# KB's Zeon Zoysia lawn reno into Emerald lawn



## Kbro (Jul 11, 2019)

We moved into our new house in the fall of 2017 and after one summer of mowing mostly clover and weeds, along with remnants of Emerald Zoysia , we decided to renovate the lawn.

Before buying this house I've spent the past 22 years maintaining a common Bermuda lawn on a corner lot. My neighbor was a landscaper/lawn guy and got us a dump truck of river sand and we got it all leveled. He sold me his old TruCut C27 and I was off and running...for several years. Eventually couldn't keep up with the reel and switched to a Honda Harmony2 rotary. Always used a lawn service for fertilizer/weed control. After all those years of mowing and scalping every spring eventually caught up to me. I don't think I want another Bermuda lawn or at least not a large common Bermuda lawn.

So, fast forward to summer of 2019 looking at mostly weeds, a patch of clover, and a portion of Emerald Zoysia at our new house with a small yard. I didn't mind cutting mostly clover/weeds the first summer and even considered planting more clover but kept my eye on the patch of zoysia. The neglected Emerald Zoysia was still holding it's own and i really loved the dark green color. So, started seeing if I could get it to spread thinking maybe I could go the plugging route. It did spread but not as fast as I was used to with Bermuda. So, decided go with some new sod to match up with the Emerald but realized that it was hard to find and was directed to Zeon as the 'new and approved' Emerald.

Here's what it looked like. (Clover patch is up next to the driveway. The Emerald Zoysia on the right side of the picture)







Starting in May, sprayed to kill the weeds/clover and started preparing the soil for sod.
(did I mention my yard gets quite a bit of shade?)



After removing all the dead material we had close to 6 inches of rain over 2 days:



I debated what to do with the soil. Till or not till. Add topsoil or sand. I knew i wanted to keep things as level as possible but after seeing all that water flow over the dirt it seemed that there was a pretty decent amount of sandy soil there in most spots. I did find a bad spot of compacted red clay mixed with some gravel. And several roots that needed to be dug out.

I removed a few inches of soil when i removed the dead stuff (a flat edge shovel ran an inch under the soil - and removed sod like pieces of dead weed roots) I bought a half a yard of topsoil and 1/4 yard of river sand. Mixed that together and tilled it into the existing soil down to about 4-5 inches.



On June 21st, the pallet of Zeon was delivered and starting laying it down.



Under-calculated how much sod and had to make a trip to the sod farm the next day for more pieces.



Still needed another 40 pieces of sod to fill in the gaps and try to fit into the existing Emerald grass.



June 30th - we got all the remaining pieces in.


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## Kbro (Jul 11, 2019)

Day 16 - first mow at 2 1/4 inches.


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## Kbro (Jul 11, 2019)

Day 18 - Mowed at 1 3/4.





Day 24:


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## Buffalolawny (Nov 24, 2018)

That's coming along alright :thumbup:


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

Be interested in your experience....I have both side by side it's almost identical.... emerald has more thatch


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Amy update on this?


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## Rammy1546 (Jan 3, 2020)

@Kbro How much shade does your yard get? And how has the Zeon been over the year?

Thanks!


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## Kbro (Jul 11, 2019)

My yard gets about 5 hrs sunlight mostly late afternoon. The last several months of summer into September we got no rain and the afternoon sun made it tricky to keep it watered at the right time. Waiting to see how it looks after spring green up.


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## FDee (Jun 13, 2019)

@Kbro You should post a recent pic of your lawn. I wouldn't mind seeing how the two cultivars compare side by side when dormant.


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