# Crabby Chas' Lawn (mis)Adventures



## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Hi all, I've been lurking on the forums for a couple of weeks now and decided I'd start chronicling my journey to a nice lawn.

*History of the Lawn, Pt. 1*
When I bought my house last July the yard looked terrible. I really wish I could find pictures of it but it was sparse, weedy, and overgrown. The only before picture I have is from google maps. Just imagine this after not being mowed for a few months.



A couple of weeks after I moved in I got a "letter" in my mailbox from an anonymous neighbor telling me to mow my lawn (if I ever find out who it is they might find some graffiti in their yard with roundup, I'm still mad about it.) Anyways, I got it mowed and then ignored it for months since it was winter and even the weeds weren't grown that much since here in the Florida panhandle near the beach all we have is sand. This spring I got my mom's old walk-behind string trimmer working again, started watering the lawn and keeping it "mowed" to see what would happen.



My neighbors were actually jealous because my yard was greener than theirs but when I looked this was all I could see







Clearly, something needed to be done. I had done some seeding with some PRG to see if I could try and get something decent going for the time being, but it wasn't really taking. I think the years of neglect allowing the weeds to take over and compacted soil from people parking in the yard in the bare spots I wanted to get covered was most of the problem. I raked and seeded another time but it still wasn't having much of an effect. (Side note: yes, I was watering 3x a day to keep it moist. I'm scared to find out what my water bill is going to be :shock: ) So I went and brought out the big gun: glyphosate. All these pictures were taken about 5 minutes before I sprayed the lawn. Fast forward about a week and we are to this point:









Lots of death, but a good bit of green still. Also, the bermuda I had attempted to seed at the beginning of March had finally germinated :roll: :roll: :roll: It was by the planters in the front of the house so it survived since I didn't spray within a couple feet of it. Also, I realized at this point I had really not applied it right since I was using a hose end sprayer and its highest setting was 1oz/gallon and in my desire to use the whole amount I had calculated for my lawn I had probably ended up washing most of it off the leaves and into the soil. Whoops. So time for round(up) 2. I had gotten a can sprayer so I loaded it up with about 4oz/gallon and got to work. Here are the results as of this evening after I raked up all the dead stuff.











Looking much deader. However some of this stuff doesn't seem to want to die. Might just be taking a while to shuffle off their mortal coil. I plan on spraying another application in the morning since we've gotten a good bit of rain in the past few weeks and I know some of it is fresh growth.

*The Battle Plan*
My plan going forward is to finish killing the lawn this week. Once it's all good and dead I'm going to till the entire yard and level it as best I can. As you can see in some of the pics, I have been tearing out the old irrigation system because a) it didn't work, and b) it was a liability. Whoever installed it knew just enough to be dangerous. There was not a single form of backflow prevention on the whole system. Not even check valves in the sprinkler heads. Once it's tilled and leveled I'm going to roll it, let it settle after watering, level and roll it again, then rake, seed with Blackjack Bermuda, and cover with peat moss. I have a sprinkler that covers my yard area almost perfectly, so I will be using a hose end sprinkler for the time being to keep it moist until it germinates.

*Tell me I'm dumb*
I've been doing a lot of research but I definitely don't have much experience in growing grass. Any suggestions? My biggest problem is a lack of time. I'm starting a new job next week that will be more or less 80+ hours per week until September. I've been trying to rush through and get it done in the time I have but killing it off has taken longer than I thought, and I've been working every day so I haven't had a free day to go get any equipment to do it how I want. Worst case scenario, I fail miserably, let the weeds grow back, overseed and water with PRG and then do it right in the fall when I will have plenty of time off.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

What's compelling you to till?

Have you read any of the seed renovation threads on the forum?


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

My $0.02, watch my latest video that I put in my lawn journal. I have some insight into what you're considering doing, since I did it at a later time of the year than what you're starting at. Don't be afraid to use herbicides on your newly seeded yard. Don't skip your PreM in the Fall, and don't overseed this fall.

I would advise you *not* to till the soil. The only time I would recommend it is if you're trying to incorporate amendments to correct soil conditions, i.e. tons of lime, sulfur, etc. Just put the seed down on the surface, and cover with peat moss, and keep it moist. Bermuda only needs to be in the soil 1/8" or slightly covered to germinate. You'll have a smoother lawn in the long run. Plus you won't be bringing to the surface all the other weeds that are just below the surface and wouldn't have germinated had you not tilled. What's going to happen if you do till is that you'll have areas that will have been tilled 4" down, and some 2-3" deep, and they're going to settle at different rates. You'll have lots of undulations in your surface, and you really don't have to do that additional labor. Trust me on this.

I didn't till my lawn, I just removed all the OM that I could with a power rake, and then spread the seed. Oh, be sure and spread the seed generously. It's cheap. On that note, see if you can rent a slit seeder/overseeder. If I would have been able to get one in my area, that's what I would have seeded with. You'll have great results with it.

I also recommend you get a soil test performed by a reputable lab.


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## Txag12 (Apr 22, 2018)

With Blackjack Bermuda being coated the PLS (pure live seed. Pure seed x germination%/100) is going to be super low which through the turf industry seems to be because of the wildfires in the Northwest last year combined with the drought. I believe they come in 25# bags and should have a PLS around 12# which will be plenty for your size lawn. I would NOT rake in your seed and since it is coated birds won't touch it and it shouldn't be buried any deeper that that length of the seed.

I agree with @Colonel K0rn with not tilling. You'll have more problems than you'll solve.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Well I guess I won't be tilling then :lol: My main reason for wanting to till is that my yard has a lot of gravel in it and since it's mostly sand I assumed it would need a lot of remediation, however I've taken a couple pH tests from different spots and they all seem to agree that it's about 6.5-6.9 so hopefully the soil sample I sent for testing won't come back needing lots of additions to the sand. In the pictures with the bermuda growing you can see lots of driveway gravel that is along the flower bed. And along the road when they paved sometime in the last few years lots of kicked off asphalt and aggregate got thrown onto my lawn. So my thinking was that I could till it all into the ground and get it mostly off the surface. I have looked into those power brooms that attach to trimmer heads but I can't find any place locally that rents them.

@Movingshrub I have read lots of them, which is where most of my ideas came from. I think it was actually @Colonel K0rn's thread where I decided to scale back from getting a dingo w/ a soil cultivator to just killing it all and seeding. Speaking of, I am looking for slit seeders but have some conflicting information. Most of the info I see online says to get one that drops the seed into the slits behind the blades, but the only thing I can find locally has the seed hopper in front of the blades. Is it still worth it?

@Txag12 Yeah, I got a 10lb bag from a place in Tampa that has about 5lb of actual seed in it which should be just about right for my size lawn. And I noticed that the previous seed I had put down didn't seem to have any problems with birds eating it, but I think that's because the crazy neighborhood cat lady's cats eat all the birds that are dumb enough to land :lol:


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Good idea on not tilling. I was thinking about your thread when I went to bed and thought, "I've never seen any landscaping company till up any ground that they're going to grow grass on with seed. They just kill everything with RoundUp, put seed down and water it in." Of course, they probably have equipment like an aeravator which is nothing more than a way to break up the surface of the soil and allow for them to smooth the surface prior to seeding, but even then, they're not tilling up the soil.

The seeder with the hopper in front would be fine. It's nothing more than a dethatcher with a seed hopper, which will suit your needs just fine. There's pictures on the forum with bermuda growing in a clump of dirt floating on water. I've seen it growing in my lot in a crack in the driveway that you can't get a screwdriver in. Don't fret too much about all the rocks, unless you're planning on mowing down 0.5" or less. You can use the dethatcher to break up all of the dead plant material prior to seeding, which is what I used.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

I tried raking up the rocks along the front yesterday and it wasn't working with my metal tined rake but my plastic leaf rake did the trick. Gonna have to see if that crap they make roads out of can be raked up with it next.

As for irrigation, I changed my mind and I think I'm going to run it this weekend, time permitting, since I figure if I don't do it now it may never get done. I'm having a lot of conflicting thoughts on the design for it though. My yard is right on the edge of the upper size for sprays and the lower size for rotors.



The Hunter MP2000 would work quite well for spacing but it can be quite windy in the morning this close to the beach and I read that they don't do that great in the wind. However, the PRS30 bodies would be great since the static pressure to my house is 80-85 PSI. That route would require 12 heads.



Using rotors I can get away with 6 heads depending on how I lay it out. However, at 32' wide and 48' long the half circle rotors would only go about 2/3 of the way across the lawn so I would probably wind up adding 2 full circle rotors in the middle.



The issue with that setup though a radius that much smaller putting them on a separate zone might be needed to get them to work properly.

I guess it all comes down to the question of how effective are MP rotators when it's windy out?


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Single stream rotors are even worse in the wind. MP Rotators operated at their recommended pressure range 30-40 PSI are solid performers in windy conditions. I know. It is ridiculously windy where I am at. Only time it is not windy is if it about to rain or it is raining.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Got a trencher today and am in the process of installing the irrigation. I also got my soil test results back 
https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2765
Looks like some amendments are gonna be needed to bring the pH down.


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## Txag12 (Apr 22, 2018)

7.5 and 7.6 isn't bad. I personally wouldn't do anything about the pH. Depending on the pH of your water you might be wasting your time.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

After doing some research on my own I decided the soil results I got back we're significantly strange enough I needed a pro so I contacted Logan labs to give me some recommendations since they did the testing. It wasn't too far off from what I had originally planned which was good since I had already bought a lot of the different fertilizers and amendments. I ended up applying about 15# of gypsum, 10# of TSP (0-46-0)( the rec called for 11-52-0 which is MAP but I couldn't find any locally), 20# of K-Mag, and 4# of Anderson HumicDG. It also called for trace elements manganese, zinc, copper, and boron which I have but haven't applied yet. I plan on dissolving half the recommended amounts in my sprayer and spreading the application over a few days. I worked it all into the soil with a rake a few inches before seeding.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

So this was my lawn as of roughly 3pm yesterday


Everything is dead and the irrigation system was (mostly) up and running. Funny enough, my neighbor was having some new zoysia sod put in since his builder-grade centipede didn't survive the winter. Shocking. Anyways, my first step was to throw down some sand since the removal of the old irrigation system and install of the new system led to lots of sunken spots. Luckily, my girlfriend got home after I had gotten about half the sand dumped so she helped with getting it roughly level. I was originally going to try and get it super flat before seeding but with only half a yard of sand I decided to just deal with the rough spots and fix it later since I have a rotary and won't be getting a reel anytime soon.



Not perfect, but as they say better is the enemy of good. From here I seeded my yard with Blackjack Bermuda. I ordered a 10# bag from seed ranch in central FL and since it's a coated seed with an 85% germination rate it took 5# to get the 1#/k of PLS. After the seed was in I spread a light coating of peat moss on the yard. I got 3 bags from the store which comes out to 18cubic feet, which was just a little more than I calculated I needed but in the end I really wish I had gotten that extra bag since it didn't quite cover the yard how I wanted but it's good enough since I still have 5# of seed to fill in with later.



Time to water! I went with the hunter MP rotators and I'm quite happy with them. They had perfect head to head coverage without any adjustments and I was able to position the ones closest to my house in a way that they spray the planters but not the house when running.





I got a little wet during all of this since I was fine tuning the sprinklers now that the sun was low in the sky and I could see the streams well. Also, the old irrigation controller was broken so I got myself a Rachio but hadn't installed it yet and was manually activating the valve. I have my Rachio set up to water for 10-15 minutes 4 times a day (sunrise, 10am, 2pm, and sunset) to keep everything moist. Gonna have to keep an eye on it but since the weather is forecast to be cloudy with some rain every day for the foreseeable future I'm not overly concerned.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Figured after 4 hot days I'd have some growth and I do! I went out with a flashlight last night to check it out and saw lots of tiny little baby Bermudas sticking out everywhere. Took some pictures this morning.





I'm a little vexed though because I'm also getting a weedy patch right in the middle of my yard. Still baby's and probably too early to tell what they are but they're everywhere.





If anyone does know at this stage I'd be grateful for the feedback. Current plan is to apply quinclorac if possible in about two weeks.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Nice job, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I wasn't super jealous of your MP's rotating on your newly seeded yard. I know you're going to be really happy with the new lawn that's going to dominate your neighbor in a month or so. There's something about new Bermuda being in the ground that makes a person want to grab a flashlight and somehow the light from the flashlight causes the grass to sprout!. Don't worry too much about the weeds that are popping up, you'll be able to spot spray them once the baby grass starts walking away from the crowns  Good job on the preparation, but in the future, know that you'll need to do at least 2-3 sprays of roundup on a total kill to make sure that you get everything good and dead so you don't look at ugly weeds in your new stand of turf.

Good job!


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

@Colonel K0rn I sprayed with Roundup 3 times at a very high rate and watered in between sprays to get weeds to sprout. Still didn't get everything apparently. Some of the weeds I didn't get when I raked are starting to grow again too. On a brighter note, it's amazing how quickly the grass is growing. This was 12 hours after the last pictures



And this is this morning, 24 hours later



All taken in the same spot. The rest of the lawn has a green fuzz on it, too subtle for cameras but it's there! I also need to get some bifenthrin or something out to deal with the ants. I had previously just been spot treating colonies as they popped up but they're spreading everywhere now. A cool side effect though is that whatever they are doing the Bermuda loves it, so I have these little fuzzballs everywhere that are covered in seedlings.





And since I don't have to be at work till noon today (normally I leave at 530), I did some weeding in my planter out front. Sunflowers are starting to bloom!


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Looks like it's growing like the weed our cool season counterparts so affectionately call it. Time to arm yourself with some Celsius and Certainty. FWIW, I sprayed a portion of my renovation with Dismiss because I had some sedge problems (green kyllinga) and I discolored the new turf for about a 4 days, but it rebounded. It had been grown in for at least 6 weeks before I sprayed.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Took some more pictures late this afternoon. It's been 1 week since I seeded. It's amazing how quickly the Bermuda is growing, no wonder those cool season guys consider it a weed. Gonna be hitting the trouble spots with quinclorac ASAP to get the broadlead weeds under control. Also found some sedge but it's pretty sparse so I'm just hand picking it.











And finally a panorama. Supposed to be hot and rainy all week so this time next week I expect it'll be looking like real grass.


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## Redland1 (Feb 26, 2018)

Nice.What part of Florida are you in?


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Not to throw a damper on it, but if you have Celsius, you'd have better luck with the broadleaf weed control than quinclorac. Be sure to read your labels, and make sure you can apply after the recommended date of seed emergence. Don't want to kill them babies!


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Celsius is safe 4 weeks after seed emergence. So is Quinclorac I would wait it out and start mowing if the weeds are starting to stick up then it is Kill Kill Kill! on the 30th day.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

@Redland1 I live in the panhandle about 1/2 mile inland of the gulf.

@Colonel K0rn @Greendoc Yeah, I'm just going to stick with hand pulling for now. I have tentatively identified these little guys as Florida Pusley



But I am totally stumped on these. Could be some type of clover. Maybe Purslane or spurge. Just going to have to live with them for now.



On a different note, last night we got a real drenching. I'm not sure on the exact amount but when I looked at the radar last night when the thunder woke me up we were right in the middle of a system that just kept coming off the gulf. All the rain washing off the road and my neighbors lawn did a real number on my topdressing over the seedlings and washed a lot of it out. I went out and raked as best as I could to get the peat moss spread back out but it's still too wet and has settled into a thick mat in the low spots in my yard.





It's looking like we will be pretty dry today so I am going to try and get out later and get it spread back out and off my seedlings since a few spots that were growing good are now totally covered. It also washed a lot of sand down from near the road towards the middle of my yard so I will probably end up reseeding that area.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Looking mighty green this afternoon! I put down about 1/2 lb N/1k tuesday afternoon and watered it in, growth has taken off since then. I put down the additional N to try and get quicker growth since I was pretty sure everything that got covered after my overnight downpour was close enough to the surface to push through and it did. Only have a few spots where it looks like everything got washed away and they are small spots.




Also, turns out that all those little weeds are Florida Pusley.





And some other unwelcome guests as well.



The weeds are driving me crazy, especially since I can't do anything about them at this stage! About to pull the trigger on some Celsius and Certainty.


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## TigerinFL (Mar 29, 2018)

if you need to borrow a drag mat for you sand let me know. I have a 3x3


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Here are day after Alberto pictures:








A lot of the sand towards the front was washed down from closer to the road and was covering spots where the bermuda was just barely germinated. It grew up through the sand pretty quickly, but everything by the road was totally washed out and the spot in front of my planters was a lost cause as well. The worst part was that all the rain softened the soil enough to cause my sunflowers to fall over! If you look closely you can see bricks and pottery in the planter holding up the sunflowers. Since I got off work while the sun was still up I decided to grab another bag of peat moss and reseed the areas that got washed out. Looks better afterwards but I was pretty bummed.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

I got off work before sunset again and took some pictures as the sun was going down. Most of the grass is roughly ankle high compared to being about toe high three days prior plus it has started filling in via stolons and the new seed I threw down.





Unfortunately the weeds are enjoying these prime grown conditions as well :evil: :evil: :evil:







Gonna have to do something about it soon. I'm at about 2 weeks post emergence by now, it's almost time.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Got off of work early today and decided I just had to mow it! The new seed and peat moss has had plenty of time to settle down so I went for it, looks damn good if I do say so myself. Still working on the domination line but I'll get there soon.



Alternate View



Damn new construction houses are raised 18 inches above the crown of the road so getting the seed to take here is going to be a bit of a pain but it'll happen.



The spot in front of the planters is still a little sparse but it is definitely filling it.



Bonus! Got something to take care of the intruders in the lawn


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

:thumbsup: Great job! You've got another week before it's time to put the Celsius and quinclorac down like Greendoc said, and it's been 2 weeks since you put down 0.5#/N. I'd spoon feed it another 0.25-0.5#N to get everything going while you've got the summer rains and before blackout (not sure if they have them in your area). Get ready to mow mow mow, and before you know it, your neighbor will be trying to keep up with YOUR domination line.

Word of advice, if you really want to dominate, see if you can pick this up for under a Benjamin https://panamacity.craigslist.org/grd/d/fiskars-reel-mower/6594817123.html. Once you go reel low, you'll never go back to rotary. Added benefit is that the weeds can't compete growing as low as the bermuda, and before it gets super thick, you'll really enjoy using a push reel like I do.
:dancenana:


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Well this sucks. I've been super busy at work and haven't been paying attention to my babies like I should have been and they've paid the price.

Very brown, sparse, and patchy. Part of it is due to the fact that I finally put down some quinclorac, celsius, and certainty to kill all the crabgrass, sedges, pusley, purslane, etc. etc. etc. that was starting to take over some rather large parts of the lawn. It's still a little yellow but the color is coming back nicely.

No, the real reason it looks so bad is because I've had an armyworm infestation. 

I had noticed there were some small caterpillars in the yard a couple of weeks ago but didn't think too much of it since I saw birds eating them constantly. Well, there were too many for the birds. Since my last post and definitely in just the past week I had noticed that it was getting patchy, and I saw dead stems that were totally defoliated all over the place. I figured maybe it was from the herbicides at first. But when I got home today I was stunned by how many armyworms there were when I gave a good hard look. Probably 5 or 6 per square foot! I immediately put down some orth bug b gone and will be putting down grubex as soon as I get a new spreader. I put down a double dose in spots where I saw lots of them which seemed to kill them pretty quickly especially if I got them with a direct shot from the sprayer. Now I know how big of a problem they can be, I'm off to do some more research. Ugh.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Lawn is back on track.


The pesticide got rid of the bugs and it sprang right back to life. I put down about .5N in the form of 13-13-13 and AS the next day and followed up with another .25N on Saturday. I put down some grub ex as well to hopefully kill any grubs/larva in the soil. My lawn is pretty close to fully grown in except for a couple of patches that got washed out by the tropical storm but I'm still not seeing any stolons.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Now that its back to growing again I mowed it down to 1" since it was getting leggy. I am going to try and keep it at 1" but I need to fill in a couple of low spots first. There's one spot that scalps to the dirt at 1". I hope to finish removing those stupid palms in the middle of the yard this week as well. Not sure what I'm going to replace them with yet, maybe a small ****** lime tree. But I intend to turn it into a planted bed.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Crabbychas said:


> Now that its back to growing again I mowed it down to 1" since it was getting leggy. I am going to try and keep it at 1" but I need to fill in a couple of low spots first. There's one spot that scalps to the dirt at 1". I hope to finish removing those stupid palms in the middle of the yard this week as well. Not sure what I'm going to replace them with yet, maybe a small ****** lime tree. But I intend to turn it into a planted bed.


TBH, I don't know why in the world they would allow the guy wires for the telephone pole to be plopped in the middle of the yard, and not closer to the road. Seems like the power company could have moved the poles a little further out, or maybe they were expecting the yards to be smaller. vOv


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

The reason they allow it is because it's not my property, its the road right of way. For whatever reason, when they platted the community in the 50s, they decided that they might need enough room to turn my little road into a 4 lane highway in the future so they made it a 66' wide right of way.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Crabbychas said:


> The reason they allow it is because it's not my property, its the road right of way. For whatever reason, when they platted the community in the 50s, they decided that they might need enough room to turn my little road into a 4 lane highway in the future so they made it a 66' wide right of way.


Gosh, here I was complaining about the 15' ROW that goes from the street to the property stakes on the front of my lots... :?


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Got off work a bit early and finally got to put my new Chapin Backpack sprayer to use. Mowed it at 1 3/8", put down some Lesco 16-4-8, and did a second application of bifenthrin. The 20V sprayer and teejet nozzle are a game changer, so glad I got it.


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

Looking good.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Lawn is definitely getting better. Roots are getting deeper and watering is getting less frequent. Looked fantastic when I got home after fishing all morning.



Since the county didn't want to take my yard waste, I put it in a bin finally. Hope the garbage company takes it. Found this little bastard hiding under the fronds. Killed him with a shovel after my gf confirmed it was a bad one.

Mowed afterwards, now that I've found the spots that scalp the worst I've been manhandling the mower over those spots to keep it from dipping.



Bonus feater: GIANT CRABGRASS!!!
I want to see how big it gets before I nuke it since it's growing on my driveway.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Crabbychas said:


> Lawn is definitely getting better. Roots are getting deeper and watering is getting less frequent. Looked fantastic when I got home after fishing all morning.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looks good, with the exception of the snake. Good kill! I'd advise you to pull the crabgrass before it goes to seed and makes your life more miserable. You probably don't put PreM on your driveway, so don't make life harder for yourself.

BTW, did I show you my Giant Goose Grass? I call it "El Gigante Terrible(teh-ree-bleh)"


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Wednesday after work after I mowed I put down 1lb/K Lesco 16-4-8 and went around spot spraying along the road and edge of my lawn where I had spurge and crabgrass growing. Got the bigger ones good but there are a lot in the lawn that I can't get with Roundup without getting the grass too. My plan after work is to put down pendimethalin (Scott's Halt) and then spray Celsius. Yesterday I put an Oregon mulching blade on my mower since the original blade was pretty torn up from rocks in my yard. The oregon blade hangs down lower than the original blade by probably a quarter inch so i scalped the grass on accident. Oops. In for a penny in for a pound though, so i dropped it down to the lowest height and did a second pass. Looks scalped but it will be fine by tomorrow. I also got to use my new power scissors and stihl fs94r trimmer. Woo, this thing shreds! Super glad I got the 94 too, its the two stroke so it weighs a couple pounds less than the new Stihl 4-mix engines but still has plenty of power to get the rotary scissors spinning.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Put down some more Lesco today along with the final bit of humic granules. Also, discovered a lot of goose grass, wild garlic, and something else growing along my problem side. Ugh. I have the pre em down and pulled what I could. Gonna have to get a paintbrush I guess.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Got some more fertilizer down on Thursday after mowing. Scalped it down as low as it would go since after getting 7ish inches of rain and not having time to mow the stems had gotten up to my hoc.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

It's been quite some time since I posted an update. Between work, life, fishing, and hurricane Michael I didn't have much time for the yard. The yard didn't do so hot over the winter since it went into dormancy stressed from drought and unfertilized. The pre emergent worked going into fall but the winter weeds came out with a vengeance. I have poa everywhere, as well as some fine fescue, garlic, sedge, some crab grass and broad leaf weeds. You name it I've got it. I scalped about a month ago with my rotary mower at about 1", the lowest it will go. To get it to spread I've been hitting it with .75#/k nitrogen as AS once a week and half that much potassium. The 0-0-24 from siteone has micros in it as well as 6% iron so the grass that survived is looking nice.

The temps have been in the mid 70s this week so the Bermuda has really taken off. I applied Scott's Halt pre-em a few weeks ago and I applied the low rate of Celsius, certainty, and quinclorac with .5% mso and some AS dissolved in to help knock everything out today. I'm considering scalping it with my rotary scissors and taking it to the dirt soon depending on the effect the mix has on the bermuda.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

My back yard is getting prepped for seeding as well. 

I've raked up all the dead remnants from when it was cleared and burned most of it today. I fenced off about 3/4 of the yard to keep the dogs out. I plan on following mostly the same plan I used for the front yard. Alternating glyphosate on everything and watering to get most of the weeds out of the way. 2 weeks from today I plan to seed the fenced area. The soil around here is just plain sand with almost nothing else so I am going to level the hell out of it before I seed.
Dog tax


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Nice looking fence, and cute doggos! Just looking at your pictures, I remember when you started your renovation. Keep in mind, you know what weeds you're going to face this time next year, so you can apply a PreE that's appropriate. Last year, my yard looked like I overseeded, except it was all Poa, so I knew my biggest weed I was dealing with was that one. I went with Specticle Flo, and even though the price of admission is high, it was worth every penny.

Are you guys still noticing any problems from the Michael? I haven't been to PCB for many years. I heard some places were still without power, and I feel like a lot of people who didn't have insurance are going to wind up selling their homes to investment conglomerates that are going to raze the areas, and put up hotels... not too nice for residents.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Panama City Beach was almost totally fine except we didn't have water or power for a while. It's Panama City that got the worst of it. The eye of the storm basically hit the city directly. It was really bad over there. It is rebuilding, but the farther east into the city you go the worse it got it. The area on the far east, near Tyndall Air Force Base and Mexico Beach, are basically gone from my understanding. It's causing a lot of trouble since we are a huge tourist area and a lot of people left after the storm so we are having a hard time finding employees.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

A week ago I sprayed a tank mix of AMS, MSO, Celsius, Certainty, and quinclorac at medium/low rates. It's definitely killed off the weeds but it's also definitely had an effect on the grass. I started running out when I was about 80% done so I skipped a small section of the front yard.



Can't wait for the grass to get back to growing right!

In the meantime, today I went out and bought a good bit of peat moss, in anticipation of seeding date, tentatively scheduled for next monday, and a bunch of plants for landscaping around the house. I added two nice size elephant ears out front


and planted Liriope in the back along the south fence, added a border of red pavers, and mulched.



Merle enjoys watching the branches sway in the wind


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Got in a mow this morning. I also got my proplugger yesterday so I did some plugging this morning. A small bit of grass along the front of my house only gets about 1/2 day of sun and never really took off so I did some plugging this morning. Took plugs from the spot I skipped the spray on.



and dropped them in the desired area.



Root shot! Every plug had roots extending out the bottom.



Fertilized with 1# N and 1# K
Hopefully the weather will cooperate sometime soon because I am so ready to seed the back yard.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Front yard is looking much better now that it's warmed up more and the effects of the celsius+certainty+quinclorac have worn off, but the spot I didn't sprayed still looks way better since it's had an extra 3 weeks of stress free growing. I've been applying about 1/2# N on a weekly basis, and every other week I put down 1/2# K as well. I just ran out of my AS, so when I restock I'm going to grab some GreenTRX as well. 


And this past Monday I finally had the chance to seed the backyard! Since it was brush for so long it is still growing the occasional weed, especially some of the woody vines, and I didn't want to spray anything with a residual that could affect the seeding so I stuck with roundup. I raked and dragged it pretty thoroughly, it's not flat but there aren't any bumps or holes, so once I get it going I should be able to keep it pretty low with the reel mower I plan to get at some point.



I spread 4 large bales of peat moss over the area as evenly as I could, then I seeded 2.5# of Riviera over roughly 1200 SF.



I mixed it with Fertilome starter fertilizer, set the spreader low, and distributed the mix over a total of 4 passes.







Afterwards I raked everything in with the backside of a leaf rake and set out the sprinkler.



We got quite the downpour yesterday morning but it didn't wash anything away luckily. I'm only 4.5 days in and haven't seen any seedlings yet, but I imagine they will start popping up in the next day or two.


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## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

Crabbychas said:


> Front yard is looking much better now that it's warmed up more and the effects of the celsius+certainty+quinclorac have worn off, but the spot I didn't sprayed still looks way better since it's had an extra 3 weeks of stress free growing. I've been applying about 1/2# N on a weekly basis, and every other week I put down 1/2# K as well. I just ran out of my AS, so when I restock I'm going to grab some GreenTRX as well.
> 
> 
> And this past Monday I finally had the chance to seed the backyard! Since it was brush for so long it is still growing the occasional weed, especially some of the woody vines, and I didn't want to spray anything with a residual that could affect the seeding so I stuck with roundup. I raked and dragged it pretty thoroughly, it's not flat but there aren't any bumps or holes, so once I get it going I should be able to keep it pretty low with the reel mower I plan to get at some point.
> ...


This has been such a cool journey to follow. Can't wait to see how the backyard turns out. Great job.


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## sanders4617 (Jul 9, 2018)

Awesome! I seeded Riviera once on a test plot. Took probably 7-10 days to see seedlings based off memory. And spread like crazy too. I did mine when temps were 90+ every day, so it may have helped speed up the process.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Haven't been too happy with how the front looks so I scalped it with my rotary scissors today and plugged more near the landscape beds. I had originally planned to aerate as well but life got in the way of that. So, this morning I headed off to pick up a bag of 21-0-0 from Ewing's as well as a bag of the Holganix 10-3-2. I also stopped and grabbed some sand to level a few spots and fill some holes from plugging. This is what I started with this morning.



The grass was looking... ok I guess. It was really thin, the canopy was thin, there was a lot of puffiniess to it. In short, it is not the lawn I want. I am starting to think that I may need to try again with a different variety of bermuda but that's a different post for a different day. Anyways, since my rotary only goes down to about an inch, I brought out the rotary scissors for the scalp. Took it as low as I could get it. What a workout. Took me about an hour to scalp the whole thing and I can tell I'm going to be sore tomorrow. Anyways, here are the in progress pictures.

Halfway done


Done scalping


Vacuumed with the mower


I looked around after the scalp and I'm happy with the decision. I think the canopy was too thick and high for new growth to have a chance. There is a good bit of green left that you couldn't previously see because it was hidden.





I have also discovered that my neighbors zoysia is super successfully invading my lawn which is giving me some mixed feelings. On the one hand, it validates that I'm doing all the right things since the zoysia is THICCCC and the color is almost identical to my current bermuda.





On the other hand, it pisses me off that my bermuda is being such a pain.

Anyways, I also took the opportunity to level a few spots where my irrigation trench settled badly and fill the holes where I took plugs.



Put out 1#N/k in the form of AMS and watered it in lightly. Finished Product



The rachio is scheduled to run tomorrow morning which will help the sand settle in some more. The plan going forward is to alternate weekly feedings of AMS and the Holganix 10-3-2. Next Monday I am going to try and aerate for real, and possibly get a 2 ton bag of sand to level the rest of the yard with. But aerating is definitely on the plate. When I took some plugs this morning it seemed like the dark layer of sand has compacted a bit, it was quite difficult to break up.



The next weeks farm machinery auction I am dead set on getting a reel mower. As for the back yard, I think the seeds are juuuust beginning to sprout. The weather is going to be in the high 70s to low 80s which should get things going better.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Found your journal...

Great decision on the scalp, even if it did give you a good whooping. Funny thing is that I'm also dealing with my neighbor's zoysia spreading into my yard. His is still brown and semi-dormant but where it spread into my yard it is super green and dense. I don't know what variety he has but the texture is quite different than my Tifway 419. I'm thinking of showing it to him and telling him he needs to give it a light scalping. I think that is his issue. I will probably just pull what I can for now.

Where do you get your ASM? I've been just getting 29-0-5 StaGreen from Lowes but I'm not happy with how it is working. I see the sand is no different on your side of the bridge than here.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Yeah my neighbors zoysia has very thick blades, but the color is nice where I'm fertilizing it. I get the ams from either siteone or Ewing's. I dont know if theres one in the city proper, but the siteone I go to is just west of the Hathaway bridge, in the little commerce park south of 98. I bet if you look around 77 or 231 a bit theres ag supply stores you could get some.


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Sent you a PM @Crabbychas


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

I thought I had grass germinantion. I was wrong.



I had this stuff come up all over the place in my garden when I first planted it. I hoed it all but I can't do that over here so I guess I'll find out what it really is. And dince I have to keep everything moist constantly I'm also getting a LOT of sedge/kylinga.



But, I finally have actual grass germinating! I saw a small fuzzy patch this morning, and can say this is 100% the real deal! It's only coming up in this one spot for now, but it's been 10 days which is what I was expecting when I seeded based on the current temperature.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

After the scalp the lawn is looking quite sparse, but I'm optimistic that it will be just fine given that prime growing days aren't even here yet. The areas I plugged are looking good, the plugs are sending out stolons and creeping across the bare areas. I put down 15 pounds of the Holganix 10-3-2 as well as a 1/2# N/K dose of AS this afternoon. Going to cut back on the AS and rely a bit more on the Holganix for the time being. It has an interesting prill shape, very angular, and the size is fairly small so it spreads nicely. The smell is much more pleasant than milorganite, and doesn't linger.

Week 2 in the backyard

I can safely say the grass is coming in fine. There are some patches where it isn't coming in yet, but by and large I am quite happy with the green fuzz I am growing. The weed situation is much worse than it was in my front yard, but it's not bad enough to make me consider spraying early. 

Lots of sedge in the foreground and broadleaves in the back, but I expect within 2 weeks I'll be mowing it.
Threw down about 1/2# N and a 1#/K dose of the holganix


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

Aerated, mowed, and put down 1/2# N and 1/2# K on the front yesterday


I also rented a power pruner and took down the worst of the tree limbs in the back. There's still a little shade but not much. Trimmed the weeds with my rotary scissors and put down 1/4# N in the back, gonna put down some 10-10-10 in the next few days as well.



Also took a fun little video of all the weeds growing in the back. Sedges in abundance near the house, prostrate spurge and pusley, some muscadine vines that just won't die, I've got it all. It's gonna be a MASSACRE when I put down my herbicide mix around June 1st!


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