# b0nk3rs' Lawn Journal



## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Putting this out here now so I can expand upon it over time.

I have some decisions to make here over the next few days on what will happen with the lawn this fall. Those questions and my thoughts will soon follow. Here are a few pics from the past few weeks...

Final pic before July 4th party - 3.25" HOC


Lawn gets a decent amount of foot traffic


Back - 7/24 - 3.75" HOC


Front - 7/29 - 3.75" HOC


Current Quackgrass situation


What is the preferred way to post say 20 progress pics with descriptions in one post? Embed an album? Embed individual pictures? What about viewing on mobile?


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Glad you got this rolling! Looking forward to it. I post the pictures right from within the site.

Grass looks good btw :thumbsup:


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

I had originally decided I would not be overseeding but after lowering HOC to 2.25" I was seeing just how bad some of my low spots are. I doubt I will be able to get away with not seeding some of those leveled areas so i'm going full steam ahead with 100% Bewitched KBG

8/28 - Scalped to 1.75" and bagged















There are many low spots which are much greener than the rest of the grass. These never show up on camera that well but the one in the easement along the sidewalk stretches the entire length and is pretty severe. The grass in that section is easily over 3" long.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

One big unknown for me right now is how to go about the leveling. I have screened topsoil which I get by the ton and is what I used last fall. I don't know much about compost and have never used it before but I have been told what is available to me is good quality. Do you use compost for leveling or is it only for topdressing? Does compost take the place of peat moss or are both used?


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

For levelling, you don't want your material that you're broadcasting into the "lower" spots to break down over time, so you'll want to use an aggregate that will hold shape, i.e. sand. Compost will break down, peat moss will cause a change in your pH and will break down too (albeit over millenia), so that's why most people go with sand when it comes to levelling projects. Dunno about the topsoil, I'd be leery of weeds. My $0.02.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

So far so good! you need to post that one pic (you know the one) over on /r/edgingporn


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

gravylookout said:


> So far so good! you need to post that one pic (you know the one) over on /r/edgingporn


This one?


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Colonel K0rn said:


> For levelling, you don't want your material that you're broadcasting into the "lower" spots to break down over time, so you'll want to use an aggregate that will hold shape, i.e. sand. Compost will break down, peat moss will cause a change in your pH and will break down too (albeit over millenia), so that's why most people go with sand when it comes to levelling projects. Dunno about the topsoil, I'd be leery of weeds. My $0.02.


I suppose that makes sense.......I know all about the sand just wasn't sure how appropriate it was for my situation.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Been a rough week for trying to get things done around the lawn. Had some things come up that set me back a few days.

Managed to get the front and sides completely dethatched and cleaned up. It's crazy just how matted and tangled up a lot of my grass is, especially the PRG seeded last fall. Between the PRG and the low spots the dethatching process is very very time consuming but I feel like if it's the only thing I do this fall, it will greatly improve my lawn.

I'll shut up and get to the pics...







Here you can see the low spot all the way down the sidewalk. This has been a problem spot for me all year and needs leveled badly.

Another angle of the grand canyon



A good example as to why i'm doing this overseed. A lot of these thin areas are heavy with fine fescue and are pretty shady areas.

This circle went the entire year without filling in any. Starting to wonder if KBG spreading is a myth!

Picked up 1 ton of topsoil for my leveling.


And now the not so fun part. Rain.



I am fighting the weather at this point. I have a lot of dethatching to finish tomorrow and then core aerate and level. Don't see myself finishing all of that tomorrow. Either way, seed is being delayed until at least 9/10 or 9/11. With an average first frost of 10/14 I am really hoping for a warm October or these KBG babies won't be standing in the spring.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Finished up all my dethatching yesterday before the rain rolled in. I decided to not core aerate until after the rain to get some better plugs. So far it's looking like we won't get as much as they were expecting. Not sure what my timeline is going to look like since my topsoil is sitting outside getting all wet. I may just have to skip most of my leveling and get my seed down, who knows.


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

I skipped a bunch of the leveling I had planned. The little leveling I did do I'm sure got ruined by all the rain we got before I seeded.

Lookin' good! Would love to read how you setup your sprinkler system.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Long overdue but I had a lot to catch up on outside of the lawn after I got my seed down.

*9/11 and 9/12*

After all the rain we got the ground was very very soft and even 2 days later i was making huge holes with the aerator


Didn't have a lot of time for leveling but got a good amount of soil into the sidewalk trench


I have always had a pretty sharp drop along the curb which never allowed me to get a tall crisp edge along there. That changes now!


I never intended to do this much along the curb but once I started I couldn't stop myself.




Irrigation setup along the back alley


Irrigation setup in the front


This area is very shady and usually has bushes hanging over it. I really don't care if this area comes in or not as its going to be transitioned into a bed when I get around to redoing the landscape.


Lookin pretty rough...




Not enough time to get seed and peat down before dark so I decided to work a bit on rearranging my irrigation layout in some of the areas not pictured above.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

*9/13 - Seed Down*

Spent a ton of time prepping areas for seed. Along most of the concrete needed some hand work and did a bit more topsoil leveling.

Tenacity at 5 oz/A rate

Got seed down at 1 lb/k for overseed and 2 lb/k over the full seed areas.

Peat moss took forever and I was getting rushed. Definitely too thick in a lot of spots but I was pretty over it at this point.

Temps were still above 90 every day so watering schedule for the full sun areas was pretty close to 8am 11am 2pm 5pm for 10-14 mins per zone.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

*9/18 - Day 6*

Planned on mowing today before germination was expected to take off.

Overview progress of the back...
9/10


9/15


9/16


9/17


9/17 - Put up rope fence since I was tired of fixing footprints from the neighbors that park along my curb



9/18 - After mow at 1.75"


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

*9/19 - Day 7*

Germination! Had a few popping up yesterday on day 6 but not enough to consider it germination day.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

*9/21 - Day 9*


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

*9/24 - Day 12*





This was a problem area with some really funky PRG that was really stemmy and was mostly brown all year. I left some pieces in there to see how they recovered and performed going forward. This spot loves to dry out as you can see from lack of germination in the center.






This spot is in the corner by the front porch. Not sure what the deal is but barely any germination here so far. Definitely got over-watered today with no sun and low temps.


This is the opposite side of the walkway, same deal, barely any germination.


Need to back off on the watering on the days its not as sunny, the front gets pretty wet with no sun shining.




Not sure why this clump decided to get so burned by the Tenacity, should I be concerned?


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Few questions for you all.....


Should I be thinking about a fungicide app?

Lawn has had no fert since 6/13....When can I start spoon feeding Nitrogen safely? I want to push this as hard as possible over the next few weeks.

Would you reseed any of this? (100% KBG seed)


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Are you noticing potential fungus issues?

You can drop some urea around day 21 or so. Somewhere around week 3/4. 0.25lbs N weekly.

I would not drop anymore seed down at this point. Feed it N and see what continues to grow and spread.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Harts said:


> Are you noticing potential fungus issues?
> 
> You can drop some urea around day 21 or so. Somewhere around week 3/4. 0.25lbs N weekly.
> 
> I would not drop anymore seed down at this point. Feed it N and see what continues to grow and spread.


I was just getting over some disease before I started this process.

I have a ton of mushrooms popping up right now.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Ok, don't worry about the mushrooms. Those tend to pop up with excessive moisture. They are an eye sore more than anything else. If the temps are starting to drop you can probably cut back on the watering.

Today is Day 13, I assume? Another week and you can start applying Urea or AS.

Propiconazole would be safe and effective to use on your new seedlings. But you would need to make sure that would take out any potential fungal disease you may have.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Harts said:


> Ok, don't worry about the mushrooms. Those tend to pop up with excessive moisture. They are an eye sore more than anything else. If the temps are starting to drop you can probably cut back on the watering.
> 
> Today is Day 13, I assume? Another week and you can start applying Urea or AS.
> 
> Propiconazole would be safe and effective to use on your new seedlings. But you would need to make sure that would take out any potential fungal disease you may have.


Temps are dropping, yes. I have irrigation schedule off right now and im just manually hitting the sunny zones for 5 mins here and there.

Itching to start my N apps


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Soon. Very soon!


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

Weather forecast for the next 10 days...



What do you guys think about starting my foliar urea apps tomorrow and only spraying the overseed areas and skipping the full seeded areas? My thought process is I need to take advantage of every day possible before the growing season ends. I want to push this HARD. I would then include the new grass in next week's app (day 21).

I was thinking 0.25 lb N every 7 days. Or 0.15 lb N every 4 days. Any insight on if spoon feeding my spoon feed would have the same effect as just doing it every 7 days or every 14 days?

Also, is chelated iron ok for the new grass?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I did FEature at one oz/M rate foliar and it did not turned the lawn black.


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