# Romangorilla's 2022 New Frankenstein Bermuda Lawn



## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

April 5th 2022:

After almost 2 years, it's time to make a new journal.
To recap where the last 2 years went:
Wife and I sold our house in October 2020 before I deployed.
We then moved in with the in-laws while we built our new home.
"Supply Chain" issues slowed us down in the construction process immensely. We were originally suppose to be in this house thanksgiving 2021, but didn't move in until April 1, 2022.

So….he we are.

Somewhat moved in and giving all my attention to the yard.
This left side of the property, which is approximately 1700sqft is the flattest. This is going to be the Main Stage. I'm so far behind on the water, my only hope is a few days of some good rain will bring it back.
It's incredibly uneven and undulating from where the builder laid it with minimum effort then tore it up building a retaining wall and installing a fence, so not sure if I'll be able to get the reel mower on it this year. It's going to take several top dressings to get this ready for a reel.





The front lawn is…well…it's a normal front lawn.
Only problem being that it's so sloped that I don't think I'm going to be able to ever get a reel mower on it.
It slopes pretty drastically from the front of the house to the street.
But I'm still hopeful. We shall see.

But this is where the "Frankenstein" lawn comes into play.

On day one of putting sod down, the builder was putting down Tiftuf from SuperSod.
And they started on the left side yard (main stage) and worked their way across the property.
Well on day 2, Tifway was delivered and they put that down starting on the red line.
So everything to the left of the red line is TifTuf and everything to the right is Tifway.
Should make for an interesting view in a few months. Not sure what I want to do yet.
Toying with the idea of ripping up the Tiftuf in the main stage area and putting down Tahoma 31.





My plan for now is to continue to water, feed, and mow.
I'm planning on doing my first top dressing in about 3 weeks. So fingers crossed that it smooths out enough to get the GM1000 on the main stage.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:
May 18th

I just completed my first top dressing.
I went with 6 tons of masonry sand over 2900 sqft.
The back pain has been cranked to an 11.

I went heavy on this first leveling in hopes that from here on out, I will only need a couple tons of sand instead of 6.

The day prior to leveling, i scalped down to .5, then put down fertilizer at 1lb per 1000, then put down disease ex.

With the next few days going to be in the mid 90's, I'm hoping the top growth goes into over drive, and I don't have to stare at sand for very long.


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

I am on a slope as well. The right side of your house will probably be the most difficult to mow, as it slopes down and to the right. My flex would probably slide a bit when the lawn got too thick, but it should be doable. I'd rock the half tiff-tuff half 419. It's unique! Not many people have that going on.. I am weird though.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

rjw0283 said:


> I am on a slope as well. The right side of your house will probably be the most difficult to mow, as it slopes down and to the right. My flex would probably slide a bit when the lawn got too thick, but it should be doable. I'd rock the half tiff-tuff half 419. It's unique! Not many people have that going on.. I am weird though.


Yeah, I'm gonna rock the cultivar mix and see what happens. And yeah, the slope might be doable.
Hopefully the sand leveling will increase the chance I can get the GM1000 on it.

Here we are 3 days post sand:
I'm optimistic that I can get a mower on it in a few days, because seed heads are getting out of control.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@Romangorilla Welcome back!

This will be cool to watch! :thumbup:


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

ENC_Lawn said:


> @Romangorilla Welcome back!
> 
> This will be cool to watch! :thumbup:


Thanks man!


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:

A week and half post sand top dressing.
For the amount of sand that I smothered the lawn with, I'm genuinely surprised at how fast the Tiftuf is growing through.
current HOC is 1".
Going to let the GM 1000 loose on it in the week or so.
Things should get interesting then.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:

Finally able to get the GM1000 on a portion of the side yard.
Currently cutting the Tiftuf at .65
It's not showing up in the picture but there is still a lot of spots where the turf is trying to fill in through the sand.
But overall, pretty happy with how things are coming along.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:

About one and a half weeks cutting with the GM1000 at .65…
The turf is starting to thicken up nicely.

I can't wait to see how this Tiftuf handles our record heat wave that we're about to get in the Charlotte area.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:

Due to being out of town on vacation, the grass got pretty bushy. So I took this as an opportunity to reset the HOC.
I was maintaining a HOC of .65 but at the time of the scalp, it was probably closer to 3/4" or 1".

I scalped down to just under 3/8". And then applied some fert.
Going to maintain a new HOC of 1/2".
Once it greens back up, I will hit it with some PGR.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:

I had some bad bronzing from my PGR app. And was simultaneously dealing with some stress in the turf from all this lack of rain.

Not sure if I want to apply anymore T-Nex this season or just wait until next summer when the turf has had at least one season to mature.

It's out of regulation now, and starting to green back up.

In the next couple weeks, I will scarify, scalp, aerate and then sand level before coasting into the fall.


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## Romangorilla (Jun 3, 2019)

Update:

August 5th

I scarified the turf with the rock&rocker scarifier.
This thing did an awesome job. If you're on the fence about getting it, just go for it.
It pulled up a ton of dead material.



Next I bagged up everything and scalped down to .25

Then aerated with a bill goat aerator rental from Lowes. Pulled a ton of cores. And then bagged them all up.

Then sand was delivered.



Using a wheelbarrow, I made my nice little piles spread evenly throughout the yard.



Then I began to spread the piles out evenly, and while i was doing that, out of no where, a monsoon moved in. . .Just my luck.
But we did get a rainbow afterwards, that my son freaked out about. Lol



So I had to wait 24 hours for all the sand to dry out so I could spread it evenly and work it into the canopy. After i did that, I put down fertilizer at 1lb/m.



I beat the turf up pretty good with the scarifying, scalping, aerating and sand leveling.
So interested to see how long it takes for the tiftuf to get back to reel mowing shape.


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