# STI's Lawn Journal - Newb Alert



## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Hello all. I am a first time home buyer with roughly 10,500 Sq.Ft. of hybrid Bermuda grass, living 20 minutes south of Houston, Texas. I have never cut my own lawn before and I felt ashamed of myself after seeing some of the lawns on his forum. So I fired my lawn guy and told him I am going to be taking over from here :thumbup:

Future plans are to level my lawn 1 yard @ a time, its all I can fit in the bed of my truck. Its super rutty, darn lawn guys with their riding mowers. Spurce up the hardscaping, build my own shed for the backyard, and adjust my 13 zone sprinkler system by changing/removing heads and improving water coverage.

There is only one thing I wish I captured when I started and that was the size of the dalliasgrass weeds and the nutsedge from hell. I decided to pick up lawn care during the hottest part of the summer. Being the ripe young age of 27, the best form of post emergent weedkiller I have are my two hands. Except for nutsedge, I learned not to pull that but found Ortho Nutsedge Killer does a great job at killing it and not harming the bermuda, and its broadcast sprayer!

Knowing the how tough bermuda is, I chopped down at least 5 inches or so and brought the grass down to about 1.25".
July 11, 2020









I waited 3 weeks to before putting down fertilizer to see how well the grass recovered. It was doing well, but it was missing the green. So down went some Scott's Turfbuilder 32-0-10. After 1 week, here is where I am now. Don't judge the lawn stripes from the fertilizing :roll: . Thats what happens when you have a crappy scotts spreader where the fertilizer hits the wheel, and endless ruts. 
August 7,2020








August 10,2020 - HOC @ 2"









*Current Tools: *

Honda HRX217HYA


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

Welcome to the addiction!
Dude, with that size yard, you need to move off the box-store brands and find you a Site-One or similar or a good farmer's co-op and move into the professional sizes and formulations. 
Enjoy, you'll get tons of satisfaction and frustration from doing it yourself.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

dubyadubya87 said:


> Welcome to the addiction!
> Dude, with that size yard, you need to move off the box-store brands and find you a Site-One or similar or a good farmer's co-op and move into the professional sizes and formulations.
> Enjoy, you'll get tons of satisfaction and frustration from doing it yourself.


Yes I am slowly stepping into that arena...I need to get more yard equipment first. In the mean time, I am reading & digesting what is here and trying to get a understanding of these chemicals for weeds, and also fertilizing.

I was already dumb enough to start on the "Howtowithdoc" Train. I bought Anderson Barricade and super juice and looked at the price and said something isn't right here. I started looking at the ratios and chemicals in them and was pulling them up elsewhere for way better prices.

Luckily, it only took me a week to get off the train. It was this site that saved me.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

Anderson makes good products, but yes, shop around for pricing.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Well here is my attempt to level some bad ruts. I went with masonry sand. I picked up 1 yard and dumped it in the bed of truck. That was the first time I put my 12 valve Cummins to work. Lol it giggled at the 2.5k lbs of material in the bed.

Then Saturday my gracious in laws came in and picked up a yard and I got another. we were paying 38 bucks a yard for it.

We had a smooth operation going. 2 wheel barrows, 2 shovels and 1-3x1 level rake. The two years I had my lawn guy cut my grass, that zero turn really took it's toll.











Still need about 8 yards and the backyard should be leveled. That masonry sand is killing my seals on my sprinklers at the moment so I have been fixing those.

After the sand was dropped, I put down 21-0-0 at 1lb/1k. Since time is of the essence I will likely keep dropping a pound every week where it needs it.

Still going through my zones and trying to get the watering amounts right. The coverage in some areas is extremely poor.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

And I finally got my sprinklers mapped out on my rachio. It really doesn't do any good for it but it's a good nap for reference none the less.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Boy what a difference 9 days make. This will mark the 3rd week since doing some leveling. Going to do more leveling at the start of spring spring season

I have been dropping 1 lb of N every week since we did the leveling. I am cutting the grass every day or every other day. At this rate the grass should be pretty darn close to filled in within the next two weeks.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Headed out of town this week for a few days which lead me to scalp it before I left. It should have more than enough gas in the tank to recover. I did not put down any fertilizer after I scalped and will rely on what possibly could still be in the ground.

My last application of 21-0-0 at a rate of 1lb/1000 was done on September 8th.
Scalped @ 1.25" will maintain it at 2inch and probably raise it as we get closer to november


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## mjh648 (Sep 1, 2020)

Have you done any soil tests to identify deficiencies? Interested what your numbers are being so close to me.

Sand is a better material to level than a compost? Seems like you could introduce some good nutrients using the latter.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

mjh648 said:


> Have you done any soil tests to identify deficiencies? Interested what your numbers are being so close to me.
> 
> Sand is a better material to level than a compost? Seems like you could introduce some good nutrients using the latter.


Nope, no soil test yet. Going to shoot for sometime at beginning of 2021 to give that a shot.

Sand offers way better compaction over compost. The sand has out performed (by a long shot) the areas where I put some sort of compost (soil conditioner) down. I couldn't exactly tell you why that is the case but masonry sand is the way to go.

I put down barricade this weekend to hold me through the winter months. We are definetly going to be getting colder this year sooner than later. I think its an el Nino type deal. Once we start getting a southward wind and we are in this time of year, winter is coming for Houston....

I guess the one good knack I have for timing the seasons is my experience with Fishing and knowing what the forecast is without looking at the forecast lol


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Looks like this yard won't be seeing a spring renovation.

With the current housing market, my wife and I decided to sell our home and buy a new place. Well we did both within 2 weeks of each other.

I got 5 acres to care for now. And it has all sorts of oak trees, and some hybrid bermuda by the looks of it. Will be starting a new thread after we close. Will be remodeling the entire house before we move. Stay tuned.


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