# Colonel K0rn's lawn renovation



## Colonel K0rn

I don't have the greatest writeup that some of the other users have with their lawn renovations, so bear with me. I figured I would go ahead and start a thread of my own, and document some of the findings that I have encountered thus far. *I apologize for the wall of text in advance.
*
*A little history about my property*: it was built in 2003, is just over 1/3 of an acre, and we moved here just over 6 years ago. Our subdivision is named Madison Oaks, and I can count on one hand the number of oak trees within a block. I sure wish I had a few trees in my yard, but over the years, I haven't been able to get a single tree to grow on the lot, which I found to be really odd. Another odd thing is that when it rains any amount over 0.25", I typically get standing water in the front and back yard. It's really bad in the back yard, so much so that I have to wait sometimes 3-4 days before I can get my mower out to take care of the yard. I found it interesting when I was replacing my mailbox post, as I dug the hole for the 4x4 below 2', the hole started having water seep into it from the sides. I just assumed that we had a high water table. I'm a ham radio operator as well, and I ran into the same issues when I installed my radio tower. It was a mess trying to get 4' below the surface, and it hadn't rained in over 3 weeks. I felt like I was working on a well out in an oil field.

My property sits in a corner lot of our portion of the subdivision, and I have an easement from the railroad that runs behind my house, and a property that is to the North of my house that is overgrown and completely unkempt, due to the fact that the owner was wheelchair-bound and blind. He didn't have the means to take care of his lot, so it's the neighbor's problems. I can peer over the fence, and see a retention pond that is almost about the same level as my lawn. So, when it rains, water collects, and reaches about the same level of the small pond. There is a small swale that runs on the north and south sides of the property, as well as one against my back fenceline. I'm pretty sure these were put there when the development was made, but over time, erosion has changed the grade to where they are ineffective.

Prior to this year, I did the average homeowner maintenance on the lawn, mowing, trimming, edging, and throwing the occasional bag of weed and feed. Having moved from a property that had just over 5 acres, it felt like I was taking forever and a day for me to be out in the GA sun to tend to my property, sometimes taking 3 hours to complete my job. It also felt like my job was growing longer every summer, to the point where sometimes I just didn't want to go outside and get covered in clippings and get sunburnt. I did get compliments on the appearance from neighbors on both sides of me, as well as across the street. I took pride in how it looked, and I thought I was doing well, but I could do better. That's pretty much how I felt when I went out of town for 2 months to go help my father with his business; we were on the road from August until the beginning of October, and prior to my leaving town, I hacked down the weeds as best as I could to keep them at bay.



My wife didn't call anyone to take care of the property while I was gone, so the lawn just became completely overgrown, and very unruly. When I returned, it looked like a scene from Jumanji (Robin Williams version, not Dwayne Johnson :lol She said that she thought I enjoyed doing yard work, to a certain extent I did, but not hacking through jungles!
 
Hedges that were overgrown, and then cleaned up.


This was the pile of clippings and cuttings that were collected after my efforts were spent. 
I spent several hours cleaning everything, and vowed that I was going to do what I could to never let it get back to that state again. And that's where I have been for the past two years. I've never let my lot get out of control, and when I've had to go out of town, I arranged to have someone to at least do the rudimentary care of the lot. I've had life happen, and just maintained the property where it's useable, but not as good as I can get it. It's a matter of priorities, and what I'm willing to commit to. I made the commitment this year to begin a renovation, conquer the weeds, and have the lawn that's the envy of the neighborhood. I didn't realize what a task I had ahead of me, more than just using Roundup, and replanting... no, it's much more than that.


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## Colonel K0rn

I remember coming across one of Allyn Hane's videos on YouTube last year, specifically about striping, and thought to myself, "You know, that would be a neat way to make the lawn pop." I always tried to have nice stripes, and my Snapper made pretty good stripes. Prior to my knee surgery, I used to push mow and laid down some nice stripes. After mowing my new neighbor's lawn a few times, I assumed they needed a lawn mower, which they did. Good neighbors take care of each other, although I regret letting my 3-in-1 self propelled Snapper go. I'm gonna ask them if I can buy it back tomorrow, but I digress :lol:

I bought my Z150 Snapper 33" zero turn 5 years ago, and either side-discharged, or bagged it. Mainly, I bagged the clippings, and that's usually what took up most of my time. In May, I purchased the mulching kit, and blade for it, and was so glad that I did. It made the laborious part of tending to the lawn much easier. I'm from the school of thought that you need to return those nutrients back to the soil in order to continue to make the fertilizer you put down last longer.

I started watching a lot of videos on YouTube, and I never thought I'd find myself watching videos of guys mowing grass, but it happened. And then I saw the effects that guys were getting, with what seemed to be a proper program of pre-e and post-e treatments combined with proper fertilization. I was doing the same thing that I've been doing over the years, expecting different results, which is the proper definition of insanity.

After consideration, I decided that I would go with a Soil Savvy test kit, and test the front and the back yards. I considered that I would need to find out what my soils was needing, and get the right fertilizer or amendments for the soil in order to set it up for the best chance of success. I figured that if I could get rid of the weeds, the grass would take care of the rest, followed up with a proper pre-e program. I reached out to Matt Martin aka The Grass Factor on YouTube. I explained to him the grass types that I had, and shared the results of my samples. I took his recommendations, and started researching several chemicals that I would need, and figuring out the best approach to address the situations I currently had regarding turf and insect control.

My first survey of the yard determined that I had an issue with fire ant, which are pretty common here. I counted 23 ant mounds in my lawn. That was to be expected, as I hadn't put down an application of Over 'n Out in a few months; I figured it had just worn off. I also was noticing holes about 3" deep being dug up in the back yard, and I assumed it was my dogs that were doing dog things, until I found a newly dug hole and called the wife out. She said, "Well, you can't blame the dogs for that one." I sure couldn't, as the dogs were being boarded for that weekend :roll: I dug around, and found that I had some white grubs in the soil, and made the connection that the armadillo I saw the night before somehow had been the culprit for tearing up the back yard, along with the occasional mole track I stomped down. I was going to remove the food source, and then I shouldn't have any problems, right? At least, that was my logic behind it.

I got a 4 gallon Chapin backpack sprayer, some marking dye and a bottle of Celsius WG to start with for the weed control. At a medium application rate, I figured I would crush almost all of the broadleaf weeds I had identified, and gain control over about 80% of them, and then spot treat the majority of the other ones that I had missed, or wouldn't be treated by Celsius. I let the lawn go for a few days prior to application, and suited up on June 9th.


After the application, I was very pleased with the quick death of most of the weeds, and my happiness began to turn into horror as I found out that the medium rate application of Celsius will absolutely nuke carpet grass, which turned out to be approximately 3/4 of the turfgrass that I had in my lawn. I misidentified it as centipede, and now had a _really_ terrible looking problem on my hand. :shock: 

That being said, the application of Milorganite that I did a week prior really made the bermuda that was lying underneath really take off. In this photo, you'll see some of the water pooling that took place after 0.86" of rain we had on 7/9/17. The following day, we had 1.25" of rain, which turned my back yard into a swamp.  


I was watching a Grass Daddy video one evening, and specifically saw him putting his TLF sticker on his spreader, and found TLF. Since I've been here, I've gotten more educated on the importance of levelling, and the level of lawn that I now strive to attain. I used to admire the property of the guy a few houses down from my house who was always tending to his lawn, and had a really nice looking front yard. He had a very lush and thick bermuda lawn, immaculately trimmed crepe myrtles and nice hedges. He moved a few months back, and now it's occupied by people who have let it go to hell, although, who am I to talk? It went from this:

To being scalped by a rotary:



Anyways, to address the issues of the ants and grubs, I also fired my exterminator, and laid down an application of Dominion, Termidor WG and Bifen XT on June 9th. By June 11th, my yard was devoid of any insect life, and I'm happy with that right now. *More to come*


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## Colonel K0rn

Amidst all of this, I've still got it on my "Honey Do" list to put up a deck for the pool we had installed in March, and I have to keep my dogs from somewhat creating a racetrack around the whole area I'm trying to get some grass to grow in. As I got more in depth with the education of the Bermuda Triangle, TeeJet nozzle types and wand modifications and the right type of schedule I would need to use for my turfgrass, I was advised by Matt Martin (The Grass Factor) that I would need to "embrace the bermuda lawn I would now have." :lol: Which was a good thing, because I had a few good stands of bermuda that were growing along my driveway, and in my backyard. My next weed on the list was goosegrass and a TON of green kyllinga. After considering my options, I decided to go with Dismiss.

An application of Dismiss July 16 was laid down on all of the areas that I could see it growing, and within 3 days time, I had a pretty significant kill in the front and back yard areas that I treated. At the same time I also did a blanket application of a product called Axilo Mix 5, which is supposed to aid in supplementing a lot of the micronutrients that my soil was lacking.

Dead goosegrass and green kyllinga. 


I was still on the fence as to whether or not I was going to do a total kill, and reseed, or to pound the current bermuda with N and get it to take off. As it stands now, I'm currently pounding down the N on the lawn, at about 2#/1K, and it's having great results. I was expecting my Pro Plugger 5-in-1 tool to arrive today, but it's been delayed. However, I did receive a package containing a product that I ordered on Thursday evening, and *I was going to see what my visitor  earlier in the day had to say prior to moving forward.*


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## Colonel K0rn

An issue that has plagued me for the past few years and has been getting progressively worse is that when we get rain that is more than 0.25" for more than a day or two, I will have standing water in my yard. I assumed it was partially to blame for a high water table, and I found out today that just isn't the case. It's not helping it, but it is a factor.

I have been talking to my county extension agent about what's going on in my lot, and what I'm trying to accomplish. I gave him a tour of the property, and had some areas where I had dug holes in the ground to show him the standing water issue. Some of the holes that were about a 1' deep had water that was about 6" below the surface of the soil. While we were walking over some of the barren areas, he said "That looks like salt." Here's a picture of one of the areas that looks very salty, with some of the dead carpetgrass.








The auger that he uses pulls 6" plugs, and he then laid them on the surface, and it was interesting to see him pull out the different layers and lay them upon the ground. If you look closely, you'll see my bat house 








When he got to 18" in the front yard, he kept trying to pull out the plug, but nothing was in the center. I told him, "Well, I think you hit the "sloppy layer"." He chuckled, and agreed, and I said, I bet you in a minute, that hole will be filled with water from the sides. Sure enough, it was.









Here's a photo of what I called "white sand", which lies just beneath the organic layer of top soil. This is what I found to be really odd as it seemed to be dry, while the top layer of soil was wet.









At his truck, he had a meter that checks the electrical conductivity of the soil.









*What we found out today was really fascinating to me. *He explained that some of the soils have high sodium content, as well as some of the rain that falls. They're naturally occurring, and when you have a difference in electrical conductivity(EC) of the soil strata, you can have a situation that I'm experiencing. Sodium in the soil also has a large area of influence, similar to how you can have a drop of gasoline in a 1,000 gallons of water make it undrinkable (bad analogy, sorry). Soil EC plays a direct role in the ability for the soil to either hold or drain water. Depending on the measurements of the soil in the location tested, either drains or amendments can be recommended. What we found with our initial field observations and test in my front yard is that the "white sand" that was below the organic material has a difference in EC great enough to not allow the water to permeate that layer quickly, causing it to stay on the surface for a long period of time. In my back yard, we found that difference to be 10x greater than in the front yard, which was fascinating to me.

In our initial discussions prior to his visit today, he explained that he had encountered some situations on farms where they work to incorporate measures to keep the water that farmers irrigate with in the soils longer. In my situation, the opposite is true. The measurements that he had with his meter helped us to confirm our hypothesis, and now the next step is to have a few tests performed on the various strata of soil that I have in my lot. The good news is that incorporating gypsum would be the first order to counteract the inability of some of the ionic exchange between the naturally occurring salts, and those that are being brought up by the high water table.

What I found funny is that he asked me if I had been able to grow any trees, to which I replied I had not. In the past, I've tried dogwoods, weeping willows, apple trees, japanese maples, and they have all died within the season. It's not from a lack of trying to keep it growing, it's just the soil! He suggested that I start looking into trees that grow in the Middle East, like pistachios, pomegranate and fig trees. :lol:


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## SGrabs33

Wow, way to go the extra mile and have your soil looked at in depth! Most people would just try and try with different amendments. Very interesting and glad your making progress!


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## Colonel K0rn

Went to my local Site One, and had a good conversation with the salesman. Explained what I'm doing, and he encouraged me to go ahead and kill off what I had, and we'd work to get the grass established until November. That's a nice benefit of living near the coast, although the offset is that the summers can be pretty miserable due to humidity and heat. Plus bugs... speaking of which, I had a random wasp decide to sting me in the forearm out in the middle of the yard 3 days ago. My arm is still itching and swollen, but the past 2 days have really sucked. Wife says I was scratching it in my sleep 

On the plus side, the weather has been really great: low 70's at night, mid 80's during the "heat" of the day. Tomorrow I'm going to mix up the Glyphosate, and get to spraying! I expect the soil results to be in within a few days, but since I know the pH of the lawn was low from the Soil Savvy test that I had completed prior to the pending extension results, it can't hurt to throw down some dolomitic lime and get that in the ground.


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## Colonel K0rn

Today was the day to spray. It was bittersweet, since my wife said, "You know, you should have done this in the beginning." :| I had that feeling as I was rolling over the nice stands of grass that were shades darker than my neighbor's lawns. Prior to spraying, I took a picture from the porch, and was admiring the color difference, even with the dead brown spots where carpet grass once was. Of course, the lawn was still peppered with green kyllinga, and some goosegrass, but there was a lot more desirable grass today than I had 2 months ago, so I'm learning as I go. 









I was admiring the Lorapetalum that I had by the house, as I trimmed them a few weeks ago, and the leaves have turned a nice purple color, and have some blooms on them. Beautiful plants!









Hell strip, that's not very hellish.









I didn't take a panoramic of the front, so here's 2 images.

















I did get the basic soil test in for the front yard, and my pH was at 4.9  Suggestion was to put down 55#/1K ft². That's a whole lotta lime, but I'm going to break up the applications, possibly by adding calcitic lime along with the dolomitic lime to get the seedlings a good chance to get rooted in a pH environment they can do well in. That's all for today, I've got my college roommate coming to visit for the afternoon, and I'm making a brisket for us!


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## Colonel K0rn

So I did the application of Roundup all over the yard on Wednesday, and we have had over 1.5" of rain since then. I had some pretty serious ponding in the front, and still have some standing water. I'm going to be bringing in some soil/sand and bringing those areas up to level with the rest of the yard prior to seed down. That being said, the majority of the grass is looking pretty bad, but not completely yellow. Can I go ahead and scalp what's here, and respray what looks green?


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## Redtenchu

I'd wait a week and respray before scalping.

But, time is very valuable at this point in the year. Even living on the coast, you'll risk losing the new Bermuda. I'd recommend you act quickly with any leveling or other prep work you have planned.


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## Colonel K0rn

I've been out of town for a week, so I didn't update anything that's happened over the past few days. When I came back, everything was dead, with the exception of a few stray weeds. So, I had a long day of work in the lawn today. Since I'm tired, I'll keep it brief. The extension agent recommended 55#/1k ft² of lime to raise pH to 6.5 and 40#/1k ft² of gypsum to counteract the high sodium levels and combat the "ponding" effect that I have in the front and the back yards. I decided to break up the total amendments needed into 3 applications. I also was working against the clock to try and get these little babies growing!

Since we were going to go watch the eclipse in the path of totality, Monday was going to be a bust due to weather at my home. I knew I was going to need to get the prep work done on Sunday/Tuesday, so I rented a dethatcher to remove as much of the dead carpet grass that was stuck on the surface of the soil. I got one pass on the yard done, and had just started in my cross-pattern when I heard a loud *BANG!*from where the flail blades were so I quickly released the activation handle, and let the axle stop spinning. I shut off the motor, and lifted up the front wheels. 6 blades, and 12 washers, a spindle shaft and one "Geezus clip" came sliding out the front of the machine.  Some engineers refer to the clips as E clips, but as a mechanic, I always referred to them as Geezus clips, because when you remove one, and it goes flying, you say, "Oh Geezus" 

So, I'm wondering what in the hell to do, as I start looking for the missing blade, the missing bushing, and the missing clip. I know I didn't hit anything in the ground, as I had just engaged the blades, and I always started them tipped up, and not flat on the ground. Just a habit from dethatching my lawns. Anyway, I looked for a bit, then called the HD rental store, and explained what happened. Fortunately, there was another store in town that had another machine, so I returned the defective one, and drove over to the other store and got another unit. I finished up the debris removal on Sunday, saw the eclipse in Orangeburg, SC in the path of totality for ~2m:30s. Was pretty amazing!

On to the pictures.

The wife snapped this one of me while I was blowing the dead grass onto the driveway to collect it. 

I wasn't having much luck with the mower, as it was sucking up a lot of soil, and getting clogged. I can say that the Snapper does really suck. I wound up gathering most of it up by hand, and hauling to my debris pile in the backyard. My wife told me it was time to wash up, and as she did, I heard the rumble of thunder. Mother Nature decided that she was going to delay any further progress. That was fine, as I was ready to call it a day. My drag mat was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, and I wanted to chill for the day.


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## Colonel K0rn

Well, not really; a drag mat does wonders when you're establishing/renovating a yard, as I found out. Tuesday, I received my drag mat, and gave it a spin around the yard. It works great, and did a good job at gathering up some of the clumps of dead grass I missed with the blower. It also made the dirt yard I had look really nice!







In those last two pictures, Mother Nature decided to call a delay of activities, and sprinkle down some love juice from the heavens. It was a small amount of rain, less than 0.05" and I needed to get the amendments down prior to Wednesday, which was seed down day. I spread the first batch of gypsum and lime in the front and the rear, and called it quits for the day.


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## Colonel K0rn

I hope you guys are right, because I brought in 10 yards to level out most of the yard, and then I decided to go with 10 yards of compost for a nice seed bed and to topdress the Royal Bengal seed I chose. Work was pretty straightforward, but man, I really like the quality of the compost that my guys supply. They have a sod farm across the river, and have a pretty nice operation and make some really quality compost. 





While the truck that was hauling the compost went to the dirt pit to pick up the sand, they did some rough grading to get the lot in better shape.


While they were working on the grading, I decided to throw down some compost and drag it on the hell strips. Works great! time to seed down baby!


I have a sneaking suspicion this won't be the last truckload of sand that gets brought to my property.


Yeah, I even let them use the drag mat on the sand! 


So, with the nice layer of compost put down for a seed bed, and the sand leveled out as good as it could be, it was time to put the seed down.


A few trips around the yard, and I had them topdress with compost to cover.

When we were at this point, I heard the rumble of thunder, and I had been keeping an eye on the sky. We were all moving quickly to get the other side spread out and broadcasted before any precipitation were to fall. I'm pretty sure the left side of the yard is going to be REALLY green. 


After I stroked the check, sure enough, it started sprinkling... I knew that we had rain in the forecast, but not a high amount of rainfall expected, <0.10, which is fine by me. 


I really think that nature just likes  with me. I did get a nice rainbow, which was a nice way to end the day... almost. I had a half bag of peat moss left over from some potting projects, so I threw it onto some areas to act as a gauge to let me know how the moisture was in those areas. It really isn't going to dry out, as I'm going to babysit this yard for the next week! Had to get the water hoses out and get it damp! Man, the compost holds a LOT of water.


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## pennstater2005

That is some serious prep work! Looks great!!


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## cnet24

This is looking great- good call on bringing in the top soil and sand to level, especially when considering your previous pics of a flooded front yard. I think you are going about this the right way in terms of soil testing, amendments, and leveling before throwing seed down. I know that up here in Atlanta we are maybe slightly past the seeding window due to the long germination rates for bermuda- hope you have an extended summer in Savannah to help out!


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## Colonel K0rn

pennstater2005 said:


> That is some serious prep work! Looks great!!


Here's hoping it works out. I woke up this morning dreaming I had a huge thunderstorm, and major washout on both sides. Your reno is looking good too.



cnet24 said:


> This is looking great- good call on bringing in the top soil and sand to level, especially when considering your previous pics of a flooded front yard. I think you are going about this the right way in terms of soil testing, amendments, and leveling before throwing seed down. I know that up here in Atlanta we are maybe slightly past the seeding window due to the long germination rates for bermuda- hope you have an extended summer in Savannah to help out!


Thanks. Looking at the CPC from the NWS, the prediction for the next 3 months is 50% for higher than normal temperatures. Last Christmas, it was warm and we were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts if that's any indicator. I think it has to do with the El Nino/La Nina cycles that take place on the left coast. I've usually seen that affect the weather over here. Plus we didn't have a good freeze last year, and the peach and orange crops were pretty wimpy. Either way, I needed to do the amendments, and seed is relatively cheap.


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## dfw_pilot

Wow, great work so far! I love to see that smooth bare dirt that been prepped. I'm also curious to see how the gypsum does with the water. Hope the reno is a success! Even if it stalls this fall, Bermuda will be hard to stop in the spring either way. Thanks for taking the time to write this all up! It seems that in lawn care, it's more about the journey than the final product.


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## Colonel K0rn

One of the things that I overlooked was the need for a lawn roller. I went to the Home Depot rental center last night, and rented a lawn roller for a day. I tried it out last night, but soon found out that the compost was still moist, and it started picking up seed, and topdressed compost, so I decided that I'd have to roll in the morning, once the moisture content had diminished slightly.

After a cup of coffee, I started the pushing and pulling. Unfortunately, the doc says I have to lower my cholesterol, so no bacon and eggs, but I can have them in spirit!


Since there is a slope on both sides, going sideways wasn't so bad. Uphill and downhill, not so much.




Once I got everything rolled out, it was time to set up the sprinklers, since I don't have irrigation installed yet. That'll be a project for next year. 



It was pretty hot, so I decided to come inside and write this post. I'll be playing hose roulette for the next few weeks, which is fine. Just hoping that I don't get any substantial rainfall until the seedlings are established.


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## Colonel K0rn

I did a late-evening soak on the entire yard, knowing that there was a 30% chance of light rain overnight, with a 40% chance of thundershowers this afternoon. When I went outside and checked the rain gauge, 0.05" of rain had fallen overnight, and there were some spots that had washed away, which was acceptable. I'm sure this was because they were right by the sidewalk, and came down the slope on the right side of the yard. I decided I would go to Site One and get some compressed mulch pellets to help prevent some of the washing away, and reseed as necessary. I did look at some of the seed that was visible, and was surprised to see that I already had germination! :yahoo: 



As I was about to leave, the clouds looked pretty ominous, and I was hoping it would pass me by, since I was headed South. Unfortunately, it started raining as I was about 2 miles from the house, and it continued to intensify. 
Once I got to the interstate, it subsided, and I was stuck on the onramp to I-95 because someone hydroplaned on the on-ramp. I was thinking, "Man, I'm glad that's not me. He's having a pretty bad day, and that's a crappy way to start the weekend." I did my shopping at Sam's(gotta get more Gatorade), and then headed to Site One to get the pellets. I texted my wife and asked if it was raining there, and she replied, "Yes, I can hear it." 


The drive home was uneventful, as I was rockin' some Guns 'n Roses on dry roads. I pulled into the driveway, and parked the van. My countenance fell as I looked out to the lawn, and was sickened by what I saw. :shocked: 






*This came into my head.*





I sat in the van for a bit, and felt deflated, and contemplated what to do next. I did have another 10# of seed, but I sure didn't have enough mulch pellets to take care of all the damage that had taken place. I got out of the van, and carried some of my stuff inside, and asked my wife if she had looked outside. She said she had, and said, "I don't know what you did to piss the rain gods off." I told her that I needed a stiff drink, so I got a Mtn. Dew, and started writing this post. Mid-post, I went outside to check the rain gauge, and we received 0.60" of rain since last night. :shock:As I emptied the rain gauge, it started sprinkling again, and I said a few choice words, and went back inside. A few minutes later, I stepped onto the porch, and snapped this picture. 


About 20 minute later, it was slightly sprinkling, and I checked the rain gauge: another 0.18" of rain.

On the positive side, where the hose was lying in the yard, it acted like a dam, and kept most of that seed in the yard. The parkway strips have held their seed completely with no washout, and along the edges the seed that I spotted that was germinating is still there. Most of the compost that was topdressed has washed down to the low spot on the right and left sides, and the side yard is underwater. I'm hoping that the gypsum that I broadcast prior to putting down any of the sand or compost will start to work, and help with the percolation. I'll just have to wait for the ground to dry out some, re-broadcast the seed, and hope that the forecast of no rain for the next week holds true. On the plus side, since most of the seed hasn't germinated, and started to root yet, there's really no big loss. It's going to be piled into the center of the yard. It's just nature's way of saying I didn't put enough down in the right areas. Plus I know where to put more sand down!

Sometimes in the face of adversity, it's best to find humor when you're frustrated. I'm lucky that I can do that most of the time. While I was looking at the front, and feeling like I had wasted all that time and effort, I quipped to my wife that I should have planted rice.


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## Redtenchu

Oh man...


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## pennstater2005

:shock: Whoa buddy. I wasn't expecting this post. I can't even complain about my little baby wash out I had. Good to see you found some humor in it. Not much else you could do about it.

Keep us posted on the re do and good luck Colonel!! :thumbup:


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## Colonel K0rn

pennstater2005 said:


> :shock: Whoa buddy. I wasn't expecting this post. I can't even complain about my little baby wash out I had. Good to see you found some humor in it. Not much else you could do about it.
> 
> Keep us posted on the re do and good luck Colonel!! :thumbup:


Yeah, I'm a little bummed, but like I said, I think all the seed that wasn't washed down the driveway to the side yard is sitting in the center, and it'll just be *REALLY THICK* there. I'm hoping that the gypsum that was put down underneath the sand will speed up the percolation (probably not). I knew there was a 50/50 shot at not having rain, and took the gamble. I'm estimating that I'll probably need at least 20yd of sand to bring that center portion of the yard up to a small crown. I just got back from Lowe's with a Garden Weasel, a landscaping rake (because sand, and the fact that I saw Connor's video on how he uses his for levelling), a Whizz spreader and a new pair of gloves. When I was using the Earthway 2170, the compost was getting stuck in the tires, which in turn was picking up some of the seed that I was spreading. Since I don't have to go all over the yard, and pretty much in the center, I figure I can be a bit more tactical with my distribution. Plus I don't want to have to order another 20# of seed. One way or another, I'm going to have bermuda dammit.


----------



## Spammage

Wow, that sucks. Hopefully it isn't a complete loss.


----------



## Colonel K0rn

I woke up this morning hoping that I wouldn't be facing a large amount of water on the lot. There is more than I would like, and more than what I can tolerate. In the spirit of good fortune, and hoping that I can catch a break, I decided to change my avatar to what I think my yard should be. It's either that or my coffee hasn't fully activated yet.


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## Redtenchu

Lol


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## pennstater2005

Colonel K0rn said:


> I woke up this morning hoping that I wouldn't be facing a large amount of water on the lot. There is more than I would like, and more than what I can tolerate. In the spirit of good fortune, and hoping that I can catch a break, I decided to change my avatar to what I think my yard should be. It's either that or my coffee hasn't fully activated yet.


Digging the rice paddy just not in your yard


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## dfw_pilot

Whoa!

As far as 20 yards3, that sounds like a good start . . .

If not, I certainly like your optimism on the paddy idea - you can even follow the Japanese and get creative with it, or throw in the TLF logo!


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## Ware

Colonel K0rn said:


>


That much pooling will forever cause problems for any turfgrass. I would get my hands on a rotary laser level and shoot some elevations to estimate how much fill you will need to rectify this issue. Then use it again during the grading process to ensure that water will flow.


----------



## Colonel K0rn

Ware said:


> Colonel K0rn said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That much pooling will forever cause problems for any turfgrass. I would get my hands on a rotary laser level and shoot some elevations to estimate how much fill you will need to rectify this issue. Then use it again during the grading process to ensure that water will flow.
Click to expand...

Good idea. I'm pretty sure the contractor I called today to come regrade the front will have one at his disposal. :mrgreen: I got permission from the boss to pay someone to fix the pooling issue.


----------



## Colonel K0rn

dfw_pilot said:


> Whoa!
> 
> As far as 20 yards3, that sounds like a good start . . .
> 
> If not, I certainly like your optimism on the paddy idea - you can even follow the Japanese and get creative with it, or throw in the TLF logo!


That's an amazing image, and I just read the subject line to your post when I was writing this reply :lol: I have to wonder how many varieties of rice went into making those images.


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## Colonel K0rn

Day 4 Saturday 8/26/17
After much consideration, speculation and prognostication, I decided that I was going to hold off on reseeding the entire yard, and just get the "Hell Strips" aka parkway strips. I've got a contractor coming Monday to give me an estimate for regrading the front, and depending on their recommendations, it'll determine if I'll wait until next spring to throw down bermuda. If I can get the work done next week, then dependent upon the activity of the tropical depression that's spinning offshore and the effectiveness of the work on the regrading, then I'll give it another try. Otherwise, I'll be putting down a perennial ryegrass in a few weeks, and enjoy that for the next few months until Spring.

I threw down more seed on the parkways, and used the Garden Weasel to sow them in. I found it pretty effective, more so than a metal-tined rake. I found that when I was raking, I was gathering the large chunks of compost and random pine needles, and some dead grass and I didn't want to put that on top of the seed. I remember seeing Pete Denning do that in one of his GCI Turf videos on You Tube, and it looked like it did a good job. I'd recommend it for sure. I got my hose, and lightly sprayed the surface, and the compost started absorbing a lot of water. With a forecast of 30% chance of rain, I didn't want to take a chance of having this second seed app wash away. I didn't have as much wash out in these areas as I did the large portions, so I figured I was hedging my bets to make sure I was going to get at least some growth in an area, dammit. :x

After I sprayed, I looked up, and off in the distance to the east, there was a pretty large cloud that had rain bands underneath it. I said a few choice words, because most all of the storms we get come from the west. This storm system has not only the barometric pressure depressed, but myself included. I hurried to the van, and fought with the bag of mulching granules to get it open to where I could broadcast it by hand. They have a "valve" on the bag, but after a few minutes of hoisting the bag up and down, I finally ripped open the top, and got a pretty even distribution across both areas. No sooner than I got the bag emptied did it start sprinkling.

I actually got a sump pump, and put it in a bucket out in the low area in the hopes that I could speed up the draining of the water. It worked, but it made a huge mess, because the sand had not packed in well on top of the problematic soil about 3 inches below it (the stuff I had put the amendments on), and it just turned into a soupy mess as I walked back and forth across it.

I had some slight runoff from the driveway to the left side of the yard from the driveway with just this slight rainfall.




After it stopped raining about 10 minutes later, I walked out to check on the mulch, because I was curious to see how it would perform in a hand-broadcast application. It worked pretty well, and looked like it absorbed most of the water that Mother Nature provided! Whether or not I could justify the cost, the jury is still out.


----------



## Colonel K0rn

Day 5 Sunday 8/27/17 
I had my  and was glad to see that by relocating my hummingbird feeder to my porch, I had actually attracted a female hummingbird that I had seen flying around. She actually chased off some of the cardinals that we've been feeding with sunflower/safflower seed at the feeder, which I found to be comical. As a sidebar, I *HIGHLY RECOMMEND* getting one of these feeders if you have any hummingbirds around, or you want to attract them. They are a fantastic product, made in the USA, and are not harmful to the birds. The cheaper plastic feeders have sharp edges on them that can harm the bird's forked tongue when it's drinking, and can actually tear one of the forks off, which can cause death by starvation. I like the simplicity of the design, and ease of making nectar with just sugar and water inside of the feeder. It's appropriately named The Best Hummingbird Feeder Ever. I got mine at the Georgia National Fair last year, and plan on getting another in October. My mother in law said she liked mine, so I'll get her one for this year.

My happiness with the simple joy of watching the hummingbird land on the feeder was crushed when I saw that my neighbor(who has sold his house and closing on the 29th of next month) had mowed his yard this morning, and blown his clippings on to my yard. :evil: I could still hear him on his mower, and sat on the front porch drinking my coffee, and doing my best to keep my cool. My wife and I chatted for a bit, and I was waiting for him to come over and apologize, or to hear his blower crank up, but neither of those things happened. I'm not an inconsiderate person, and don't like confrontation, and I remember what it was like to make mistakes when I was younger, but come on!


What made it worse is that section of yard was infested with Green Kyllinga.


As soon as he left, I got out my blower, and "gently" blew back the clippings off of that side of the yard back into his. I spoke with his wife last week, and he said that since they have their house under contract, he's doing the minimal amount of upkeep to it as possible, and I'm pretty sure that's why he waited as long as he did to mow it. I've mowed their grass in the past when he was working a lot, but I guess I'm the neighbor who does things because I like to do them, not because I want to be thanked. In the future, I'll just keep that side mowed until the new neighbors move in.

I spent a good amount of time picking up cut-off seed heads, and debris and grumbling. I have been paying attention to the forecast for the next week, and was hoping that I _might_ be able to re-seed by next Thursday, depending on what this tropical depression off of the coast is going to do. The forecast for heavy rain is pretty high along the coast, and since I'm inland, that probably won't affect me much since I'm inland. Forecast for Thur-Sun is 80% for showers and thunderstorms. Doesn't look good for bermuda seed down this year. I'm probably going to have to opt for the perennial rye lawn this year, and give it another try in the spring.


----------



## Redtenchu

My wife freaks out every time a humming bird is at our feeder and to put that into perspective, they come 78 times a day, every day.... I do think they are cool little guys but UGH!


----------



## pennstater2005

Neighbor blowing clippings into an obviously newly seeded lawn. Colonel, you can't catch a break man :evil:


----------



## Colonel K0rn

Day 6








I actually get to put my cultivar into my profile now 

I've got grass! Since I counted my scalping as day 1, this is actually 5 days after seed down. The provider said germination would be within 5-7 days, but it actually happened quicker than that. I actually have visible growth today, and I was not expecting to see it so soon! Man, I can't tell you how happy I was to see the little green stalks coming up all over. I went out to the mailbox to meet the delivery person who had a package for us, and on the way back, I looked down, and noticed them. My wife was on the porch in the rocker, and she saw me drop the package, and shout like Homer Simpson, "WOO HOO!" I swear I could see her roll her eyes from 75' away. :lol:



It appears that I have a lot of growth on the parkways that are just underneath the cover mulch that I threw down, but they're not as deeply rooted yet. I'm pretty sure those areas are going to be very dense once they grow out. 

There were still some seeds that were visible on the surface, so I will probably get a lot more growth than what I see right now, which is fine by me. Nice thing about this point in the growth stage is that it's really easy to pick out the weeds.


I took my water hose, and gave everything a light watering, and felt really good about the outcome so far, even with the washouts. I was unsure how things were looking yesterday, as it was raining off and on, and I felt like my time, sweat, and money were for naught. But my wife reminded me that things always work out, even though you can try to force it, there's a reason for everything happening the way it does. I said, "Yeah, it's God's way of telling me that I didn't put enough seed in the low areas, so he just had Mother Nature redistribute it evenly.  " And that's what it actually looks like: the areas where the dirt was hard, and the compost that was spread on top of the dirt that washed away, the remaining "washboards" had the growth. I've seen it in areas that there wasn't any compost, like along the line between my A-hole neighbor's house, and mine, I've got growth. I put down more seed in some of the areas where I felt like I didn't get enough down on the first and second pass, and might have washed out. I'm glad I didn't go over the entire yard with the drag mat, otherwise I might have really messed things up. At the end of the day, I surveyed the yard again, and the area that was by the fire hydrant looked like it got much greener than it had this morning.



The low spot that was under water for a day was a mess. I took my levelling rake, and smoothed it out, and this actually was beneficial, as the layer of sand was mixing with the layer of compost on top. I think it'll give it a good growing medium for the next few days. Now whether or not it's all for naught remains to be seen. There is a forecast for thundershowers and 0.25"-0.5" of rain by Friday that's being brought up by Harvey, as well as another area that might develop off of the coast of Africa right now in the Atlantic. :roll: Fingers are crossed.


----------



## pennstater2005

:yahoo: Very nice! Hope the rain stays away or at least stays light for ya. Nice to see some green sprouting up in there.


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## Colonel K0rn

pennstater2005 said:


> Neighbor blowing clippings into an obviously newly seeded lawn. Colonel, you can't catch a break man :evil:


I know, right?! I thought about mowing that side when I was scalping the yard, just so that wouldn't happen, but I didn't bother. You can bet it'll be kept low until the new owners move in. Even then, some herbicide might find its way over there, and I'm certain that my bermuda will :lol:

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention, yesterday I had a contractor come and look at my entire lot. He suggested that we bring in a little more sand, and install some tile drains, while doing a little regrading. The swales that run along the sides and the back of the lot have sunken in over time, and there's no place for the water to go. I could have told him that  He said that we could go with the tile drains, but we'd have to have a way to discharge it. I'm certain that when the property was built, there was a swale along the back of the property and my neighbor's that ran to a discharge ditch that's between his property and my other neighbor's house. This ditch is where the storm drains from the street run to, and the area where the water goes to is designated as a wetland. I said I would talk to the neighbors and see if we could dig a trench across the back of their lot to put in a 4" drain pipe, and re-cover it with dirt, prior to the new owners taking possession.

Right now, they're not living in the house, as they've not found a new place to buy. Just staying at their in-laws. Don't know how nice it would come across if I were to tell the new owners, "Hi, I'm Colonel K0rn. Nice to meet you. By the way, can I have my contractor dig a trench in your back yard to dump my water into that ditch?"


----------



## Colonel K0rn

Well, it's technically a week since the seed went down. I checked this morning, and I definitely have two leaves coming off of a lot of the growth already. I knew that we were going to get some rain this evening, and they were predicting 0.15"-0.25". I figured that would be acceptable, and wouldn't pose too much of a thread to the new seedlings. Turns out the forecasters and I were both wrong. At 5:15 PM, it started pouring cats and dogs, and it went on for a few hours.

At the time of writing this post (11:00 PM EST), I checked the rain gauge, and I received 0.83" of rain in a span of 2 hours. I set the hoses to line the driveway because the water running down it seemed to spill over into the sides of the yard, rather than running down into the corner. They were effective, until we go so much rain, it just started running over the hoses.

A good thing is that I usually can get a nice rainbow pic from my front porch, and today was no different. It wasn't as spectacular as that sunset rainbow, but still, they looked great despite having a lot of the compost and seed washed away from the front of the yard. I still have a lot rooted there.



When it stopped pouring, I put out the sump pump in the front low spot, because it works :lol: I figured until I get some drainage installed, or get the grade raised, it's going to be a fight with water in that spot. One thing I did find fascinating is how long the roots for the washed out seedlings were. They're easily over 1 1/2" on some of them. Amazing! I did see a lot of the other seedlings that were underwater in some areas, but the water was going down pretty quickly. They were rooted pretty well, which surprised me. My wife reassured me that I shouldn't fret about it, and that with the amount of grass that has rooted, and is still in the lawn after the first washout, that I'll have a good looking stand in a few weeks.















I don't wish hurricanes or tropical storms on anyone, but I would love for Hurricane Irma and Tropical Disturbance #1 to go straight to the Gulf of Mexico, and not turn north, or preferably, turn north by the time it gets to the Dominican Republic. Just as long as my house is not on the eastern side of the storms. :crying:

This is one model for the position of these storms by next Saturday


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## Colonel K0rn

Yesterday, we got 0.13" of rain in the evening, which always helps. Since I'm hand watering, it's nice to put that 45 minutes to use elsewhere. Today's high was 91°F, which was a nice change of pace, as I felt I wasn't going to die of heat stroke like in the months past. I also was enjoying the fact that my wife said, "It's nice to actually see green in our yard instead of that black dirt now." Gave the yard two more watering sessions, and headed to the back yard. Today, I opted to go manual, since the back yard still has some water retention issues.









Seriously, I have enjoyed the hell out of using a reel. It's not a workout, just work. I also have to say that I've *really enjoyed* being able to walk around in the grass barefoot! With my soggy yard situation not quite remedied, but improving, by using the push reel, I don't have to worry about getting stuck or leaving ruts as has happened in the past with the zero turn. It also makes me feel good knowing that I'm actually cutting my grass the way it should be cut: with a semi-sharp edge. :lol: Here's the results I have obtained by switching to a reel mower, and stepping up my mowing game, by getting lower.

*June 9th*








*Aug 2nd*








*Sep 2nd*









It has helped that I use the construction fencing to keep the doggos off of the bare ground in some areas, and prevent runs around the whole yard, which is helping the bermuda to push into those areas. I need to feed it again tomorrow. The back portion of the yard is still a salad bar, filled with goose grass and green kyllinga, but I've got a Sedgehammer and Dismiss application coming up in a few days for those weeds. I wasn't planning on doing a renovation on the back this year, but I might next year. Since the dogs run around a LOT in the back yard, I wasn't that concerned about getting it ALL filled in. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to, but while the front is growing, I can spend a little more time on the back taking care of weeds, and pushing that bermuda that's back there to grow!

I also decided to do some plugging into the areas that haven't been overtaken by the bermuda that's established. You can clearly see the line where I stopped spraying the weeds that were back there, because the bermuda hadn't gone that far into the area. I wanted to see how quickly those areas where the grass was established would grow. I put in about 30 plugs into the barren areas by the established turf line, and will move the "No weed zone" further back when I spray in a few days.


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## Iriasj2009

Lovin the pics!


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## Colonel K0rn

*Day 13*
I was taking the garbage cans out to the curb for pickup, and saw the dew covered grass illuminated by the street light. I thought it looked neat!









*Day 14*
We're preparing to evacuate, depending on the projected path of Hurricane Irma. While I'm thinking about what I need to secure that's outside and can get blown away, I'm also going through a list of things that we need to bring with us, since we have 2 dogs as well. We're going to be staying at my in-laws house in Perry, and I hope that the storm moves by quickly. I'm also concerned how much of the lawn is going to get washed away should we have heavy rainfall. Last year with Hurricane Matthew, we were without electricity for 5 days, but we still had running water. I have a generator, and I wound up providing electricity for 2 other neighbors to plug in their fridges/freezers so they didn't lose too much food. We did lose a lot of food, but thankfully USAA is a great insurance company, and they cut us a check to replace what we lost, no questions asked.

I had a man come by yesterday, and he asked me if I burnt the lawn. I chuckled, and told him, "You're the second person who asked me that question." I told him it was compost, and found out that he lives in another subdivision just down the road, and he was wanting to renovate his yard. I shared a bit of the information that I've learned here, gave him the forum url, and asked a few questions about what he was planning on going with (seed/sod), grass type, lot size, etc. We exchanged numbers, and he told me that he drives by daily on his way to the Y to work out, and stopped because he saw me outside when he drove by. Looks like we'll have another renovation planned for the spring in our area 

As for the lawn, it's looking much better along the landscape. There's a good sea of green amid the black of the visible compost, and some of the sand on one side. There are sprouts of baby grass that has started to grow in some of the areas that got washed out and I reseeded. I can tell that I'm going to have to do a lot of levelling in the future to even out the whole front, but that's fine. This didn't happen overnight, and I planned on this being a comprehensive overhaul.

*Is that a weed, or a really fast growing grass plant? :mrgreen: *


*Look at the top down and height comparison!*


So, a question about the height comparison, and growth of bermuda on seeded lawns: when should I be able to mow it, and when I do, can I just use my reel mower, or do I have to bag the clippings? I've been weeding it by hand, as I go over the lawn, so there's not that many weeds in the areas that I'm concerned about the growth in. The side yard had a butt-ton(is that a measurement?) of weeds that were persistent through the glyphosate spray that I did, and apparently decided to come on up when the compost went down. The other thing is that the side of the yard closest to the fence is shaded by a complete jungle from my recently deceased neighbor in the backyard. Come fall, I'm renting a pole saw, and going to town cutting down all that crap and clearing my fence line. More than likely, I'll be planting some azaleas, but that's going to depend on the drainage installation situation.

*Front view*

*Parkways*

*Both sides separately*



There are some really thick spots on the right side, by the fire hydrant and water meter. There wasn't much washout in these areas since planting.

*Slow starters*


I found out that our outside cat loves the fact that I brought in a lot of sand... my wife said she is thanking me for the huge litterbox, and is bragging to all of her other feline friends:lol:


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## pennstater2005

Looks like it's recovering nicely!


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## LawnNerd

Colonel,

Been thinking about you this week as i've been watching the forecasts. How much rain are they predicting for you?


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## Colonel K0rn

The reports have varied the closer the storm gets, i.e. The day before we left, it looked like it would be near 15". As of 5 PM today, those have been dropped by half. I was kinda hoping we would be on the western side of the storm, but when we got to Perry (which is almost smack dab in the middle of the state), we saw that the storm track that changed to having the center pass right over where we're staying. I told my wife we brought the damn thing with us! The thing that would help us more is if it were to track further Westward, and that would help those in Miami about to get hammered.


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## Colonel K0rn

Got back to the homestead after our evacuation to Perry, GA, where we spent the past few days at my in-laws. Seems that I had a list of things to do when I got there too, so my time was not idle. Once the storm came through, thankfully, it wasn't that bad. After coming home, and assessing my situation, and after seeing what happened in Perry, they got more wind, and we got more rain at the house.

I was fully expecting to see a pond in the front, but was pleasantly surprised to see only a small puddle in the low spot in the front. I also was hoping that the hurricane would blow away the lovebugs that have been all over the place for the past few weeks, and are a huge nuisance this time of year. They're indigenous to FL, but are pretty common along the coast. It seems as the closer I got to the coast, the thicker they got. 









My rain gauge collected 6.58" of rainfall, and we probably got more, since I'm certain it was being blown sideways. My gauge is very dirty, but it's still accurate. 









What was along the side of the yard was a lot of leaves, and sticks, and it's still kinda soggy there. It's not going to be fun to clean this mess up :| 

















I was very happy to assess the overall condition of the yard. I have an area by the house that was naturally hard packed dirt, and when it rained after I put seed down, I saw that there was always going to be rain that ran off of the side of the house that doesn't have gutters. It spills into the front, and the side of the house. I'll have to spend a bit more time on this area next season. The low spot in the front does have a puddle, but not as large as I expected. I'm happy with the condition considering the grass is almost 3 weeks old.

































As I was looking over it, I noticed that some of the grass in the thicker areas is *really thick*, to the point of that it's grown almost to 2 1/2"-3" tall. I'm going to cut it tomorrow, if the ground isn't too soggy. Some areas are around 1 1/2" high, and those are the areas that I re-seeded after the rain on the 3rd day. I didn't see any stolon growth, so I'm thinking that I'll need to cut it to spur the plant into production. 









BTW, if you're in my area, don't expect to get any milk at the grocery store like my wife did. I didn't bother to check the bread aisle.


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## Spammage

Glad it came through as well as it did, and glad you didn't have any major issues.


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## cnet24

Not sure what the cost looks like compared to grading, but have you considered installing some type of drain for the low spots? I have a low spot in my backyard before a slight hill that collects standing water (although not as bad as what you are dealing with) and the drain does a good enough job draining it.

I might recommend a pop-up style, running the piping to the road and letting it drain there. Maybe I should have provided this input before you planted the grass due to the trenching of the pipe :roll: Something like this might help:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/4-in-Polyethylene-Pop-Up-Drainage-Emitters-with-Elbow-422G/100153624


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## Colonel K0rn

cnet24 said:


> Not sure what the cost looks like compared to grading, but have you considered installing some type of drain for the low spots? I have a low spot in my backyard before a slight hill that collects standing water (although not as bad as what you are dealing with) and the drain does a good enough job draining it.
> 
> I might recommend a pop-up style, running the piping to the road and letting it drain there. Maybe I should have provided this input before you planted the grass due to the trenching of the pipe :roll: Something like this might help:
> 
> http://www.homedepot.com/p/4-in-Polyethylene-Pop-Up-Drainage-Emitters-with-Elbow-422G/100153624


Only problem that I have with the piping to the road is that there's a negative grade toward the house, and the house is on a supported slab. I'm pretty sure when the house was built, the now low spot was a crown, with swales along both sides leading toward the back yard. There are noticeable swales along the side and the rear of the lot, but over the years, the ground has gotten compacted, and a low spot has just developed in several places. As I look at the lot now, there's still water in the back yard, but the water in the front has gone away. :banana:

I'm going to wait until my neighbors sell their house, and then greet the new neighbors when they move in, and then ask them if I can put a trench with a discharge pipe along the back of their property line. Should go well.


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## pennstater2005

I still can't believe that happened to your reno. It looks like it's starting to come along judging by your pictures.


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## Colonel K0rn

pennstater2005 said:


> I still can't believe that happened to your reno. It looks like it's starting to come along judging by your pictures.


Thanks friend, your renovation looks great too. It's pretty darn amazing how we can get to enjoy the fruits of our labor in a relatively short time period. 
*Day 21*
I gave the yard its first mow today with the push reel. I'd say that I cut about 60% of the growth in the whole front yard. Considering how tall some of the growth in the front portion and the parkways were, I opted to cut at 2", and I'd say that some of the growth(judging by some of the clippings) was darn near 4" total height. :shocked: I did notice some lateral growth in areas, so needless to say, I'm very pleased with the results so far even with the curve balls that Mother Nature has thrown my way. I'm going to wait a few days after I put down some "secret product" that I picked up today before I take more pictures. :wink:


----------



## pennstater2005

Thanks and good luck Colonel :thumbup:


----------



## Colonel K0rn

*Day 23*
I'll go ahead and let the cat out of the bag regarding the "secret" that I have. I went to the Site One store to get some more lime, gypsum, and fert for the front. I wound up leaving with a quart of Mirimichi Green Release 9-0-1C. I've been reading up on the benefits of humic acid and other root growth stimulants that are becoming more readily available in the market, and was comfortable with talking to the sales rep about the products. I saw pictures of sod that had been laid 2 weeks prior, and there were no visible seams, and they had to be mowed. This product was applied immediately after the sod was laid, and since it's a foliar application, it's easy to use. This also gave me a chance to use the Chapin 20v again, which is nice when you can use the toys that you had to justify to the wife that it's going to make your job easier and get you better results :lol:

What's even cooler is that the branch manager was there, and he couldn't believe the pictures that I showed him of my yard, and he wanted to know what my root structure of the plants looked like. Today, Friday, I pulled up one of the plants to see for myself what was going on beneath the surface. The plant that I pulled up was 3" tall, and the roots extended another 2 1/8". I pulled up another plant from another area close by, and had similar findings.

















Since I wanted to leave the Mirimichi product on the plants for as long as possible and for maximum uptake, I decided that spraying the yard was going to be all that I did for the day. I do have to say that having the tracking dye on the yard made the new yard really stand out, even though it really didn't need it to look much greener than the neighborhood lawns.


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## Colonel K0rn

*Day 24*
I slept in late, and got a late start to the day. I wasn't sure if it was a placebo effect or not, but I could have sworn the yard looked like it needed to be mowed again, and was much greener than the day before. I wanted to water the babies since they haven't had any rain since Irma blew through on Monday, so I broke out the water hose. My hose reel kept  messing up, and I was _this close_ to coming inside and ordering an Eley reel. Don't worry, I'm still thinking about it. Seems that when I wound it up before we left that one side of the hose was wrapped around the outside of the spool, and it made unreeling the hose an "unreal" PITA.

I started off watering the parkways, and it was evident that I was pretty heavy handed with the Mirimichi product on the side with the mailbox, since the tracking dye wasn't washing off of all the blades easily. I think most of the visible paper mulch that I put on there absorbed a lot of the dye, and it just makes it look a lot more blue than it is.

I hand watered the parkways, then started thinking about all the other things that I needed to do in the yard, so I decided to hook up the Orbit gear drive sprinklers, and let them run on the right side of the yard, while I relaxed in the shade. Did I forget to mention that it's still hot here? I mean, I've got great grass-growing weather for the next 10 days at least!


While watering some of the areas on the right, I noticed that I was getting lateral growth off of a lot of the plants. The right side of the yard had no bermuda in it prior to starting the renovation. I've got some of the old stuff that was along the driveway that has popped up, and the blade structure and crown is differently colored, so I'm pretty sure that this is the new seed that's starting to go lateral, which is great news. I even have some baby grass that's coming up in the picture.









What I did notice is the huge clumps of green kyllinga that are trying to encroach on my lawn. I addressed that later this evening :x 









So I spent the majority of the afternoon doing small things around the house, moving the sprinklers, hand watering areas that I didn't want to get drenched or tend to pond up (talking to you Mr. Low Spot). While I was watering one side, my neighbor called me and asked for a ride to pick up her husband's car from the mechanic. I dropped her off, and was driving back to the house slowly, looking at the clouds and thinking to myself, "I've spent the time watering the yard today, and I'll bet it's going to rain." even though there was a 0% chance today. When I got 2 houses away, what I saw really made me feel like my hard work and effort that I've put into this renovation has been worth it. After passing all the houses along the way back and looking at uncut, malnourished and neglected yards, I was driving up to an oasis of lush greenery. My heart filled with joy, because I had mostly been seeing the yard only from the house looking out at the street, and looking at all the bare spots that had yet to fill in. I asked my wife to hop in the van and go for a short ride with me. She didn't know what I was doing, so I handed her my sunglasses. They're a brown tint, and polarized, and I wanted her to see what I saw. She said, "Wow, it really does look great. I'm proud of you." LOL, I guess I was looking for affirmation, but in reality, I'm just seeking appreciation, and we both do at this point.

So, here's a few pics of the yard, 1 day after applying the Mirimichi Green 9-0-1C, and in the midst of washing the tracking dye off. After I watered, I applied PGR to the rear yard, and sprayed the encroaching green kyllinga with Sedgehammer (wanted to try it out), and also sprayed the edges of the front yard with the same. I then took on some more kyllinga in the back with the rest of the sedgehammer, and broke out more Dismiss to kill off some plants that were in the thick stand, as well as in the Salad BarTM




What's amazing in these parkway pictures is that the marking dye had been washed off the grass prior to me taking the pictures. This is the wow factor that I saw when I pulled up to the house. I'll get it off of the concrete pretty soon I'm sure.


----------



## pennstater2005

Spreading looks good and the blue dye always makes it look a touch better. I use extra dye when I spray anything. Looks like your hard work is paying off! It's come a long way since the wash out pics!!


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## Colonel K0rn

I was just looking at the last pictures I posted, and noticed that in the lower right hand corner of the last picture, there's a love bug. I took this picture the other day when they were swarming all over the front of the house. These things are prolific. I was hoping that the hurricane would get rid of them, but they've persisted. They're not as thick as they were a week ago, but still annoying as hell. Look at all of them!


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## Redtenchu

Very nice progress!


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## J_nick

Hey CK how about an update. I saw some newer pics over on a cool season watering thread it's looking good.


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## Colonel K0rn

J_nick said:


> Hey CK how about an update. I saw some newer pics over on a cool season watering thread it's looking good.


Thanks for the compliment Nick. Sure thing, I'll have one written up tomorrow. It was just hot as blazes today, with the heat index around 107, and I didn't do much in the way of yard work, just a light watering, and a mow the day before. I've got a few things to share that I found to be pretty neat. I might start a new thread like @wardconner, and just call it my journal 

Wow, I didn't realize it was almost 2 weeks since I made an update on my post. I've got some yard sales to hit up with the wife tomorrow morning, so I'll try to get my pics early in the AM.


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## Movingshrub

At what point are you going to stop the PGR application for the year?


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## J_nick

I would encourage you to keep this reno thread alive this growing season so others can follow it from start to finish in one place. Then give an update how it's doing in the spring.

At the beginning of the growing season next year or whenever you start on the yard start a journal. That's just how I would do it.


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## Colonel K0rn

Movingshrub said:


> At what point are you going to stop the PGR application for the year?


The thing is, I didn't apply any PGR in the front yard, just in my back yard where I'm trying to get the grass to thicken up. I wanted to see how far I could get it on seed, fert and water alone.

Also, I had no idea how much crabgrass would be stirred up when I did the power rake, and brought it to the surface. I either 1. Didn't see it before I started the renovation because of how thick the carpet grass was 2. there might have been some seed in the compost, but I don't think that was the case or 3. just had a lot of seed that was dormant, and given good growing conditions it took off. I pluck it out of the ground daily as I'm walking the turf, and since I just did the first feeding after seed down, it's starting to be very noticeable 2 days after I mowed it. However that's a good thing, because it makes it easy to see when you're walking by.


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## raldridge2315

I read some time ago that crabgrass seed can lie dormant for 50 years and germinate when disturbed. I can't remember if this was research or opinion so it may or may not be true. I'm willing to bet that there is some truth in this.


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## Colonel K0rn

via Imgflip Meme Generator

Apologies for not getting an update out, but I thought I was staying on top of it here on the forums. I've been active in other threads, but haven't updated my own thread. I'd like to say that the front is pretty much on cruise control, but it's not: mow mow mow, water water water, weed weed weed. That's been the pace of things lately, but that's what we do because we are passionate about it! Keep in mind, not only am I tackling the front with a complete renovation, but experimenting with fostering growth in the rear with bermuda (I'm pretty sure it's common)that arose from the weeds like the Phoenix. That might be the cultivar I'd name it, because my back yard was a hot mess. Still is in some places, but I'm just one man.

When I was thinking about what the next step I planned to take with the lawn, I decided that I would go the route of liquid fertilization for the remainder of this growing season, and supplement as I saw fit. One thing I noticed since I sprayed the Mirimichi Green product all over the yard, was that there were little piles of dirt all over the yard.Yesterday, I saw the largest pile of earthworm castings I've ever seen in one area in the back yard by the pool, and that makes me *very* happy. I've never seen many earthworms in my soil since I've lived here over half a decade (yes, I can say that now ). This is encouraging, because it tells me that the soil biology is getting healthier. Healthy soil = healthy turf, all the way down to the microscopic level. So, I know I'm doing something that's not only improving what's visible, but what is not visible to the naked eye. I'm confident that if I keep taking the right steps and approaching the problems on the foundational level, and applying my Six Sigma 5-why analysis to determine the root cause of issues that come up, I'll have success. It's working so far.

Last Thursday, I received my shipment of product from Greene County Fertilizer, which contained several products I was interested in giving a shot. I spoke with Brad Huff, and we had a great conversation. He recommended that I get 2 gallons of their 18-0-0 Greene Punch, and a gallon of their 0-0-2 MicroGreene, which is an interesting product because it contains S, Fe, Mg, and Zn, as well as humic acid and kelp. I was most excited to try out the N-Ext RGS, which is a root growth stimulant product that contains Humic Acid, Fulvic Acid and Kelp. Matt Martin did an excellent review of this product on his channel, which was enough to pique my interests, and learn more about the product. I was curious about this product when I watched this video when he posted it a while back, but due to technical issues, Matt had to repost the video. It's up, and I suggest that you give it a watch.

I sprayed 8 oz/k of the 18-0-0, 6 oz/k of the 0-0-2, and 3 oz/k of the RGS to my entire lot. I had some left over and sprayed my neighbor's front yard. I had some mechanical issues with my Chapin sprayer that's listed in that thread. I bypassed the pressure switch to allow me to spray the 12 gallons of product that I mixed up that Saturday morning.

So, a week has passed, and it's now 
*Day 36*

The growth has seemed to pick up the pace, and the yard is getting fuller by the day, however I noticed that in some places, the color was darker green than others, but the growth has been very consistent. I'm mowing at 1 1/2", every two days, and I'm not pushing the grass too hard. I want the roots to get deep, store up carbs for the winter, and thicken up. I'd suspect I have about another 6 weeks of growing season left before the yard will start to go dormant, maybe more. I'm still battling crabgrass in the yard, plucking as I see it, because I don't want to apply herbicide at this time. That doesn't mean that herbicide won't find its way onto my neighbor's yard about 6' from the property lines :twisted:

I've been trying to get up early in the morning to watch the sunrise, and enjoy the day before the world wakes up. Well, in my case, that's around 6:45AM, and sunrise has been around 7:30'ish. Enough time to hang out on the porch, and watch the sunrise, and pet the outdoor cat, Kiki. So, with that, here's some sunrise photos with my outdoor cat. The iPhone really doesn't do sunrises here justice. I like the 4th picture, as it looks like the Eye of Sauron.

*A view of the dew on the grass*









*Trying to show the contrast of the skies above the treeline*









*The first beams of light shine through the trees*









*My son started playing the theme song from LOTR when he saw this*









*A nice panoramic shot*









So, in the style of others who have posted their renovations on here, I've tried to take photos in the same places that I've taken them before, so I can show progression.

Seed down:









Day 14:









Day 24:









Day 36:









Seed down:









Day 3:









Day 7:









Day 24:









Day 36:









Seed down:









Day 5:  









Day 24:









Day 36:









*This is on the North side of the lot, and the trees shade a lot of the sunlight, and drop a LOT of leaves. I don't expect to get much growth this year here.*
Seed down:









Day 3:









Day 20, thanks to Hurricane Irma:









Day 36:









*These photos show the low spot, and it still hasn't fully grown in yet*
Day 20, thanks to Hurricane Irma:









Day 36:









*And finally, the spot where I noticed growth at 3 days, still the thickest spot on the lawn. *
Day 6:









Day 14:









Day 24:









Day 36:








The grass looks yellow and thin on this picture, but it's really not at all. Not sure why the picture looks that way.


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## Colonel K0rn

While working in the yard today, I received a compliment from a neighbor a few houses down who was walking his son home from the school bus drop-off. My wife ordered pizza for dinner, and I was enjoying an adult beverage on the porch, when the driver pulled up. As he approached us with pies in hand, he said, "Wow, your yard looks so much better than it did the last time I was here." My wife said he delivered right after I did the glyphosate spray. *#feelsgoodman
*
It was a very productive day today and the weather was beautiful, with a repeat scheduled for tomorrow. I lowered the HOC from 1 1/2" to 1". It was nice to be able to sit down on a thicker portion of grass, and fiddle around with the new Hunter PGP head I picked up from Site One today. I rigged one up on a zinc spike, and used that to water in the 200# of gypsum that I applied today. Due to Hurricane Irma and the inundation of saltwater flooding to most of the houses around here, the supplier of gypsum that the Site One gets their stock from ran out of bulk material. Completely. Last week my sales rep said that if he could get a truckload of it, he'd have it sold before 10AM. :shock:

He did offer another product that has Humic Acid & Iron incorporated with the gypsum, and it's pretty pricy stuff. My local general store was selling plain ole gypsum for $4 less per bag, so I just bit the bullet for the product that Site One had. I guess since I've had good luck with the stuff I've gotten so far, might as well keep going with their products.






I took this picture while taking a break. You can visibly see the difference between the mowed area at 1" and the unmowed area at 1 1/2". The grass did look a little yellowed, but the HOC was not nearly low enough to scalp it. After the mow, I applied more fert, and watered it in.





On this pic, you can see my neighbor's house with the blue car. I did a fert feeding on his yard a week ago. His centipede/bermuda mix is looking nicer than it has in a long time.


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## Redtenchu

Nicely done sir!


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## Colonel K0rn

Decided yesterday that I needed to add some porch appeal. I'm working on this right now. More pictures to come later.


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## Colonel K0rn

I got my package from Sgrabs today, so I'll be applying some FAS when I get my replacement sprayer from Chapin. I spent about 5 hours clearing out a new area to make a flower bed. When I put in the shrubs 3 years ago, I don't know why I decided to go with mondo grass, and just keep the edge parallel to the shrubs... today, I changed that, and built up a nice flowerbed. The posts that are on the porch are rotting, and I am missing a few spindles on the railing, and that's a project that's on the to-do list for a few months. At least this way, I can easily access anything that falls off the porch, which used to be a trick to find stuff when it fell into the shrubs.

Our local general merchandise store had mums that were HUGE, and they were only $8.99. We got the white and the orange one last Saturday. I had them sitting in front of one of the loropetalums until I decided what I was going to put in place. Yesterday, the wife and I went to Lowe's, and they had a lot of various flowers that were well discounted, and I picked up a few things that I thought were colorful, and bright. I didn't want to let all that good grass that had grown in the area where I removed the sod go to waste, so I used my 5-in-1 ProPlugger to transplant plugs to areas of the front yard that were bare and hadn't grown in yet.

Here's a few pictures, from beginning to end. I had just planted the last pansy in the ground, and was getting a bag of mulch out of the van, and it started raining pretty heavily. This is the first measurable rainfall that we've had here since Hurricane Irma. It rained for a few minutes, and then it blew through; just enough to jack up the humidity to 100%, on an already balmy 87°F day. :wink: It sure will be nice to look at tomorrow morning when I enjoy my cup(s) of coffee before the wife and I go yard sailing.









































































*I love this hibiscus. It's got amazing color, and when the rain drops were beaded up on the petals, it looked even more impressive. I repotted it into a larger container right before I ran out of daylight.*


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## Suaverc118

Good job CK!!! Who picked out the arrangement?


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## wardconnor

I like Colonel.... Good work on that flowerbed. Looks very nice and mums the word. I love mums when in bloom.


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## Mightyquinn

Looks GREAT CK!!!! A lot of color and contrast, now all you need is a fresh coat of paint on the railings


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## ericgautier

Looking good! :thumbup:


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## pennstater2005

That yard has come a long way! Love the new landscaping. That always makes a huge difference. Great job :thumbup:


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## Colonel K0rn

Suaverc118 said:


> Good job CK!!! Who picked out the arrangement?


Thanks, the wife liked the Dragon's Breath, and I was partial to the red grass that's in the back. I had an idea of what I wanted to plant, and where. I set everything up, and asked the wife for her opinion, and she made a few adjustments for placement, but liked the color scheme.



wardconnor said:


> I like Colonel.... Good work on that flowerbed. Looks very nice and mums the word. I love mums when in bloom.


I have to say that your video gave the wife and I both some inspiration, and selection choices for what we wanted. The mums were the first plants we got, then we stopped by the garden center at Lowes later on in the week, and started saying "Oooh, I like that. I want this, etc." Wasn't long before we had all our choices made. The Dusty Miller (the white plants in front of the yellow mums) have a really neat finish on the leaf blade, almost like mold, except it goes away when it's wet, but reappears when it's white. BTW, the wife wants to get some of the green ice plants 



Mightyquinn said:


> Looks GREAT CK!!!! A lot of color and contrast, now all you need is a fresh coat of paint on the railings


Thanks MQ. The railings and the columns/posts are going to be getting replaced this year/next year. I'm going to replace them with PVC, as the wood has rotted away several of the spindles, and I don't want to paint them any more. The house didn't have any gutters until I added them late this summer. When it rained, you could walk out on the porch, and if you went to the driveway, you'd get drenched. The main beam of the house, and the pitch over the garage converged into a point right over the walkway that would pour water down like crazy. I've got a video I'll post up.


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## wardconnor

I do have to say that for me the perennials and gardening is addictive. Going to the garden center like you said is so fun for me and at the same time very difficult and fun for me because I'm totally out of space. Seeing all the options is hard because I don't have any more room to plant them. There are so many cool options.

Seeing them bloom at all different times of the growing season is so awesome.

The secret for me is to keep up on it. If you let it go too long it becomes painful and you'll be overrun with weeds and then you are suddenly hating it because its full of weeds. You gotta stay on top of it.

I'm glad to see what you've done there and look forward to more pictures.


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## pennstater2005

wardconnor said:


> I do have to say that for me the perennials and gardening is addictive. Going to the garden center like you said is so fun for me and at the same time very difficult and fun for me because I'm totally out of space. Seeing all the options is hard because I don't have any more room to plant them. There are so many cool options.
> 
> Seeing them bloom at all different times of the growing season is so awesome.
> 
> The secret for me is to keep up on it. If you let it go too long it becomes painful and you'll be overrun with weeds and then you are suddenly hating it because its full of weeds. You gotta stay on top of it.
> 
> I'm glad to see what you've done there and look forward to more pictures.


I agree. We have a little over half an acre with more than 100 perennials and that doesn't include flowering trees, flowers, and potted plants. The thing I have found that suppresses weeds very well is thick pine bark chunks. I've been using them now in all the beds for a few years. And I don't have to re mulch every year.


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## Colonel K0rn

pennstater2005 said:


> I agree. We have a little over half an acre with more than 100 perennials and that doesn't include flowering trees, flowers, and potted plants. The thing I have found that suppresses weeds very well is thick pine bark chunks. I've been using them now in all the beds for a few years. And I don't have to re mulch every year.


Lord knows there's no shortage of pine trees and bark around here. I chose the black because it was relatively inexpensive, and I figured that as it broke down, it would add more OM to the bed. I've found that some of the color is starting to wash off as I was watering it with the hose-end sprayer, but I'm actually going to install a drip irrigation kit when the weather clears up. We're finally getting some rain!

I picked up everything I need today at Site One to water the shrubs, the flowerbed and my potted plant and hibiscus right now, as well as a couple of other Hunter sprinkler heads to try out, and replace the Orbit sprinklers that I've been using.


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## Colonel K0rn

Yesterday, I put down an app of FAS with the new replacement Chapin 24V. Also did an app of Greene County Fert 18-0-1, 0-0-2 and RGS. Also put down half a bag in the front and half in the back of 15-3-7. Might be the last feeding for the year. The weather is forecast to finally break into the 80's and maybe the 70's by Tuesday, but then back into the 80's for the rest of next week. One thing is for sure, the weathers are sure mild, and it doesn't really get "cold" until Jan/Feb.


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## Colonel K0rn

Since I did the app yesterday of the FAS and the Greene County Fert products, and they're foliar, I decided that I would wait until tomorrow to mow the grass. I picked up some supplies to install drip irrigation for the shrubs and rose bushes and the new flowerbed at Site One on Monday. I almost bought one of the "ALL IN ONE" kits at Lowe's, and I'm glad I didn't. I spent about $20 less, not counting the tool, and got exactly what I needed, with the option to expand as necessary. Today I got around to installing it. When it was completed, I was surprised by how easy it was to add this to your improvements, and make the upkeep that much easier. If you do decide to take on this task, I highly suggest you get the  Hunter Emitter Multi Tool which makes this job much easier. The tool allows you to punch the holes in the drip tubing, cut the tubing, install the emitters and even remove the emitters if you goof up. There's also fittings on the tool to allow you to remove 1/4" emitters as well.

I was trying to remember to take pictures as I went along, but as I'm typing this up, I fear I didn't take as many as I would have liked. Nevertheless, the job got done, and for a complete novice with irrigation, I found this to be very rewarding. I get the satisfaction from completing a good-looking job, like a new flowerbed, but when you don't have irrigation in place, it's just another thing to maintain by hand. Some of the plants were looking sad when I started, but once I got some water down, they perked right up in a few hours!

Total installation time was about 3 hours, with 15 minutes for breaks (5 min each). Gotta get on your hands and knees, and there's something about being in the shrubs that makes my skin super itchy. 

For my 10 shrubs, and the flowerbed, I used about 35 emitters at the 2 GPH flow rate which allows me to run them for 15 minutes twice a day, or once depending on the weather. It also required 100' of 1/2" drip tubing, and 30' of 1/4" tubing. I picked up the 1/4" tubing to run drip heads to my potted plants, and the hanging basket. Since I don't have an irrigation system, I got adapters that will allow me to hook this up to my spigot, which has a brass Y-fitting: one feeds my crappy hose reel (soon to be replaced with an Eley), and the other goes to the drip irrigation. The emitters are pressure-regulated, so this setup doesn't require a pressure reduction valve.










I found it easiest to close off one end of the hose, and pressurize it with the water. This makes it easier to snake it through the bushes, and around the trunks of trees, etc. No trees here, but it was easier to move it through the bushes when it was pressurized.

Here's the hose prior to pressurization and untangling









Straightened out, and full of water. It extends all the way over to the other side of the yard at the end of the driveway.









So, it's pretty simple. You'll need some landscaping stakes to hold down the hose as you loop it around each bush/shrub that you have in your bed(if it's an established hedge like I have). I had the wife help me out by pulling the hose out of the hedgerow, as I was on my hands and knees fishing it through the shrubbery. That was the most difficult part. Once I had the shrubs done, I snaked the hose through the flowerbed, and was presented with an issue on how to water everything effectively. I called my guy at Site One, and he suggested that since I have annuals lining the front, it would be easiest to tee off of the line, and make it to where I have emitters on the top and bottom rows of the annuals so they can get plenty of water. They're not going to have established roots like the other things that are planted in that area.

You can see the hose wrapped around the bases of the shrubs and roses if you zoom in.




So, once I got the tee put in at the end of the line, and had popped emitters in for the larger plants in the flowerbed, I made the two lines that would go through the annuals at the front. When it comes time to replant, all I have to do is pull up my irrigation line, put in new plants, lay the line back down, toss mulch over it, and I'm done. :thumbup: I did find that I'm going to need to get another bag of mulch to put over the lines.I didn't get any pics of the 1/4" dripper spikes that I put in the hibiscus and hanging plant, but they are teed into the end of the line by the sidewalk, and one near the downspout for the gutters. When I was done with the two lines across the front, and verified that I had flow through the emitters, I turned them facing downwards. It's not going to matter anyway, they're going to get covered by mulch tomorrow.



Lastly, this is a very neat looking plant that I picked up that is called "Dusty Miller". When the leaves are dry, they look like chalk. When it gets wet, they're green. Here's a shot of the leaves when they are dry. Very cool looking plant.


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## Suaverc118

Man you are amazing at putting your day together for us in this forum. 
Those big shrubs you have, how long did it take to grow that tall and fill in like that? I have the same kind but don't know if I need to treat them in any way to grow Fuller. I've had them for about 2.5 years and they are about ~3 ft tall.


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## Colonel K0rn

Suaverc118 said:


> Man you are amazing at putting your day together for us in this forum.
> Those big shrubs you have, how long did it take to grow that tall and fill in like that? I have the same kind but don't know if I need to treat them in any way to grow Fuller. I've had them for about 2.5 years and they are about ~3 ft tall.


The big ones are called loropetalum. I really like them because they have that purplish-reddish hue on the new leaf growth, and the pink flowers are pretty. If you push them by trimming them every other month, throw some Milo on them and water them, they'll get huge. Just look at the first post that I made in this thread, and compare the size of the hedge then, to the size it is now. I would like to get them back down to the height they were 2 years ago, because I don't like obscuring the windows, but I'd really have to hack at them seriously. Plus, there's 3 tea olives that are closest to the house that are in between each of them, and those are my *favorite* shrubs to have. Very slow growing, but man, they smell terrific. Very intoxicating smell.


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## Suaverc118

I have Milo right now. I assume I need to move the mulch out of the way? Or is there a specific way of applying it?


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## Colonel K0rn

Suaverc118 said:


> I have Milo right now. I assume I need to move the mulch out of the way? Or is there a specific way of applying it?


If you feel like it, you can move the mulch away from the base of the plant, and sprinkle some around the root ball. When it comes to Milo, it's kinda hard to goof it up. I actually put milo down after I planted, which was a goof on my part, but it won't hurt anything. You can't do that with regular fertilizer. One other thing that I'll recommend is a product called "Preen", which is a pre-e for flowerbeds. It helps keep the weeds out. Be sure to use that if you get tired of weeding the flowerbeds. Runs about $14 for a gallon jug with dispenser.


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## Suaverc118

Colonel K0rn said:


> Suaverc118 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have Milo right now. I assume I need to move the mulch out of the way? Or is there a specific way of applying it?
> 
> 
> 
> If you feel like it, you can move the mulch away from the base of the plant, and sprinkle some around the root ball. When it comes to Milo, it's kinda hard to goof it up. I actually put milo down after I planted, which was a goof on my part, but it won't hurt anything. You can't do that with regular fertilizer. One other thing that I'll recommend is a product called "Preen", which is a pre-e for flowerbeds. It helps keep the weeds out. Be sure to use that if you get tired of weeding the flowerbeds. Runs about $14 for a gallon jug with dispenser.
Click to expand...

What will keep the grass out that sometimes sneaks into these beds?


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## Colonel K0rn

Suaverc118 said:


> Colonel K0rn said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Suaverc118 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have Milo right now. I assume I need to move the mulch out of the way? Or is there a specific way of applying it?
> 
> 
> 
> If you feel like it, you can move the mulch away from the base of the plant, and sprinkle some around the root ball. When it comes to Milo, it's kinda hard to goof it up. I actually put milo down after I planted, which was a goof on my part, but it won't hurt anything. You can't do that with regular fertilizer. One other thing that I'll recommend is a product called "Preen", which is a pre-e for flowerbeds. It helps keep the weeds out. Be sure to use that if you get tired of weeding the flowerbeds. Runs about $14 for a gallon jug with dispenser.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> What will keep the grass out that sometimes sneaks into these beds?
Click to expand...

Keeping a good distance away from the grass edge to the flowerbed will help the most. Using a string trimmer to keep the edge clean helps the most. Otherwise you'll have to weed it by hand.


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## Colonel K0rn

Movingshrub said:


> I replaced two Rainbird 3500 rotors that weren't throwing as far as I needed with Rainbird 5004-PC-SAM-PRS rotors. The *fun* part was digging out the funny pipe, cutting it, and installing new sized 3/4" fittings.
> 
> 
> 
> Colonel K0rn said:
> 
> 
> 
> Put down an app of FAS with the new replacement Chapin 24V. Also did an app of Greene County Fert 18-0-1, 0-0-2 and RGS. Also put down half a bag in the front and half in the back of 15-3-7. Might be the last feeding for the year.
> 
> 
> 
> I know it's not your job to sell me someone else's product, but my question is out of legitimate curiosity. What sold you on the RGS humic products? It seems to be an extremely long game. I'd wondered if I split my yard in half, and applied RGS to half for ten years and no RGS to the other half for ten years, would I be able to tell a difference? The impression I got from talking with Auburn's soil and turfgrass POCs, is, don't bother/not worth the money (not suggesting it doesn't work, but may be negligible impact), but on the other hand, I've seen documents from VA tech and Clemson that suggest there is an impact. I guess my real question is - How do you know it's working/improving anything?
Click to expand...

I can't point to any one thing, but a culmination of multiple facets of analysis of the problems I was having in my yard that led me giving their product a try. Whether or not it's a good fit for you is your call. The creator of the product has a great blog that he's written with regard to sustainability and good cultural practices as well as the fact that the product is inexpensive compared to the big box store stuff. I know that I have a high salt problem in my soil, based on soluble salts analysis done by the UGA lab and working with the extension agent, who has a degree in soil science.

The cultural practice that used to be exercised in farming was to plant cover crops, then till those into the soil before you planted your main crops. This was providing some organic nutrients to the soil that would be available to the plants that were desirable. Over time, you would get some really healthy topsoil, because this process would be repeated as long as you were farming that way. The OM(organic material) from the cover crops was going to have naturally occurring carbon, which is like the "coral reef" of nutrients, allowing it to chelate with nutrients that the plants were going to need as they grew, rather than leaching through the growing zone or runoff. Farmers were using manure to fertilize, which was providing even more OM to the soil. When farming practices changed from the farm having food and livestock to just one or the other, I feel that the symbiotic relationship between the two was broken. Farms now use synthetic fert, and the plants don't care where the N comes from, but the soil is missing the microbes and micronutrients that would have been in the OM that was normally amended. As a result, my wife and I agree that vegetables don't taste like they used to, when our grandparents used to grow their own food, but that's just our feelings.

That being said, with the organic products that I've been putting down, like the Mirimichi Green and the RGS and N-EXT products, I noticed activity on top of the soil, and it's intriguing. I've seen more earthworm castings in the past month than I have seen in the past 6 years of living here. So literally on the surface I'm seeing results. I have had an increase in my turf density that was growing by the pool, and when I had rain last week, I would have standing water everywhere, but I didn't. For me to say that there is one thing that I could point to to say that it's giving me results, I can't do that; I have to look at overall improvement. The cost per pound of N is considerably less expensive than synthetic, and it's easy to spread. I paid just over $80 for the gallon of RGS, 2 gallons of 18-0-1 and 1 gallon of 0-0-2 to be shipped to my house and got it the next day.

By going the route of using organic fertilizers, rather than synthetic, I'm no longer adding to the sodium problem that was causing the water to stand. Also adding gypsum to the top, and having it move slowly into the soil is helping as well I'm sure.

As far as selling me on the product, I'd have to say that Matt Martin introduced the product on a few of his videos, and I've had some great lengthy conversations with the COO at Greene County Fert, as well as reading the CEO's blog. Since I'm on mobile, I do t have the links, but I can share them with you if you'd like. Hope this helps answer your questions!


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## Movingshrub

First, thanks for moving the convo to your lawn reno thread; I should have done it in the first place but it didn't cross my mind.

Second, I am glad you're having a positive result with the products.

I've seen Matt Martin's videos and read through all of the blog posts on lawncology.

I understand the position regarding cover crops and adding organic matter, same thing on the root development/shedding cycle. I just wonder how much of impact and increase in density is from RGS, the N-Ext 18-0-1 GreenePunch, and the N-Ext 0-0-2 Microgreene is from the sea kelp ingredient in all three, rather than the humic and fulvic acids.



Colonel K0rn said:


> I have had an increase in my turf density that was growing by the pool


Is that in the backyard where you've been applying T-nex PGR?

Just to be clear - I'm not trying to hate on your selection. I'm all about using the products if they make a difference and it sounds like you're getting results.

With that being said, I'm definitely no soil scientist and the impression I had when reading about the products and talking to a salesman at GCF made me feel like I was talking to a snake oil salesman, so that's why I was searching around for some third party research that could back-up and support the results.

Are you mixing the liquid fert applications with any thing else at the same time?


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## Colonel K0rn

Movingshrub said:


> First, thanks for moving the convo to your lawn reno thread; I should have done it in the first place but it didn't cross my mind.
> 
> Second, I am glad you're having a positive result with the products.
> 
> I've seen Matt Martin's videos and read through all of the blog posts on lawncology.
> 
> I understand the position regarding cover crops and adding organic matter, same thing on the root development/shedding cycle. I just wonder how much of impact and increase in density is from RGS, the N-Ext 18-0-1 GreenePunch, and the N-Ext 0-0-2 Microgreene is from the sea kelp ingredient in all three, rather than the humic and fulvic acids.
> 
> 
> 
> Colonel K0rn said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have had an increase in my turf density that was growing by the pool
> 
> 
> 
> Is that in the backyard where you've been applying T-nex PGR?
> 
> Just to be clear - I'm not trying to hate on your selection. I'm all about using the products if they make a difference and it sounds like you're getting results.
> 
> With that being said, I'm definitely no soil scientist and the impression I had when reading about the products and talking to a salesman at GCF made me feel like I was talking to a snake oil salesman, so that's why I was searching around for some third party research that could back-up and support the results.
> 
> Are you mixing the liquid fert applications with any thing else at the same time?
Click to expand...

No problem Mr. Shrub, and I respect the fact that you've done your homework as well. For posterity's sake, I just looked at my gallons and saw the actives:

RGS = 6% HA, 3% FA and 3% Kelp
18-0-1 = 5% HA, 1% Kelp
0-0-2 MicroGreene = 8% HA, 2% Kelp
 One thing I do like about the Fertilizers is that 50% of the product is slow release. One thing that I did early on prior to starting the reno was to apply a product called Axilo Mix 5 to correct some of the micros that were deficient that showed up in my Soil Savvy test result(I know there's better ones out there now). That one product cost more than this entire shipment, and I've used it once. Depending on how my soil sample appears when I do it again in the spring, I'll find out whether or not I need to apply it again. It has a much higher concentration of the micros than the GCF product, but you pay for those higher concentrations.

I have twice treated the front and the back yard with the RGS, 18-0-1 and 0-0-2. That was the only product I was mixing up when I applied. I did the PGR with a hand can, since I was doing such a small area around the pool, because that was the area that had the thickest grass when I did decide to put the PGR down. The areas that I am seeing the most improved results of desirable growth are areas that weren't treated with the T-nex PGR, however the area that I did treat with both the RGS and PGR (area that was by the pool) has increased in density, color response and retention and lateral growth. I'll see if I can get a picture for you tomorrow of the back yard, and highlight some of the areas that are improving. I know I did shoot 2 videos prior to doing anything with the yard earlier in the summer to document where I was at, and it might be neat to shoot one tomorrow showing where I am at now.

I knew that once I could get the weed pressure off of the back yard that the bermuda I had would spread, and it has done just that. I can't wait until Spring to see what I can get the front yard to do.


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## Colonel K0rn

The wife and I do like to watch the birds, and I thought it was ok to put the feeders out on the lawn... seed to soil contact is preached far and wide to get grass to germinate. It works well for black oil sunflowers too. :shock: If anyone has any suggestions on how to prevent this, and still keep the feeders out, that would be great. I can't put the Prodiamine down this fall on the front.



The neighboring property may or may not have received a dose of Dismiss along the property lines. I didn't realize it was such a stark difference until this morning. 



I gave the yard a double cut with the Scott's 16" Classic, and was waiting for parts to arrive for my new (to me) Flex 21. I decided to get familiar with it by taking it for a drive on the front yard, and laid down some stripes. One thing that I'm thankful for is the clippings basket, because the clippings on the lawn make it look more yellow than it is. It's a nice hue of green.



It wasn't until I sat down on the porch, and looked out that I felt very proud of my work, and like I had "arrived". I've been stopped more times out in the yard by people asking questions and paying compliments than I have in the past 6 years of living here. I'd like to thank everyone here that has been helpful by making videos, writing up articles, sharing knowledge and just being awesome to help me get satisfaction in my efforts. It only gets better! Gonna get me some flamingos soon.


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## Spammage

Very nice CK!


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## Ware

Colonel K0rn said:


> ...Gonna get me some flamingos soon.


Union Products 62360 Original Featherstone Flamingo's, Pack of Two


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## pennstater2005

That has come a long way Colonel. Very impressive. $12 for two flamingos seems like a steal &#128540;


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## Colonel K0rn

pennstater2005 said:


> That has come a long way Colonel. Very impressive. $12 for two flamingos seems like a steal 😜


Speaking of stealing, I know where someone can get 3 for free right now... :lol:


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## Iriasj2009

Colonel K0rn said:


> The wife and I do like to watch the birds, and I thought it was ok to put the feeders out on the lawn... seed to soil contact is preached far and wide to get grass to germinate. It works well for black oil sunflowers too. :shock: If anyone has any suggestions on how to prevent this, and still keep the feeders out, that would be great. I can't put the Prodiamine down this fall on the front.
> 
> 
> 
> The neighboring property may or may not have received a dose of Dismiss along the property lines. I didn't realize it was such a stark difference until this morning.
> 
> 
> 
> I gave the yard a double cut with the Scott's 16" Classic, and was waiting for parts to arrive for my new (to me) Flex 21. I decided to get familiar with it by taking it for a drive on the front yard, and laid down some stripes. One thing that I'm thankful for is the clippings basket, because the clippings on the lawn make it look more yellow than it is. It's a nice hue of green.
> 
> 
> 
> It wasn't until I sat down on the porch, and looked out that I felt very proud of my work, and like I had "arrived". I've been stopped more times out in the yard by people asking questions and paying compliments than I have in the past 6 years of living here. I'd like to thank everyone here that has been helpful by making videos, writing up articles, sharing knowledge and just being awesome to help me get satisfaction in my efforts. It only gets better! Gonna get me some flamingos soon.


Loving the pics man! Looking great!


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## Colonel K0rn

I shot a video on 6/9/2017 for my own posterity, and have decided to publish it on YouTube. I have follow up videos as well, and am working on getting those uploaded. Sorry about the length, and I know I don't have fescue... I now know it's sedge :lol: It's ok to be a noob.

https://youtu.be/YOsUBbmPqlA


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## Colonel K0rn

https://youtu.be/WgT0sbXG1sA


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## Colonel K0rn

https://youtu.be/GJBw8khz3ho


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## Colonel K0rn

As the title says, I got all my parts in, and wound up doing a good bit of part replacement, mainly because of preventive maintenance, but also because of ease of doing it now rather than later.

I cleaned up a section inside my man cave, where I keep my tools, and started replacing parts. First on the list was the other adjusting screw on the bed bar, which was really tough to move back and forth compared to the one that was galled up due to the stripped bolt. I finally got it out of the bushings, which are bronze, and I was really surprised by what I found; well not really. There was a lot of corrosion between the two bushings, which are keyed and flanged. There should be a gap of about 1/2" between the front and the rear, but the amount of corrosion made it completely full, with no gap.



I had ordered 2 bushings for the side that was getting the new screw and bolt, so for curiosity's sake, I too my vernier calipers and measured the ID of the new bushings, compared to the old bushings on the messed up side, and the bushings on the not messed up side to see what I was missing.

*I also measured the OD of the new adjustment screw.*


*New bushings*


*Messed up side*


*Really tight side*


I opted to just install the new screw into the old and tight bushings, after cleaning out as much of the gunk that I could get, and replacing the bushings on one side. If I was thinking properly, I would have ordered all 4 bushings, instead of 2, but I wasn't expecting to run into problems with a tight fit on the bushings due to differences in machining thickness, which is what it appears to be. There's not any buildup or galling on the inside of the tight bushings, it's just a tight fit, which is just fine. Here's a few pics of the landings where the bushings go, and the collection of crap that I cleaned out. The only thing I could think of that resembles this is galvanic corrosion which happens between dissimilar metals.









Last night, I was also using a punch and hammer to remove the rubber-lined bushings that go into the frame that are what the bed bar hold-down bolts pass through. I was tap-tap-tapping them, and they weren't budging. I decided to wait until the next morning(today) and get some rest and work on it then. I wasn't keen on spraying some PB Blaster inside.

This morning, I took the cutting unit outside, and was greeted with a very chilly 50°F morning from Mother Nature. My dog and I enjoyed watching the dew burn off of the grass.



After a cup of coffee or two, the sun hadn't risen past the peak of the house, which put my shop in the shade. It was nice, but still a bit chilly. I thought to myself, "There's got to be an easier way to get these things out." As I was bringing my punches and assorted tools I was working with the night before out to the table, I opened up the bottom drawer of my small tool box, and noticed my air hammer, with attachments. Bingo, that's exactly what the doctor ordered. I brought out the air compressor, and let it charge up, and after a liberal blast of PB and short soak, a few *blapppp blapps* and they popped out quickly. :mrgreen: Replacement is easy with the flat-faced hammer bit, just got to make sure you have it centered correctly.

I think I spent about 30 minutes reassembling everything that was taken apart by the mech at the GC, and I buttoned it back up, and headed to the course. He educated me about how to properly set the spacing, set the cut quality and backlapping on their machine. We didn't need to grind the reel thankfully, as it was pretty concentric. I think it spun on the backlapping machine for about 30 minutes while we talked shop.



And with that being said, I finally got to operate my new-to-me greens mower in its full capacity this evening around 5PM. My parents are visiting for the next few days, and I was hoping they'd be able to see it before it got dark, so I wanted it to have a fresh mow, but they got here after dark. I did find that I probably need to drop the HOC a tad more, as it's set at 1". I still had crabgrass standing up after I went over it when I would have normally been able to clip it with the Scott's. So, I'll probably give it a slight adjustment over the next day or two, but I'm kinda sad that with the cold weather coming on, I'll see my green grass turn sad and brown, and go into hibernation. Funny thing is that I was stopped mid-cut by a passerby asking me what kind of grass I had, and if I was going for a putting green. I joked and told them to come on back by in about 8 months and see what they think then. :lol:

I felt bold, and decided to go double-single on the axis my neighbor will see when he looks over. Gotta dominate!


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## Ware

Very nice.


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## LawnNerd

Must always dominate! Looking sharp CK!


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## Movingshrub

Ware said:


>





Colonel K0rn said:


> ^^ what my yard is going to look like next spring.


Planning to spread by hand yourself? Toro Dingo? Neighbor teenagers with a wheelbarrow?

I am looking at a triaxle full of sand myself and trying to come up with a plan. Also, are we sure you can't top dress with sand in the fall? I've seen articles on top dressing greens, but they are all for bent grass, rather than Bermuda.


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## Colonel K0rn

Movingshrub said:


> Ware said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Colonel K0rn said:
> 
> 
> 
> ^^ what my yard is going to look like next spring.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Planning to spread by hand yourself? Toro Dingo? Neighbor teenagers with a wheelbarrow?
> 
> I am looking at a triaxle full of sand myself and trying to come up with a plan. Also, are we sure you can't top dress with sand in the fall? I've seen articles on top dressing greens, but they are all for bent grass, rather than Bermuda.
Click to expand...

Not sure about spreading it during the fall/winter. The weather has been cool, but will be back into the low 80's this coming week. Pretty sure that it's going to be going dormant soon, as I've seen some slowdown already.


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## social port

Your progress in making this lawn awesome is stellar. I'm happy that you made your reno work after you were dealt so many obstacles along the way. And your thread is a nice read, too. :nod: 
(I'm with you on taking notes from Matt Martin, BTW. He is google for grass)


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## Colonel K0rn

I'll be sitting at the end of the driveway giving out candy tonight... put some single-doubles down, as the weather crept back up into the high 70's today. We had a cold snap where it was 40°F yesterday at 8AM, and the temps are going to get a little warmer throughout the week, but that's about all the growing that I can expect my yard to do. I'll get some pics in the morning of everything and consider the renovation completed. When I was cutting, I wasn't getting many clippings at all.


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## Iriasj2009

Colonel K0rn said:


> I'll be sitting at the end of the driveway giving out candy tonight... put some single-doubles down, as the weather crept back up into the high 70's today. We had a cold snap where it was 40°F yesterday at 8AM, and the temps are going to get a little warmer throughout the week, but that's about all the growing that I can expect my yard to do. I'll get some pics in the morning of everything and consider the renovation completed. When I was cutting, I wasn't getting many clippings at all.


Liking the angle!


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## ericgautier

CK, looking good there!


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## wardconnor

Looks very nice ColonelK0rn. I'm jealous


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## Colonel K0rn

So, a few weeks have gone by, and I still have green in the lawn. It hasn't gone completely dormant, but the lows in the evenings are dipping into the 50's, and I'm not going to stress the turf any more. I got the final mow in two days ago, but here's a video I shot a week before Thanksgiving. 
https://youtu.be/N19S8jNkwYs


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## douglasbb

Have you posted details about your mower light setup before?


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## ericgautier

Awesome video CK!


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## Ware

+1


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## Colonel K0rn

douglasbb said:


> Have you posted details about your mower light setup before?


I haven't, because it was on the mower when I bought it. I'd be happy to share some pictures if you'd like.


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## douglasbb

> I haven't, because it was on the mower when I bought it. I'd be happy to share some pictures if you'd like.


Yes please. I assume it is an aftermarket addition?


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## pennstater2005

Was just looking at the pics on the prior page of the lawn. Must say, looks awesome and what a HUGE turnaround from your rice paddy that once was.


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## Ecks from Tex

Movingshrub said:


> First, thanks for moving the convo to your lawn reno thread; I should have done it in the first place but it didn't cross my mind.
> 
> Second, I am glad you're having a positive result with the products.
> 
> I've seen Matt Martin's videos and read through all of the blog posts on lawncology.
> 
> I understand the position regarding cover crops and adding organic matter, same thing on the root development/shedding cycle. I just wonder how much of impact and increase in density is from RGS, the N-Ext 18-0-1 GreenePunch, and the N-Ext 0-0-2 Microgreene is from the sea kelp ingredient in all three, rather than the humic and fulvic acids.
> 
> 
> 
> Colonel K0rn said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have had an increase in my turf density that was growing by the pool
> 
> 
> 
> Is that in the backyard where you've been applying T-nex PGR?
> 
> Just to be clear - I'm not trying to hate on your selection. I'm all about using the products if they make a difference and it sounds like you're getting results.
> 
> With that being said, I'm definitely no soil scientist and the impression I had when reading about the products and talking to a salesman at GCF made me feel like I was talking to a snake oil salesman, so that's why I was searching around for some third party research that could back-up and support the results.
> 
> Are you mixing the liquid fert applications with any thing else at the same time?
Click to expand...

I have experienced RGS in my opinion lessening the collateral harms cause by my herbicide applications while making the herbicide itself more effective. I was able to reduce from two spot sprays last spring to one this spring. I have also seen positive effects from the Humic blend and the GreNe fert for summer. I'm a little skeptical of AIR-8, but giving it a fair shot, and I know D-Thatch works because it's molasses with Humic additives. A long term commitment to this will result in a stronger grass, with less weeds, capable of maintains its color with less water and hotter temperatures.


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## CARL HD MOVIE SOURCE

Thats one low mow.


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