# GB043075 Lawn Journal



## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

I'm a bit of a noob as it relates to true lawn care, but i've decided to take on the challenge of growing what will hopefully be a nice patch of bermuda in my backyard. If all goes well, possibly expand the bermuda to other portions of my yard (yard is currently st. aust-weeds. Total lot area is about 1.25 acres. It's an older home in a suburban area of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, so i have the climate on my side. The home was built at a reasonable FF elevation, unfortunately, they skimped on filling the rest of the yard, so my back and side yards are swamp land during rainy season. I filled the mud hole pond in the proposed bermuda patch last year, and recently brought in another +/- 30 loads to raise the area to where it should be to drain and to plan for another metal building to store all my super-essential tools and toys... The bermuda patch is about 9000 s.f. The "#1 quality" fill i purchased is total junk. Full of concrete and asphalt debris, pieces of tile, etc. I've dragged, raked, dragged some more, let it rain, sprinkled it to expose more, etc. It's as good as it's going to get before seeding tomorrow. I purchased La Prima bermuda seed online, from Hancock i believe. Plan to start with 25 lbs on the 9k sf patch. Follow up with 4 bags of milorganite (1 pound per thousand roughly) as well as some Greenview Starter fertilizer and a dusting of peat moss. Lightly roll, then irrigate 3 times a day for 20 minutes per zone. The "soil" i am working with is very sandy. I probably jinxed myself by purchasing a used Greensmaster 1600 that arrived today, but hoping for the best. My regular mower for the st. augustine in other areas is a Big Dog ZTR and a honda push for tight spots.

Some before and after latest fill photos. Hard to tell how wet the backyard got due to it being dry season, but it's inundated after an inch of rainfall.





















Well, here goes nothing, please let me know if anyone sees any fatal flaws in my approach.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Looking forward to the progress! Welcome to TLF @gb043075 :thumbup:


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## pintail45 (Apr 26, 2018)

Off topic, but is that a deer blind in your backyard?


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

pintail45 said:


> Off topic, but is that a deer blind in your backyard?


Haha yes, it's a deer stand converted to "tree fort" for my kids.


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## pintail45 (Apr 26, 2018)

gb043075 said:


> pintail45 said:
> 
> 
> > Off topic, but is that a deer blind in your backyard?
> ...


Nice. I thought you might've had a wild hog problem or something.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

So the seed is germinating, now about 10 days in. I have a lot of sedge popping up as well as various other weeds, clover, etc. I've seen Lawn Nut's video on spraying for weeds 3 weeks after germination, but not clear on whether or not that is a hard and fast rule AND what the best product is to spot spray the weeds? I have some Dismiss i was planning to use (I have sedgehammer as well but was hoping to kill multiple weeds with one bottle), is there a better product for this application to minimize damage to the surrounding new seedlings?


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

First "mow" 3/16/19. Hand pulled a couple thousand nutsedge prior, first time using my new to me Greensmaster 1600 (like butter). 50 pounds of milorganite pro grade.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

Picked these up from Weeks Friday (2500e and 220e). They need a little TLC, but I'm happy with both purchases. Still battling weeds but the lawn is coming along...


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

gb043075 said:


> Picked these up from Weeks Friday (2500e and 220e). They need a little TLC, but I'm happy with both purchases. Still battling weeds but the lawn is coming along...


Awesome! Congrats!


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## Thor865 (Mar 26, 2018)

gb043075 said:


> Picked these up from Weeks Friday (2500e and 220e). They need a little TLC, but I'm happy with both purchases. Still battling weeds but the lawn is coming along...


Nice nice

@wardconnor couldn't handle a John Deere.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

Coming along, reseeded some of the trouble spots last week. Upped watering to 5 times a day for only 2 minutes per zone and those are already germinating. Still hand pulling weeds, primarily sedge and crabgrass. Plan to spot spray in 3 more weeks.


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## wardconnor (Mar 25, 2017)

Thor865 said:


> gb043075 said:
> 
> 
> > Picked these up from Weeks Friday (2500e and 220e). They need a little TLC, but I'm happy with both purchases. Still battling weeds but the lawn is coming along...
> ...


I prefer the red paint to the green


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

March 31 update. Still bare spots and still itching to spray for weeds, but continuing to hand pull what i can for now. 25x26' metal shed coming soon to the concrete pad in the pictures. Shed isn't built yet and i already know i'll be out of room...


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

April 10 update. Coming along. Laid down some mirimichi green carbonizPN in some of the larger struggling spots. We'll see how it goes. PGR was applied last weekend, a bit premature I know, but I got anxious. Mowing at 0.5" with the Toro GM 1600, waiting to get the 2500E back from the shop tuneup, and the 220E has been shelved for now. Also spoke with Lee at Reel Rollers today, pulled the trigger on an Electra - mostly for my zoysia out front and for future scarifying and verticutting.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

I guess it's the A.D.D. Engineer in me, but I can't stay focused. Decided to make my way around the 1.2 acres with reckless abaondon, scorch the st. aug and replace with Empire Zoysia in our front lawn, bermuda in all other areas (La Prima / La Prima XD in the rear, P77 in front and sides). First phase of front lawn Zoysia (1,500sf) was a low area that dropped off from our front patio, always bugged me. So, about 30 yards of fill later I'm happier. Also hired a tree service to trim back the severely overgrown, sucker filled oaks. Shade is certainly a challenge for these front areas, but the oaks aren't going anywhere so I'll struggle with it as necessary. The other side of patio will be glypho'ed as soon as i can find the time and Empire Zoysia laid (2,300sf). Also converted small area between house and detached garage to Zoysia. Terribly unlevel, so that will stay high cut rotary for the time being.











The Zoysia sod has a massive layer of thatch. My plan is to let it grow in well then dethatch. I thought i had the area graded as smooth as a baby's bottom, but the differences in sod thickness coupled with some settling means sand / leveling in my near future.

Before and after round 1 of glypho of NW quadrant of yard. You can see the common bermuda that was overtaking the st. augusting greening back up.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

April 29 update. Got the 2500e back and man what a dream it is to use. Extremely happy with the investment. Mowing every other day at 1/2", PGR (Podium) being applied at 0.25 per k based on greenkeeper app recommendations (2nd round applied this past weekend). Still hand pulling crabgrass, i've made a couple of spot treatments with sedgehammer, msma target 6.6 and celcius. I've been delicate with the app rates which has resulted in lackluster kill rate, although it seems to be slowing the weeds down long enough for the bermuda to fill in in a lot of areas. Have been making some irrigation mods for better coverage / trenching, better now than later I suppose (pre-seeding would have been a better plan).


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## Two_Rivers (Apr 5, 2019)

There is a ton of work going on here, great progress!


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

So it rained yesterday.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

Say hello to my little friend...


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## raymond (May 4, 2018)

gb043075 said:


> Say hello to my little friend...


Are you a pro or is that for home use only?


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

@raymond Personal use only. Home and hunting property.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

Backyard La Prima is progressing nicely. Finally have weeds under control somewhat, and runners are filling in the bare spots.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

Some leveling / bare spot maintenance with my girlfriend. Using about 70/30 sand and mirimichi carboniz it's worked really well so far but pricey...


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

And used the amazon dethatcher for the first time. Impressive, but the Zoysia is looking like it lost a bar fight. Hopefully it will recover well.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

Front yard work continues. Paid the local drainage district to replace my driveway culverts (they were kind enough to throw some dead bahia down for erosion control). Ripping the old asphalt driveways out and replacing with pavers. Leaving the right side of the house as the staging area until the the other 3/4 of the yard is "complete", then move to filling, grassing, pavers, etc. on that side, hopefully this fall. The Empire Zoysia in the front is doing fine, other than the fact it doesn't seem to be rooting down very well at all. It's been dry the last couple of weeks so hopefully more rain will help it latch in place.


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## gb043075 (Feb 25, 2019)

A lot of progress this week. Next phase of pavers complete, metal building finally going in.


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