# MNLawnGuy1980 Lawn Journal



## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Hello Everyone,

I am late to the lawn journal game and figured I would transfer some of the information I have from my excel tracker and photos. 
This is the first year for me spending quality time on my lawn. Last year, I had a guy apply product and I kept getting the itch to go lower and lower with my cut, leading to unhealthy grass and spending a ton on water trying to keep it green.
This year I have decided to do my own products. I was paying someone $45 to apply some kind of product approximately once, maybe twice a month and figured that since I work from home I can look after it more and apply what products I thought would be good. 
Google view:


Started the season after a brutal winter on April 25th with me scalping the lawn (was probably way too early to do that but I wanted to go mow!!). Pre scalp pic



On 04/27 I rented a power rake and roller. I thought that since I was going to be doing my own applications this year, I would want the lawn a little more level. I also applied quite a bit of black dirt in the back by the pond with the plan to level out the uneven area by the pond (it was supposed to be leveled and landscaped by the builder but they left the country). Everyone else around the pond lets their weeds/wild grass go long around the pond but I decided last year to chop it all down with the hopes of leveling it in the future. I don't think the roller did much for the established lawn, but it worked well in the back and I was ready to go with seed (even got a fence to keep the dog out of the there).

I didn't think to take pics at the time but in subsequent posts you will see what I am referring to. Heading into the season I knew that my dog did a number on the back lawn, I am training her to go down by the pond to do her business but when it is -5 out, I don't really blame her. So I knew those spots were something I was going to have to try and correct this year.

Thanks for reading, I am going to be going through my excel tracker and keep adding posts on days that I did fairly significant items, or when the lawn started to show some progress. 
Have a great year everyone!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

May 2nd:
I started to take regular pictures at this time to see how the lawn would come in. 
Brief rundown of what we are working with. I haven't put anything down yet as I was a little hesitant due to scalping the you know what out of it so early. 
Front yard:




Back yard:
You can see the make shift fence where I attempted to level the area by the pond and seeded. As well as the damage done by Penny through the winter. Oh, and the girls got a trampoline the size of a small island which makes it real tough to mow in the back.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

May 8th:
Applied Milo for the first time...had a blast doing it!! Applied three bags across the entire lawn. I also put down some Scott's Patchwork, which if you read the reviews, people either hate it or absolutely love it. I put it down around the driveway and in the backyard. I wasn't a big fan of it and never saw anything come from it, even with a healthy amount of watering. 
May 8:
Front:



Back:


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

05/10:
Put down PGR for the first time in the morning. I learned that my old sprayer wasn't going to cut it so I went in and ordered the Field King Max 190348 Backpack Sprayer off Amazon after applying the PGR. My bio-stimulant pack came that day so I waited until the evening and put down the first application of RGS, Humic12 and MicroGreene.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

05/16:
Haven't done much other than cut. As you can see in the pics below, I am noticing that I have quite a bit of a yellowing problem in the corner of the front lawn. Wasn't sure what to do with it so I just threw another application of milo on the front yard. :lol: 
I also removed the odd plastic edging around the beds in the front and trenched it a little more to have a cleaner look up in the front. I took out all of the old mulch as well and replaced it with this gold mulch that my wife liked!

In the back, I decided to put down sod instead of waiting for the seed to come up. It is extremely bumpy and I will correct that this fall hopefully, but it gives me something to work off of back there as a start. The dog spots are looking better in the back but they were still pretty noticeable.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

05/17:
Got a new manual reel mower but it rained for like four straight days, I decided in the meantime I could make a push roller since the reviews from the mower had mentioned that it doesn't stripe real well. It's not real pretty but it works pretty well.


05/24: 
Used my reel mower down to 1.25 and I thought I would have issues at that height since my rotary did. I don't have a huge yard and I really like using it. It's not heavy, does a great job cutting and I haven't had any issues yet, other than wanting a bigger one. I used it for the first time when I was having a garage sale and nobody had come for awhile so I just went out and cut the grass.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

To help with the issues I was having with the grass coming in, I decided to put down some PRG seed (I'm pretty impatient). It worked really well on the bare spots in the front and the dog spots in the back.

Pics from 06/03 where I tried to cut circles around the tree in the front yard. The brown spot close to the house is basically gone and the areas around the driveway and road are filled in nicely. The bus stop for the kids is right in front of our house so there is like 20 kids marching around down there, playing tag, doing cartwheels, which is fine since they are having fun.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Pics from 06/07 (today):
Cut twice with the reel mower, once in the morning before work and once in the afternoon. First time I have noticed wash boarding from the cut. Did some research and it doesn't look like there is much I can do for it with the mower I have so I went over a second time in the afternoon. The grass is getting pretty thick, and from what I read, that is when the wash boarding comes in. I am not interested in raising the HOC so I just went over it twice from different ways, at different times of the day.

I am really pleased with the lawn so far and we will see how long into the summer I can keep it going. Along the way I did my first lawn related YouTube video with a review of the new mower. I did this mainly because there are not a lot of reviews on it and I like seeing a video prior to purchasing something. In my opinion, for someone looking to jump into a reel mower and not spend a ton of money on it, it was a great choice and has worked well so far.











Street View:


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@MNlawnguy it is looking great. Check for construction rocks in the yellow spot in the front. I had an area that looked like that.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Thank you @g-man. May be a dumb question but are you talking about surface level rocks or underground? 
I ask because I kind of expect that area, and my driveway down by the road to have a tough go of it early in the season since that is where most of my snow gets dumped.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Underground.

Screwdriver test


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Wow, just checked that link out and I will take a look under the surface today. Thanks for the info @g-man!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

@g-man , screwdriver test came back with nothing using a long thin stake from the inflatable Santa. Thanks for the suggestion though.
06/10:
Cut down to the lowest level on the reel mower which appears to be 1 inch. I know I can't have it that length all season but wanted to give it a go since it will be cool the next few days.

Additional pics are the front and back. 















Next thing to figure out what to with is the backyard down by the pond. It's a mess down there but a huge improvement from what it was.


Sprayed a ton of weeds yesterday down there and mowed to a servicable height today. Now I know what I am working with down there at least. Most of the neighbors leave the high grass here but I decided to chop it down and mow over all the junk all last summer. Oh well, I have some time to think about what I want to do during the fall.
Thanks for reading, have a great day!


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

It's truly impressive to see how far your lawn has progressed from start of season to today. That grass is ridiculously dark. Looks great if ya ask me &#128077;&#127995;


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

If you have irrigation, you can keep it at 1in all season long.

Do you think a 9yr old could push the manual reel mower? My son wants to mow the yard, but I can't give him the 300lb greensmower. Maybe he can do a clean up mow in between the days I mow.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Thank you @Togo, I really appreciate it.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

@g-man, I like the idea of the kids using the manual reel mower. It doesn't weigh very much at all and I think my 8 and 11 year old girls could do it. I would probably raise it up a level or two on the height, which is not a lot on mine but higher than what I did yesterday, just so they are getting used to it while still taking off a little. 
I like it, the 8 year old had always wanted to cut with the rotary but that was pretty daunting for her and weighs quite a bit since the self propel function on my mower is kind of shot. Now that school is out, I think I am going to show her how to use it.
I remember as a kid having to use one at that age at the place we had a camper during the summers, along with the one bladed weed cutter that we used like hockey sticks. Different times! I said had to, not got to, as it was a huge chore having to cut the 8 inch long weeded area with a manual reel mower.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

06/13:
Not much going on lately other than mowing, even when it wasn't exactly needed. 
Had somewhat of an epiphany the other night while working in the yard. I was having a nice chat with my neighbor that ended up lasting about 45 minutes, this was at the end of mowing and spraying some weed control throughout the entire yard. We got done with our chat about lawns, cars, kids, typical stuff. I told him that I would talk to him later and he said, yeah, I have got to get some steps in and I need to get going on my walk before it's too late. He left and I checked my phone and I had walked over 5 miles wandering around my yard doing lawn work. I despise going on walks but have no qualms walking 5 miles around the yard doing work.

Like I mentioned in my first post above, this is my first year spending quality time in the yard and I think it is showing. On top of that, *I feel great*. Working in the yard for me is very therapeutic, almost meditative. I work hard at my job and am inside for the entire day as I work from home. Working in the yard is a time for me to get out of the house, improve the look of my yard, and actually get some exercise. I feel great physically and mentally and I look forward each day to getting outside and wondering around the yard. Plus, the girls like playing on it and my wife likes how it looks.

Turtles everywhere:
Saw a couple turtles in the yard this week. A painted and snapper. Apparently they are laying eggs, which if I would have known, I would not have bother the painted turtle. 



The girls took some time away from their lemonade stand and doing gymnastics in the front yard to help push the reel mower around. They wanted to try it so they gave it a go. They are focused more on pushing it (which they were able to do easy enough) than mowing in straight lines but they had fun doing it. 


Current lawn pics:


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

06/21:
Hope you're doing well, thanks for reading! Sorry, I didn't mean these journal entries to take on a dear diary tone!!

I haven't done much in the last week other than mow, but it is really thickening up a lot. Went over it this morning with the reel mower, then went the other direction with the rotary mower at a higher height to bag up the clippings. I went ahead and edged this morning as well. I have learned that I am real bad at mowing straight lines. 
Apparently I need to adjust my sprinkler head in the back left of the property as it doesn't appear to be getting enough coverage back there. Should be an easy fix.
I also noticed that I have cut down significantly on watering so far this year, I think I read that the PGR has that affect, feel free to correct me on that if I am incorrect.

Some random pics of the lawn to show how it's going so far. Haven't gotten bored with it yet and am loving all of the time I am spending outside. Have a great day!














The back has filled in nicely. I still have some spots back there but it is drastically better.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Good Morning,

Got a mow in yesterday before to the rain started. I have come to the realization that it is very tough not to go out every day and spray or apply something. I am trying to be patient and just leave it alone and mow it when needed. 
The grass is real thick and I am still getting the wash board look so I am going over the lawn with the mower in two directions.

I was thinking yesterday about the holiday week coming up and am thinking about doing a stencil on the grass and painting a flag on the front and back lawn.

Overall, I think that it looks good and I am pretty darn proud of how it has come together this year. Point of reference is that all of my neighbors still have their yards done by the guy that did mine last year. They look nice, but mine has a different look to it with the deep color to it.







You can see the area here in the bottom right of this pic where I over seeded with PRG after the tough winter. 




We added a new dog to our family for the rest of the summer. I am thinking that he likes his new back yard.


Penny pointing/chasing birds in the back yard. Her favorite thing to do.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

07/03:
Haven't had a chance to back lap my new to me McLane/Craftsman 20", so the girls and I decided to paint the lawn before I start using the new mower. The plan was to do a flag in the front and back, but after looking at flag dimensions, decided to just go with random stars in the front, and a uniform, 50 star pattern in the back. Girls had fun doing it.
Have a great day!


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## iowa jim (Jan 22, 2018)

I give your girls a 5 STAR rating. nice job


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Thank you @iowa jim


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Spent the morning back lapping my extremely dull new to me greens mower...pretty damn happy with how it turned out. HOC is at 7/8th and I might try and go one notch lower tomorrow to see what happens, test it. If it's too low, I can just apply PGR tomorrow and include some blue dye to buy me a couple days while it recovers.

Love the lines, first time having them for the year, without going over at a high cut after my manual reel with my rotary mower! Really happy with my $75 purchase!!
I am done fighting the dog spots in the back and those are staying until fall, Penny can have the back and I will keep the front. 




Lillies bloomed this morning


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## mribbens (Jul 13, 2018)

MNLawnGuy1980 said:


> 06/21:
> Hope you're doing well, thanks for reading! Sorry, I didn't mean these journal entries to take on a dear diary tone!!
> 
> I haven't done much in the last week other than mow, but it is really thickening up a lot. Went over it this morning with the reel mower, then went the other direction with the rotary mower at a higher height to bag up the clippings. I went ahead and edged this morning as well. I have learned that I am real bad at mowing straight lines.
> ...


Your lawn and landscape is great!! Your June color is crazy dark! I have enjoyed reading your posts, especially about your girls using the reel mower. I have a Fiskars and my girls, 9 and almost 6, want to try, so next week I will let them help me out with that. Great job!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Good stuff @mribbens, thanks for reading! Hope they like it!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

07/12:
Been hot as you know what lately with not a lot of rain, and it doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. Love it though, sure beats the winters here. 
Picked up a b-hyve irrigation box, hoping that will assist with planning my watering so I am not having to water as much.

Ended up painting the new greens mower, I was going to go with all blue but the girls wanted some pink on there so we went with pink and blue...looks like something straight out of a clown parade but it works great and I love it. Think I got more paint on the garage floor than on the mower. Well spent $75 to get the mower. Also ordered a front roller for it so am excited to get that.



Not much going on with the lawn...a couple spots were looking a little stressed and I have a couple little breakouts of clover but I have a plan for it. Oh, and I am reserved to the fact that our Fourth of July stars will be there forever, that's fine though, the neighborhood kids like them.





Good blooming week for the lilies. Love them!







Have a great weekend!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

07/21:
It was ~100° heat index on Friday. Put down a little Easy Peasy Urea Fertilizer- 46-0-0 Plant Food in the afternoon, since it was supposed to cool down substantially over the next few days. I had never used Urea before and was scared I would burn the lawn since I typically mess up the amount, or stay too long in one spot with the spreader. I was going to wait until Monday to cut but decided to cut Sunday since it was looking pretty long. Brought the HOC down to ~5/8 of an inch and double cut the front yard. 
The Urea really brightened up the yard. I got done with the cut and just stood there staring at it for like 20 minutes, couldn't believe how good it looked and I am thinking this is probably the best my lawn has ever looked. My roller for my greens mower comes today so I am going to cut again this afternoon once I get it installed, pretty excited to get it.

Woke up to 55° on the thermometer this morning. The joys of living in Minnesota, high 90's on Friday and 55 this morning!


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## mribbens (Jul 13, 2018)

Looks great, you have some possible competition across the street, although your color and thickness is second to none


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Getting things in line to do a levelling and overseed. Made this for levelling the sand that I am putting down. Not sure if I will need the cinder blocks, we will see. Just pulling it over the lawn I am able to see gaps so I am pretty excited to do this.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

I am not sure why the video quality sucks so bad as I filmed with my GoPro...oh well.

2019 Fall project where I scalped, aerated, mulched, levelled w/ sand, and overseeded. 
I'm not quite sure how I thought I could get this all done in one day. Ended up taking about a day and a half and it was a lot of work. 
Hopefully it turns out as expected. I am hopeful to have levelled out a majority of lawn to where I would just need to do small corrections after this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBlJfaC997U&feature=youtu.be


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@MNLawnGuy1980 do you have a picture of how the lawn looks now after the sand? To help answer your question about how long for it to work into the canopy.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Hi @g-man, I think I went a little heavy on the sand on Friday...It has rained quite a bit since I put it down and it is still pretty thick in a few spots. I am trying to be patient with it but am a little afraid that I went way too thick with it. I am just unsure since most times you see people levelling but you rarely see how long it takes to disperse into the ground.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

I just went out to take a look and I do have grass popping through so I am just going to try and be patient with it. I knew it would not be gone overnight but I was a little concerned. I lightly raked out a few areas that may have been on too heavy so now just sit and wait.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Can you see leaf blades sticking up thru the sand? The grass needs access to the sun to continue growing. Those areas do look too thick if you already had rain/water on them.

Options, if wet from rain, then use a water hose to push some of the sand and expose some leaf blades. If dry, then a stiff push broom to push it.

Edit: I was typing as you posted.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Thanks @g-man, I hadn't been out there since finishing due to the rain and quite frankly, kind of being done with this leveling project and wishing I had never done it. Oh well, it will come back sooner or later.


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

MNLawnGuy1980 said:


> Thanks @g-man, I hadn't been out there since finishing due to the rain and quite frankly, kind of being done with this leveling project and wishing I had never done it. Oh well, it will come back sooner or later.


I felt the same last year....stay with it as it does help. The thicker piles I'd knock down like @g-man mentioned until grass blades are showing.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Thank you @zeus201, I am just a little frustrated because I probably didn't need to do the levelling...I am sure it will work out eventually but kind of kicking myself for doing it.


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## BobRoss (Jul 3, 2019)

Hey @MNLawnGuy1980 your lawn looks great and I am sure you will think otherwise about doing the leveling project. I am sure it is a brutal process but after it all cleans up and a few weeks you will look back at it and say to yourself that it was totally worth it. I have not leveled, but I did add a lot of compost to my yard during my overseed and by hour 10 I was getting really tired and regretted the work. Now, 2 weeks later, I am totally glad I did it because I swear I have the greenest yard in the town.

Videos are great, a little constructive criticism is I would try not saying ugh and umm so much. I know it's difficult to do, but your videos will be even better if you can slowly stop.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Thanks for the feedback @BobRoss and for the words of encouragement. I appreciate it!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Had this delivered this morning. Looking forward to using it. Looks like it is a '14 with 297 hours on it (not sure how reliable that is, or any indication of anything quite frankly). Cleaned it up this morning and it looks 10x better than when they delivered it. Tuned up and sharpened by the place I bought it from locally.

Quite a different machine than my 20" McClane GM. Felt like a kid at Christmas waiting for it after the guy called last night to tell me it was coming this morning!


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## Fusion2002 (Jul 30, 2018)

Did you get that at MTI? It looks like they have quite a few GM's in stock. How many blades are on that reel? I can't wait to see some pictures after you have mowed!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

@Fusion2002, yes at MTI. 11 blade, just took it for a spin and I love it. Couple pics after a few spins around the yard. Behind the tree in the front is still recovering from my levelling experiment, but we do not need to talk about that! Rick at MTI was great to work with. Mike from there dropped it off this morning. They serviced it and sharpened it.

Can't believe how well it cuts compared to my old one. It is also extremely heavy, I will get the hang of it though.


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## rob13psu (May 20, 2018)

MNLawnGuy1980 said:


> Had this delivered this morning. Looking forward to using it. Looks like it is a '14 with 297 hours on it (not sure how reliable that is, or any indication of anything quite frankly). Cleaned it up this morning and it looks 10x better than when they delivered it. Tuned up and sharpened by the place I bought it from locally.
> 
> Quite a different machine than my 20" McClane GM. Felt like a kid at Christmas waiting for it after the guy called last night to tell me it was coming this morning!


Very nice! Lawn looks great.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

It's been a little over a month since I did my aerating, levelling, and overseed project. Was scared to death I had put down way too much sand but it has filled in nicely. Got a good mow in on the front today, the back has to wait as it is too soggy. Felt great to get out again with the mower.

Not much else going on in MN these days other than temperature swings day to day of 50's one day, to 80's the next day, with a ton of rain lately. Haven't been able to mow much due to all of the rain. I did get back to my regular application of PGR last week.

Real happy with how well it has filled in. HOC is at .25 and I love this mower!!

Have a great day


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

0.25in hoc?


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Yeah, we played some volleyball on it tonight and scuffed it up pretty good. Probably a little too low but I have had it set that low for a few weeks and it looks decent enough.

I thought I had it set pretty close to that.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

With snow on the horizon for this evening, it looks as though the lawn fun for the year has come to an end. I started putting my lawn toys away yesterday and swapped them out with my snow junk. 
I truly had a blast working in the yard this year. Pics are from yesterday after my final cut for the year.

I am going to put together a list of my highlights for the year including my thoughts on the one change I made this year which changed my approach to lawn care. Is it going to be PGR, is it going to be the GM1000, we will see.

Final hoc is .25, I'm interested to see how it does over the winter. I typically have to do quite a bit of correcting in the spring from the city plows and salt being thrown all over. Oh well, can't wait for Spring.

I hadn't thought about putting on it until last Friday when my brother in law asked me what the stimpmeter on the lawn was. The balls rolled pretty well yesterday. I might mess around more with a putting green next year but do not want any bent grass on the lawn.













Backyard is kind of a mess with the tramp and the dog spots but it is what it is. 


Thanks for reading!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Got a mow in yesterday, vacuumed some leaves off the lawn today, and put the rest of the Halloween decorations up. Tried the drone out but am not too impressed with the video, it's always windy here though, oh well. Looks like a wet week here in front of us so nice to get some yard work in the last few days.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Yesterday morning I applied Transfilm at a rate of 8 oz per 1000 . This is what it looked like this morning as the temps dropped pretty low last night. Kind of interesting compared to the other lawns in the area.


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

It's a balmy 12° out so not a lot happening with the yard. I did receive my new shirt and trinkets today though. Wasn't expecting the sticker, pen, pin, and coaster so that was a welcome surprise. Picked it up from the box today and thought darn I really should have purchased a sticker to go with my other ones. @Ware, thank you, looks great, love the lite fabric.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

MNLawnGuy1980 said:


> It's a balmy 12° out so not a lot happening with the yard. I did receive my new shirt and trinkets today though. Wasn't expecting the sticker, pen, pin, and coaster so that was a welcome surprise. Picked it up from the box today and thought darn I really should have purchased a sticker to go with my other ones. Ware, thank you, looks great, love the lite fabric.


Nice! Glad you like it! :thumbup:


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