# Stephen's lawn journal



## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Howdy y'all this is my first real post. I've been reading on here for about 6 months just soaking up knowledge. 

My wife and I bought our first house in September of 2018. So this is my first real season with our lawn. When the builder built the house it was seeded with common Bermuda but the previous owner decided to sod the front with St. Augustine. The Bermuda invaded and took it over to the point where I have a 50/50 mix now. My goal is to slowly encourage the Bermuda to choke out the st aug by mowing low and eventually using quinclorac.


Re did the flower beds early this fall. At first I loved the look but now it looks like I have no imagination


Got a new toro rotary shortly there after. Love it for what it is but I want to go lower.




Installed my own sprinkler system at the beginning of April. That was a butt kicking everyone needs to experience at least once. Right?

That leads me to today....


















I picked up my first reel mower. About five years ago it was given to my coworker and he never did anything with it. So he gave it to me. The guy who gave it to him said it needed a new motor and that it would be good to go. I gave it a bath with the pressure washer and read the 14page thread on Mclane mowers.

If I can get this bad boy running on a budget I'll be that much closer to the lawn of my dreams but I'm not sure if it's cost effective. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading my lawn journal. There will be more to come.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Swapped the motor on the Mclane and had my first reel mow!


Realized the Briggs and Stratton 4 hp motor on my craftsman edger would fit right up where the 3 hp motor had been.


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## BlackOut (May 24, 2019)

nice going on the reel mower and engine swap. Probably will need to look into sharpening the reel professionally to clean it up to get a good cut. I'm guessing it chewed through it ok though? Look forward on seeing your progress.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Threw down two bags of Milo this afternoon and watered it in for my June N.

The reel is actually really sharp and the bed knife still has plenty of life left. I sprayed it down with fluid film before I ran it then re applied several times during the mow. I'm just using it on the back yard for right now. The front has to much st aug and I'm waiting on the trenches from the sprinkler install to settle. It's been over a month and it's still 2 inches taller than the rest of the turf.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Mowed the back yard again with the Mclane. Noticed this morning I missed some spots on my inaugural mow. My backyard is far from smooth but it didn't scalp anything unlike my rotary. I believe the mclane is set up at approximately 7/8 inch. 




I'm fighting the itch to do the front yard now....
Taking a yard that's 50/50 common Bermuda to st aug down to an inch would definitely give the Bermuda an advantage right?


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Full send. I Mclaned the front yard too.

Before:



After:


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Sparton said:


> I'm fighting the itch to do the front yard now....
> Taking a yard that's 50/50 common Bermuda to st aug down to an inch would definitely give the Bermuda an advantage right?


Taking it down with the McLane will definitely give the Bermuda the upper hand.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Thanks @Redtwin. I want the st aug gone but I want to do it gradually without having the yard look horrible or dropping the money on new sod.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Mid week mow postponed due to rain. With all the Milo down it sure smells like success!


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Yard is definitely starting to thicken up. Got a mow in Thursday,Friday, and today. Waiting 4 days between mowings due to the rain definitely stressed the grass. Will do my best to mow every 3 days when possible.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Yard is definitely starting to thicken up. Got a mow in Thursday,Friday, and today. Waiting 4 days between mowings due to the rain definitely stressed the grass. Will do my best to mow every 3 days when possible.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

I've been leveling out the trenches left over from my sprinkler install on the front lawn. Was inspired by a product someone posted on here call an irrigation fork. 


I give you the irrigation probe


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## The_iHenry (Apr 23, 2019)

Coming along nicely. How low do you eventually plan on going? Never seen an irrigation probe before


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

@The_iHenry thanks man. Right now the mclane I have is set up at an inch. Once the st aug submits to the Bermuda I'd like to take it down lower.


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## The_iHenry (Apr 23, 2019)

Sparton said:


> @The_iHenry thanks man. Right now the mclane I have is set up at an inch. Once the st aug submits to the Bermuda I'd like to take it down lower.


Right on brother. I got mine set up at .25 hopefully I can get rid of the weeds green it up and maintain it there.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Today was my lucky day. Picked this guy up from the country club for $100.

When I woke up this morning I had not intentions of buying another mower. It just kinda fell in my lap. Picked it up after work and cleaned it. Was trying to clean the carb and snapped the main jet I think.

Anyways if I never post on here again it's because my wife kills me for buying another mower lol.


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## The_iHenry (Apr 23, 2019)

Sparton said:


> Today was my lucky day. Picked this guy up from the country club for $100.
> 
> When I woke up this morning I had not intentions of buying another mower. It just kinda fell in my lap. Picked it up after work and cleaned it. Was trying to clean the carb and snapped the main jet I think.
> 
> Anyways if I never post on here again it's because my wife kills me for buying another mower lol.


Nice come up!

I doubt she'll kill you over $100.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Got a good mow in this afternoon before the week of rain we have predicted. Worked on the toro flex and got the motor to run. I have some questions

Where is this spring supposed to connect to ?



Where should I order a new one of these?


Hooked my drill up and to make it spin for a few seconds then the spring coupler blew up in my face. Always use ppe folks

Final question where can I order a new throttle cable for this thing? It's worn completely through the housing so when you use the appropriate throttle lever it doesn't even move at the carb.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

We've gotten a lot of rain this week so instead of mowing tonight I worked on the flex.



Got the main jet that I stripped out. What a relief.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Got a good double mow in on the front and back. The Bermuda in the front is really starting to over take the st aug. picture doesn't do the back yard justice but it is starting to really thicken up and take to the higth of cut.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Put down two bags of milo and watered it in.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Put down 10lbs of of scotts disease ex. Came back to town and lawn has some brown spots.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Finally got a chance to try Celsius. Spot sprayed some of the weeds in the yard with my hand can pump up sprayer. Used half a tsp in one gallon so not the most accurate. Will order a digital scale for the next app.

Parts for the flex 21 should be here this week!


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Got the parts in today for the flex. Rebuilt the carb and had my inaugural mow. What a butt kicking it was.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Got in my second mow with the toro. Gearbox still leaking and all. 




Look at those stripes. I'm proud of those.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Did a second spot spray of Celsius while we still have this nice cool front. 1/2 tsp with mso. 

Starting to see the Dallis grass yellow


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Put in a lot of work in the yard this weekend. I've had a large trouble spot in the back yard along the entire backside of the house. It seems the back yard was seeded so I have no topsoil in the back what so ever just lovely red clay. Manually airated then spread 12 bags of topsoil. Red clay turns into brick so the common Bermuda can't tack down and create roots. 








After finishing all that I decided to do a hoc reset. Went as low as the high hoc bars will allow.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

7-29 put down 1/2 pound of n in the front yard. Full pound in the back.


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Tried to have a little gender reveal tonight. FYI a greensmaster will just push a balloon not pop it.


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

That looks Pink...CONGRATS...I have been blessed with three girls...it is awesome!


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

@Bmossin thanks man I'm sure this is payback for my teenage years lol. We're really excited to become parents


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## Batsonbe (May 9, 2019)

Congratulations on the baby


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Fertilized the lawn at .5 n per M. Finally got ahold of some real fertilizer last weekend at site one in Tyler. Sadly I knew more about what they were selling then the counter guys did. Anyways this is the beginning of me spoon feeding the yard some 21-0-0


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Put down a 1/2 lb of nitrogen tonight. Got finished not 5 minuets before a 1/4 inch of rain


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## Sparton (Mar 20, 2019)

Put down pre emergent at the 3 month rate.


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