# Mark2's Mazama Mono Renovation



## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Hi guys. Finally starting a journal for my planned backyard renovation to a monostand of Mazama KBG. I recently joined TLF and have already gained a lot of knowledge and tips for (hopefully) a successful reno. I did a similar reno at our last house, but with TTTF, that went fairly smooth. My plan this time is basically a copy of the @g-man cool season renovation guide.

First a little backstory. We moved into this house last fall, and it doesn't have a ton of lawn to manage. There's about 2000 sq feet of a mostly TTTF mix in the front, and another ~1200 sq feet of grass in the back. The front isn't in terrible shape. I'm letting it ride this year and tentatively planning a reno for it next year. It has fine fescue that bothers me, as well as some wild bermuda that is invading on one side, and I'd just like it to be more homogenous.

But the backyard is a mess. It has a lot of weeds. A real salad bar with wild violets & strawberries, crabgrass, clover, nutsedge, etc... It looks OK from a distance, but is pretty gnarly up close. It also has some drainage problems. When it rains heavily water pools in 2 spots-- on one side right off the driveway where it runs off from the garage roof gutter & neighbor's yard, and the other side where it is just the lowest spot in the yard. One other problem I found is about a ~80 sq ft area where there are bricks buried just about 2" under the grass. I'm planning to get 3 cubic yards of screened topsoil from a local supplier that I will use to level everything out afterwards. One other note on the yard is we don't have any trees, it basically gets full sun all day.





So here are my immediate steps: 1) will be sending out a soil test this week to see if I need to do any big time amending before the reno, 2) dig up all the bricks and remove them, 3) fix drainage issues. Currently thinking for drainage I will put in one section of French drain that runs under both of the water pooling areas and tie it into the neighbor's drains that already go to the street just past their yard.

Then here is the outline for my plan, targeting a seed down date of 8/21:

Starting now, mow lower than usual and bag each time.
7/10 first glyphosate app, make sure I'm watering to promote growth of anything here
7/24 planning for drain install. This could happen sooner though too, just depends when I get the specifics nailed down. I plan to do it all myself. Will get top soil delivered and put down after finished with drains. Level best I can with a landscaping rake. May rig myself up a DIY leveling rake just made of wood.
7/31 2nd glypho app. Keep mowing low. Rake up loose debris as necessary.
8/14 Spot glypho as necessary. Keep raking and try and get level as possible.
8/21 Seed down day. Planning to rake, then put down seed, then rake again and roll with roller. Put down a starter fert or Milo. Follow that with a spray of tenacity & azoxystrobin. Top with peat moss, and then water water water.

~9/4 spray propiconazole when hitting 2 leaf stage
14 DAG put down some urea around 0.2 lbs/M of Nitrogen
When sprouts hit 2", mow back to 1.5" -- I have a manual reel I plan to use
28 DAG 2nd tenacity app, another 0.2 lbs/M Nitrogen
45 DAG another 0.2 lbs/M Nitrogen
60 DAG prodiamine app

I'm really excited/nervous to go through with all of this. I'm hoping this journal will help me out and keep me organized. Please chime in with any suggestions/critiques. The monostand aspect is a little intimidating, but I figure I'll give it a go and see what happens. I love the idea of a nice, uniform lawn.


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

Great choice on seed! Do you already have it on hand? I ordered from CD Ford and everything went smoothly. I'll be following along as I am doing a Reno myself this fall.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Liquidstone said:


> Great choice on seed! Do you already have it on hand? I ordered from CD Ford and everything went smoothly. I'll be following along as I am doing a Reno myself this fall.


Thanks! Yep, I also ordered from CD Ford a couple weeks ago. I think we have the same lot of seed. I got a couple pounds separated out already. Will be fun to see how similar our reno's go, I've read through your journal a couple times. Looks like you'll be seeding a couple weeks ahead of me.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

So I put some of my Mazama seeds in a pot just so I could see how they germinate.. Well they came up quick! I put them in the dirt this past Monday, June 28th and this morning I saw the first grass babies! 5 days!

This pot had some potting mix & flowers last year but has just sitting with bare dirt over the winter till now. I didn't add any fert or anything, just put seeds on and mixed them in the top 1/4" or so. They have just been watered once in the morning and then the afternoon. It has been sitting in our side screened-in porch.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Good luck with your rental


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Update on my pot of Mazama.

6 days after putting seed down:


Just one week after seed down:


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

Test pot is looking good! I finally threw some in a test plot this evening.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

First round of gly went down this afternoon, 7/9. Wanted to get it down before rain predicted off and on the next 2 days. Also added some extra goodies based on g-man's soul stealer recipe from what I had on hand. For 1,000 sq ft I ran 4 oz gly, 0.75 oz triclopyr, and 0.5 teaspoon tenacity mixed in 1 gallon of water. Still over a month before seed down so I should be fine. No going back now though.


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

Nice man I love that name, soul stealer. Mine is CRISPY and even smells dead. So many lookie loos now.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Day 15 after putting Mazama seeds in this pot. I actually trimmed them with scissors yesterday as they were getting up to 2".


And then here's the yard 4 days post gly application. Should have cut it before I put it down but didn't. Bought a ~$15 1 gallon pump sprayer to put the gly in as I'm scared of contamination and it was not fun to use. Definitely going to be patchy, have plenty of time for more apps though.


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

Test pot lookin good! Yard is stressin too!

I had my test pots outside but couldn't keep them moist enough during the weekday so I reseeded them inside. Still waiting on some sprouts.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

lbb091919 said:


> Test pot lookin good! Yard is stressin too!
> 
> I had my test pots outside but couldn't keep them moist enough during the weekday so I reseeded them inside. Still waiting on some sprouts.


Thanks. Yeah I feel like your yard got crispy a little quicker than mine, but it's getting there. I will probably give it a scalp and do my 2nd round of gly in the next couple days.

My pot is sitting in a screened-in porch facing the south so it gets some sun but not fully exposed. It seems to hold moisture okay.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Mowed with the bagger on in the reno area, first cut after gly 5 days ago. The grass is getting crispy, but patchy. Will definitely have to do another couple glyphosate apps.

Also talked with the neighbor and have a good plan for catch basin & french drain install the weekend after this. I am one house off the corner of the block, so I'm landlocked by other people's yards. So I got the blessing to hook my drains up to theirs which then empties out in a couple pop-up emitters right off their curb to the street. Hopefully will work out OK.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Nine days after first gly application. 2nd story view, with a beached cat in the middle of the patio. Mowed with bagger once, a couple days ago. Just sprayed 2nd gly app this morning. Spots that are dead from the first app are nice and crispy.


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

Making progress. Your test pot looks good too. That old resilient grass just takes a while to tap out. I put down my 3rd gly app today and think that will be it prior to bringing in top soil.


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

So true that the old grass is resilient. It eventually caves though as I finally saw in mine. Bunch of rain gave it hope but the only green that's left is weeds.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Sorry for the lack of updates. Have been staying busy though. Hand digging out bricks turned in to quite the undertaking by itself. I would just go work on it for an hour or so most nights after we put the kids to bed and it cooled off. A previous owner made a path around the perimeter of the yard in bricks, laying on edge. I believe over time a thin layer of dirt just washed over them, or maybe someone else just put about an inch of dirt on top of them instead of taking them out. I dug them up one by one and ended up with a nice pile that I now have to figure out what to do with.





Next up was putting in some drainage. If we get a decent rain our backyard turns into a swamp. I'd say more than half of the water comes from running across the driveway from my neighbor's house, so we put a channel drain right next to driveway in the lowest spot where it runs off. Then we put in 4 10' sections of the pre-made French drain in the yard, connecting to our other neighbor's catch basin that then goes to a pop-up emitter at the road.







Then just this morning I got 5.5 yards of topsoil delivered. It went pretty smoothly. I paid extra to have them drop it in the yard with their powered wheel barrow. That was a big time & muscle saver for me. The bucket held 1/2 a yard and the guy dropped it in little piles in the lowest spots so it was already fairly spread out before I lifted a shovel. These 2 pictures were the piles before I ever touched them.





I went out afterward and gave it a quick and dirty leveling using a rake. I also ended up grabbing a Landzie Ryan Knorr leveling rake. I used it for about 5 min, with pretty good results, until the handle promptly snapped and broke off where the connection is. So now it has about a 3' handle instead of 6'. Not very ergonomic.





I plan to continue with leveling & fallowing now till seed down. Originally was planning seed down next Sat the 21st, but now thinking the 28th to give me 2 weeks with the topsoil. It's 97 degrees here today so I think I still have some time for KBG.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Your project is coming along nicely. I really like that slate path and hope you keep it. It has a nice, natural look with different sized slates. Everything tends to be cookie cutter nowadays, so seeing a natural looking walkway is refreshing.


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## KCturffanatic (Oct 21, 2020)

Nice! I'm doing a monostand KBG renovation in Liberty, MO this year. I'm going with "After Midnight" in my back yard, but doing a few test plots in in side yard and front yard with Mazama as well. If all goes good next Spring and Summer, I'll renovate my front and side yard, which is a mix of TTTF/KBG right now. 
Good work so far, I'll be following along!

Dustin


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

@KCturffanatic how big of a test plot do you have?


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## KCturffanatic (Oct 21, 2020)

Jeff_MI84 said:


> @KCturffanatic how big of a test plot do you have?


Not very big. I put one that's around 45 sqft in a mostly shaded part, and then the other will be around 10 sqft in a mostly sunny spot. I had to test them in discreet spots as my yard is a corner lot and highly visible... I might go ahead and do a 50 square feet section in a corner of my back/side yard next to the "After Midnight", so I can do a side by side comparison. You can PM me with more questions if you have. I don't want to butt into Mark2's thread.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Chris LI said:


> Your project is coming along nicely. I really like that slate path and hope you keep it. It has a nice, natural look with different sized slates. Everything tends to be cookie cutter nowadays, so seeing a natural looking walkway is refreshing.


Thanks! We do like the stones. Only problem is they aren't super flat. Some edges are fairly raised up so it can trip up my toddler son. We may try and do something to get that better.



KCturffanatic said:


> Nice! I'm doing a monostand KBG renovation in Liberty, MO this year. I'm going with "After Midnight" in my back yard, but doing a few test plots in in side yard and front yard with Mazama as well. If all goes good next Spring and Summer, I'll renovate my front and side yard, which is a mix of TTTF/KBG right now.
> Good work so far, I'll be following along!
> 
> Dustin


Oh nice! I actually went to William Jewell for a year and enjoyed my time up there. Ultimately ended up transferring and finishing out at KU though. Live down in Waldo now.

That's exciting with the After Midnight. I've heard good things about that cultivar. This is my first foray into KBG, so we'll see how it goes. I figure worst case I'll just overseed with TTTF. We just moved to this house last year and the backyard is only 1k sq feet so I thought I'd just go for it.


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## KCturffanatic (Oct 21, 2020)

Mark2 said:


> Oh nice! I actually went to William Jewell for a year and enjoyed my time up there. Ultimately ended up transferring and finishing out at KU though. Live down in Waldo now.
> 
> That's exciting with the After Midnight. I've heard good things about that cultivar. This is my first foray into KBG, so we'll see how it goes. I figure worst case I'll just overseed with TTTF. We just moved to this house last year and the backyard is only 1k sq feet so I thought I'd just go for it.


Oh ok, I'm the opposite. I grew up in Lawrence and now I've lived in Liberty for about 6 years. We really enjoy it. This will be my first go with an all KBG yard as well. My neighbor across the street has the Grass Pad All KBG mix, and doesn't do much of anything to it but water, and it looks pretty nice, so I figure with a little more care, we should be able to keep it looking good here in KC. I'll be reel mowing mine, so that adds some excitement!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

good to see more KC guys on the forum.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Time for a big catch-up update. My last post ended with the topsoil delivery. Literally that day I was informed of a last-minute work trip. Left 2 days later for a week and a half. Wasn't a bad time to be gone though, ran the sprinklers some while I was gone to encourage whatever weed seeds were in there to grow in.

So it was last weekend that I got back from my trip. I waited till Tuesday for the final glyphosate app, there was a fair amount of weeds that popped up but nothing too crazy. Then this Friday I kind of scratched up the top couple inches of soil to then smooth it back it out with the leveling rake. It had some spots where 2 heavy rainstorms kind of made some higher and lower spots. I also rented a roller from Home Depot, so I raked, leveled with level rake, then rolled it smooth. I thought it worked pretty well.

Then yesterday was seed down day. Here's how it went:

1) First went over everywhere with the groundskeeper II rake to scratch up the surface
2) Spread starter fert, Scott's 24-25-4 at 3 lbs/M
3) Spread Mazama seed at 2.5 lbs/M
4) Lightly raked it again to get good seed to soil contact
5) Rolled the area with the lawn roller
6) Sprayed with Tenacity, Azoxystrobin, & N-Ext DIY RGS
7) Covered with landscape fabric
8) Ran sprinklers

This is where an issue came up. While running the sprinklers I noticed it was kind of beading up on top of the fabric. So I wanted to do a fabric instead of peat moss to help with birds & squirrels, but didn't get the good stuff like the Futerra blankets guys on here have been using. I got some cheap stuff off of Amazon. After the sprinklers ran for 20 min I went and checked and the water was all sitting on the top of the fabric. I pulled up one side and saw it was bone dry all underneath :shock: I felt it and the fabric didn't even feel damp like it was absorbing any of the water. I decided to wait a while and see if it would eventually soak through. I came back out about 3 hours later and the water was still sitting on top, and bone dry underneath :roll: So I went ahead and pulled it all up and went to HD. At this point I didn't really want to deal with the mess of peat moss, plus they were out of it. Didn't see anything else I liked there. There's a Lowe's down the road so I went there and ended up buying the Pennington Slopemaster. I had never used it before, but seems like I've seen generally positive things about it on here. Plus I liked the idea of just using my spreader to put it down. I went ahead and got 3 bags, or 1800 sq ft of bag rate coverage for my 1000 sq ft yard.

So I got back and spread all 3 bags out, and watered it. It did its thing and expanded, and I'm feeling cautiously optimistic with it. It is dark while it is damp and then gets lighter as it dries out like peat moss does. So now I have the sprinklers set up to water at 8, 11, 1, 3, 5, & 7. I'm going with quite a few waterings in the afternoon as it's still pretty hot here, hitting the 90's for highs, and it gets direct sun all day. Hopefully that will start dropping more soon.

I have a couple pics, but not many. I just kind of get in the zone doing things and don't think to stop and take pictures.

Here it is after being leveled and rolled


Here's what it looked like when I was scratching it with the groundskeeper II in prep for fert & seed


While putting down the water resistant fabric :roll: 


And finally here's what it looks like this evening with the Slopemaster on top. You can see one light area I have along the outside edge that the sprinklers don't cover as well as the rest.


Now we just water and wait. Hoping to see some germination by this next weekend.


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

Looks good Mark. Bummer your nets didn't work out. Peat moss is a major PITA. I think you'll be happy with the slopemaster. Now the waiting game begins!


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

The slopemaster is some good stuff for sure. Sucks the landscape fabric didnt work out, but may have been a blessing in disguise because you would have had to pull it up at some point right?

You got your seeds down just in time for the heat to break. We're finally in the 80's over here which I imagine you'll be the same.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Thanks guys. Yeah I've been jealous of you two already having seed down for a bit. Now time to wait. No storms on the forecast that I can see, and yes seeing some highs down in the 80's now.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

If you look closely on the right and around the middle, you can spot a couple green shoots coming up. 5 days after seed down, same as my test pot. This Mazama doesn't waste any time! Granted it's just barely broken through, but we'll see how it looks the next couple days!


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

:bandit: :bandit: :bandit:


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Congrats on the baby Mazama. Today is Day 10 for my Mazama. My seed is 3 years old so was a little worried but it seems to be coming up fine. Maybe a little behind where I was when I did my 1500 sqft reno.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Thanks guys! Of course I wake up this morning and it's pouring :|

I'm seeing 2-3" of rain forecasted over the next 24 hrs or so. Obviously nervous, hoping I don't get any crazy washout. We'll see how this slopemaster does.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Ok so the slopemaster basically all washed to the lower side of the yard. It looks like the grass seed/sprouts stayed in place though. So the question is do I get more and put it on top, or is it really necessary at this point? There's another good rain scheduled to come through overnight tonight, but nothing after that.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Maybe walk the perimeter and hand spreader/hand cast some seed on the thinner areas.


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## jskierko (Sep 5, 2020)

If you have any piles of slopemaster that you think may choke out seedlings/prevent germination, I'd just try to scoop up the slopemaster in your hand and chuck it back into the yard. Looks like you have some pretty dense piles.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

jskierko said:


> If you have any piles of slopemaster that you think may choke out seedlings/prevent germination, I'd just try to scoop up the slopemaster in your hand and chuck it back into the yard. Looks like you have some pretty dense piles.


Yeah, that's basically my game plan for the morning after this last storm is over. Check the damage and spread out any deep piles of slopemaster. Tomorrow is just one week since seed down though so I'm still going to give it another week or so before I would potentially put some more seed down. Germination I saw today was actually pretty widespread.

We just got another 0.6" of rain in the last 2 hrs. I went out and checked and it doesn't look like much has changed since this morning.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

Here's what it looks like this morning. 8 days after seed down. There are still some spots that are fairly bare, but germination most places.

We got 5" of rain over the last 72 hours so I'm pretty happy with where it's at considering that. Trying to decide at what point I would throw some more seed in the bare spots. Being only 8 days in, I feel like there could still be some germination to pop up. I'd rather be a little thin than get too overcrowded.


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

Pretty amazing for receiving that amount of rain! I like your game plan on giving it a little bit of extra time.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

So I've just been sitting over here pouting while my sprouts seem to not be doing anything. I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow of the coverage. It's pretty good in about half of it, and then a little more bare than I'd like in the other half.

But tonight I spent a little bit pulling all of these weeds out of the reno area. Can you guys help me identify them? Tenacity doesn't seem to have touched them. They just popped up about 2 days ago and grow vertically pretty fast. At first I thought wild bermuda as I had some of that before I killed everything off, but now I don't think so. Some type of grassy weed almost like crabgrass. Not much in roots that I could get out. Wondering if it came in with the topsoil I got. I only spent about 2 weeks fallowing so maybe it hadn't popped up yet. I went ahead and pulled most of it as it was getting pretty big and didn't want it shading out my Mazama babies.


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