# dpainter68's Lawn Journal



## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

I thought maybe it was time to start a journal and keep everything in one thread. We built a new house and moved in at the end of July 2018. With finishing things up on the house and being so late in the year I decided to hold off till this spring/summer to start in the yard. Here's some pics of the yard initially. 




We're on 1.25 acres and I had sod put down in the front section right in front of the house and in the fenced in section of the back yard. I have about 4k sqft of area sodded then about 42k sqft of dirt. I had a good bit of erosion in the winter but planned on bringing dirt in for some areas anyways so I wasn't too worried about it. Spring rolled around and I started spraying to kill the bermuda and some weeds so I could start on the irrigation system. Before I could start on the irrigation system I knew there was some gravel left over from the temporary driveway that I needed to get rid of. I had a buddy of mine come over and bring his mini-excavator and tractor. We hauled off 4 loads of dirt/gravel mixture in his 10k lb rated dump trailer.

Memorial Day weekend I rented a ditch witch and started trenching. 



I soon found out that my gavel problem was worse than I anticipated. 


So once again, my friend came over and brought his excavator and dump trailer. My neighbor across the street brought his bobcat over to load up the gravel into the dump trailer to speed the process up. It was ridiculous how much gravel was left. It was obvious my landscaper left what gavel was there and put dirt on top of it. Most of it was crusher run. Some of it was 12" thick. We hauled away 3 more loads that day.


So on to the irrigation system finally. The irrigation system took much longer than I expected due to the amount of work and some unforeseen events. I had some help a few of the days but did about 90% of the work by myself. I laid just over 4000' of pipe for 15 zones and have 71 Rainbird 5000 rotors and 29 MP rotators. I still have to put nozzles in about 50 of the rotors. My plans on the 42k sqft are sprigs (technically broadcast stolonizing). I was going back and forth between TifTuf and TifGrand and I'm leaning slightly toward TifGrand. With it being this late in the summer I'm leaning towards waiting till next spring to do the sprigs. I've already been delayed in getting dirt/top soil delivered the past two weekends due to rain. Everywhere I've called so far isn't doing TifGrand right now anyways. I'm in the market for a riding greens/fairway mower, so waiting till next spring would allow me to possibly find one. I'll have to seed rye grass for the winter to prevent erosion but I'll dread mowing during the winter. Oh well. I'll update with some pics when I finally finish the irrigation system and get the top soil spread out and graded. My buddy with the excavator and dump trailer recently got a CAT 247B loader so I'll use that to grade everything out. I'll rent a harley rake for it after that and get everything level. With the way things have gone so far it may be cool enough to seed rye grass by the time I get all of that done.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

That is a lot of gravel! And a lot of work you've done. Very nice piece of property :thumbup:


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Thanks. Yes, it was a lot. Here's what it looks like right now. Still waiting to get top soil delivered and spread out. Had a couple of other small projects come up. Once it dries out I'll get some top soil brought in. Before I spread the top soil out I'll run over the area where the temporary driveway was with my buddy's Rock Hound and get as much as I can of the rest of the gravel up.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Thought I'd give a little update. Finally got 3 loads of top soil delivered a couple of weeks ago, but for some strange reason I decided to add something else to my to do list. Decided to do a little rock wall around the culvert instead of just having grass that I'd have to weed-eat. Should finish this up this weekend and be able to start spreading top soil and grading everything out. It's too hot to do rye grass any time soon so I'm not in a big hurry.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Today my buddy came over with his loader and rock hound. It got some of the larger rocks and chunks of concrete up but didn't do a whole lot for the smaller gravel. Will probably have to rent a Harley rake for that. Although a lot of it will be covered up by good top soil...

Maybe at least by next weekend I can get the dirt spread out and have an idea of how much more I will need.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

So I spread out about 30 tons of top soil this past weekend. Will have to take some pics but I still need another 30-40 tons probably. The good thing is there's a dirt pit near me so it's the same type of soil that I already have. We've had a lot of rain the past couple of days so I may not be able to get it this week.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

I guess it's time for an update before I lose track of what I've been doing. I spread out about 25 more tons of top soil. Still have about 15 tons left to spread out. Not sure if I'll get to that this weekend or not. Will have to get another 2 or 3 loads after that probably.

I decided to trench the transition to the flower beds also. It wasn't that deep to start with and has filled in. Also been working on the drip irrigation in the front flower beds. Once I'm done with that I'll start spreading out the 105 bags of mulch I got from Lowe's this past weekend.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

This weekend I spread out the remaining 15ish tons and had another 30 delivered. Still going to take another 20 probably to get me where I want it. Hopefully I can get it spread out next weekend and the next rent a Harley rake and get everything prepped. Picked up 350 lbs of PRG from SiteOne this past week. Ready to have some grass to mow.


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## Brackin4au (Jun 13, 2018)

Looking forward to see your PRG... I've contemplated seeding this year, but I'm going to take a much needed break this winter I think........... I think.. haha


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Brackin4au said:


> Looking forward to see your PRG... I've contemplated seeding this year, but I'm going to take a much needed break this winter I think........... I think.. haha


I hear you! I'm ready for a break myself, but I think just having grass to mow will be a huge break from what I've been doing. At least that's what I keep telling myself...


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## Brackin4au (Jun 13, 2018)

dpainter68 said:


> Brackin4au said:
> 
> 
> > Looking forward to see your PRG... I've contemplated seeding this year, but I'm going to take a much needed break this winter I think........... I think.. haha
> ...


Oh I'm sure it will be a break compared to all the dirt work you've been doing haha.


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## jasonbraswell (Aug 18, 2019)

I was in this same spot last year at this time. Looking forward to seeing your progress!


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## Lawn Burgundy (Apr 27, 2020)

looking good man! i wish i had that many friends in town with all those toys! you need to share a picture of your Toro 3150


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

STRES said:


> looking good man! i wish i had that many friends in town with all those toys! you need to share a picture of your Toro 3150


Yes, I've been blessed from that standpoint for sure. As soon as I get the cutting units rebuilt I'll take some pics


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Well, where do I start...

I started the kill off of the old Bermuda in my yard early June, then with work stuff and vacation I finally began prepping for sprigs the third week of July. I really didn't want to start it that late but my wife would've probably killed me if I put it off another year. I rented a Harley rake and used my friends skid steer to level everything good. I still had a lot of rocks in the yard, so decided to rent a sweeper (aka power sweeper, lawn sweeper, power brush and I don't know what all else). It's basically a big sweeper with a bucket to catch everything. It did a good job of picking up rocks and everything, along with a lot of dirt. I decided it was worth it vs trying to pick up all the rocks by hand (you can see some of the piles of rocks I had raked up).





I decided to go with TifGrand Bermuda but the two closest suppliers didn't have sprigs this year (one no longer carries TifGrand at all). I ended up renting a 3/4 ton truck and borrowing my friends trailer and driving about 6.5 hrs to Pike Creek Turf in Adel, GA to pick up 800 bushels of sprigs. They came in 5 1/3 4'x4'x4' boxes. Pike Creek said each full box weighed about 1800 lbs.



We spread the sprigs out on July 31st. It took me about 12 hours (including breaks) to broadcast the sprigs (with the help of two others for about 4 hours and 3 people for about 5 hours of the time).



I then started watering the sprigs about 5 min every hour. With 12 zones that meant the irrigation was running continuously. My soil is very sandy and holds moisture good so I soon realized that was too much water. I backed it down to about 2-3 min per hour and that seems to me much better. I can walk in the yard now and not slip in mud and was actually able to roll the sprigs and press them down into the soil without making ruts.



To be continued...


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## WarDamnLawn (Jun 30, 2020)

This is looking awesome! That's a whole lot of dirt work, irrigation, and lawn in general! An impressive DIY undertaking.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

The day after I put the sprigs down I spread out some starter fertilizer. Seems like it was 18-24-12. I've been watering for 2-3 minutes per zone every hour. I'm getting ready to up the time and decrease the frequency. I'm thinking about going with about 4-6 minutes per zone every two hours and see how that works out. I also put out 16lbs of N at the 10 day mark. I plan on doing about 16lb N every week.

These pics are from August 3rd. The sprigs were greening up slowly. Some areas were doing better than others. 




Leading up to everything I planned to topdress the same day I did the sprigs, but it just didn't work out. I had 50 tons of sand delivered on Aug 6th and borrowed a top dressing machine from another friend from church... Have I mentioned it's good to have friends with equipment? Haha





I spread about 40 tons of the sand which took me about 8 hours by myself. Did it over 2 days (8-9 Aug). I spent more time on the skid steer loading the sand than I did spreading it. Here's what it looked like a few days later. Had 3/4" of rain one night so it washed some of the sand into the lower areas.



I have a few areas with some algae in it. I've talked to a couple of people who've done this before and they said I probably shouldn't worry about it, at least not yet. I'll be keeping an eye on it. This pic is from Aug 11th.



I'll post more pics as time goes on. I'll take one tomorrow since it will be the two week mark.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

I've had some technical difficulties with posting the past few days so I'm just now getting these pics up. They were taken 15 August. The lighter, lime green areas are algae. That's starting to clear up some now as I'm not watering as frequently. I'm feeding it about 16 lbs of N a week but went a little heavier today. I probably put out about 30-35 lbs of N this morning. I need to get a soil test done soon, just have to find time to go over to the co-op or SiteOne and do that.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

@dpainter68 Where did you get your sand from?


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

coreystooks said:


> @dpainter68 Where did you get your sand from?


I'm not sure where it came from really. I called a guy I know that has a dump truck and he told me he got some pretty good sand for himself a while back and said it was good and clean. It ended up having some small rocks in it so I probably wouldn't go that route again. I would most likely go with Alliance next time.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

I forgot to take a pic at the 3 week mark so I took these on 25 August. It's definitely filling in some but the spots where the sand was washed to are going much slower. I thought about raking some of it back or pulling my drag mat over it but I'm a little hesitant to do that - definitely don't want to pull up any sprigs that are rooting.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

You're cooking with gas now. It's really starting to move. Awesome!


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

JRS 9572 said:


> You're cooking with gas now. It's really starting to move. Awesome!


Yeah, it's getting there. Slowly but surely. I just want it to go faster haha


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

After 4 weeks and 2 days.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

5 weeks post sprigging. I've mowed the front twice so far. I sprayed some weeds today with Celsius and will be putting down some Oxadiazon 50 WSB in the next few days.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

6 week update


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

These pics are after about 7 weeks. They were taken on 19 September. As you can tell in the past 2 weeks pics, I messed up and stressed the grass more than I would have liked. Lesson learned. It's recovering pretty good now though.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

8 week update. Recovered well from my screw up but it probably slowed the filing-in some. Temps are supposed to get into the 40's for lows this coming week so that may be all it does this year. Unusually cool for this time of the year - go figure -#2020.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Week 9. It's not looking too great right now. Not sure if it's bc the temps hit the mid 40's for a couple of nights last week or not. Hopefully it'll start looking better before it goes back to being cold


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## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

How does your 3150 do on the established grass? Any issues to speak of? 8-bladed reels?

I have a 3150Q with 11-bladed reels and groomers that had a tough time cutting my celebration Bermuda @ .400-.500 through out the year.....


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

MrMeaner said:


> How does your 3150 do on the established grass? Any issues to speak of? 8-bladed reels?
> 
> I have a 3150Q with 11-bladed reels and groomers that had a tough time cutting my celebration Bermuda @ .400-.500 through out the year.....


I don't know yet. The yard is just getting established and I'm in the process of rebuilding my cutting units. Haven't even mowed with it yet.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Well, it's been a while since I posted so I thought it was about time for an update. I wasn't real sure what to expect this year after sprigging so late in the season but I have to say I'm happy with everything so far. I had an early green up this year compared to my past experience but I guess that was a good thing.

This is a pic from March 29th. Starting to green up good.



It was time to scalp, so I mowed initially at 0.5" on April 9th.





Then I went down to 0.25" and finally started hitting dirt in a few places (mainly around the areas I had slight erosion where the sprigs didn't take as quickly). I put out fert at that time.



After that I went up to 0.290" and mowed a couple of times. I failed to get a pic after those. It was still scalping just slightly in a few areas unless I went very slow. If/when I'm able to topdress/level it should be much better but I'm trying to wait until everything fills in good before doing that.

About a week after mowing at 0.290" I had seed heads everywhere. Sigh. I don't want to spray pgr yet due to the areas that still need to fill in. I decided I would raise the HOC to 0.350 and see how that did with the seed heads as well as trying to maintain at that HOC for a little while. The mower cut the seed heads fine for the most part. Here's some pics after mowing at 0.350". You can see the areas that need to still grow in. I'm going to do some plugging in those areas to try and speed up the process.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Meanwhile, I still have some work to do in the front up next to the house. 99.9% of the sprigs died in the small area, and maybe 60% lived in the larger area. I thought about plugging but I already have some erosion where they didn't take and that would be a pain to have to deal with due to the slope. It's only about 1600 sqft, so my plan is to bring in a sod cutter and remove the majority of the good stuff and move it to the areas that need a little help on the sides and in the back yard. Then I'll level the front to correct the erosion and put down sod. That will most likely occur near the end of the month or first of June. Here's some pics of the area I'm referring to.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

So I've done a horrible job of keeping a lawn journal this year. With work being more busy than normal, other projects around the house and all the rain we got in June and July it was all I could just to stay on top of mowing the yard.

The 2nd week of June I drove down to South GA and got 4 pallets of TifGrand sod for the front yard between the house and driveway. That area never filled in right and was very bumpy from erosion. I ended up just renting a Harley Rake and going over the area to smooth it out and remove most of the material to prep for the sod. I ended up with a lot of sprigs on steroids from that and I put those in a few areas that was still trying to fill in. The sod is doing good, although it's still recovering from the semi-scalp and PGR treatment a few weeks ago. I need to fertilize again which will help also.

I've had to fight some army worms and chinch bugs this year and I had what I believe was dollar spot in some areas also. I sprayed some fungicide before going on vacation and put out some fertilizer and it's doing better for the most part now, but I probably need to treat it again.

I had been trying to maintain the rest of the yard at 0.475" but went on vacation the last week of July and knew I'd have to raise the HOC when I got back. I mowed and applied PGR just before going out of town and raised the HOC to 0.575". I went about 10 days between cuts and it worked out pretty well. We haven't had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks so I've been able to go about 7 days between mowing with PGR.





Hopefully I'll be able to maintain at 0.575" for a while (max HOC is 0.750").


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## JoeyDonatelli (Apr 4, 2018)

I am beyond impressed man!! What an amazing job and journey you have had!


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

JoeyDonatelli said:


> I am beyond impressed man!! What an amazing job and journey you have had!


Thanks! I still feel I have a ways to go, but I'm happy with the way it's looking so far. I need to aerate and topdress - that'll probably be a job for next spring.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

@dpainter68 that's phenomenal. You guys didn't take the easy route with it either. Thanks for the update.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

MrMeaner said:


> How does your 3150 do on the established grass? Any issues to speak of? 8-bladed reels?
> 
> I have a 3150Q with 11-bladed reels and groomers that had a tough time cutting my celebration Bermuda @ .400-.500 through out the year.....


Now that I've been cutting with it for a while I can answer that question. I have 11 blade reels. My only issue is the cutting units bobbing up and down and creating an uneven cut. It doesn't matter what HOC I'm at. Hopefully after 
I'm able to topdress that will get a little better.


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## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

dpainter68 said:


> MrMeaner said:
> 
> 
> > How does your 3150 do on the established grass? Any issues to speak of? 8-bladed reels?
> ...


Yes, mine did as well even after leveling my yard twice....I think the each reels only weight about 75lbs each so. Hopefully once leveled it will cut as you like. Yard looks fantastic BTW!!


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

MrMeaner said:


> dpainter68 said:
> 
> 
> > MrMeaner said:
> ...


Thanks! I will note that the last couple of times I've cut it's not as noticeable. For a while there I was cutting off too much due to the all rain we were having and sometimes being forced to go two or three days beyond when I had planned to mow. Now that the rain has stopped and I can mow every 4 to 5 days the after cut appearance looks better.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Well, looks like it's time to start updating this journal for this year. Maybe I'll stay on top of it better than I did last year.

Last year my last mow was at .675" and I let it grow some after that so it probably got up to around 1". Note to self- don't do that this year.

I initially tried burning my grass instead of scalping but that just didn't work. I guess grass mowed reel low just doesn't burn well. It only burned the very top layer off due to the grass being so thick air couldn't get down into the canopy. Maybe I could try running a dethatcher over it next year to open it up some first?? Anything would be better than having to scalp with the mower...



I scalped down to .250" the last week of March in 3 separate mows. First at .675, second at .450, and finally .250". That ended up taking most of several days and resulted in the grass clippings below. Luckily I was able to borrow my buddies dump trailer and dump them on his land. The first load was so full I couldn't add any more to it.





We had a couple of hard rains which resulted in plenty of tiger stripes that I raked up afterwards. I'm trying out going the liquid route for fert this year so I picked up some Lesco GreenFlo 30-0-0 and 12-0-0 Chelated Iron Plus which I sprayed today.

I backlapped my cutting units after I scalped but still have to adjust them and set the HOC. I think I'll start out around .300" this year. As soon as I get good green up I'll hit it with PGR. I hope to maintain under .500" this year.

I just remembered, I really need to aerate this year...


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

Last week I took some samples and sent off a soil sample to Waypoint. I thought while I was at it I'll do the mason jar soil texture thing also. It turned out pretty much as expected - sandy loam.



The grass is starting to green up pretty good. Need to mow again today. As soon as it greens up good my plan is aerate, collect some of the cores and move them to a few areas that need a little leveling, and topdress/fill the remaining holes with sand.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

Really enjoyed reading about your process. Beautiful property and lawn.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

dubyadubya87 said:


> Really enjoyed reading about your process. Beautiful property and lawn.


Thanks, I appreciate it!


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

I guess it's about time I do an update... For whatever reason I haven't been able to upload pics from my phone and I guess I've been too lazy to email them to myself and upload from my computer.

I've been trying to keep it lower this year. These pics are from about a week ago at .300". I dropped my cutting units off for a grind and raised it to .325.

I never got around to aerating/top dressing...


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## clbphllps (Aug 20, 2019)

Hey man, great journal! I love seeing your work and you've done an awesome job at it. I just stolonized my yard and was stuck between tifgrand and tahoma but ultimately went with tahoma. No regrets btw but I do plan to rework my side yard as tifgrand next year.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

clbphllps said:


> Hey man, great journal! I love seeing your work and you've done an awesome job at it. I just stolonized my yard and was stuck between tifgrand and tahoma but ultimately went with tahoma. No regrets btw but I do plan to rework my side yard as tifgrand next year.


Thanks! I considered Tahoma 31 but couldn't find sprigs available anywhere remotely near to me (I drove 6 hours to get the TifGrand). I didn't come up with a way I knew would work to make sprigs out of sod without paying someone with a machine to do it (at least a way to get 800 bushels without a lot of effort).


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

clbphllps said:


> Hey man, great journal! I love seeing your work and you've done an awesome job at it. I just stolonized my yard and was stuck between tifgrand and tahoma but ultimately went with tahoma. No regrets btw but I do plan to rework my side yard as tifgrand next year.


Thanks! I considered Tahoma 31 but couldn't find sprigs available anywhere remotely near to me (I drove 6 hours to get the TifGrand). I didn't come up with a way I knew would work to make sprigs out of sod without paying someone with a machine to do it (at least not a way to get 800 bushels without a lot of effort).


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)




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## clbphllps (Aug 20, 2019)

Heck ya, that looks great! Such a fine blade. I almost tried using a tractor tiller to breakup those tahoma pallets but went with a more known method. I'd have guessed a tractor tiller would take about 5 minutes a pallet. A Harley rake would also likely work well.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

I've done a really bad job of keeping up a lawn journal this year. I had every intention of staying up to date on it but I've barely been able to mow when I need to, much less keep up on here. Having said that, I'm cutting at .350" right now. Finally got some rain the last couple of weeks and the grass loved it. It's time for PGR again in the front section and getting pretty close for time for the larger part of the yard as well. I should probably go check my gdd's actually....


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Looks great!


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

coreystooks said:


> Looks great!


Thanks!


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## Chadwicktr (May 26, 2020)

Good grief that's a ton of clippings. I have 3/4 of an acre and worry about the effort after scalping in the future. Did you rake them up or use something to pick them up?



dpainter68 said:


> I scalped down to .250" the last week of March in 3 separate mows.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

@Chadwicktr yeah it was ridiculous. I've kept it under 1/2" this year (so far, about to have to raise it above that though) so it won't be as bad next year, but then I decided to go rotary next year. Oh well.


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## wilsonline (Dec 18, 2021)

Impressive! And that amount of work must have been scary. 
Would you have more close-up pics of the grass? We don't see TifGrand all the time haha. Interesting stuff. 
Does it grow in shaded areas?


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

@wilsonline the only real close up I currently have is posted above.

As far as shade, this area probably gets 6-7 hrs of sun a day at the most. The first pic may even get less sun than that. Some of these are a little up close - had to take some pics of what the neighbors horses left behind :x


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## wilsonline (Dec 18, 2021)

So it does pretty well, right? Looks dense to me, especially considering your low hoc. 
And yes, that must hurt. I had a truck that went over my lawn, all the way to the middle, and left 4 to 5 inches ruts. It's still not fully recovered bc I have zoysia and it's not raining here. I was not happy lol.


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## dpainter68 (Apr 26, 2017)

wilsonline said:


> So it does pretty well, right? Looks dense to me, especially considering your low hoc.
> And yes, that must hurt. I had a truck that went over my lawn, all the way to the middle, and left 4 to 5 inches ruts. It's still not fully recovered bc I have zoysia and it's not raining here. I was not happy lol.


Yes, it does. At least I'm happy with it. The grass along my fence that faces north does pretty well also and it gets almost no sun at all except first thing in the morning.


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