# 2021 Tato's Lawn Journal (Europe/Spain/Madrid), renovation in fall



## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Hello!

I've been reading a lot lately in this forum for the past 1 year and now I've decide to start my journal to keep track of everything.

I live in the suburbs of Madrid, we have cool temperatures in winter, last year we hit 15 ºF (~-6ºC) and hot and dry summers mainly July an August, sometimes reaching 100ºF and even more.
My lawn's size is small, about 540 sqft (~50 m2).

My lawn in summer 2020:


Now:
late May

June after vacations


GOAL: Master tier 2 practices or more.
Problems: Need license to get some pesticides in Europe, but I plan to get one.
Advantages: My wife likes the grass so she let me put time into this 

*2019*
No idea about anything, bought the first seeds I found, same for fertilizer. I failed a lot, watering, fertilizing a complete disaster. The irrigation was intalled by the previous owner, the yard was full of weeds.

*2020*
I started to read information on Spring I failed again. on fall I contacted a guy who works for a golf course and he recomended some seeds to "start playing" in my zone, some fertilizer and a big advice: Mow. 
I end up with some kind of fertilization calendar and a lawn composed by 60% PRG, 30% red fescue and 10% KBG.

I did also an irrigation audit on September and I discovered that I had a poor coverage with irrigation system with my 12 rain bird 15-van splinkers heads. I fixed it by putting 4 hunter SRM temporary so that in 2021 I could plan better. Everything looked greener and better in general

*2021*
Since I have a small yard I wanted to push a little bit my lawn once I learned more about fertilizing and mowing, I started to put humic acid and seafeed. I noticed I had to mow more, like twice a week but on the other hand my lawn was looking better

humic acid every 15 days.
Seafeed every 28 days.

I noticed also that I have less weeds in my lawn in general but then I discovered poa annua 
This year I had to build the wall I share with my neigbour so the soil near the wall is very compacted. This is one of the reason for the renovation.

*Plan for fall 2021*
- I'll stop taking care of the lawn on July.
- Kill my lawn and start over with the knowledge I have now. Think to go to a monostand or a mix of PRG and KBG. Depends on what I can get, see the end of this message.
- Fix completely the irrigation system with less forks and less points of faliure. 
I discovered some rust spots on the places where the pipes forks. I need to investigate this issue further....
Before the fix:

After the fix (cross are closed splinker heads but the pipe remains there):

Suposed new schema once I review everything:


Thanks to the wonderful renovaton guide in this forum, my plan, with the aim on seeding by the end on August or beginning of September is:

- Round up (July) ~T-6
- After some weeks, use the eletric garden tiller and work on leveling and break the compacted soil. Maybe add some sand.
- Fix the irrgation system, review everything and in case get rid of the unused pipes. I think It is better to remove the unused pipes before I go with the tiller machine. :lol: 
- ~(T-2) check the irrigation to fix low or high spots.
- Finally seed by the end of August

recommendations are accepted 

*SEEDS*
I started to think on a KBG monostand since I discovered the "legend" seed(https://icl-sf.com/global-en/products/turf_amenity/poa-pratensis-legend/) which is suitable for the south of Europe, but it is difficult to get such seeds here, I didn't get a response from ICL yet.

Then I contacted a company dedicated to seeds, sod and also to golf and soccer. They adviced me wouldn't recommend me to go to monostand here with KBG due to the high water needs and the fungus desease because of the heat. This advice made me think again, let's think again...

So far this is what I can get:

PRG/KBG mix:
- 80/20 PRG Essence, KBG: 10% Evora 10%platini
- 70/30 PRG Lover, sun and Ringles (23% each), KBG 20% bluechip, 10% Nuglade

100% KBG: 33% prafin, 33% nuglade, 33% jumpstart


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Hi, I don't know much about suppliers in Spain but I did a fair amount of research trying to find American varieties which lead me to two Italian companies, Bottos1848.com (Royal Sport) and https://tempoverde.it/prodotto/blue-stadio/ are two good mixes with Ryegrass and KBG mixed, both used in football stadiums.

You can email them and see if they can recommend a seller who can ship to you. Or I know Royal Sport is available through Amazon resellers, I ordered Royal Sport last year from an Italian company, 3x 1KG boxes will be plenty for your lawn.

You will need a fair amount of water in your heat &#128526; for PRG and KBG.

ICL does also have some nice mixes, if you can find a reseller it would be better. Here in the UK their mixes only come in 20KG bags.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Thanks @RCUK, seems like you did a good research.
I've read your journal and *timtimotej's* and I've already contacted them.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Hello,

I had to delay the roundup application until yesterday becasue my family wanted to enjoy the yard a little bit more.

Regarding the seeds, if everything goes well I'll try the "royal sport" from bottos[1](thanks to RCUK for his research) which is 35% KBG and 65% PRG. As my second option I have another spanish supplier (fito) with similar percentage 30% KBG and 70% PRG.
I've tried to order already the seeds but there were some problems with amazon and they cancelled the order, let's try again.

I think there should be ok to start my new journey in lawn care.

*26th July*:
1st Roundup application (probably another one by the end of the week). By the way, does someone knows if I'm doing well to keep watering to promote new weeds germination?

Some pictures from yesterday:







Soil profile:


I'll keep you updated.

[1] https://www.bottos1848.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Royal-Sport.pdf
[2] https://www.semillasfito.es/media/6582/ficha-cesped-sport-ing-v2.pdf


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Great choice! I hope it goes well for you &#128077; 2 months since planting royal sport and good so far.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Hi!

I've been on vacations the last 2 weeks so Im gonna update now:
During my vacations seed arrived, 3 kg of royal sport:


*31st of July*:
5 days after gliphosate the lawn looks like this:

As you can see I made a mistake with the sprayer hehehe.

It was difficult also to get rid of this type of grass:


Second round of glipshosate before the vacations.

*13rd of August*:
Gliphosate results seems to be OK 


Mow at my lowest setting 0.78 inch (2cm)

I've been watering to promote new weeds germination but I don't see any of them.

Plan for next 2 weeks:
- Inspect for watering issues.
- Do a Mason Jar Soil Test. I didn't test anything since we bought the house and I didn't find any lab in Spain to do soil test to a particular one.
- Use the tiller machine and level everything as much as possible.
- Start looking for seed date.
- Do a test pot to see how much time takes the seeds to germinate.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Hi

Not much but just to keep traking of everything.
18th August 
-Test pot to see how much time it gets to germinate.

19thAugust
- Third round of glyphosate to kill new born weeds


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

With the Royal Sport, you should see germination of the Rye within 7 days, but longer for KBG and then the sprout/pout stage, don't worry when you see this, quite normal. It will initally appear as lots of bare spots. Full results will take a month  Good luck!


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

22nd August
After 4 days I see germination in my test pot :


Started to work with the tiller machine but the soil is still wet.
I've discovered some kind of drainage the previous owner did.


By the next Wednesday I'd like to start leveling.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Hello,

I couldn't update before becasue I was involve also in a "full bath renovation" and painting another room hehe.

I've been leveling as much as I could adding a little of sand and mixing with the existing soil to be able to level better. The next year I can evaluate topdressing only with sand of a high sand mix 80/20, something like that.

6th of September:
Seed down and start watering 4 times a day.


10th of September:
I see some germination, the weather has been very nice here and luckily for me, this time I didn't see too many bird eating my seeds :lol:

13th of September:
More germination I can see now a little green line I guess these are the PRG seeds.


Tomorrow we have a big storm comming, let's hope it won't do too much damage to the lawn, the last week when I checked it was a small storm... let's see.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

New updates:
Germination on 10th of September, so that according to the renovation guide the next steps are:
- 14 days DAG, which is tomorrow (another storm comming), Apply a fast nitrogen source
- 21 days DAG to look for no germination zones and apply more seeds, which is the 1st of October.

The storm we had causes some problems but 
Meanwhile pictures about the evolution.

16th of September:


20th of September:


21st of September:


Yesterday:


I'm more or less happy with the results but I will have to seed some areas again due to the storm we had. Let's see after this weekend and if the KBG (35% of the mix) germinates well.

Weather for the next days:









About the application of urea I have a question, how much water do you use to mix with urea? is it important? I was thinking of filling my 5L sprayer and mix everything and then water the lawn.
The 0,2lb N /ksqft equivalence to my size since I have 525 sqft... the amount of N would be ~0,1 lbN/sqft, that is ~0,2lb of urea. I think my math is ok...


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

24/9 mowed the lawn at 2 inches with my rotary mower.

25/9 
- 0,2lb in my case 528 sqft: 0,1 lb of N. It's my first time with the urea so I prefer to go a little bit lower and safe.

- reseed of no germination zones. Let's wait to have something on the next 2 weeks.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

9/28: Evolution since I applied N.

It is my first time using urea and it seems like it is thickening up nicely, the black spots are the ones I put seed 3 days ago


Another picture of the shadiest zone of my yard. This si the most problematic zone since my yard is oriented 16ºN, and it is where all the poa annua was the last year, right now it only has 3 hours of sun in the morning. This zone is already reseed because of some washouts.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

9/30
Mow at 2 inches


And new germination on the biggest bare spots 




Still work to do, but to be a 3 weeks old lawn I think I can be happy.

Plan for the weekend: mow and fertilize again with more N


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

New update today

10/5
Mow today, I couldn't do it before a because of the rain we had here. I'm mowing twice a week at 1,8"(4,5 cm).
Apply another 0,1 lb of N and humic acid.

Some pictures to show differences ans the evolution:

*Before*
The complicated zone right now, not as much grown as the dinner with more fun light but I see more green:


The rest of the yard before mowing.


*After*
I didn't want to turn so much with the mower so I had to go in a different direction than the rest of the yard.


Another view of the yard.sorry for that diagonal stripe I realized I missed something


The other zone, I have also to mow carefully this one because of the irrigation box.


The last one a panoramic view, I'm not able to get a good picture and definition with the angular of my mi 9t pro.



From now on I have to water less than before since the shadow is getting bigger. The reseeded spots ate showing germination.


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

10/12

Mow and I forgot to set the HOC to the current one (2") and I mowed a pieze at 0,78", luckly I noticed fast enough:



I applied 0,2 N /ksqft.

Pictures of the current state:
The shadiest part of my lawn:
ç
Compared with the previous one it is filling in nicely 




I have a problem with my controller rainbird wpx4[1] . The mode button and the "-" are not working. This is my second wpx4 controller both the same failure. I think this issue is happening when the irrigation box is full of water after some rain, at this make me think that my units are not as waterproof as they say....
While I ask for warranty I can continue with this one but I'm seriouslky thinking on buying another from hunter or a different brand.

Any recomendation of a new one ? I need a 9v waterproff controller since it is impossible to get electricity there or put it somewhere else in the yard right now. Previous owner didn't think about this issue.

This week my plan is to apply some herbicide to get rid of some weeds.

EDIT: My rainbird controller is going to be replaced, so that...instead of a new one, I only have to buy new waterproof cable connectors.

[1] https://www.rainbird.com/products/wpx-series


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Hello again journal 

A lot was going on and I couldn't update the journal.

My controller has been replaced, this time I chose to go with the "Rain Bird TBOS-BT4". The old one was the third rainbird wpx4 that had the same issue. Let's see how it goes. 


Unfortunately the zone 1 is losing water just before the valve(it is the one on the left in the above picture), so I will have to replace the piece that joins the 3 valves.
I don't know if doing it now or wait since I have to dig and destroy a little bit of my work.... it may be better on February 2022.

Regarding the grass... The 10th of November was my last nitrogen application, my yard doesn't receive the sun light and the grass is not growing as it was before.
Just to documentation purposes there are some pictures to see the evolution:

*10/21:*







*11/13:*
The most problematic zone... I think I have better results here than I expected :nod: 

Comparing against one the first pictures...




And here I think there are some poa plants growing... For the next season and during the winter I will try to get some products or get a license since here in Europe some product are banned.


The last picture from a different point of view...


I have rain for the next 2 weeks so let's se if I can post more picture or mow the last time this year


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## tato (Aug 28, 2020)

Close my 2021 journal here, will post in the new 2022 journal  hope continue improving day by day thanks to this forum.


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