# Elgrow's Lawn Journal - Central VA TTTF



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Well I have been lurking here for quite a while and figured it was about time I started posting what I've done to my yard. I purchased my house back in August of 2018 and here is what the front yard looked like around that time.


Yard was pretty shaddy and had lots of large oak trees on the property (4) which kept things very shady and moist. Things were looking pretty flush and green up until march of 2019 when one of the large oak trees uprooted and fell on my neighbors property.





At this time I knew I would be having to overseed and renovate the front yard, along with some work in the back yard as well since the eastern part by the big oak was swampy clay with no grass growing there. Unfortunately there was another 120+ year old oak in the back leaning towards the same neighbors house, so that one had to come down as well. Here is the best I have for a before picture of the back yard prior to the tree coming down. (Ignore the ratchet strap attached to that weed growing in the back)



Fast forward to Sept 22 2019 and we start my first "real" foray into lawncare. I think I had found the LCN and was subscribing pretty heavily to his plan so this reseed kind of followed what he suggested in the LCN E-Book.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

That brings us to November 2019, I had applied 20 lbs of Scotts Tall Fescue blend total, with 10 lbs to the front and 10 lbs to the back. Things were still looking a little immature but promising none the less compared to what the yard looked like before.

I was still having some problems with where the oak tress used to be which I am pretty sure I can equate to wood chips, roots and portions of stump still left in there which equated with slower growth for the seedlings and less water availability for them.











These pictures are from March of this past year when the lawn first started to peak out of winter dormancy.





Later in April I decided to add some more topsoil to both spots as they were a bit low, and felt they were lacking some nutrional value. Also added some extra fertilizer to these areas at the time to try and get them going a little bit more. We also removed all of the shrubs/bushes/weeds/etc in the back mulch bed of the yard to try and let more light into the house, while also expanding the yard in the back. Contractor used Winning Colors by Lebanon Seed Co for grass in the back, no idea on rate of application.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Fast forward to May/June and I was pretty happy with the progress the yard had been making. I don't have in ground irrigation so I set up a make shift system with two dual outlet timers and multiple rainbird heads throughout the yard. Coverage was dialed in and I was getting pretty consistent applications of water througout may into june. I was trying to avoid the summer die off that had occurred the year prior as the yard was a mix of tall and fine fescues. Most of the fine fescue burnt off with their cover being gone, and the tall fescue followed suit with the decrease in other grasses around them.

Anyways here were how things were looking back in May/June.









This picture is kind of random as I had listed some end tables for sale on craigslist, but I wanted to show off how lush and green the grass was looking at this point. I believe I had started applying the Greene Country Fert BioStim back along side my normal fertilization program.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Back to present day. The lawn made it through the summer okay, but it definitely took a beating from a hot and dry July along with a solid beating from chinch bugs. The one thing I had been missing from my program was a solid pesticide program, partially because I didn't want to hurt any bees in the yard. Well it turns out my thinking of the yard having brown patch was inaccurate and it was die off from the chinch bugs. I will not be making the same mistake next year, that is for sure.

Also there are pretty large infestations of Bentgrass in the front and back yard, along with a smaller amount of nimblewill in the front and back yard. The front yard does have a patch of bermuda that I am working through getting rid of, but not sure the results from it will be that great. Currently on app #2 of 3 of Tenacity that was applied on Friday. I also applied some Ortho Weed B Gone to some of the problematic weeds that had been highlighted in the first application, namely some clover that had popped up.

That deadspot has been there for awhile, believe it was some fine fescue that had been holding over from previous years that finally burnt up. You can also see clover patches on this side of the yard.



Spot with bermuda, a lot of the missing grass here is from me ripping out bermuda by hand, not sure it was the best strategy, but it was therapeutic.





You can see some of the bentgrass here in this picture, looks like it is starting the early stages of dieing off.



Back is looking a little thin, but still signifigantly better than this time last year.



Dead spot from Chinch bugs up front, bentgrass is probably 2/3rds up the frame in line with the shed.



New section in the back is a little thin, but was seeded relatively late for Central, VA in the spring. Believe it was mid/late april. Should be fine with a little more nitrogen and the overseed I am planning for in a couple of weeks.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Right now I am planning on hitting my overseed for around the 19th of september, but that will be up to change depending on soil temps and the weather forecast if we have any major storms coming down the pipe. I currently have 25 lbs of GCI TTTF that I am planning to apply for the renovation/overseed.

Right now I am debating on bringing in some topsoil to level out some areas in the yard that I think could be hindering some of the grass. I have noticed there are a couple of large low spots that tend to perform worse than the others, so I would like to fill those in before I do the overseeding. I think these areas are pretty compacted from the excess water, and also have had problems with grass establishing there in the past.

Currently debating how much topsoil I might need, thinking somewhere between 4-8 yards to try and address the problem areas. There are also still some major dips in both the back and front from where tree limbs hit the ground when the two oak trees were removed that I would live to even out. One of these days I feel like I am going to break an ankle if they don't get fixed. I keep going back on forth of how much of this I want to tackle now with the overseed, or if I can do some now and split some later for the spring.

Also contemplating aerating prior to any topsoil, but I may just skip that step this year since the yard isn't all that compacted and I may just lay down a heavy dose of Air-8 prior to any dirt coming in. Still not sure that works 100% but I will say the soil in the back appears to be doing much better since I started using it.

As for the seeding, I am planning on hitting the trouble spots pretty heavily by hand and then using the remaining weight of seed throughout the yard. 5lbs for each section up front. 15 lbs for the back yard. Will also certainly be applying tenacity at overseed/reno time to try and stop any weeds from popping up along with some poa annua that had appeared last year in the early spring.

Excited for cooler temperatures and trying to really get this yard looking great for the upcoming growing season.


----------



## badtlc (Aug 22, 2019)

sorry but only your first picture shows up for me. Anyone else having issues seeing all the pictures?


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

badtlc said:


> sorry but only your first picture shows up for me. Anyone else having issues seeing all the pictures?


Dang. Thanks for letting me know!

I was pasting the links over from Google photos and it works on my end, but tried to view in incognito and didn't see them show up.

Time to start updating them. Stay tuned


----------



## dsc123 (Mar 22, 2020)

Nice work!

Glad nobody was hurt when that tree went down!


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Lowered HOC down to 2nd highest setting on mower, blade now at about 4 inches for grass height. Working on stepping it back for leveling/overseeding.

Grass in the front yard that hasn't been hit by chinch bugs is looking pretty good coming out of dormancy.



It's been 7 days since the last Tenacity app and it looks like its finally starting to kill off the bentgrass. It never really turned white like the Nimblewill did, but I will take dead bent grass over alive bentgrass. It's crazy how far this stuff spreads.



Still planning on doing a 3rd application after Monday - 10 Day Mark. Will probably try to mow Monday down to 3.5-3.75 inches and then apply tenacity two days after that.

Earliest seed window is currently Sept 15th due to Triclopyr application earlier this week.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Well this weekend was a lot of work. Mowed on Wednesday to 3 inches across the whole yard, single pass.

Picked up the aerator and aerated everything but the new section in the back of the yard. Soil has been very soft from lots of rain the past week so I didn't want to tear up the new section. Did a triple pass on the backyard and a single pass on most of the front yard. Did a double pass on the section by the magnolia that has been pretty compact the past year. Decided to lower the height of cut down to 1.75 after aerating.

I had ordered in 4 yards of screened topsoil for leveling some ruts and spots from the two trees that left the property. That also arrived on Friday so started on trying to level the front of the yard, probably moved 1.5-2 yards onto the front friday before calling it quits.









Saturday I went to town on the backyard using the rest of the topsoil, 3 wheel barrows probably ended up on the front from some spots that settles in. This was probably 2.5-2 yards of the top soil. Tried to really even out the gap between the new grass from the spring and old yard, along with the dips from where the old oak tree used to be on the property.



Sunday was spent trying to level out spots. There was a lot of clay in the topsoil so there were some pretty gnarly clumps I pulled out. Tried to level out and bring up some of the grass that had been smothered. Used the hard metal rake and the landscaping rake to try and till the soil in spots that were barren but had not been amended with the topsoil.

Seed was put down on the barren spots by hand where topsoil was brought in, in case the existing grass does not pop through the topsoil. Fingers crossed that it does come up, but if not shouldn't be the end of the world. Hand raked all of these spots in.

Added about 4lbs/1000 of GCI TTF blend across the whole lawn after handdressing the previous locations with the Scotts spreader at a 4 setting. Did at least 2 passes in criss-cross pattern and then went over the areas that have been light recently from fungus/bugs. Saved about 3 lbs of seed for handdressing some light spots, and fingers crossed that there aren't any major washouts.

Took the landscape rake to the front yard to relevel and work in the seed that was put down with the spreader. I didn't have a roller so I went through and stomped meticulously on all the topsoil sections and the slope on the front portion of the yard to get good seed to soil contact in those spots. For the backyard I stomped in the worrisome spots that had major topdressing(transition from old yard to new section and tree dip) and then used the back of a leaf rake to rake everything in for the remainder of the yard.

After that I handspread 12 cubic yards of Peat Moss across the yard which was a super messy affair but feel like I have semi decent coverage. I can't say that its really thick, but there is a light dusting over most of the barren yard.

Tenacity was applied at 6oz/acre rate for Pre-Em effects and then watered in until peat moss looked to be wet/holding water.

I am exhausted from the last three days, and all of this has been done with a busted up rib cage from a mountain biking accident last week. Fingers crossed this all works









I am hoping that my seeding rates are going to be enough, wish I had another 15 pounds of seed to really feel comfortable but we will see how it goes. Worst case I can buy some more and get down in a couple weeks if its not looking great. We tend to have a pretty long growing season here, and the farmers almanac for this year looks to back that up.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

36 Hours after seed down starting to see the first couple seeds germinate. Not a lot popping up yet, but not unusual to see 1 or 2 like this throughout the yard.

Temperatures dropped significantly last night, and soil temps went from 78 down to 74 over night.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

2.5 inches of rain on Thursday, and fortunately there was minimal washout. Still had some pooling in the back.

Going to call DAG as of yesterday.


Just going to keep up with the watering and maybe think about mowing next week depending on how high the seed comes up.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

More seedlings coming up, and starting to get some growth. Things are starting to look green again.







Will probably still throw down the remainder of the GCI TTTF seed in some of the barespots. I am debating buying some Titan RX to overseed with as well, or more GCI, as I think things still look a little patchy. Will wait until Wednesday to make that call since that will be 10 days from seeding.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Pulled the trigger and added remaining 5 lbs of GCI TTTF blend to barespots and front.

Purchased an additional 25 lbs of Titan RX Blue Tag Cert, .05 weed, .05 other crop. Willing to deal with whatever stuff is in there and/or eaten by the birds.

Applied 15 lbs of Titan RX total to front and back. Primarily added to areas that were thin or had died off since initial overseed.

Total seed applied is probably now between 37.5-40lbs for area of 4800 ft. Thinking around 8.3 lbs/1000 on the heavy end. Not as much grass came up through the leveled spots so treating those as essentially bare dirt.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Did my first mow on the front. Started on the back but it is way too wet out back there and worried I will tear up the grass between my feet walking around and the wheels rotating for turns. Already felt one spot slip and tear, hopefully it isn't too bad.









Planning to mow the back tomorrow if it dries out enough and hit the yard with first applications of N.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Finished mowing the back yard this morning. Hit the front and back with .125 #N/1000 since I decided against going with any starter fertilizer.

Went to buy a new sprayer and thought I bought a 2 gal only to find out it was actually another 1 gal pump sprayer. Oh well, it goes slower so able to whole backyard with 1 gal on 2 passes, and both front sections the same way. First time using dissolved urea, so excited to see how it works.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Put down Propiconazole this morning, front and back yard, since I noticed some fungus yesterday when mowing the back yard. I believe it is white powdery mildew and was just on the soil, not on any grass that I could notice.

Grass is coming in nicely and will probably need to be mowed again on Wednesday after the rain tomorrow.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Lowered the HOC one notch on the mower down to 2.0 inches, believe the previous cut was around 2.75. Lawn is looking pretty good in the front, back still has some rough spots.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Got another mow in on the lawn this morning at 2.0 inches. Think I might do one more at this height and then raise it up to around 2.75 inches or 3-3.25.

Lawn also received another dose of N today, .18lbs N/1000 and then was watered in pretty quickly as I started to notice some tip burn.





Back is still coming along, its looking better but has significantly more bare spots that were reseeded again last week.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Acorns have been raining from the sky for the last week straight. Removed around 50lbs of those suckers today and still have another 2000 sq feet in back I need to nut weasel them out of, but I am wiped out from the 1500 feet I did today on top of mountain biking this morning for 8 miles.

Did get a mow in on the front, waiting to hit the back tomorrow after I get all the acorns up. Raised the HOC on the front up to 2.5 inches from 2.0. Will likely do the same on the back. Started to notice some germination on the thin areas in the back I reseeded last week.

Planning to skip N applications for this week and put down 0.25N foiliar next weekend.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Close up of acorns I haven't snagged yet to get an idea of what I am dealing with.



Shot of the front yard which is starting to come together even better. Still a couple thin spots, but I think they will be fine once the grass thickens up and tillers.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Got another mow in yesterday morning HOC raised to 3 inches. Think I am losing the war with acorns in the backyard. Grass is certainly starting to look more mature and darken up.

Will probably put some fert(.25#N) down this week since I wasn't able to put any down last weekend with rain.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

No bueno. Looks like fungus has struck with the torrential rain we have had, and temps staying warm. It cooled down this past weekend, but we are back in the 80s for highs and it feels very humid outside.

Applied 0.25N foliarly to both front right and front left sections. Front Left received 3.5lbs of propiconazole as well. As I was spraying I started to notice lots of bugs flying up, so I am not sure if damage might actually be from them and not fungus. I feel like I am back to the mystery problem from the summer and grass is already starting to die. I hope this fungicide app helps cure/prevent it.







Any help would be appreciated. Feeling somewhat defeated after things started were starting to look good and thicken up.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Well hit the front sections with Propiconizole(Maybe not great) and Cholorthonil back on 10/22, along with .25N Urea. That really seemed to put a halt to the leaf spot I was seeing. Damage was minimal and hopefully cooler temperatures are also aiding with stopping the fungus. Will certainly need to keep that on my radar for next year.

Yard is finally starting to look "good" in my opinion. I haven't updated shots of the back in a while, and while there is still some thin spots I am pretty pleased with overall coverage.


----------



## elgrow (Mar 30, 2020)

Picture of the front yard from last night. Pretty pleased with the whole yard. Very excited to see how it looks come this next spring.



Planning on putting down some Biostims tomorrow(MicroGreen, Humic12, RGS) and probably going pretty heavy with the rates since I havn't done any in a while, and likely won't put any down after tomorrow. Will likely add some N to both front and back since I think they are due for another quarter pound.


----------



## YankeeintheSouth (Oct 22, 2020)

Did you find a solution to your fungus problem? I'm in central VA as well (probably around the corner from you somewhere) and I'm about 60 DAG and have seen a similar discoloring in my yard. I'm curious as to what has worked for you.


----------

