# NateDawg24 2021 Spring KBG Reno



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

I have small lawn (at least for lawn forum standards) app 2,000 ft2 that I decided to renovate last year due to a mix of grass types of mostly old cultivars. I live in a cool climate in Central Alberta (Zone 4a - canadian zone). I decided on a spring renovation as our summers are very mild and we have short growing seasons. Our average high/low temperature in the hottest month (July) is 16.8-23.1 C or 62.2-73.6 F.

I have irrigation that covers most of my property so I figured between that and the cool summers we typically have I would be safe with a spring reno. I am currently on 25 DAG and will update to this point.

Here is my property overhead. I have no grass in the back yard due to a large deck, side entry garage with large driveway, and large spruce trees. The rest is mulch and rock area/general landscaping. My irrigation covers the front yard (side yards will have to be watered by hand) although the system is quite old and coverage isn't perfectly even.



Here is my yard at it's best last year, looks not bad from a distance but has many different grass types of many colours and different growth patterns. There were some nice patches of KBG that looked much nicer than other areas and I wanted a uniform darker lawn.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

First round of Glypho went down May 1st and lawn was barely awake at that time.









11 Days later.... not much difference added second round on this day at a higher rate





16 Days later.... definitely can see difference







20 Days later, mostly dead added some more glypho to greenish areas



Took a long time to kill, has been a theme so far which I blame on the cool soil temps in the spring.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

23 days after first Glypho application I brought in 2 yards of topsoil to help level a few areas and to a very light topdress. I used my sunjoe to break up the dead grass and thatch and went over it 3-4 times. I tried both the scarifier attachment and the dethatching attachment and found they worked about the same. The last pass I just went back and forth like I was vacuuming to try and break it up further. Probably could have waited another week to get the grass a bit more crispy but I was anxious to get going.









Seed down went 30 days after initial Glyphosate application. I fallowed for one week but nothing was coming up and I was getting inpatient. I used Mazama KBG that I had purchased last fall at 3lbs per 1000ft2.

I raked in the seed by pushing my dethatching rake and then rolled over with a used roller I purchased last year. Finished with tenacity at 6oz rate (this was a mistake as I somehow was walking too slow so had to make some more). I just used one 3.8 ft2 bale of peat moss to cover the sunniest areas of my yard, in hindsight I would have used a couple more it really seems to help retain the water.









In hindsight I think my biggest error was the raking in of the seed. I think in areas where the soil was looser I pushed the seed too deep and much less seed came up (more on this later). I didn't see any ill effects from the over application of tenacity, really weeds only came up bleached for a couple weeks after.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

First Germination occurred on day 6, although this is only in the warmest areas of the yard. I had germination in all areas by day 11 although very thin in the colder/shadier areas and continued to get germination for 2 weeks there after.

Here is 2 DAG









9 DAG - pretty disappointed although the weather has been quite cool to this point, at least it has been easy to keep the grass damp.











15 DAG - finally starting to see some progress even if it is mostly in certain areas. I have germination everywhere, just some areas are quite thin.











I decided the areas with low germination were quite thin and decided to add some more seed so I threw down 1lb more in the thin areas, I had a half a bag of potting soil in the garage so I lightly covered the worst areas.

At 19 DAG I decided that most of the seed I just put down wasn't going to take so I put down another 1lb of seed in the thin areas and covered with another peat moss bale. I still have quite a bit of seed left so even if it doesn't take I figured it was worth the small amount of time it took.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

On about 17 DAG we started to experience a heat wave and over the next 7 days the high temperature was 30-36C or 86-97F. This set records for our area for the longest hot streak. Typically we only get a handful of days over 30C (86F) and I even remember summers where we don't get that hot.

I applied propiconazole at the 1oz rate in preparation for the hot temperatures and excessive watering.

It was brutal trying to keep the grass wet. If I had perfect sprinklers and an evenly sunny lawn it wouldn't have been so bad. Unfortunately each area of my lawn spends different parts of the day in the sun and shade so running the sprinklers all the time would cause too much water in whatever area was shaded and too little in the sunny areas so I was supplementing all the time with hand watering. Luckily I only have 2000ft2 and luckily I work from home for about half of the day. The last couple days were the worst as they were the hottest and had a pretty strong wind which dried the yard even faster and caused uneven sprinkler coverage.

I was a bit surprised but the grass seemed not to mind the heat too much as long as I kept it wet. Had the most progress so far this week. I even gave some of the more mature areas a quick cut with the manual reel

24 DAG (after last day of heat wave)











Tenacity has been worn off for quite a while now so I have been hand picking weeds almost daily.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

Here are some progress pics so far











Definitely the warm areas of my yard (more sun) have more mature grass blades. As well the really thin areas of my yard are areas I suspect I buried the seed too deep. I feel like this is true as some of the grass plants in these areas already have three blades as they are emerging out of the soil. You can see in these photos that some new grass babies are coming up from the 2nd/3rd seedings. Most areas I did they aren't coming up but there are definitely some new grass babies in some of the worst areas.





Interesting here for anyone doing a spring reno. You can see in this photo how much thicker/mature the grass is in the sunnier area. Most of the morning the area in this photo is in the shade and it is much thinner.



This is interesting as well, I have taken some clumps of grass from the healthy areas that are almost too thick and ripped the grass out like I was pulling a weed and transplanted to a thin area. I did this one a couple weeks ago and it is doing great. Obviously this would take too long on a large lawn, I just thought I would be happy I did a couple dozen of these in a month or two.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

Put down second dose of Scott's starter fertilizer (0.5lb N and P each time). I plan on using AS from here out and will be hitting the grass up with heavier doses trying to avoid heat spells.

I posted a thread earlier about a grass that was popping up in my reno and a couple of you identified it as perennial ryegrass. I believe you are probably correct. It likely only represents about 2-3% of grass that has come up and I was pulling it at first but I think I'm just going to leave it in now.

I have a test pot that I started last fall when I got my seed that has a few mature mazama grass plants and I planted one of the Ryegrass plants in the pot. They look nearly identical so I guess I won't technically have a monostand but likely the ryegrass will dye after a few of our winters. My finger is pointing the the ryegrass the mature mazama is to the right. Looks funny in the yard right now as the ryegrass establishes so quickly.




Finally looks like half a lawn from across the street


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

One other thing... I tried using Cleary's 3336 to help with worm castings after I flattened out the yard. I applied 2 ounce/1000ft2 and it didn't have an effect. This was basically just applied to soil so I am hoping that it needs to be applied to a growing plant and then leave the clippings on the lawn for the worms to digest at night. I will give it a try again once the grass is a bit more mature.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

Grass definitely has come out of the "pout" stage and grass blades are starting to thicken. Lots of improvement over the last 5 days. Have seen more germination from 2nd seeding and most bare/thin areas have at least some grass. North (shady) side is still quite thin and grass growing much slower here. I decided not to seed any more as I would like to back off watering a bit soon.

Also removed one of the drains that goes to the road. I left the other one as there are some young grass plants near where the water exits. Could use a mow soon at least in the more mature areas.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

Here are some collage photos from DAG - 2, 9, 15, 24, 29


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Drop more seeds in the last image/section.


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

g-man said:


> Drop more seeds in the last image/section.


Thanks for the response, I have tried dropping more seeds but most didn't seem to take, the ground is quite hard in this area as it is almost constantly wet due to shade most of the day.

Would you suggest I try to rough up the ground a bit or just drop the seeds and topdress. I think I didn't topdress enough the last overseed as I could still see most of the seeds after watering/rain.

There are more grass blades then the photo shows but they are quite thin and sparse. Here is a couple close ups, do you think I still need more seed?


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

So far our summer has been the hottest summer ever for our area. It hasn't affected the spring reno in terms of success but has caused a bunch more work with the extra watering.

Mowed the whole lawn for the first time this week

Applied 0.6lb N of Natura Organic Fertilizer 8-2-3 (Canada Home Hardware product) at 30 DAG. Something I like to do near beginning of July and again in August during warmest months.

Seems to be filling in quite a bit faster last couple weeks. Have good coverage on bare areas with second seeding in about 50% of the areas. I am tired of watering so frequently so have decided not to put any more seed down. Most the bare areas at least have a few grass blades. Might choose to seed more if it hasn't filled in enough in late summer/fall.

Sprayed some more propiconazole (1 ounce rate) about 19 days after first application as hot weather continues. Lows around 13-16C or 55-60F. No fungus yet.

35 DAG photos









Photos 29 - 35 DAG sun shining different on each photo so tough to compare







Tried killing some moss in shady areas using a 4oz/gallon rate. Applied using sprayer and drenched moss until wet then rinsed off grass immediately. Haven't seen any change yet (only been 7 hours).


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

4oz rate of iron on the moss did not work at all. I was surprised but am just going to leave it as I don't want to apply anything higher on the young grass. Trying to let it dry a bit on top 1/2 inch of soil.

Also been finding a lot of grass that isn't the Mazama I planted mostly in one section of the property. Been trying to pull by hand as it doesn't blend great with the Mazama, seems to grow taller. Anyone identify, I thought this was a bunching fine fescue (hard fescue) at first as some of the leaf blades that grow taller than the KBG are fine blades.

The different plants grow in very distinct bunches, some are reddish/purple at the bottom of the base. Distinct veining on the thicker/more mature blades. Looks like folded vernation.







Also seems to grow faster/taller than the KBG


----------



## NateDawg24 (Sep 11, 2019)

DAG 52 - some areas are looking good, some still need some work filling in. If I would have had more even germination off the start things would be great by now.

Broke out the roller for the first time today and lowered the height of cut to lowest setting (1.5"). Also did some edging for the first time









Continue pulling what I believe are PRG plants when I see them, probably have pulled close to 100 to date. Am now seeing a few Poa Annua plants so I am pulling them as well (probably only 10 in total). I'm sure there is more Poa coming up but they are difficult to identify until they mature a bit.



Here is probably the worst area apart from the shady/mossy area I'll try to keep taking photos here from the same angle to show filling in for the rest of the season.


----------

