# Gilley11's Lawn Journal: Charlotte, NC



## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Ok so here we go. After years of neglect, it's time to work on dominating 💪. I'm only focusing on my front yard, my back is a fenced in dog park that gets mulch every other year.

Over time, the maple tree that was in my front yard grew roots that kept surfacing more and more. Eventually a large part underneath of it wouldn't sustain any grass at all. About 3 months ago, I decided that I wanted my yard back and that it was time for Mr. Maple to take a compost nap in the county's yard debris retirement refuge. Tree gone, stump gone, a lot of roots gone. Still have a lot of roots to remove. In the picture below with the red lines, the red lines are just parts of the roots that have surfaced. That picture only shows about half of them.

The front is sloped and there are some drainage issues at the bottom near the sidewalk that have to be addressed next year as well. Not 100% sure on the game plan for that yet but I've got a couple of ideas. Suggestions always welcome.

So, here's the current state:


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I've been working on the weeds. I got rid of a lot of clover and nutsedge. The sedge from what I can tell is completely gone, but there still is some clover and a lot of poa.

3 days ago I sprayed .39g of Celsius mixed into 3 gallons of water with NIS over 2k.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

What I'm thinking for future plans:
-Remove roots
-Remove more stump debris
-Fill in stump area with screened topsoil
-Stay on top of weeds

-Aereate in the spring and level with SuperSod's leveling mix. It's expensive for what you get, but it's convenient and super clean
-Order 2 pallets of Zeon Zoysia sod and turn that into plugs to plug the holy mess out of the yard


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## Dangerlawn (Sep 13, 2018)

How much of the leveling mix do you plan to get? I followed the recommendations here on 1 yard per 1,000 and found that I needed a lot more than that. Leveling is a ton of fun though, so you'll probably end up doing it multiple times over the coming years.

I'm not sure if your maple will do this, but after I removed a giant elm tree in my yard I started getting a lot suckers in the growing season from where the tree used to be. I bought a $30 bottle of Crossbow off amazon and applied it straight undiluted to the suckers, and sure enough they died off and the grass filled in. Just throwing that out there in case you have the same issue. Crossbow is awesome for killing baby trees.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Was only going to get one yard to start with and also pick up one of the large bags of sand and several bags of screened topsoil from Blowe's. That way I can compare the two and decide if the price is really worth the convenience.

What are suckers?


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## Dangerlawn (Sep 13, 2018)

Gilley11 said:


> Was only going to get one yard to start with and also pick up one of the large bags of sand and several bags of screened topsoil from Blowe's. That way I can compare the two and decide if the price is really worth the convenience.
> 
> What are suckers?


Suckers are the tree's way of coming back after you cut them down. It's when the surviving roots send up new shoots.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Picked up some Negate 37WG from domyown.com as a post M for all of the poa that I have. The good thing about warm season grasses is that once it's dormant.....everything green is a weed! Maybe it would all die off this winter on it's own, I don't know, but I hate looking at it out there now. I'm on a mission.

The instructions say to mix the entire container into a gallon of water and divide up from there. I'm not doing that, I'm going to be a rebel and only mix what I need by weight. If you mix it all at once, the solution is only good for up to 4 weeks. The $13 scale from Amazon that showed up 2 days ago will get it's maiden voyage with the Negate.

To see things better, I threw down a little bit of urea tonight to hopefully push the weeds to grow a bit before applying in a week or so.

https://www.domyown.com/negate-37wg-p-16655.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E6RE3A0?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

Irrigation? If not, you'll need a timer (unless retired, work from home) and hoses / sprinkler for your new grass.

Whatever Blowes sells will have foreign material. Might consider having a landscape co dump a couple yards ....get the yard established....then come topdress with the clean supersod mix.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Yesterday, using the ProPlugger I pulled some cores in prep for a soil test. Not much topsoil to be seen but the Zoysia roots are still growing several inches down.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Given the above pictures of my soil, what do you guys think I could do to help things?


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Transplanted 20 dormant plugs from strong areas to bare areas.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I picked up a My4Sons battery backpack sprayer. They're having a little sale now and shipping is included with any sprayer purchase. For the price, you get plenty of things that would normally be extra with other sprayers. Another great thing is that you can get spare parts for everything and they are priced well.

No personal experience with it yet but the reviews are good. I'll update more on it as it is used throughout the year.

https://my4sons.com/collections/m4-backpack-bundles


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I had a few extra hours yesterday and the weather was nice so I went out and started the removal of the old roots from the maple that I took down. Man, there are a lot more surface roots than I thought. Notice the relation of the root sizes to the spray can in the first picture. Well I had to quit for the day because we were meeting some friends for dinner and today I didn't have time to get back out there. There's still a lot left but I'll get it when I can.

I used my truck to rip up some of the roots. I keep trying to kill the thing so I can go get something new but it won't die 🙄.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Found this little pearl waiting on my doorstep for me when I got home 😁


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Cut down/cut up 2 giant trees that fell because of the storm.

Finally had a dry day so I applied Prodiamine, Speedzone and Negate. It's supposed to rain tomorrow evening so that will water in the Prodiamine. I was also going to put down Simazine but forgot to mix it in, so I'll do that in a week or so.

Still working on these dang roots.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Finally finished removing as many roots as feasible from the maple tree. I spent a good 5 hours today on it. My yard is a compete mess, nothing short of embarrassing to someone who didn't know that it was in the process of a renovation. To me, it looks like progress &#128526;.

Put down some GrubEx and Humic DG. While digging up roots I noticed A LOT of adult grubs right below the surface. Since half of the front is tore up, I thought that it couldn't hurt to drop some humic in the broken soil.

Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to pick up some Dylox to make sure that these grubs are no longer an issue.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Also, this weekend I picked up a Plugr aerator, one of the cam-driven units. Maybe weekend I can dethatch everything and then run over the front with the aerator a few times, rake up the plugs and fill in with sand. I'm trying to get everything ready so when the Zoysia plugs are ready for harvesting, I'll be ready to go on my end. I'm thinking about 1500 plugs &#128517;.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Gilley11 said:


> Also, this weekend I picked up a Plugr aerator, one of the cam-driven units. Maybe weekend I can dethatch everything and then run over the front with the aerator a few times, rake up the plugs and fill in with sand. I'm trying to get everything ready so when the Zoysia plugs are ready for harvesting, I'll be ready to go on my end. I'm thinking about 1500 plugs 😅.


What's the aerator look like?


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Smaller unit, perfect for my size yard. Same as this one:

https://youtu.be/GtSIUzdg5_Q


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Nice! I don't see too many of those around this area.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

SGrabs33 said:


> Nice! I don't see too many of those around this area.


Not at all..... But Interestingly enough, I got it right down the street from you in Greensboro. I'm working on putting longer tines on it right now, the ones that came on it only pull a 1.5" plug. I think that's why the guy wanted to get rid of it. I ordered some that I think will fit it, but if not I'll just make some. One of the good things about these type of aerators is that they only have a few tines, this one only has four.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Mixed up some topsoil and sand (2/1) to fill in some of the voids left from removing roots. Didn't get nearly enough, but it's a good start. I used my DIY leveling rake for real for the first time, and man I wish I had one of these years ago. I started with a landscape rake to smooth it out and then switched to the leveling rake. Night and day. If you don't have a leveling rake and you do random projects spreading/smoothing out topdressings, do yourself a favor and make one or get one.
Then ran over everything with the lawn roller to smooth it out and press it in a bit. The roller is also a huge help.

Applied some Dylox on top of the GrubEx to make sure that these little turf killing bastards are taken care of.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up some more screened topsoil and sand to fill in some more areas. This weekend I'm going to be installing french drains in the front and side yards. Fun times!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Started the french drain project today. I've got 100' in the front that runs to the stream in the back and ties in with the downspout on the corner of the house. Then on the other side of the house, I've got 100' that ties in with the downspout on the front of the garage and also runs to the stream in the back.

I got finished asap with the mini-ex to get it returned. Took that back and then picked up the supplies from Lowe's. FYI, corrugated pipe is cheaper at Lowe's than it is at HD. Double FYI, catch basins are expensive.











Tomorrow the project continues!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

That little mini-ex is a blast, it's like a toy. Wish I had one!


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Looks like a fun project. I really need a French drain running through my swale. Maybe this will give me some motivation!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

If your doing it on your own, it's work. If you have help, even 1 more competent person who can work on their own, it'll go by in good order. I'm on my own with this one.



And yeah, that neighbor's side light drives me crazy, it's been like that for 20+ years. Single mom, maybe 10 cats. Lives on her own now. Nice woman just doesn't do much with the house.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Installed a pressure gauge on my sprayer last night, will give it its maiden voyage this weekend.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Nice! I still want to see pics of that aerator you got. Please


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I'll get some this weekend, but it's really the same one that I linked to above minus the air tires. I picked up a new engine for it, the Predator 212cc from HF. You can't beat a Honda clone for $99. The current engine is ok but for $99 for considerably more power, I couldn't resist.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

This weekend:
-Finished the french drain.
-Took down the old fence in the backyard.
-Put up a new fence, spread mulch in the fenced in area. Finished by area lights.

The new fenced in area is much smaller than before. It's only for the dogs to do their business, none of them like staying out there more than a few minutes.

Because this new area is much smaller, I'm going to get my backyard back! Who knows, might even put a garden back there. No matter what, there will eventually be grass in the backyard for the first time in over 10 years!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Sprayed Simazine in my yard because when I sprayed my pre-m the first time I only mixed Prodiamine and Simazine for my parent's :lol:.

Thanks again for helping out, @TN Hawkeye! (He was kind enough to send some Simazine my way....and refused to let me pay him.)

We've had some rain today so I checked out how the drains were doing. Flipping awesome :thumbup: .


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Had 6 yards of soil delivered: 3yards of river sand mixed with 3 yards of "screened" topsoil. I was really surprised that they would mix this before delivery....super helpful! This mix was an awesome texture and perfect for filling in my backyard. Yeah, I decided to work on that, too :thumbup: .

Got all 6 yards spread out. I made a drag out of a heavy pallet and some rope and pulled it with the yard tractor. I rolled it in 3 times as it was spread. Tossed out some annual rye seed that I picked up a few weeks ago solely just because it was a 75% off open bag. Hey, if I can get anything out of it to grow and help hold the new soil in place then great. If not, I'm not out anything. After the seed was spread I rolled that in.

My wife and I also spread 2 more yards of mulch in the new fenced in section.

Good times! Glad to be out enjoying the nice weather &#127774;.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

So I've come to the conclusion that if you are going to be spreading any kind of topsoil or sand or anything, a leveling rake is a must have. Do you NEED it? No. But it sure does a great job at spreading things out evenly and is a real time saver. I wish I had this tool 20 years ago. It'll be one that gets passed down for sure.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Eley handle and attachments came in today. Everything feels like quality for sure, but I was really disappointed to see "made in China" on everything.

The handle is solid and has a substantial amount of gravity to it. I love the o-rings and gaskets. Nothing leaks and you don't have to crank everything down for it not to leak. A simple snug up with hand pressure does the trick.

The fan/jet nozzle is really awesome. The shower nozzle is great for watering things, but don't expect it to spray far away. It really is for watering flowers and vegetables and giving things a good soak without blasting it away.

The quick connect system, so far, is nothing short of amazing. I've gone through a couple of different brands and spent way to much money messing with them. The Eley quick connect system is the best. 100% full flow. The connect/disconnect system is so easy that it's almost too easy. Nothing leaks. The gaskets and o-rings are top quality. I bought extra hose gaskets for my other sprinkler/hose items and I'm glad that I did. They're just better.

So, not an inexpensive setup, but a worthwhile investment that should last a long time and I'd recommend it to anyone.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I've gotten a lot more use out of this gorilla cart than I thought I would. It's an awesome yard cart. With a tractor, it's a huge PITA to backup with, but if you don't have tomuch it's great because of the way that it dumps. If you are pulling this by hand, it's great all around.

Do not get the smaller gorilla cart, it'll just piss you off. Get the larger 7cu ft one


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

After a week, the rye is sprouting up nicely! I know that it won't last through the summer here, but I need something temporary to keep the soil in place to hold off erosion. This autumn I'll plant a more permanent, very shade tolerant mix, most likely a blend with fine fescue.

I mixed up some garden soil and more seed in a bucket and then spread that out in a few areas where some wash out occurred. I walked over it all several times to press it all in and then watered. It's supposed to rain here for a few days so watering will covered for most of the week.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I can't believe it's only been a week and this rye has already sprouted up 1.5 inches in places!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Not my lawn, but used the Earthworks dethatcher on my parent's zoysia and pulled up 80cu ft out of a little over 2k sq ft. It works really good.

Changed out the B&S engine to a Honda GX160 on my aerator and now it runs like a beast! Quieter, too.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Gilley11 said:


> Not my lawn, but used the Earthworks dethatcher on my parent's zoysia and pulled up 80cu ft out of a little over 2k sq ft. It works really good.
> 
> Changed out the B&S engine to a Honda GX160 on my aerator and now it runs like a beast! Quieter, too.


Still jealous over here. Looks great with that GX in it!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Out back and on the side, I threw out some more rye seed in the spots that looked a little bare and then I walked on them to press them in the soil a bit. Threw down some starter fert with the highest ratio of phosphorus-nitrogen ratio that I could find locally. I didn't want much nitrogen, just wanted to help the roots grow strong. Then I watered it all in with the Simple Lawn Solutions Root Hume with some Superthrive mixed in. The Superthrive smells like pure success &#128513;.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Sprayed my property, my next door neighbor's and my parent's properties with Talstar P and bifenthrin. The main objective was mosquito control but I also did a barrier around the houses for general insect control.

I mowed my backyard rye.....twice. This stuff grows fast! Def not a once a week event.

I am absolutely loving this Gardena 380Li reel mower, it's just fun to use and makes mowing not a chore. Plus, with the rear roller it does leave some decent stripes &#128525;.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Fresh stripes on a Saturday morning! Don't know how well they'll make out in this picture, but they look great and have been missed for a long long time.

Backyard rye cut at 32mm.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

My remaining zoysia is probably 75% greened up and I'm getting antsy to get things going, so this weekend I got crack-a-lackin.

-Aerated, raked up cores.
-Aerated, raked up cores (again).

The cam style aerator does a significant amount more plugging than a drum style.

My front yard is a mess from the tree removal, so I mixed masonry sand and topsoil to fill in a lot of the recesses. I used 1/3 yard of sand and 6 bags of good topsoil. Rolled all of that out with the lawn roller and called it a night.

I'm going to pick up a yard of sand this weekend and spread that out not to level.so much but to fill in as many of the core holes as much as I can.

Zoysia plugs are still a few weeks out, when they're ready, I will be, too. Probably going to plug 1k of them.

A little bit at a time and next year it's going to be great, I know it.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I also cut up the side of my deck where the steps were to open it up. The opening before was only about 30" wide, now it's about 11'. I built new steps to go with it and my wife pressed washed everything nice and clean &#128076;&#127996;. It's enjoyable to relax and be outside again!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Just picked up a 50lb bag of 16-3-8 from SiteOne... $20.30. As soon as everything greens up, I'll be throwin-er-down. Awesome price! Also took home a couple of tip-n-pour containers.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Just sourced a push sprayer, praying that the guy will follow through with shipping it! Thank goodness for PayPal protection. &#128591;


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Was a good weekend. Went and picked up a 50/50 mix of river sand and "screened" topsoil. 1 yard each. It was about 5500lbs, all in the back of my Dodge Dakota! I don't remember the exact limit but I think it's rated 2k lbs in the bed. :lol: :lol: It was a slow ride home with the flashers on lol. I only live a couple of miles from the supply yard.

Made a soil sifter to fit the G-Cart and sifted it all. The spoils filled 1 entire wagon foil.

I also made a leveling drag. I wanted to make it 8' but I was using materials that I already had on hand, and that was (2) 5' pieces of angle iron. After using it I'm glad that I didn't make it 8', that would have been too much for my small yard. 6' would be perfect.

The drag works awesome! :nod: I pulled the drag with the JD for probably 45 min just going over and over everything trying to spread it the best that I could. After leveling and spreading and leveling I rolled it all in a few times to press it down to keep from washing out. Hit it all with a soil loosener/humic mix in a hose end sprayer just because it made me feel good.

Can't wait to plug this thing in a few weeks.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Soil delivery :lol: :


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Soil sifter:


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Drag/leveler:


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

After spreading and leveling. It's not perfect, but it's done for this year:


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Last weekend, for the wife, I cut up the deck and put in new steps. She really likes to hang out outside, so it's a great improvement for her :thumbup: .



After cleaning everything up tonight I decided to give the back a quick mow. I'm still really enjoying this electric reel mower. And MAN does this rye grow fast! I'm mowing it 3X a week. I still have a few spots that I'm trying to fill in.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

With some inspiration from @Kicker I turned my M4S sprayer into a FrankenSons sprayer. I can now run a two nozzle boom no problem! With the stock pump, 1 nozzle was no problem but two wasn't happening. The spray output just wasn't there. I'm using (2) XR11004VS nozzles.

The new pump is slightly larger  .


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

After the pump swap, I sprayed 1.5oz/k of Depth 10. With the 2 nozzle boom, it is a really quick job to knock it all out.

Next time I'll spray 3oz/k and plan on doing that once a month.

Also, I sprayed Demand CS and an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) at my house and 2 neighbors each way on both sides of my house. Yeah yeah, I talked to them first  . This is going to be a great year!


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Aww... I love my M4S sprayer and was hoping to add a second nozzle with a boom. Bummer that the pump won't handle it.


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## Kicker (Apr 5, 2018)

looks good. @Redtwin I highly suggest upgrading the pump. I had to do some body modification on my sprayer like @Gilley11 did but it's so worth it.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Yeah....I was looking hard at a push sprayer, but now that I can use a 2 nozzle boom I'm going to try to stick with this for a bit.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Looks great! Here's to having some PGR on the way soon. I'm surprised you didn't go with a TTTF or bluegrass.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Colonel K0rn said:


> Looks great! Here's to having some PGR on the way soon. I'm surprised you didn't go with a TTTF or bluegrass.


Thanks. Years ago I had TTTF back there. The backyard is essentially in the woods with my yard cut out, so over the years, the trees matured and blocked 95% off the light coming in.....grass wouldn't grow, at least I couldn't grow it. So over the last two years I've cut down a ridiculous amount of trees and trimmed back several. I'm kind of a hobby/hack arborist now lol.

Now I'm just stoked that I can get anything to grow back there! The plan is that late this summer I'm going to wipe out the rye and plant TTTF again. Gotta give it another go. I'm looking into a stoloniferous cultivar. I'd go KBG but I think that it would be a tough run with the heat and humidity here in Charlotte. I'm not sure how this rye is going to handle it but it was really just for erosion control and to get everything set up for TTTF later this year.

I still can't believe how fast this rye grows, it's crazy. It's at least .25"/day.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

To get ahead of the rain I gave the back a quick mow with the Gardena to take it back down to 1.25". I got all the way to the end and decided to do a little bit in my neighbor's yard and BAM, got hung up on a gumball and snapped the drive belt. It's probably the original that was on there so no biggie. Need to find a source for these that isn't going to take a month to come in. I've only mowed the back with a reel and don't want to use the rotary unless necessary. Just because 😁


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Replaced the belt in the Gardena and enjoyed the mow out back. Then sprayed PGR to the back rye @ 0.25oz/k. I'm hoping to knock down mowing every other day to once a week.

Threw down .5lb N/k in the front zoysia.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Getting prepped for this weekend's plugging extravaganza, I spread out some more sand to level out a few low spots. I've got some of old plugs already removed....still have a lot more to go.

I couldn't imagine doing this without the ProPlugger.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Drove for a few hours and picked up 1230, Z52 plugs from @A to Zoysia . Got back home around 5pm and planted them ALL. Spread 20lbs/k of Xsoil and watered it all in.

Now time to pray to the zoysia plug Gods!!

Fyi, Paul aka @A to Zoysia is a great guy to deal with. Super helpful for sure. It was a drive for us, but he had the cultivar of zoysia that I was looking for and uses the same ProPlugger plugging tool, so it made it all a perfect match.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Sprayed 1oz/k of etho on the side and front (tttf and rye) using the new and improved double nozzle boom sprayer setup. A future post will explain how to build this, it's a much improved version of a normal boom setup.


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## A to Zoysia (Apr 4, 2020)

Sweet buddy! I appreciate you coming and I know you'll have it growing in no time. The heat has finally began to arrive. It's cool and rainy for next few days but I see growth coming soon.


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## A to Zoysia (Apr 4, 2020)

Tag me in any plug updates please!


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