# Dumbest thing you've done intentionally



## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

What is one of the things you most look back on during your beginning seasons in more advanced lawn care that you look back and completely shake your head at in disblief?

I'm a newbie. This is my second house - first house I've truly cared about the lawn. It's got such potential, just have to get it there.

I moved in last winter - in the spring I was not liking the look of what I was seeing. I could have done SO many things but what did I do? I went to Tractor Supply Company because it sounded like a cool alternative to HD and Lowes, and found a "great deal" on a big 50 pound bag of "contractor's mix" - I thought whatever, probably just this big for commercial use. It said midwest so I thought I'd for sure be good. I put it in my spreader and just let er rip. I'm now doing my best to recover from that because it is 20% annual, my lawn is super patchy I think because it's died off...and I'm living and learning. And man, have I learned a lot already.


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## Miller_Low_Life (Apr 12, 2017)

Mine would be planting creeping Charlie between my pavers.


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

Too much alfalfa pellets/k.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Intentionally lighting the grass on fire while in sandals. And spraying glyphosate in sandals.


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## iowa jim (Jan 22, 2018)

When you forgot that you bought soil moist seed coat and remember right after you planted the seeds. then try to sprinkle it on out of the bag on to the lawn, did not go well.


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## Alex1389 (May 23, 2018)

pennstater2005 said:


> Intentionally lighting the grass on fire while in sandals. And spraying glyphosate in sandals.


How could you not include the pic with this post...


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## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

Alex1389 said:


> pennstater2005 said:
> 
> 
> > Intentionally lighting the grass on fire while in sandals. And spraying glyphosate in sandals.
> ...


Agreed, this needs pictures.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

MichiganGreen said:


> Alex1389 said:
> 
> 
> > pennstater2005 said:
> ...


Not my proudest moments.......


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## Wolverine (Jan 17, 2018)

Spreading a shade mix with Poa Trivialis. I like the torch idea and might have to give it a try.


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

Using scotts seed every year and expecting different results than the bad results I would get the year before. Mostly garbage in those bags, chucked full of annual rye and other grassy weeds.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Put down a generous load of Scott's contractor mix seed and then watered regularly at 8:30 pm in the middle of May-all the while thinking that I was performing some grass-growing magic.


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## KHARPS (Jun 21, 2018)

Killed my nice looking nomix lawn so I could do a kbg reno. Currently on day 14. I'm sure my feeling on the subject will change once the lawn is established


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## outdoorsmen (Jul 23, 2018)

Spread 100lbs of k31 two years ago. Used my 4wheeler with lock rear differential to pull the plugger last week...really tore it up.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Measuring the correct amount of Tenacity, but the bottle was old and a lot of the water was gone from the suspension, so it was actually about twice as concentrated as normal Tenacity. I ignored the dark brown color and sprayed it anyway...and killed my good grass in the process. I've since bought a new bottle, but when I use the remaining bit in the old bottle, I go by the color now instead, and add Tenacity concentrate until it matches the color of a known 4oz/Acre mix by eye...instead of measuring a specific amount. The color tells you how concentrated the Tenacity mix is, but you have to have something to compare it to.


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## NewEnglander (Aug 20, 2018)

I overlapped heavy passes too far of Scott's fert w mesotrione Took me about four weeks to realize the watering every day was useless and that the rye grass wasn't coming up. I kept taking progress pics, but there was no difference. Now I'm terrified of Tenacity at seeding.

Gotta love those "wtf did I do" moments.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

zeus201 said:


> Too much alfalfa pellets/k.


Please explain. I don't think I could afford too much. Unless you are talking about the expansion when wet


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

probasestealer said:


> zeus201 said:
> 
> 
> > Too much alfalfa pellets/k.
> ...


Embarrassed to say lol. But, I normally buy two bags but some reason that day I bought three.

Decided to apply it all....like 40-45lbs/M when I normally aim for 15-20/M. As it broke down it looked liked little brown turds. Then looked like smashed turds in grass as they got broke down and got walked on and etc. Took WEEKS for all of it too get processed / broken down.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@zeus201 and now you have grass growing in the mulch beds?


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## LawnNerd (Sep 2, 2017)

Overseeded a scotts shady mix on my sunny yard because it was on sale... Then i only watered it once a day, in the evenings when i'd never heard of a fungicide. Now i look back and think, what was i thinking!

Then one time i was lazy and didn't rinse out my sprayer. I thought to myself, that splash of glyphosate in the bottom won't be enough to cause problems. Oops.. Luckily, i only spot sprayed the few broadleaves i had floating in a section of the yard.


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

g-man said:


> @zeus201 and now you have grass growing in the mulch beds?


hahahah, yes really took off but looked great.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

zeus201 said:


> probasestealer said:
> 
> 
> > zeus201 said:
> ...


Haha. Well the triacontanol probably helped the grass. Just cosmetic after dropping.


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## Big Boy Stan (Aug 27, 2020)

I know this is an old post but it has got some good stories to help avoid mistakes for newbies like me.

My dumb thing (so far) was using a hose end sprayer for roundup on my front yard reno. When I got done, I figured I would also do a quick spray on an area behind my shed that was 100% weed. So I dragged the hose right from the front yard through the back to the shed. As soon as I got done spraying, I considered what I had done but thought nah, it will be ok. 3 days later, dead streaks.

The back yard grass was no show piece (reno 2021) but it didn't need the extra dead patches. Maybe time to go buy that backpack sprayer


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## always_creative (Aug 28, 2020)

Miller_Low_Life said:


> Mine would be planting creeping Charlie between my pavers.


Big oof on that one... it's the bane of my yard.


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## Vtx531 (Jul 1, 2019)

Used a dethatcher.

Used a dethatcher again.

Lowered the HOC in July.

Sorry that was three things...


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

Bought a house on 1.6acres in December 2019.
Found TLF in January 2020. After six months of prep work (irrigation, weeds, ground prep & seed).

Basically, I did my first lawn as a full reno in Aug 2020 (55,000+ sq ft). Double face palm.


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## RozWeston (May 20, 2018)

Let a guy convince me that there was NO problem hydroseeding in the middle of July. Said he "did it ALL the time". "Perfect results". I'd be "mowing a lush lawn in three weeks"...

I paid WAY TOO MUCH for this mistake. To this day I still haven't told my wife how much I paid for it. Not because she'll say it was too much money, but because I'm so ashamed!



THIS is what I wound up with...



Then I found the Lawn Forum, made a plan, and three years later...


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

RozWeston said:


> Then I found the Lawn Forum, made a plan, and three years later...


Pretty sure I just watched one of your videos not too long ago.
You have great style.
And a great lawn.


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

I would have to say, the reno I did on the side of my house this year. I used 100% Scott's KBG and it looked good at first, but now not so much. I didn't put into consideration the shade and that the sun rises on the other side of the house. Luckily, I get to try again next year with my fescue.


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

It did not blend well.


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## sheepfescue (Jul 29, 2019)

I bought one of those "three-way" soil meters (moisture, ph, and light), and stuck it in the ground on moisture (not knowing to switch the setting to "pH"), and it said my soil pH was 1, so I freaked out and ordered "Fast Acting Lime" and applied 150 pounds of it to my yard!

My soil is actually silty clay loam... an ancient lakebed that is dried up, and is as alkaline as a box of baking soda! Wow, was that stupid!


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## jskierko (Sep 5, 2020)

RozWeston said:


> THIS is what I wound up with...


Been there before. I had the bright idea to overseed in July once. Grass came up green no doubt, with crabgrass.


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

Full reno.
28 DAG
Tenacity to address creeping charlie.
Hope I didn't kill 50,000 sq ft of my lawn.


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## AndyS (Jun 13, 2020)

1) Let a contractor seed my lawn (with K31)
2) Let a contractor service my lawn (telling me the K31 was a weed that they'd get rid of with herbicides)
3) Overseed in the spring


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## Lawn Noob (Jul 26, 2020)

thebmrust said:


> Full reno.
> 28 DAG
> Tenacity to address creeping charlie.
> Hope I didn't kill 50,000 sq ft of my lawn.


I'll bet it comes back fine.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Jeff_MI84 said:


> I would have to say, the reno I did on the side of my house this year. I used 100% Scott's KBG and it looked good at first, but now not so much. I didn't put into consideration the shade and that the sun rises on the other side of the house. Luckily, I get to try again next year with my fescue.
> ...
> 
> It did not blend well.


In the photo, is the near area the KBG reno, and the far side the existing TTTF? When was the KBG seeded? The foreground of the photo actually looks good and thick, other than needing mowing. If the light-colored grass is KBG that was seeded this year, it will get significantly darker next year. Don't give up on it yet.

KBG will be light colored compared to the final color for the entire first "growing season" that it is seeded and won't really establish its true color until maybe the middle of the following growing season. (In other words, a summer-seeded KBG lawn won't really darken to its eventual color until about the middle of the following spring, and may continue to darken even after that, depending upon the specific cultivar.) In other words, I wouldn't write that area off yet for getting darker, unless it is at least 1 year old.

As an example of this, consider the photo below. The area in the foreground (bright green) is a section that was seeded in August 2020 due to roadwork destroying the lawn that had been there. The seed used is the _*exact same seed blend*_ as in the rest of the lawn you can see (Bewitched KBG / Prosperity KBG). The area beyond the telephone pole was seeded in August 2018 and is quite dark. The new area just needs some time to catch up. The color will even out eventually -- us KBG folks are in this for the "long game." (By the way, the brownish area in between the new grass and old grass is old grass that was suddenly dropped in height from 3.5" to 1.5" to let some of the newly-seeded grass have a chance along the edge.)


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Jeff_MI84 said:
> 
> 
> > I would have to say, the reno I did on the side of my house this year. I used 100% Scott's KBG and it looked good at first, but now not so much. I didn't put into consideration the shade and that the sun rises on the other side of the house. Luckily, I get to try again next year with my fescue.
> ...


Yes, the top of the picture is A 33/33/33 blend of TTRF, rye and KBG as per my sod installer. I didn't know it would darken after the first year. That is good to know. I get a lot of shade of that side of the house and it still isn't leveled good enough.


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## jcs43920 (Jun 3, 2019)

Planting sun and shade mixes with creeping red fescue.


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## MassHole (Jun 27, 2018)

Bought and seeded Scotts Coated KBG into my Midnight bc a certain YouTube personality told me too...


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## MassHole (Jun 27, 2018)

thebmrust said:


> Full reno.
> 28 DAG
> Tenacity to address creeping charlie.
> Hope I didn't kill 50,000 sq ft of my lawn.


You'll be fine. I've done it. It grows out.

Next time, spray without NIS, water in after 10 minutes (I ran my irrigation for 15-20 minutes each zone).
Add some prop 14.3 to the mix too.

Will act as a pre-emergent, and the Creeping Charlie will absorb the Tenacity via its roots and die. I do this all the time.


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## RichS (Jan 28, 2019)

deleted


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

Well... after mowing every three days, I haven't mowed in about two weeks. The growth completely stopped. So much for establishing roots before winter.
Every day there is more brown grass than the day before. Some green is emerging from under the dead white leaves, telling me the grass is dead/dying but a scant few seeds have emerging shoots, maybe from late germination.

Almost all the weeds are still there. We also found out some of our creeping charlie is actually mallow. Tenacity didn't live up to my understanding of what it would do and did more damage than was acceptable. I am quite certain I won't ever use it again (but long term results may change my mind).


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## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

thebmrust said:


> Well... after mowing every three days, I haven't mowed in about two weeks. The growth completely stopped. So much for establishing roots before winter.
> Every day there is more brown grass than the day before. Some green is emerging from under the dead white leaves, telling me the grass is dead/dying but a scant few seeds have emerging shoots, maybe from late germination.
> 
> Almost all the weeds are still there. We also found out some of our creeping charlie is actually mallow. Tenacity didn't live up to my understanding of what it would do and did more damage than was acceptable. I am quite certain I won't ever use it again (but long term results may change my mind).


I would stop mowing. Give it time to recover a bit. Its bleached, it will come out in a bit. Hopefully you still have some growing time. Weeds take longer to bleach sometimes. I did 2 tenacity apps for bentgrass 5oz acre rate, 2 weeks apart and then dropped rye seed. Almost every seedling that I was looking at was bleached. It was slow to grow. Left it, gave it N and it is doing much better.


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## TheEggMan (Jun 8, 2020)

sheepfescue said:


> I bought one of those "three-way" soil meters (moisture, ph, and light), and stuck it in the ground on moisture (not knowing to switch the setting to "pH"), and it said my soil pH was 1, so I freaked out and ordered "Fast Acting Lime" and applied 150 pounds of it to my yard!
> 
> My soil is actually silty clay loam... an ancient lakebed that is dried up, and is as alkaline as a box of baking soda! Wow, was that stupid!


A pH of one would have dissolved all living things in it.


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

After a couple weeks of frost, most of the broad leaf weeds have weakened. There is a new weed that is thriving right now called Common storks-bill or Redstem filaree. We've never had it that I know of. So either it got dig up or came with the seed bag.

All my grass died. Anything that was green a month ago is still white or dead brown.

The green grass I do have is all from new germination. I've looked at the leaves and pulled handfuls around the pasture and anything white pulls out and no roots. Anything green has it's own roots. There isn't anything white that has green attached.

It will be hard to convince me otherwise, but Tenacity effectively killed my full acre of new grass seed. Sadly it didn't work as well on actual weeds. The level of disappointment runs deep.


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## OnTheLawn (Jul 23, 2020)

thebmrust said:


> After a couple weeks of frost, most of the broad leaf weeds have weakened. There is a new weed that is thriving right now called Common storks-bill or Redstem filaree. We've never had it that I know of. So either it got dig up or came with the seed bag.
> 
> All my grass died. Anything that was green a month ago is still white or dead brown.
> 
> ...


What rate did you run with the tenacity? Is the entire renovation showing this, or are there certain plots worse than others? Are any sections just fine?


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## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

Sprayed tenacity/speedzone in and effort to kill nutsedge.... During 90+ degree heat. Yup took some good grass with it. Never doing that again during the high heat of summer.


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

OnTheLawn said:


> thebmrust said:
> 
> 
> > After a couple weeks of frost, most of the broad leaf weeds have weakened. There is a new weed that is thriving right now called Common storks-bill or Redstem filaree. We've never had it that I know of. So either it got dig up or came with the seed bag.
> ...


5 ounces in 30 gal water per 1.3 acre. No surfactant. The 1 acre pasture was 100% affected. The .3 acre yard was not. But it a slightly different seed mix and I went over the yard with a slightly faster speed. The yard also didn't have the weed pressure that the pasture has.

I looked at the pasture again today (it was in the mid 70's). The grass that went white is still white all the way to the roots and the roots are dead, silty and/or thin. The green that's growing has its own roots. Isn't part of the white dead root system in the few areas that I checked.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Tenacity could affect/kill some of the pasture grasses. Do you know what pasture crop it was?


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

The pasture (100% negatively affected by tenacity)
Pasture:
20% orchard 
30% forage tall fescue
50% tetraploid perennial ryegrass

The yard (minimally affected to not affected less than 10% and completely gone now 11/5/20)
I was told this was the mix
Yard seed
50% perennial rye
40% blue grass
10% tall fescue

This was the label on the yard grass (as compared to what we were told above)
Yard bag
40% Bluegrass 
55% Perennial hard / fine fescue
5% ????


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## TheEggMan (Jun 8, 2020)

This wasn't intentional, but I keep a bunch of labeled pump up sprayers with different herbicides in my garage. I grabbed what I thought was turflon ester to spray some bermuda that was popping up.

I had been spraying for about 5 minutes when I looked at the label - Roundup.

D'oh.

I grabbed the hose and soaked all the places I had sprayed that I could remember then kicked on the sprinkler system. I didn't wreck things _too_ bad.

After that I got a red sharpie and wrote "Danger" on the sprayer in a few places.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Join this forum.

Now all I think about is my lawn.


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## thebmrust (Jun 29, 2020)

Pezking7p said:


> Join this forum.
> 
> Now all I think about is my lawn.


Same.

Should listen to my wife...
"it'll be okay"


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Pezking7p said:


> Join this forum.
> 
> Now all I think about is my lawn.


Or as I like to say, "got into lawn care".

My neighbors rave about my turf and all I can do is think about the 3,185 problems that it has.

Once youbget the eye for it, nothing is good enough and it's a psychological battle to accept "good enough"for your situation🤣


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