# 0318 | Lawn Journal | 2022



## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

*Welcome to my 2022 journal​**Personal summary:
*My name is Paul I live in Renswoude (city code 0318, therefore my nickname) which is located in the centre of The Netherlands.
So upfront my apologies for some incorrect spelling or grammer, hopefully you will be able to follow and help me with this lawn journey.
My lawn is about 1000 sqft on sandy soil with PRG/TTF/FF (altough zero knowledge of identifying grass ID)

*History on TLF:
*0318 | Lawn Journal | 2021

*Goals for 2022*

Get a healthy & steady lawn
Over the past years my lawn goes from zero to hero and back the zero over a full season. 

Having an actual plan for the complete season
Including fertilizer plan + NPK release rates per week.
Preventative weed & fungicide plan

Tune irrigation
The past years I only irrigated when I felt it was needed, completly ignored evaporation etc.
Upgrade manifold to 6 zone (lack of pressure on supply line)

*Equipment list*
Reel mover (Atco / Allett 14")
Stiga manual reel
Level lawn (home made)
Manual aerator (home made)
MP rotator heads
Tenacity
Propi
Amistar (Azoxy)
MCPA


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Because of Covid lockdown and having a 3 week christmas holiday I've started on one of my goals: the irrigation upgrade.
First of all: I only need 4 heads the completly irrigate my lawn.

With the original built in 2016, I had all 4 heads with a seperate hose connected to the manifold. So I had 4 zones with each 1 head.
In 2019 I was getting frustrative about the manual watering of the border plants. 
So I changed the configuration to 2 drip zones and 2 lawn zones (with each 2 heads).
I've tested several times if the supply line was able to manage and it did, BUT.
My timing of the test must have been excellent (or not), because 75% of the time my sprinklers are not rotating due to lack of pressure, they do pop up, but don't rotate.
This resulted in some washouts during my overseeding last year and probably some dry/overwatered spots the rest of the year.
Ofcourse this is not acceptable anymore and therefore this change.

Original setup with 4 zones + 1 supply line. (manifold removed after winterizing)


Dug a hole to find the hoses:
Along the wall the supply line
2 left = drip zones
2 right including t pieces = lawn zones (20mm / 3/4" hoses)


Then the build of the new manifold in PVC. 
32mm - 1 1/4" PVC
1" Valves 
Layout all the parts


I'm very autistic, so had to allign all the logo's the same!


When working with PVC, you also have a 'dot' which is used in the molding process.
Since those are ugly, they are all on the wall side.


Same process for the elbows


Good gues, also on the 3-Way couplings.


For the threaded couplings I use hemp with some 'pasta?'
Also available is the thread seal tape, but you have to fasten that all the way till the end.
With hemp you can stop when your valve is alligned.


Coming together nicely 


Because of the hoses being pretty stiff, I made 2 mold's out of wood to properly allign the hoses.
The 2nd mold is below the sand, I don't have a picture from this, because you can image is a huge fight with 7 hoses.


And finally fitted the manifold on it, to make sure every is OK before filling the hole with sand.


To be done:
-Waiting for the sand to dry to redo the streetwork.
-Upgrading the electrical cabinet to be able ot control 6 zones.
-Blow out all the hoses
-Remove the sprinklers for cleaning 
-Removing the manifold and insert the O-Rings on the 3-way couplings.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Had to scratch the itch. Temps were in the 40's for quite some time and saw some growth.
My lawn is a major dissaster. Very thin and alot of weeds.

Pre-mow











Post mow









Must see progress in 2022.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Yeeha! The season has started!!
Temps reaching 50F during the day but also sunny the last week.
So decided to clean up the yard and trim bushes and trees.

After 3 afternoons of trimming decided to give the lawn a good rake and a hand mow.
Very little clippings but enjoyed it very much!
Also sprayed some iron @175g/k (~0.4bs/k) and mcpa @15ml/k (3 tsp / k).
Never had such a high weed pressure so hopefully kills some of it before detaching end of April.

The pics




Then I also got my delivery of lawn products.

Spring/summer fertilizer: 
NPK 8:3:6 organic granular fertilizer
Chose this product because of the 5% Sulfar and the 50% OM.
These were both low on my soil test last year.



Micro also granular.
Never used anything like it, so curious what it will do for my lawn. 
How can you notice the benefits the added micros?



And the most important:
Creeping red fescue 
Chosen because of fhe shade tolerance and ability the trive on low input which is normal for my sandy soil.
I'm by far no expert but these were mh thoughts!





Enjoy the day and to be continued!


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hello again,

I've finally finished my fertilizer calendar, it was way more complicated than imagined.
But i did it! and In the end I have build:
a data table were I can put my fertilizers with NKP, SO, FE, OM, Micro percentages and a release duration.
Within the release duration I can change the amount that will be released per week.
Example: 12 week release time can be 12x 1/12, but also 3x 3/24 + 6x 2/24 + 3x 1/24.
Because i think organic fertilizers will release more of their nutrients in week 1 to 3 then in week 9 till 12. 
This is based on nothing, just my feeling.

With these numbers it will calculate for each application how much will be released in their given period after application. 
In the end I sum up all the categories and plot on a graph.

Now i finally have an idea on how much I need to throw down in relation to the lawn journals I read on this forum.

the graphs are plotted in LOG, so each step is 10 times as big.




Because of the graph I learned that I have to apply 2 times as much fertilizer as last year to reach the wanted fall blitz for example (0.25 lbs N / M / week).

At least I have a little bit more clue how nutrients will be released in a given period. Hopefully makes it easier to diagnose my lawn in case something goes wrong. 
Anyway it was fun to built in the off season. 
If people are interested I will translate to English and upload somewhere everyone can use it.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

Great stuff &#128077; the graphs must have been a lot of work! I wish I was that organized.

Regarding the micros, I don't really notice an immediate difference after applying. I just assume that keeping them in the optimal range is going to have subtle long term benefits. The one exception to me would be Fe which can produce a nice color response within days.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Thanks @bf7, hopefully the micros help me have a healthy and stable lawn.

Yesterday had my weekly mow for the early spring. Its been very nice weather last week with temps around 60 during the day and close to freezing at night. 
Comming week will be much cooler with 40 degree max.

Some overall pictures









Besides the bare spots I'm seeing alot of clumping grass with flat laying grass blades.
I've run the manual reel on the lowest setting (1") in multiple directions over it but it is laying to flat to mow.
Will scalp it help? Because my Allett/Atco is able to reach a lower setting?

On picture #5 you can also see black grass seed, is this dying grass or something else?

**considering the nuclear option to do a spring reno :x **

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

I would try to pull the weeds / seed the bare spots, especially if this is fescue. You didn't use pre-emergent, right?

Once the turf greens up more, it will be easier to see how extensive the weed population is. Then it will be easier to decide if nuclear option is best. I'm obviously not well versed in your climate, but now would be early to start a spring reno in the US (cool season zones).

I think #5 is disease (perhaps red thread?)


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Pre emergent is not available in the Netherlands. But because of the bare spots I must overseed so pre-emergent was a no-go anyway, correct?

The clumping grass, do I need to consider this a weed and remove them? Or will the spring growth overtake it in the end? Removing I will do before detach, topdress and overseed on the end of April. Otherwise the bare spots will allow for even more weed. Then spring really kicks off and soil temps will be stable above 55 degree.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hello once again,

It's been a few weeks! Went on holiday and was looking to buy our dream home. Sadly someone had a higher offer in the end.
Not a reel problem but worked on my proposal for 2 weeks day and night!

Anyway, had to fix my current lawn.

On April 15:
0.4lbs P (organic) 
0.35lbs FE (liquid)
4 oz/acre tenacity

On April 28
0.4 lbs P (organic)
0.4 lbs N (organic)
Detached with Allett/Atco
Added Micros 
Overseeded @ 10 lbs / M with Barenbrug Bar fescue
Topdressed with peat moss 
Edges cleaned to the sidewalks
Set up my sprinkler to 5 min per 3 hours

So that makes me DAS 4 when I made these pictures.
You can see the tenacity doing an excellent job.
This is still from the application 2 weeks ago. When do i need to plan my next application?
To my understanding after 4 weeks, so in 2 weeks?

Will it completly die by itself or do I manually need to remove it? Because that will be a serious job.













My last year germination duration was 14 days but then it was a cool spring. This year is much better with soil temps @55.

Waiting untill my grass babies will emerge!


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

I'm kind of a plant nerd. Can I ask a few questions about some of your plants?
What is the hedge by the street? Some kind of beech?
What are the trees that you prune? I noticed them in leaf in your journal last year. Catalpa? Surely not Catalpa. What is that style of pruning called?


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hello @butter,
Indeed along the street is a green beech. The 4 pruned trees are indeed catalpas.
Are you suprised by this?
I don't know the english translation of the pruning, but it is performed like this video.





The red tree is a Fagus sylvatica 'Pendula Purpurea' also from the beech family.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Some time past so time for a update.

Had some cold days on the beginning of May but recovery was defintly ongoing!

7th of May









After the 7th the temps picked up to about 70 but also nights of above 50 and that helped to germinate my grass babies!
On day 10 we had germination!

These are from the 18th of May.
Mowing done 2 times per week with the manual reel to not damage the new borns.













The area next to the garage is the most problematic. Not enough sunlight as always so not much I can do about it.

Monday last mow with the manual reel, Tuesday start with the allett and increasing freqeuncy to every other day.
Happy about the progress and happy to finish the overseeding project!

To be continued


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Rain in the begining of the week stopped me from mowing.
From wednesday it was dry enough to mow and so i did. Manual reel on wedsday and wth the allett on friday.
Tried a dubble stripe, but not very even widths on the first try.
Luckily the season just started so can practice some more!


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Help needed!

Since yesterday im noticing alot of brown spots in my lawn. 
Probably the lowered cut is bringing this problem forward.

The fine and small grass blades are all green and happy as you can see.



But the stammy grass (or is this poa/weeds?) blades are brown.
My first idea was a fungus but Im by far not annexpert? 
I have propy and azoxy but not sure if i can apply 1 month after seeding. Please advise

Or is this dying poa from the tenacity application?
Anyway can use some help


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