# Erics New England Lawn



## Eric2XU (Feb 2, 2019)

Hey all here is my adventures in starting a lawn.

15K sqft (I think)
Irrigation System
John Deere X300 Tractor Mower

2018-2019 Season
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I moved from Florida St Augustine grass which only required watering or sod replacement to Southern Massachusetts cold season lawn requiring (I'll fill this in when I actually know).

Built a home new, builder put down loam and then did a hydroseed.


Sadly there was a massive rain shower the very next day that washed most of the seeds away into strips. 


Over the coming weeks it started to fill in like this:


Then the crab grass started to come in


Oh that damn crab grass:


At some point most of the grass was on life support with lots of strips of nothing and large clumps of crab grass


(OCT) Got an irrigation system, federlized, and seeded, started to look a little better:


(NOV) Back Lawn, never really came in strong, not enough sun. 


2019-2020 Seasons
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Here we are in March... Here is my starting photos, havent done anything yet. 



I am seeing small parts of the latest round of grass seed from last november turning green at the tips. Its still 34 degrees right now but we have afternoons in the 50-60's a few times a week now.

Trying to figure out A) what PerM to put down (and which one from home depot, lowes, or tractor supply) and B) when to do it.

Starting to think it might be a good idea to put down something while it's not raining this week. Killing weeds early might be good? I really want to seed after the preM wears off, to many areas of no coverage.

Will report back later in the season


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

@Eric2XU

Welcome to TLF!

Have you read the Cool Season Lawn Guide?

I have a lawn size about the same as yours. I use prodiamine granular for my pre emergent in the spring and fall. Most here prefer the spraying version as it's considerably cheaper.

Once those weeds are growing you can go to town on them!


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Hey! St. Aug. requires fertilizer too!


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## Eric2XU (Feb 2, 2019)

So 4/12 I put down Scotts® Turf Builder® Starter® Food For New Grass Plus Weed Preventer (Mesotrione) and seeded as I just didnt want to wait to the fall. I have enough to apply one more time which I will do 5 weeks after along with more seed in any bad areas that need it. Then I will switch over to a full season Pre-M.

Got my soil test back. No idea what to do next but will start trying to figure it out but it seems my loam that the builder provided wasnt really soil.





Tons and tons of rocks in the soil:


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## Eric2XU (Feb 2, 2019)

Yesterday I dropped down Encap Fast Acting Lime. Got two large bags at BJs for 15$ each. Each bag said it would cover 6500 sqft. Said to use spreeder setting 4 on a Scotts Deluxe, I have the elite (which was a bad buy given no one has that listed), but given that the elite drops more one would think 4 or less. However when pushing I noticed a very low rate of drop so I kicked it up to 5 and that seemed to feel more right. That said I only used 1 and a quarters bags, by their math I should have used both and needed a little more. Who knows but I figured I will keep apply at this rate every 6 weeks until PH is where it needs to be.

My next move will be in another two weeks or so, another round of Mesotrione and more seed (assuming it gets a little hotter) I am pretty sure I wasted an entire large bag of seed due to it being too cold. My hope had been it would sit there waiting for it to warm up but didn't work out. I will ask scotts to give me another bag given their "money back guarantee".

Weeds haven't been bad, I did fill a home depot bucket half full of them but since plucking they haven't really returned in any serious numbers.

After that i'll drop down normal pre-m 6 weeks after next Mesotrione dose, then ride out till fall just apply low dose lime every 6-8 weeks most of the season given how low my PH was.

http://encap.net/soil-solutions/fast-acting-lime/


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## Eric2XU (Feb 2, 2019)

Last season I really was going to keep up the progress on this journal and I forgot.

RECAP 2019 Season

I decided to try and grow grass in the spring and use non-germination killing anti-weed... that worked well until about mid may when the crab grass started to grow in. I ended up treating the lawn for the rest of the season with Drive XLR8 as it flared up. While it was semi effective. and without the efforts I wouldnt really have had any grass to manage it was a super pain in the *** and I wont be doing that again. Here we are at mid may:





Notice the stripes? Stupid Scotts "Elite" spreader was a total useless piece of junk, just dropped fertilizer directly under its two rotators. All season I had those damn stripes. Again this season I know better, got a Lesco spreader (OMG its like driving a cadillac vs a ford feasta).

Also notice the patchiness, ugh... As we hit June things were looking great from afar (i am across the street) 


But close up another story (same time frame): 


Those crabs starting to pop out, this is when I got serious and started using Drive XLR8.

By Sept things were starting to look good, crabs were done and I could focus on the lawn. I kept seeding and using starter fertilizer, I think I might have done another lime treatment as well. 


It wasnt perfect but feeling alot better (Oct)


I had a few spring ups of this lawn cabbage, never figured out what it was, Drive didnt seem to kill it. I pulled it out manually.



Finally Nov, lawn was down right looking mostly impressive even fairly close up. This photo was first frost so the lighter parts are frost, I regret not having a better picture of this time frame.


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## Eric2XU (Feb 2, 2019)

2020 Season has started!

This season I am really going to try to keep things up to date here, if for no other reason so I know when the last time I did something was.

Lets kick it off when where we are, lawn looks a devastating tan color with some hints of green starting to from around the boarders (which I find interesting, my current theory is its seed from last fall that finally sprouted)







Very optimistic with my new Lesco Spreader and Lesco Fertilizer w/ Dimension Fertilizer things are going to spring to life very quickly.

4/5/2020 - I dropped x1.5 (45lbs) bags on my roughly 15K Sqft of grass area using the "14" setting on the spreader. I have another 1.5 bags ready for 8 week from then.

Due to the virus I couldn't get the soil tested, I am assuming things are fine for now but I worry my ph might be off and wonder if just nitrogen is enough or if I should be using another starter bag (last season my numbers were zeros across the board). I guess only time will tell.

4/5/2020 - Noticed the forsythia in full bloom, due to virus had not been out in two weeks, not sure when the really did bloom, note to self to plant some this year in the back yard.

4/6/2020 - Got the irrigation system back on line, ran each zone for 30 mins to let the fertilizer soak in a bit, we have good rain coming in another day or two. Still trying to figure out my watering schedule. I dont recall at all what I used last year. I am on a well so I can use as much as I want. I think I ended up twice a week for longer periods with a noon time dusting to cool the front lawn at the hottest parts of summer but thats just a guess. Going to do more research again. Timing too, I dont think it drops a lot of water, it may take upwards of an hour of watering to get anything meaningful to drop. I need to get out my collector cups and run it for an hour to see what happens.

4/7/2020 - Just a side note: tested water rainfall of irrigation system in the backyard and 30 mins of watering yeilded 0.2 - 0.5 inches per hour which seems really low.

Will post back as things progress (hopefully)


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## Eric2XU (Feb 2, 2019)

Quick update, last weekend I raked out some of the deader spots and hand tossed some starter fertilizer. Week later the limited grass in those spots is bright green. The week before that I had walked the entire lawn and manually pulled every weed I could fine. For the most part new ones have not popped up.

Here is how we are looking:


Also given the upcoming higher temps, some weeks starting to take hold, and general lack of dark greenness I just dumped down round two of Weed and Feed (Lesco Fertilizer Plus Pre-E Dimension 0.10%) at a rate of "14" on my new Lesco spreader (second spin with it and still a joy). This takes exactly one and a half bags to do my property.





So we will see, things are looking pretty good. Wish I had some more density in place and less weeds which makes me about the same as most.

Other side notes, been cutting weekly at 3.25", this last week was the first time both bins filled so I feel like the grass is now really starting to grow.


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## jackallis (Apr 15, 2019)

Eric2XU said:


> Quick update, last weekend I raked out some of the deader spots and hand tossed some starter fertilizer. Week later the limited grass in those spots is bright green. The week before that I had walked the entire lawn and manually pulled every weed I could fine. For the most part new ones have not popped up.
> 
> Here is how we are looking:
> 
> ...


which town is this? i feel like i have seen this somewhere. espcially house across yours.


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