# Matt's Lawn (St Louis Suburb)



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Alright guys here is my weathered and beaten lawn from this very very cold winter. The polar vortex I'm sure didn't help it at all! I put down Prodiamine yesterday just after blowing all the rest of the leaves up that had been packed down by snow. I've been fighting a gumball tree and it's finally dropped 90% of them. 
Front Yard

























Back Yard
Still need to get the rest of the gumballs up and the leaves. The back yard I'm going to focus more on just keeping weeds out this year. The kids and dogs beat it up and it is kind of a catch all until I get a larger shed. 
If your wandering about all the trash bins, only one is for trash, The other three I keep kindling in that falls from the trees for starting the fireplace and some of my chopped up leaves from the fall for mixing into my compost tumbler. 
This year I need to remove that big green bush in the back of the house and get those excess bins behind the house.

















Got my Prodiamine $21.5 and Dithiopyr $31.5 here locally at Belleville Seed House









Some weeds still leftover from last year. What is this weed? It tried to takeover my yard last year.


----------



## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Weed might be spurge or purslane. Not sure. Welcome to TLF!


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@pennstater2005 Hmm I was thinking it was more like a chickweed. Either way, this year I'm trying to attack it before it takes off. Pulled a bunch of it in the yard. Then poured boiling water on that crap in the cracks of my driveway. Going to hit the rest of it that's in my yard with spectricide/baby soap.

Anyway, its beginning to green back up slowly. I went ahead and got the mower out this weekend, setup my toro striper and mowed the front yard to encourage a bit of growth. In Oct I threw down milo after aeration then did overseed w/ tall fescue. I'm seeing some of that actually pop up so I hope I timed the pre-emergent to prevent crab grass.

Here is what my side yard looked like back in Oct after I aerated. 10/7/18
As you can see, I have a neighbor that likes to scalp his yard and into mine. I need to have a discussion with him this year...









Here is what the side yard is looking like right now. Beginning to green back up. 3/25/19.









Front yard 3/25/19.


----------



## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

That does look like it's improved already! Chickweed has distinctive white flowers. Either way pull it or hit it with the appropriate herbicide.

Good luck!


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@pennstater2005 I'll have to take some pictures of the flowering this evening. I think they are purple and white. Yeah it is starting to snap back, looking at my pictures from this winter it looks like it browned up around November. So probably 6 mo of the year it's brown.  Too long for me!


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@pennstater2005 Here is some of it flowering. One of these areas I'm going to be killing off completely anyway to continue wrapping my landscaping around the front of the house.


----------



## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

That first picture almost looks like speedwell.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@pennstater2005 That sure sounds right! Thanks! Going to be doing some spot treatments today w/ Spectricide Weed Stop/baby soap in my sprayer.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Update.
I'm 6 cuts into the season. The back yard I'm not really giving a whole lot of love too as the kids and dogs trample it anyway. I have only cut a few spots in the back yard, but not even one full cut. I think I'm going to scalp it low and spray it with spectricide + some chickweed killer, then fert it.

4/11/19
Trying out my Toro Lawn Striper. Difficult to see the stripes in some lighting cause my yard hasn't filled in completely. Also with the bermuda I'm not sure how well its going to really stand out even after the grass greens up more.





































4/20/19
Much easier to do single stripes vs the double, going to take some practice. 
Grass is finally greening up though and I've already raised my mower to 4"










My neighbor continuing to cut into my yard...


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

4/22/19
7th cut. We have rain in the forecast for the next 3 days so I figured I'd level it back off now.
Also made a sifter last night, I need to continue our landscaping around the house. The previous owner put down rock but no weed barrier so the rocks settled and the weeds grew on top of the rock. Going to use rock on the portions closest to the house to keep a barrier for bugs and around down spouts, then mulch the rest. I'll also be putting down diatomaceous earth in the rock around the house to keep the crawling bugs away from the house.










You can see they continued the rock garden out away from the house then brought it back in toward the side of the house.









I have to till this all up and sift the rock out. 









Here's the area we did last year that we need to continue into the previous area. My fall overseeding sprouted up grass in the mulch, I need to pull that grass and transplant it into the yard in bare spots. Then it will get new mulch on top.









Sifter I made out of some of that pallet wood on the side of the house and a screen we bought for the back door but was too small and had forgot to take back after we found the right size to prevent the dogs/kids from tearing it up.









I know the pallet wood needs to go...I'm sure my neighbors hate me by now! Its for a back wall on a retail store I'm trying to open. If I can't get it open in the next month I'm going to put it out back in the shed. The scrap pieces I'm going to burn as well as make a raised garden bed out of in the back yard for veggies.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

After yesterdays mow. I'm very happy with the improvement this year so far, greening up and mowing twice a week already at 4". Were getting plenty of water so hopefully the roots are trying to drive deep into the aerated soil.

I hope my neighbor has quit running into my side of the property cause he just scalps his yard and lets the weeds dominate.









Still have some clover, It is wilted today though so hopefully it's dead.




































Back yard is basically in the the state the front was in last year. If we get a break in the rain I'm going to hit it with the spectricide and clover killer.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Did some work on extending our garden bed last night. So begins the difficult task of separating all the dirt and rock, then laying down the barrier mat with rock and mulch on top.





I plan on using rock around the downspouts and along the house but transitioning to mulch out away from the house for a flower bed. Not sure what all were going to eventually plant there yet. 


The front yard has drastically greened up. Unfortunately the sun sets on the back side of the house so my best photo opportunity time to catch my lawn stripes is in the morning. I guess I edged after I took this photo.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Well, I haven't updated much this month.

Side yard is really greening up nice and filling in the bare spots.


I haven't had a lot of time to work digging up the rock garden but here is my progress so far. I'm trying to re-claim the rock sunk into the ground and had primarily bermuda and weeds grow into it. BTW the rock is piled high in that area and will be thinned out especially around the crawl space vent. I put a 2.5ft long dirt grade, away from the house where the rock is currently located to help keep water away from the foundation. I'll continue a slight grade out toward the yard.








And if anyone is curious why this crap is soo hard to kill, look at the root on it!


----------



## testwerke (Apr 4, 2019)

Oh my goodness. The wife and I have been tackling the rock gardens on our property over the past few weekends. Our sifting screen setup looks similar! Keep up the good work! It's exhausting moving rock only to keep discovering more.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@testwerke It is exhausting! We had a metal door screen that we had bought a while ago and was the wrong size just wasting space in the garage. So I used some leftover pallet wood, cut a channel into all 4 sides of the wood and captured the screen in the wood. Its working well! Its much easier to sift dry dirt though as I'm sure you know! So between the rain and setting up a retail store I'm not able to commit every weekend like I wish I could.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Here's a photo that was taken just before we got the house Sept of 17'. The front yard was infested with weeds.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Edit: Before I go through and re-host everything on Postimage, I'm going to re link these and give it a try.

Well this weekend we did some yard work, well yesterday really. 
The kids worked on separating the rocks and dirt next to the house, which means not a ton got done cause they were learning about life outside of PS4... you know, worms, bugs, etc... 
Meanwhile we dug up a stump that was between the two bushes here along with all the crap that was growing out of it. Then topped it with dirt, weed barrier, and planted some perennials and finished with mulch. I may have to extend it out a bit more to make it easier to trim around it though, didn't even think about that until we were done... For now a bungee cord wrapped around those two plants on the ends when I trim will be a must.



Despite putting down Barracade and Dimension in 4 different applications... Unfortunately I think my neighbors riding lawn mower blows this crap over.


Photo from my Saturday Mow.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@mak474 your images are not loading. Hosting from Google pictures is hard. You have to make the images public and share with a public link.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@g-man I re-linked the post from Tue May 28, 2019 7:35 am with Postimage. Let me know if that works and I'll update everything else.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It worked. You can use other image hosting sites. Imgur, tinypic, flickr, 500pix, sync, and I think Dropbox too.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The image with weeds from the neighbors looks like quackgrass grow pattern. Try to get a better id of it.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Thanks @g-man, I thought it was crabgrass. As I said, we have had so much rain so I staggered my pre-emerg in multiple stages to prevent as much as I could.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

@g-man I think you're right about the quackgrass. I had to pat the lawn down around it to get a good photo. Best recommendation for killing it? Paint round up on it? I really only have this small patch.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I don't see clasping auricles. But whatever it is, a careful painting with round up should take care of it.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Well I took a couple year hiatus from here. Been busy with a retail business, but I've managed to keep some progress on my yard. We've had a few weeks of 90 plus temps so its starting to look a little unhappy but its filled in pretty well. I should have taken more pics in the early spring. Here are a few shots from early spring then from today.

4/11/21


4/11/21


6/4/21


6/17/21 For the following. I haven't cut in about a week due to the heat to retain water.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

Due for some updates
House listed for sale

July 11 




August 24. The final mow at this house. Should have taken more pics but I was slammed fixing stuff for inspection and the buyer. The yard really bounced back after the July heat and was even doing well in the august heat.


----------



## mak474 (Mar 15, 2019)

New house, New lawn to beautify.

August 27, Move in day.


Aug 29 1st Milo app and tossed down grass seed.


Sept 10




Sept 12 Backyard had tons of water grass. Kill it with fire!




Sept 14



Sept 18



Sept 27 I tossed down seed and some top soil in this spot, it really germinated well.


Oct 4


Oct 7


Oct 13




Oct 27





Dec 5


I should have taken more pics in November but I have been busy. I'm very happy with how the yard has responded and filled in. I got lucky and found a house with a yard that just needed a bit of love. The last one was such a weed nightmare I was always applying weed killer / tenacity.


----------

