is worth it to put into a lawn that there's probably a 50% chance I'll move in the next 2 years...


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Been a long time since I've updated. Summer is boring and when you want to make dramatic changes to a cool-season lawn, this waiting is hard. Especially when you're neighbors yards are looking better than yours.

I've been watering. I'm trying to do at least 1" per week. However, knowing that my grass doesn't have the advantage of ever having been fertilized or aerated, I try not to waste too much money on water.

7/11/20: put down diseaseEx at preventative rate. Seems to be working as I have at least one neighbor with a good brown patch spot.

7/18/20: put down 50 lbs of 0-25-25 over Front 1, Front 2, Side 1, and Side 2, and some of Back 1. I put down heavier in front than the sides and back because I had the spreader set higher than I expected. I've got two more bags of this to lay down. I'll do one in early August, and one at end of August.

Next step is to commit to a plan for my lawn in fall. Some combination of overseeding, aeration, top dressing.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

The countdown for lawn rehab is here. It's a shame to do this to my lawn right now because the weather has been soooooo perfect for the lawn and it's looking good, but I'm trying to play the long game.

8/17/20: Quinclorac front and sides. Crabgrass has completely taken over the side yards, and the front yard has quite a bit on the margins (sidewalk, road) and creeping in in some areas.

8/19/20: Mow 4"

8/21/20: Move 3.5", Drop 0-25-25 per soil test results.

8/23/20: Quinclorac again as needed

8/25/20: Mow 3.0"

8/28/20: Mow 2.5" (depending on how bad the grass looks)

8/29/20: Aearate at least 3x, maybe more. Overseed. Roll.

9/12/20: Begin fall blitz approximately this date depending on seedlings. Start with 0.5 lb/m at a time.

Tenacity? I opted not to. I don't know how much of a mistake it is to wait 60 days to put down pre-em, but I don't have it in me to figure out how to spray tenacity at this stage. I have to hope that a late fall pre-em and spring will knock out enough crabgrass that I'm not facing a huge issue next summer.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

After a weekend of trying to get my aerator fixed, I finally got it done today.

Mowed to 2.5"...2" was scalping badly in some areas. Also even though I cut to 4" on Friday, then to 3" then to 2.5", there is still so so much grass clippings. I think there is so much dead junk and chaff below 3" that it's just more than I'm used to, so even an inch of cut produced tons and tons of clippings.

Also busted a mower belt as soon as I started. Found out one of my blade bearings has gone...couldn't replace today so I had to go with it.

Seeded. 4lbs in the front yard, 6 or so in the back.

Aerated 2x. I would have liked to do more but I was dead.

I decided to aerate last to try and drive over as much seed as possible. After checking, I was not able to find any seed on top of grass clippings, and did find several underneath all the dead grass and thatch, so I think I succeeded.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow all day, so I'll set up sprinklers after that.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Looks like rain all day today. Sprinkles and showers so far so all is well. As long as it stays this way it should get things kicked off nicely without any washout. If it does rain harder, hopefully the aeration divots will help catch seed.

I started two seed cups to monitor germination. I will keep both outdoors. One I will water under "ideal" circumstances, the other I will allow to be watered the same as the lawn. So, one is on my porch and I'll be watering it multiple times per day. One is just....sitting out in my lawn lol.

Great news, after the fiasco with the aerator this weekend (it was broken when I got it home, core tine bent so badly it collided with a bolt and stopped the machine), called service 3 times over 24 hours before they finally set me up with a service tech. Excellent team, just something not hooking up between the customer service team and the field maintenance team. When I returned it this morning they refunded me the entire cost without me even saying a word, just told me they were refunding my money. So I got a free aerator for a day, minus the trip to pick it up and drop it off, and the frustration of dealing with their service team.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

So obviously it's now pouring hard. Big puddle in the back yard, in the front yard it seems every bare spot that needed patching is now a puddle. Any chance that any of this still has seed there? Should I reseed now or wait for germination? I guess I still have plenty of time to seed this year....

Also my seed jars, because everyone likes seed jars. Testing "ideal" germination time and "actual" germination time so I know when to start freaking out about stuff not germinating.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

I surveyed the damage today to see what things look like after the massive downpour yesterday (1.5" in an hour).

The good: All the grass clippings that were laying on top of grass are now matted down and acting as mulch. I'm pretty sure that this should be holding the grass seeds down in those areas because the clippings don't appear washed in any way, they look like they were pushed straight down to the ground and stuck in place. I've no way to tell, but I'm hoping the grass seeds are under there. Everything is nice and moist.

The bad: my seed cup that I left in the rain to experience "ambient" growing conditions did not have a hole. I thought I punctured it to use as a seedling pot, but I did not. It flooded badly and needs to be re-started.

The ugly: All of the more open areas that needed patching appear to have washed out. Any grass clippings are pushed to the downhill side of the bare spot, and in 1-2 areas I can see the grass seeds washed over to that side. These will clearly need to be re-seeded. I'm going to buy a garden weasel and do the GCI Turf technique using that.

Regarding the areas of my lawn which had poor coverage to begin with, It is very hard to tell what is happening here. There is no or very little grass clippings to give me an idea of runoff. The ground was pounded and it's hard to tell if seeds are washed away or just buried/hidden. It is a very large area (10,000 sq ft? Maybe 15,000), so a blanket reseeding isn't feasible. Should I wait until germination is done to see if I need to re seed?

I need to buy a garden weasel and set up irrigation tonight. Not sure if I have time for all that, so maybe in the morning.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

I have a question about the garden weasel you were looking to purchase. Is it to cultivate beds, or were you looking to spike some of the smaller areas that washed out?

If you were looking to spike small overseeded areas, the garden weasel will tear up surrounding turf. A small spiking tool, which most mfgrs/sellers call an "overseed enhancing tool". It's a small alternative to the large tow-behind spikers. It's about a 12" wide spiker on a long handle that works great. BSN Sports has one that I purchased through Amazon a few years ago that I love. It's out of stock right now on Amazon, but other sellers have it. The photo varies slightly from what I received (handle is metal and fork looks slightly different), but has the same spike setup. It incorporates the seed nicely without tearing up surrounding turf. It's a precision tool, not heavy duty. I like it much better than the Grass Stitcher tool I bought a year prior to the BSN tool. Beacon Athletics has a similar, but heavier duty tool, than the BSN tool. If you have a larger budget, it is a little nicer than the BSN tool.

Here's a link from one of the lowest prices with fastest delivery ETA from Walmart: 
https://www.walmart.com/ip/BSN-SPORTS-Overseed-Enhancing-Tool/21963086


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Oh, and to answer your question about reseeding...I would hold off on most areas that are flat. Look for a sloped area that actually washed out and spread some seed, if you find evidence of the seed being moved out of place.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Chris LI said:


> I have a question about the garden weasel you were looking to purchase. Is it to cultivate beds, or were you looking to spike some of the smaller areas that washed out?
> 
> If you were looking to spike small overseeded areas, the garden weasel will tear up surrounding turf. A small spiking tool, which most mfgrs/sellers call an "overseed enhancing tool". It's a small alternative to the large tow-behind spikers. It's about a 12" wide spiker on a long handle that works great. BSN Sports has one that I purchased through Amazon a few years ago that I love. It's out of stock right now on Amazon, but other sellers have it. The photo varies slightly from what I received (handle is metal and fork looks slightly different), but has the same spike setup. It incorporates the seed nicely without tearing up surrounding turf. It's a precision tool, not heavy duty. I like it much better than the Grass Stitcher tool I bought a year prior to the BSN tool. Beacon Athletics has a similar, but heavier duty tool, than the BSN tool. If you have a larger budget, it is a little nicer than the BSN tool.
> 
> ...


Oi thanks for the heads up. I went out looking for a garden weasel last night (for overseeding) but didn't find one. I'm glad I saw this, and duly noted on the spiker.

I went back out tonight and just used a rake to break up a few areas, and dropped new seed and stamped it in good with my feet.

There are a few areas with a surprising amount of seed in place so I feel pretty good about most of it.

My challenge now is irrigation. I have 6 hoses. So the front yard and side yards are about 75% covered and I have nothing in back. I need to either buy more sprinklers and hoses, or wait until the front is established and then consider more seed in the back where needed, with irrigation. This is part of why I overseeded so early. I have at least another month to do more seeding.

Cheers, Chris.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Good luck! From what I saw (re: washout areas), I thought you would be ok, but didn't want to make any assumptions. I've had areas not covered by my DIY irrigation system do ok with hand watering. You could get them started while you're looking for extra hose, or waiting to swap from front to back. Peat moss covering really helps to keep moisture in and indicate moisture/ dryness. It was extra helpful in hand watering only locations.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Day 3: First signs of germination in the "ideal" test cup. No green but roots are out on several seeds. Hopefully this means roots are out on many seeds in the yard as they are a daY ahead of the cup.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Chris LI said:


> Good luck! From what I saw (re: washout areas), I thought you would be ok, but didn't want to make any assumptions. I've had areas not covered by my DIY irrigation system do ok with hand watering. You could get them started while you're looking for extra hose, or waiting to swap from front to back. Peat moss covering really helps to keep moisture in and indicate moisture/ dryness. It was extra helpful in hand watering only locations.


There are certain areas of my lawn that have flowing water when there is a downpour, and based on the few areas I inspected it seems that the flowing areas were in bad shape, but it looks like it's not as bad as I originally thought, so that is good.

Hand irrigation will be tough, as the non-irrigated part of my yard is currently about 20,000 sf. I'm going to try and play some musical sprinklers to keep other areas moist, but I won't be able to cover everything and I won't be able to keep all the areas "ideal". Maybe tonight I can hook up a hand waterer and meander around the back yard with a beer for 30 minutes.

Goal #1 is to get the front and side lawns to tier 1/tier 2 so that I'm not being dominated by my neighbor (their yard is in great shape). I may not end up with a domination line on my side, but at least I can avoid being dominated. Maybe next year their weed control will slip, but this year they have done excellent, and in reality them having better weed control will only help my lawn.

Having a real lawn in the back yard is a distant goal, one which I might not achieve without a lot more work just based on the weed cover that is there presently. We shall see.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Germination in the lawn at day 5. I had to look pretty hard for it so it's not completely wide spread, but it's also not the best irrigated area, either. Hopefully by end of the weekend I'll be seeing much more throughout the yard.

The seed cup is also doing very well 4 days in.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick update. A lawn survey shows that I have more and more germination in the area where I'm able to irrigate. Which is good, but it's not wide spread, and the area where there is grass clipping "mulch" I don't yet see any germination. Hopefully this means the seeds are just taking time to punch up through the mulch layer. In several aeration holes are some really nice seedlings that are already poking above the soil surface.

One large bare area that I re-seeded seems to not be doing well. I raked, then seeded, then stomped that area. Some few parts of that have really good germination, but the bulk of it appears to not be taking. It looks like the seeds came out of contact with the soil and may be drying out between waterings. Question: should I reseed this area immediately or give it a few more days? If I reseed I would add some peat moss over the seeds.

I'm also realizing that my irrigation sucks. I needed a better overall plan. Not a big deal but I think I need to pick up about $100 in additional hoses and sprinklers. Also my house can only run one sprinkler at a time; when I hook up two sprinklers together, or even if I run one sprinkler on each of my two outdoor faucets, the pressure is terrible and the sprinklers are useless. How much effort should I put into fixing this?

Some bit of germination 3 days after seed:



The whole bare area


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

I've just been continuing to water where I can. I'm moving one or two sprinklers occasionally. Seed cup seedings are about an inch tall at 9 days after seeding, 5 days after germination. Some of the seedlings in the yard are at 1-1.5".

The bare spot from the previous post has quite a bit more germination, but not complete coverage.

Pretty much every aeration hole has a seedling or two in it, EVEN IF IT'S NOT IRRIGATED, which to me is a good sales pitch for aeration before overseeding. Irrigated areas are, for the most part, experiencing germination, but not as wide spread as I may have hoped for. Still unclear to me if the seeds are not germinating or if the seeds are not there.

Rain coming tonight and tomorrow, so I'm going to spread some 0-25-25 tonight (part of soil remediation from soil test). Next weekend I will mow and reseed where needed, then put down some N. Supposed to be some good help from rain this week as well, so that should boost some areas.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)




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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Put down about 1 lb/k of 0-25-25 last night. Rain has been misting on and off since very early this morning. Germination is starting to look really good in a lot of areas, particularly the more sparsely growing areas. Concerningly, the germination is much lower in the areas that already had some decent grass, and on the slopes in my ditch.

I just found out about slopemaster, so I think this weekend I will reseed my ditches with slopemaster, along with other spot re-seeding, and put down some milorganite.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick photos this morning of a few of the bare areas with quite a bit of baby grass.





And generally the yard has sprung back looking excellent after cutting most grass down past the part where the leaves start. Before and after below. I will need to mow this weekend.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick update:

Nothing much going on over the weekend. My plan to mow and re-seed was delayed because I needed to replace a deck spindle on my mower and COULD NOT get the nut free to remove it. So I'm delayed a bit. I got the spindles off at work today and bought parts, so tonight I will mow, re-seed, and hopefully put down some milorganite. Even without any fertilizer the grass is growing like gangbusters after the scalping I gave it. If I can get the seedlings to grow like that, too, this lawn will look very nice in about a month or two.

I also bought some additional sprinkler power. My plan is to re-arrange watering to cover the re-seeded areas primarily, and the remaining sprinklers will cover new areas that haven't received irrigation yet. The other areas will switch down to 3x/wk irrigation.

Hopefully in another two weeks I can put the front yard behind me and switch focus to the side and back yards. In a very ideal world the front and side yards would look like a lawn this fall, and the back yard would have 65-75% grass at least to about 40-50 feet back from the house.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

The mower saga is over. I got the spindle removed and replaced last night. First mow after overseed was just now. Didn't have the balls to mow it back to 2.5" in the front yard so I went 3".

Overall it looks ok, but there are still some dead spots.

Here's a typical dead spot. No idea why germination didn't happen here. 


Here is the side yard showing some really nice seedlings amongst a forest of crabgrass. Preemergent will be a huge part of my plan for the next year. 


Overview of the front yard. Quite a bit of brown showing because it's cut so short, but it was looking pretty good before mowing, even some of the ditch banks are filling in a bit. 


Additional seeding tonight. 
More to come!


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Just for posterity:

Today I

-mowed the front to 3", sides and back to 2.5"
-re seeded the ditch banks and several bare spots
-covered seeded areas with slopemaster 
-put down about 0.5 lb/k of N in the form of milorganite in the front and side yards. 0.2 lb/k fast release.
-re set sprinklers. Focus on the re seeded areas.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

It has started raining. Luckily just regular rain for now, but it is supposed to downpour variously throughout the day. I'm really kicking myself that I didn't get my mower fixed sooner, if I had my seeds would now be rooting instead of just-sown. Luckily I have the slopemaster down, hopefully it does it's job.

Overall, I have to say that the overseed looks quite nice in the front yard, now that it's about 12-14 DAG, there is quite a lot of baby grass coming up all over the place. Once the N kicks in I think it's going to be on like donkey kong.

2 weeks yet until I raise the HOC and the lawn can start to look normal again, then (hopefully) the domination can begin. I notice my next door neighbor, who has pretty lush grass, is starting to get some significant weed infiltration and dead spots, so as long as I can hit the spring strong, I should be good.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Couple pics from today. Good and bad areas for sure. You can definitely see where the sod ends. I want to get rid of this line this year. That's is goals.

I also would like it to be darker. I'm dropping milo right now which I know has iron. Should I go ahead and drop some just plain iron of some kind?


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick update today after mowing, increased hoc in the front to 3". I wish I had taken a before picture because it was looking very thick and lush. Unfortunately after cutting there is a lot of brown and yellow. I think what I'm learning is that the lawn is so uneven that when I set my deck to 3" there are some areas that are 3" but most are shorter, and some areas are nearly bald at that height, such as where they dug up patches in my yard last summer to lay conduit, and left humps. For now that just means that the lawn needs to be at 4.5" HOC. Next mow I will raise the deck up to 3.5", then 4" and so on.

Milorganite has finally taken hold and there is some nice top growth. Left side yard is looking pretty nice and the right side yard is starting to fill in. Other than a few bare patches that just aren't germinating for some reason, the front yard is thick and nice for the most part. I'm going to switch to less frequent watering and start to focus more on the sides and back to push more germination.

Probably also getting a sprayer so I can spoon feed. I think a lot of the granular stuff is running off, just based on the growth patterns I'm seeing after fertilizing.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Applied about 0.3 oz/M of penterra tonight in the rain via ortho hose end sprayer using the "1 tbsp" setting. I measured the weight loss of the cup at various points throughout and I have the say the ortho sprayer is pretty stinking consistent.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Oops. Looks like I got some fungus going on. Azoxy is in order but won't deliver until next week. I've basically just stopped my "germination watering" and will switch to like every other day? 2-3x/wk something like that. So hopefully that plus lots of N should help.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Bit of work today:

Drop 75 lbs of milo over the whole front and sides. About .45 lb/M of N total.

I also reseeded a bit on the sides and the back (6#/M) in areas where I was not able to irrigate previously, then set up sprinklers for germination. I actually noticed some OK germination already in areas that I haven't been able to irrigate - probably due to the recent rains we've had - but I wanted to double down, plus I have plenty of seed. It is interesting, though, that the seed is still viable after so long and the fact that it has been neglected.

The front yard is now officially on "standard irrigation schedule".

I officially measured my yard. The front is actually 6500 sqft (2500 left and 4000 right), and the sides are 2200 (left) and 2800 (right), so I've been a bit off on my previous calcs.

Wanted to mow today but it's still too wet from all the rain yesterday. Can't say for sure if the penterra I put down is doing a ton. The one area that's usually a puddle after a heavy rain is actually dry, but an area next to it is still soggy. Not sure if it's because I gave a double dose to the dry area vs the soggy area which only got a single dose, or if I just haven't paid much attention to the minor differences before. I think I'll add more penterra again in a week or two, but still unsure if it's done much.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick mow at 3.5" tonight in the front. First time I e looked at it this year and felt proud of what I've done. Very happy with where this is at.

Side and back yard pics below as well. They are rough yet but will hopefully have a pretty dramatic transformation as well.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Just a quick note, of the seed I put down on Saturday, about 20-30% of it has started germinating. The left side is a bit behind, I think it gets less sun because of cover from the shed/house/trees. Still it's impressive the amount of germination in 4 days, even in cool weather.

Lawn is looking thick and green today after the heavy rain last night. Still some patches that will likely not fill in this fall. Sad. I'm sure I'm the only one who sees them.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

You've made a lot of progress and I can see it getting even better this fall.

The wheels kept turning in my head about a comment you made in your 9/2 post about getting spread thin with irrigation and running 6 hoses, and I have an idea for you (I'm a bit of a DIY watering nut, since I don't have a proper irrigation system). I purchased a few Gilmour large area/high volume impact/impulse sprinklers for work for my formal grass panels. Instead of using multiple regular impact/ impulse sprinklers on multiple hoses which would result in significant pressure drop, I opted for these and covered more area and had to move them less often. I only had 5/8" hose. 3/4" hose would deliver much better pressure and volume. I had to run about 200' of 5/8" hose and these still delivered good results, even with the pressure drop over the long run of hose. https://gemplers.com/products/large-area-impulse-sprinkler?variant=21169955995737&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&utm_content=https://gemplers.com/products/large-area-impulse-sprinkler%3Fvariant%3D21169955995737%26utm_medium%3Dcpc%26utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_campaign%3DGoogle%2520Shopping&utm_term=shopify_US_2042805289049_21169955995737&gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCb1AMGeUUPUeNHQMJxVYj0uYgp_DX-tYyNVIhi567AIgmb4A4AnKoXBoCOTEQAvD_BwE

Gilmour also has a high flow garden hose manifold which I have used for many years. I used to get the zinc ones, figuring they would last longer than the plastic version, but the mineral deposits would bind them up and eventually fail. Also, the plastic neck is always a weak point that seems to break, so they last about 2 years. At this point, I consider them a maintenance item, and think the pressure/volume increase over the sturdy brass ones with smaller orifices.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A1CFLG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

@Chris LI I am definitely going to look into those sprinklers. My yard (probably everyone's yard) is such an odd shape, too, that it seems impossible to get good coverage without 700 sprinklers, so maybe one of these can cover a whole "side".

I've thought about my irrigation situation quite a bit. My house has low pressure to begin with so I don't know if I will ever be in an ideal situation with regards to irrigation. I've started to read through the irrigation design guide a few times but I get side tracked. I keep meaning to test my pressure, and to go under my house and see where my hose bibs tie in and if there is a more ideal location for irrigation take-off. I keep coming back to the fact that, I don't really have time to deal with this, but I'm too cheap to hire someone to handle it for me. For now I just want to get the yard as nice as I can with a few bouts of intensive work and then lazy upkeep. I also have been kicking around the idea of having a smaller spot in the back yard that is a really highly groomed area where I can focus on a small area and really give it attention. Who knows, maybe next year.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Pezking7p said:


> I also have been kicking around the idea of having a smaller spot in the back yard that is a really highly groomed area where I can focus on a small area and really give it attention.


Some folks on TLF do this, usually right off their back patio/deck. They usually go with a lower HOC with more frequent mowing...kind of like fairways and roughs on a GC. I think it looks pretty cool. Then you can always expand the "manicured" area in the future when it's feasible. The big box stores usually have a cheap pressure gauge in the irrigation section that has GHT (garden hose thread). I think I bought mine at Lowes. Also, I finally bought Hunter Pro Spray bodies and added MP Rotator heads on my DIY system. What a difference! They use lower pressure (and volume), so you can cover larger areas with less pressure drop. Check out my journal for my experiences. You can run hoses along the perimeter of your house/beds as a DIY system and with that smaller manicured area, have a really nice lawn. I might have just given you a winter design project. :lol:


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Couple shots this morning pre-mow. Overall I am very happy with this. The line between sod and not-sod is also getting very blurry.

The only thing I'm not really happy with yet is the thickness on the slopes where it's not thick enough yet to hide all the dirt/brown underneath. I'm hoping that this will continue to fill in as new grass matures (the slopes have a lot of grass that is only 2-3 weeks old).

Oh, I also can't figure out why the spot right next to the road that was completely bare is not growing taller. It sprouted and is looking thick and lush, but is stuck at 1-2" tall.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quite a bit of work today. The front and both sides got iron and N.

About 0.18 lb/M of N
About 1.0 oz/M of FS

Then everything got 0.5" of good old fashioned H2O.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

FAS last Sunday really made the lawn pop. I wish I had the guts to do a control square, but I don't. Have never seen my lawn this green.

On the side yards, there is almost a real lawn now as well. Once I get the crabgrass to die and put down pre next year we will be in business.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Front yards may be even but at least I'm working on a domination line in the sides and back. Will be more better after the new seedlings have a few more weeks to tiller.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Wife just texted me to say "the yard looks insane".

Is it bad that I'm hoping the guy across the street from me somehow messes up so that my lawn will finally look better than his? I don't know what he does but it is the nicest green lawn, and I never see him doing anything. He HAS to slip up sometime.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Lawn is looking so nice. It needs a trim but I won't be able to get to that until this weekend.

Before and after:


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Dropped some fertilizer last night. The sides and back got 14 lbs of 18-24-4 starter fert that I had left over, and the front and half of the left-hand side got 29 lbs of AMS 21-0-0.

I got a rock or a very large piece of AMS stuck in the opening of the spreader about halfway through the front. It would not close, and I could not stop to fix it, so nearly every turn has extra spread, and at the end I had to stop and try to fix the issue (in retrospect I should have run to the back and spread it in another area until I was out) but I panicked and probably dropped a fair bit in the grass behind some of my landscaping. It was almost completely dark. Anyway, all this means I dropped more AMS in the front than I intended, though not by much.

I suspect about 0.6-0.7 lb/M of N in the front, and about 0.4 lb/M of N in the back. Hopefully no burning spots on the turns.

Here's some post-mow pictures from the weekend. The back is almost looking like a lawn. It will be really nice in a few weeks. I also tried to edge the front road, lol. I'm not an artist for a reason.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Just cycling through some watering this week, moving sprinklers around a few times. No rain forecast for quite some time. They say maybe thunderstorms this weekend but it doesn't look like a sure thing at all. Lawn looks great but needs a mow. No time until Saturday.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick post-mow pic at 3.5". Finally got an angle that does the lawn justice.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Not much to comment on. Lawn is looking green af. My neighbors lawn is just starting to go dormant so the domination line is finally coming out in full force.

My one bare patch that didn't take seed, I have re-seeded. I used a hand cultivator when seeding to try and break it up, it was very hard dirt. I'm trying to keep it extra moist so the roots can grow deep. Forgot to check on it over the weekend while it rained but I got my very first night seedling pic just now. Hopefully they grow strong enough to make it through the winter. It's the last real eye sore of my front lawn.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Still trying to get a shot showing the true color but it's still not quite right. Or maybe it has gotten lighter since I haven't sprayed iron in a while. I should do a test square. This is from before mowing today.



And a few shots after the mow today. I was debating spraying some fas but I opted not to.

Cheers.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

I haven't done anything other than mow for 3 weeks so quick update:

-The little spot I re-seeded is growing OK. The poor grass is somewhat stunted. I don't have anything set up for irrigation but I take the watering can over there about once a day. It's hard to soak it deeply, though, because the ground is so hard.

-The back and side yards have kind of stagnated. They look OK but I didn't get the overwhelming flush of new grass I hoped for...not that I should have expected it given I seeded in mid October. Still, it does look a lot better. The crabgrass has died and it's obvious where it was lol. You can also see where the contractors filled in over my septic recently and overseeded with god knows what. It's so thick it doesn't matter how much fert I throw at it it stays like green.



-As I said I haven't done anything to the yard, and it's starting to show. I didn't realize just how much my attention impacts the lawn, and I don't get home before it's dark so I rarely see it during the week, but it clearly has some odd patterns of color. I wonder why these bands formed here? Perhaps the most impacted by leaching? Least able to absorb water? Worst root growth (possibly due to one or both of the previous items)? It's there. I'm going to do a ton of applications in the next day or two, then we have a week of rain.





-Lastly, the reason I don't know if I'll bother to level my lawn. Some might say this is more reason to do so but I worry it would end up a disaster that never ends. Shown here are two area of my lawn, both cut at 3.5" deck height. One is about an inch, the other is maybe 4-4.5" (after a week of growth). Obviously some Major unevenness. But, it looks fantastic at 3.5" and higher so I don't know how much I would gain from leveling it out.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Mowed at 3.5" again this weekend and then tried to spray some stuff, but my sprayer wasn't acting right, so I stopped. I called Chapin, found out my filter was plugged up with what appeared to be rust from my iron. I was surprised since I've only sprayed twice and have rinsed well after each use, but none the less it's fixed up now.

So last night I finally sprayed, but ended up putting down a spoon feeding along with everything else. So I've got:

0.25 lb/M of nitrogen (from AMS)
3 month application of Prodiamine
Lowest app of azoxystrobin
2 oz/M of FS

Been raining all night and day. Mrs Pez actually texted me to say the lawn is greening up already. Not sure if she's just being kind or not, but I won't see it anyway since it will be dark when I get home, lol.

I'm trying to come up with a plan to try and keep my lawn green all winter. I don't fancy spoon feeding all winter, so I might pick up some slow release fert. My concern there, though, is with my photos above where the bands in the ditch show chlorosis before other parts of the lawn. My last fertilizer app was 0.5 lb of granular AMS that I spread. I suspect that the areas of the ditch with chlorosis either have more volume of water running through that area that is leaching nitrogen more quickly, or possibly more likely the velocity of the water running down at that point is high enough that it washed some of the granules away prior to disolving and/or soaking into the soil. Either way it means that spraying that area is more effective, so....yah. It's probably a minor point at the end of the day, but it's one that I'm thinking about.

Cheers.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Mowed at 3.5" today and put down some more N. Probably doesn't need it but I won't get another chance until next weekend because I pretty much get home in the dark every night.

I tried to drop 0.5 lbs/M but upon doing the math afterwards I think I was closer to 0.9-1.0. I used the same settings as last time which gave me about 0.6 lbs. Oops. Won't hurt anything and the AMS was cheap.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Looking good after a bit of rain.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

OK!

It's time to kick of spring because it's heating up and rain is falling and the time is right to do things to my lawn.

Today: 
FAS with 0.25 lb N
Azoxy @Preventative rate 
Prodiamine @4 month rate

I also threw down some leftover seed in the back yard to try and improve the area that I was not able to overseed last fall. It's just a big black circle
In my yard where black/red weeds grow. Looks awful.

The rest of the yard looks pretty good. About 65% dormant so hopefully it will wake up here in the next week or two.


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## Copat (Mar 20, 2021)

Damn man I just read through this whole forum. Motivation for sure.

I have a new construction home and I'm fighting the contractor mix/Kentucky 31 they laid. I seeded with my own TTTF in the form of Titan RX. I'm wanting the dark green of TTTF. I have quite a few bare spots as well. I seeded some this spring and have just started to spoon feed nitrogen at .25lb/1k every week.

I'm going to heavy overseed this fall with TTTF in hopes of that "overshadowing" the other grasses that currently take over my yard.

I'm new to this whole lawn thing but I'm having a lot of fun learning.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Copat said:


> Damn man I just read through this whole forum. Motivation for sure.
> 
> I have a new construction home and I'm fighting the contractor mix/Kentucky 31 they laid. I seeded with my own TTTF in the form of Titan RX. I'm wanting the dark green of TTTF. I have quite a few bare spots as well. I seeded some this spring and have just started to spoon feed nitrogen at .25lb/1k every week.
> 
> ...


Someone posted here! My advice is to not worry too much about overseeding in spring unless you have irrigation and are committed to watering. My attempts were failures.

My fall overseeding was a great success, but very intensive with respect to prep and watering. The only thing I would do differently is maybe take the time to do more weed control during the overseed using tenacity. I have quite a few weeks this spring because I did did not use any pre em during the overseed.

Cheers.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Second mow. I should really have mowed last weekend but it turns out to be fine.

My fertilizing has left a few stripes I'm not happy with, probably by rushing my 0.5 lb application with the spreader. I'm going to try to correct that this weekend with a spray app. I'm also going to broadcast a bit of herbicide to help with a few weeds that are running rampant in certain areas, mostly vetch and this tall flower I haven't identified.

ALSO, I have fucking poa. On the edge of the street (I don't have a curb so any seeds just blow in), I noticed them last night during our walk. Maybe half a dozen clumps. Not sure how best to deal with them. I should probably just roundup them now, and plan for lots of PreM in the fall.

Anyway, the yard looks pretty damn good imo. If the fertilizer had been even it would be baller.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

From the other direction and a bit overcast, it looks really nice. Actually.

What to do about poa a? I guess I need to commit to hand pull. I don't have much, but it's quite a lot more than I'm ok with just letting die.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

I found a fertilizer supplier 8 minutes from my house so I can get whatever I need in bulk for cheap. Yay!

Sprayed tonight:
1.5 oz ferrous sulfate
0.25 lb N (urea)
0.367 oz quinclorac
-per 1k

I swapped out for a real foliar nozzle since the wind was low. It worked nice.


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## Copat (Mar 20, 2021)

What was your key to keeping your lawn green all winter? I'm interested in doing the same (I know planning too far ahead lol). But yours looks awesome! And I hate brown grass during the winter months


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Quick look out the front door this morning. The yellower stripe in the ditch is more pronounced in the photo than in person. I'm pretty happy with where this is at. Just need to work on the weeds.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Copat said:


> What was your key to keeping your lawn green all winter? I'm interested in doing the same (I know planning too far ahead lol). But yours looks awesome! And I hate brown grass during the winter months


It depends a lot on location and grass type. Since it looks like we are pretty similar on both (I assume v beach is zone 8?) we should be on similar footing.

I can't really say much, though, as last year was the first time I've ever paid any attention to my lawn. What I did was lots of fertilizer in the fall according to the cool season fall blitz. I actually came up a bit short compared to how much I wanted to put down, and my lawn eventually went dormant in January, and you can see what that looks like a few posts back. I think if you spoon feed nitrogen through fall and early winter when you see warmer weather coming for a few days, and maybe supplement with water (not sure on this on) then you can stay more green.

EDIT: I guess I never posted my lawn in dormant state, even though I thought I did. Here it is.

January 9th:



March 2nd:


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Mounted a broom on my deck and did a double cut today to see how it would look. Not very impressed. Oh well it cost me $15 and about an hours time. The double cut sure makes a velvety lawn, though.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)




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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

One of the FedEx guys did stopped one day to talk to me. Turns out he also mows greens for a local golf course as a second job. I think FedEx/UPS should do a page around lawns like the UPS facebook page about dogs https://www.facebook.com/upsdogs


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Just fertilizer and mowing this year, for the most part. Thanks TLF.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Lawn is looking really nice and dark. Had a ton of comments on Halloween and today the next doo neighbors lawn service came over to ask me who had aerated my lawn because it looked so good. I was making him look bad and he was trying to figure out what he needed to do to get lawns to look like that.

Well, you can imagine how the next 3-5 minutes of conversation went. No I didn't aerate. No really, I didn't. I used a metric crapload of fertilizer. No, not Scott's, just urea from down the road. Yes I know urea can burn the lawn. On and on, lol. He was a super nice guy, but I think we've all had conversations with people who are not technical about lawns, it is difficult to even have a discussion about what we do without a 30 minute technical introduction lol.

Anyway lawn looks amazing, dominating everyone within the neighborhood. Cheers.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

I want to try and stay green all winter. Lawn still growing pretty well. I'm giving everything a good soak today and tomorrow because it's been quite dry. Then more FAS tomorrow. Daytime highs around 70 all week so should be good overall.

I've switched to 2 oz ferrous sulfate per 1k this fall and it seems to be the magic number for me. No graying but it really makes a difference in color. When I was doing only 1.5 oz FS my neighbors color was better (at least, it was right after they fertilized.).

Few snaps from this week and today. Color is still great.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looking good! Your on the right track with watering. I can't keep mine green all winter but watering leading up to cold weather is key to late season color.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Butter said:


> Looking good! Your on the right track with watering. I can't keep mine green all winter but watering leading up to cold weather is key to late season color.


Thanks dude.

I got about 2 hours of sprinkler on most of the lawn which is probably 1/2". I'll water some more tomorrow and spray probably 0.5 lb N and some azoxy and iron on everything.

The half Reno half massive overseed on my back yard is looking good despite a late start. Hopefully it's got enough growth to get through the winter (I'm sure it's ok, just needs plenty of springtime love). Will add about 8,000 sqft of nice lawn to my back yard, brining the total area managed to about 21k.


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