# Shaky's lawn project



## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

So the wife and I built a house last year right before winter. There was no grass around the house but I bought two pallets of Astro Bermuda sod in October and laid it all in the front yard (the wife wanted a presentable front yard :lol: ). I also spread some annual rye which didn't take off well except where the sod was laid (only green in the pictures) the rest of the back yard and the side of the house is basically bare.

With that being said I am hear for advice but mostly encouragement getting my back yard established. I bought a bag of Scotts Bermuda (which I assume is common Bermuda) but I don't know if I should spread it and continue with it or if I plug from the laid Astro Bermuda. I could also probably get another pallet of the Astro but I have a new house a baby on the way and lets just say very little money. Also I have a buddy with a small tractor that is going to help me level everything out as best we can and I have lots of debris to clean up. Lots of work!

Front yard

Back yard

Back yard


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## gijoe4500 (Mar 17, 2017)

Seeding will probably be faster, but pulling plugs from the front and using them once the yard greens up will probably yield better long term results. It all depends on how much work you want to put in, and what time frame you have on how soon you want a filled in yard.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Is your lawn 28K? or your lot? How big is the backyard? Do you have irrigation? What are your goals for the lawn(just healthy green grass or a showcase lawn)?

The more we know the better we can give you sound advice on how to proceed.

Welcome to TLF!!!


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## OutdoorEnvy (Sep 27, 2017)

Lots of others here smarter than me so I will let them give advice and I'll just encourage you on as you noted! It's close to taking off though with our temps. We are in the same county so we're close to hitting the fertilizers to get the green up going strong.

Yeah I was going to ask the same question Quinn had. 28k with a Toro recycler seems like one heck of a commitment or you love mowing more than the rest of us and never want it to end! Haha!

Welcome to the forum!


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## Bunnysarefat (May 4, 2017)

Welcome! Great canvas you have to work with on your new yard for Bermuda. Whatever you choose it could do very well with that sun exposure it will get.

Tough thing about a new yard first year and even dirt like yours is you never know what kind of weeds you're going to be battling and how bad. Only time will tell.

Your back yard looks pretty big compared to your front. If you do some calculations, you can figure out what kind of spacing you'd need for another pallet of hybrid Bermuda for the back yard for plugging. Bermuda can spread 2-3 feet in a full growing season, and if you are able to get maybe 18 inches of separation in a grid pattern of each plug it should fill in quick. The plugger I have is roughly 3"x3".

For about the same price as a pallet you can get some more advanced seed that's come out of OSU, would probably do well. And if you really want to be money conscious then go common. You can always nuke it in a year or two but it will be a project. It's just gong to be a big contrast between your Astro and common. Decisions decisions! Whatever you do you need to come up with a watering plan to get it established. I think having to drag hoses around day after day would be a beat down. Get that plan together first IMO.


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

So my whole lot is 28k The back yard is about 6k sq ft (will get full measurement tomorrow). I don't have in-ground irrigation but I have a few hoses and an automatic timer so that shouldn't be much of an issue. My goal for this year is an established yard that is mostly uniform (not dramatically different). I am not a perfectionist but I do want to show it off. lol. I don't need a fully covered yard right off the bat. As far as the mower I have the Toro 22" Recycler as well as a 20" Scott's reel mower for the front and back. The rest of the lot I will be mowing with my John Deere L110 (she's old but she still cuts pretty).

The good news it is a brand new home so I don't plan to leave any time soon. I have plenty of wiggle room to get what I want time wise. However I don't really want to fight to kill one Bermuda so I can replace it with another. I am a fairly patient guy so if they wont mesh well I will plug it and wait. If a difference cannot be seen the I will seed away.

Is there an advantage to Astro over common? I haven't found anything that compares the two but I can only assume a hybrid would be better. And if I am not mistaken I can only plant Astro by plug or sprig. If I can Astro seed from OSU that would be great but I am not sure how to go about doing that.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Since nobody has said this, I'll say it. "Throw that bag of Scott's seed out, unless you're certain it has 0.0% weed seed in it." You'll want to buy your seed from a reputable seller of weed-free seed, like Hancock Seed  or Seed Super Store. Those are 2 vendors that I know people here have bought from. If you look at the back of the Scott's label, you'll see a percentage of weed seeds in the mix. You want that to be 0.0%

I snapped these pictures last fall while I was in WalMart. Even though it's not my grass type, I had to look at a $10 bag of Annual Ryegrass. Spend your money on quality grass seed.


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## Bunnysarefat (May 4, 2017)

Astro will have thinner leaves, will be thicker turf, and will be softer to walk on.


Astro


Common

What I meant with the sprinklers is to set them up how you would if you were trying to water seed, sod, plugs or whatever, and see what kind of coverage your hoses with various sprinklers heads will give you.

For example if you put an impact sprinkler right in the middle if your yard and had it spray full blast of 38 feet in a complete circle, that would cover about 4500sq feet. That leaves you with 1500sq feet of corners that you are unable to hit. Then you have to figure out how to hit those corners without moving it around so many times and taking up so much time. It just becomes such a beat down.


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

I see what @Colonel K0rn is saying about the weed percentage. I will take the Scott's back. Based on what I have seen the least expensive route would be to get another pallet of the astro and stripe it out or plug it. Maybe supplement with plugs from the front yard as well once it greens up. Again it doesn't need to be perfect by the end of the year. If I can get a good coverage (80% or so) by the end of the year I would be pretty happy.

@Bunnysarefat the sprinklers I have now advertise 3500 sq feet but I only get about 25-2700 out of them. Either way it is still enough to get the whole backyard.

I guess my follow up question is since I am in Oklahoma and almost all neighborhoods are covered in Bermuda am I going to run into an issue with my neighbors grass invading mine or vise versa? In other words, is one more aggressive than the other? Eventually I could do a mulch bed around the yard or maybe a river rock bed as a barrier if needed.

Also @OutdoorEnvy mentioned fertilizer to start greening up what I have. Should I do that now or is a specific temp suggested? And do I go with a starter fert or something that is slow release?


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

I would do the plugging route with the Astro bermuda and just break it down into sections. You could also take donor plugs from the front yard and move them to the backyard to help supplement the pallet of sod you get also. By breaking it down into sections you also won't have to worry about moving the sprinkler around too. After 1-2 weeks the plugs should be established enough on there own to where you can move to another section.

I would recommend getting a ProPlugger as this will make the job a lot easier and make sure you are feeding the plugs with a balanced fertilizer(10-10-10 or 20-20-20) or Starter Fertilizer. This will require a lot of work on your part but will save you a lot in the long run. I would say by the end of the season next year you should have a full lawn if not sooner :thumbup:


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


> I would do the plugging route with the Astro bermuda and just break it down into sections. You could also take donor plugs from the front yard and move them to the backyard to help supplement the pallet of sod you get also. By breaking it down into sections you also won't have to worry about moving the sprinkler around too. After 1-2 weeks the plugs should be established enough on there own to where you can move to another section.
> 
> I would recommend getting a ProPlugger as this will make the job a lot easier and make sure you are feeding the plugs with a balanced fertilizer(10-10-10 or 20-20-20) or Starter Fertilizer. This will require a lot of work on your part but will save you a lot in the long run. I would say by the end of the season next year you should have a full lawn if not sooner :thumbup:


I second this recommendation. It's a much easier route to go if you have the patience, and the ProPlugger is very easy to use, and you can make quick work of your tasks. The plugs it pulls are great, and I've had great success with it in my back yard. I'll use my back yard as an example, since I have just worked on spreading the bermuda that was growing back there. I used the ProPlugger to plug areas that were overrun with goose grass and carpet grass that I killed last summer. That left a lot of bare spots on the yard, with no irrigation other than my hose sprinklers. I plan on doing the same thing this summer, but with less weeds.

 Here's a link to the post where you can see the ProPlugger, and examples of the progress, from weedy mess, to nice looking area. If you check my yard journal for this year, you'll see how it progressed past the last pic.


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

Hey y'all are awesome! I have a plan going forward. After the yard is leveled in the next couple weeks I am going to get another pallet of the astro sod and get to work plugging as well as pulling plugs from the front yard. I will put down some fert for the plugs, keep it mowed and spot spray weeds. Oh and water.

I will keep y'all updated with pictures.

One follow up question about the front yard. Based on what I have read in the Bermuda Bible it seems like I should go ahead and scalp the front yard. Planned on going down to an inch since it isn't super level yet. At what time should I apply fert to it? And since it was sodded should I go with a fast release or slow release or will it make a difference?


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Shaky said:


> Hey y'all are awesome! I have a plan going forward. After the yard is leveled in the next couple weeks I am going to get another pallet of the astro sod and get to work plugging as well as pulling plugs from the front yard. I will put down some fert for the plugs, keep it mowed and spot spray weeds. Oh and water.
> 
> I will keep y'all updated with pictures.
> 
> One follow up question about the front yard. Based on what I have read in the Bermuda Bible it seems like I should go ahead and scalp the front yard. Planned on going down to an inch since it isn't super level yet. At what time should I apply fert to it? And since it was sodded should I go with a fast release or slow release or will it make a difference?


I would hold off on scalping it as it is fairly new sod and since it was laid in OCT it probably hasn't fully established itself yet. It probably wouldn't hurt to give it a buzz cut but I would make sure you aren't taking too much off and stressing the grass out. Once it's fully greened up and growing good then you can think about taking it down some more. I would wait until the lawn is at least 75% greened up before applying any fertilizer since most of it would go to waste as the grass isn't growing enough to use it all. It's up to you on what you want to use, Fast Release will require more frequent applications then using a Slow Release but in the end it shouldn't make too much of a difference. It's something you can experiment with and see what works best for you :thumbup:


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

As an update I will be tilling up and leveling the ground this weekend. I also decided to go with seeding in some Riviera in the back yard so I will be putting that down this weekend as well. After I bought the seed I saw @J_nick's thread about seeding with Riviera and now I am super pumped.

Also the front yard sod I put down last year is about 70% green and looks good however I would like the annual rye I put down to die out. Maybe it will soon with the 80+ degree weather we have been having. I will probably put my first dose of fert down this weekend as well in the front.

Anyway just wanted to put in an update 1) because I am ridiculously excited to the point my wife is annoyed and 2) don't want to seem like one of those guys that joined the forum just for pointers.  I will post some pics after the weekend.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

If you haven't already, please don't till up the ground. Just spray everything with roundup, and wait for it to die, then get if you feel the need to loosen the earth on top to get good seed-to-soil contact, rent a dethatcher, and that will get a majority of the dead stuff off of the soil. When you till, you're going to make it a lot more bumpy than it would be had you not tilled, and you might bring up more weed seed than had you not disturbed the surface. The only reason I could see that you would want to till is if you used a sod cutter, cut off the top layer of grass, and were adding any amendments to the soil. That would be the only reason I would till prior to planting.


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## Rockinar (Jul 21, 2017)

DO NOT TILL!

Theres no reason to. You are creating a massive SH*T TON of work thats not needed at all.

Scrape the top layer off, grade away from the house (in not already) Buy a palllet, cut the sod into 1/4ths or 1/2 and, throw'er down as desired, Put some starter fert on it, and keep moist 24/7 till rooted.

I think sod would be so much easier.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

I think plugs or a premium seed are
going to be your best best.


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

So just saw the last responses about not tilling.  lol to late. This was just in the back yard which had nothing but annual rye down. The front is untouched and the sod from October took nicely. Honestly the back needed done anyway, after the house was built they did a terrible job leveling everything. Really they just took a bobcat and dragged the scoop around. Even mowing the little bit of Rye on my riding mower would hit high spots. However, the tilling went good, got it dragged out and rolled flat. The Riviera seed is down and the irrigation timers are on. We will see how it goes.

I did assume I would have to deal with new weeds being brought to the surface but I haven't had to deal with much yet this year.

This was before tilling. You can't tell much but it is very uneven and would be a nightmare to fix after the Riviera comes in.


right after tilling


After it was dragged and rolled.


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

Also changed the thread name.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Alright, looks like you got it pretty level, and that ATV had to definitely help with moving that roller around a lot. Just be sure to keep the seedlings moist, and you should be in good shape. There's a saying: "If it dries out, it dies out." Take that to heart. Once you see germination, keep up the watering until they get at least 3 leaves, then you can back off a little bit. What worked for me was to pull up one of the seedlings, and that's how much water I needed to put down in the soil, and I adjusted my amount accordingly, i.e. if I had a root that was 1/2" long, I would put down 1/2" of water for the week, broken up over several days, with frequent applications. Some days, I was watering 2-3x daily.


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## Shaky (Mar 8, 2018)

Yes the ATV was a godsend. Roller was one my cousin built and it is crazy heavy. I went over the whole yard about 25-30 times to make sure it was as compact as I could get it. The ground feels and looks great, and the seed shouldn't have any issues getting into the soil.

Thanks for the watering tips, I wasn't quite sure what time to do what. Just planned on keeping the soil wet but having a plan makes me feel more confident for sure. Right now I have it running every 2 hours for 5 minutes which I am hoping is enough (the wife is supposed to let me know if the ground starts to look dry). If not I will bump it up to 10 minutes or maybe 5 minutes but every hour.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Just disturb the soil a bit where you can see if it's moist down to a knuckle, and you'll see if you need to water more or not. Keep us posted.


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## Topcat (Mar 21, 2017)

I think you've set the bar on the right way to til soil prior to seeding a lawn. Great job on getting it leveled out and ready for planting. The common thought here is to never til because of weed seeds, and tilling typically leaves a very lumpy, uneven surface to grow a lawn on. Rolling it will take care of the lumpy surface, but you undoubtly turned over and sowed few weed seeds...

If not already done, I'd invest in the typical herbicides used - Celsius is the go to for the common weeds you see in a lawn.


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