# Gravy's Fine Fescue Overseed Journal



## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

Hello everyone! My name is gravylookout, my friends call me gravy, and I'm making this post to document my fall overseed project. I didn't plan on making a post at first but @JohnP convinced me that it would be good to share with all of you. I joined TLF in June and have been lurking in the background, soaking up knowledge, and hanging out in the discord chat room since then so I guess it's about time I contribute. 
Quick Note: I didn't take as many pictures as I would have if I knew I was going to write this up, most of the pictures you see in here were ones that I posted in discord to share with those nerds.

Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to apologize to my wife. Sugar, babe, darling, honey, sweetheart; you were right. The lawn was perfect the way it was, it's not a competition, and this whole project was a waste of time and resources.

*My Lawn*
Now that we have that out of the way, let me tell you about my lawn (queue the Mark Mothersbaugh soundtrack). The wife and I purchased this house in Grand Forks, ND 3 years ago. It's a ranch style home built in 1954 and I believe that most of the lawn is from the original seeding. It's about 8k ft² and 80-90% fine fescue with some KBG mixed in. We live in the old part of town with many mature shade trees and most of the lawn is in shade with only a couple spots getting more than 4 hours of direct sunlight a day.

The entire town was built on super fertile farm land and I have about 10" of black topsoil before you start to see some brown clay. The Red River Valley where is live was an ancient lake bed and thus the soil pH is high at 7.8.


















This spring and summer I've just been keeping up with fert applications and weed control. I mowed it at 4" HOC with my 21" Crafstman mower that came with the house. I attached a checkmate striping roller to the mower just before the 4th of July and I've been super happy with the results.

I had some brown patch damage in two places in the yard around that same time. Luckily, I caught it in time to keep it under control but those sections that got hit first were left almost completely bare. That got me thinking about overseeding this fall so I started doing some research, developing a plan, and assembling equipment and materials. Somehow, the plan quickly ballooned from fixing a few patches to topdressing, grading, leveling, and overseeding the entire lawn. How much work could that possibly be? Buckle up, we're about to find out.

*Goals* 
As I mentioned, there was some damage in the front and back yard that I wanted to address. Also, the few sections that get the most sunlight are thin and get burnt out easily. Here are some examples:


































There were some dips in the lawn where I think some old trees were dug out and leveling them would make mowing much nicer. Along those same lines, the lawn is pretty bumpy so grading it out with a top dressing was in order.

For seed I wanted to keep the fine fescue look of the original yard. I know a lot of you guys dislike fine fescue but it has a lot of qualities that fit my needs; Shade tolerance, drought resistance, low input, and excellent striping capabilities. I went with Seed Super Store SS6000 Shady Mixture because it closely matched what was already in the lawn and I'm hoping that the *** will do better in those areas that get the most sunlight.

In summary, the goals for this project are:

Repair bare areas
Thicken up the lawn, especially in areas that get the most sun
Level out the bigger dips
Grade the entire lawn to reduce bumpyness
Keep as much of the existing lawn as possible
Learn a lot
*The Plan* 
Everything seemed to line up this past week to get the project started. I had the week off from work (my schedule is crazy and difficult to explain concisely but sometimes I get big chunks of time off), temperatures were starting to cool down, and we had rain in the extended forecast for the first time in a long time (I thought this would help with keeping the lawn watered). Time to get started. Here was my initial plan: 

*Monday:*Mow the lawn short and dethatch
*Tuesday:* Core aerate and apply GCF RGS, Air8, and Humic12
*Wednesday:*Topdress
*Thursday:* Seed, roll, and apply peat
*Friday:* Time set aside for anything not done as I go back to work on overnights
*Sat/Sun:* Water between work and sleep
*Monday:* Apply started fert and water ad infinitum
How did this play out? Was I able to get everything accomplished? *Get on with it already!* I will, I will, but first...

*Mistakes* 
A few words about mistakes. There are a lot of problems with this plan and I'll try to address them in this post as they happen but I'm sure there are plenty that I still haven't noticed yet. As much as I thought I had this all planned out I had to make a ton of changes on the fly and things were never as easy as it seemed they would be. Feel free to point them out but please do so in a way that gives advise to people studying up on how to do this in the future. I can't go back in time and change things and as I'm sure you'll see, I'm pretty inexperienced at all this.

Also, I want to point out that this project was much more expensive than I had initially thought. The way I explained it to the wife was this was a one time deal, an investment in our home, and everything after this will just be maintenance costs. I know I'm just kidding myself but I'm choosing to live in that lie for as long as I can. I'm sure there are ways I could have done it cheaper if I had planned better but as it stands the total is probably somewhere around $1.5K.

Going forward I'll be marking things I would have done differently by underlining them. Now, on to the good stuff!


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Let's Do This!*
*Monday 8/20/2018*
_Mow and dethatch_

I got started a little later in the day than I would have liked but my parents were in town visiting their new grandson. Yes, the wife and I just had our first child, he's 5 weeks old, and absolutely perfect! Back to the plan. I had taken the lawn down to 3" the previous week. I didn't have time for another step down so I decided to channel my inner @wardconnor and just go for it. I set the mower for it's second lowest level and went over the entire yard while attempting to mulch everything. I stalled the mower out several times before getting smart and put the side discharge on. 









I went over everything a second time mulching it all up. It still wasn't as short as I wanted so I threw everything out the window and dropped the mower to the lowest setting, put the bagger on, and queued up some 2000's pop punk to keep my mood elevated. You guys, I was emptying the bag every time I reached the end of a line and was pushing the mower with the deck on the ground most of the time. The lawn was now at 1" and didn't look too bad! One of the advantages of fine fescue is that the crowns are extremely low to the ground and most of the lawn was still pretty green. However, some of the areas where the grass likes to lay down were obviously scalped. 

























Dethatching was next on the list. I had purchased the Greenworks Corded Dethatcher on Prime Day for $85(it's on sale right now for the same price). I'm really happy with the performance. It's cheap, easy and quite. 
























I finished the last of the lawn just as the sun was going down so I decided to leave bagging it all up until the next morning.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Tuesday 8/21/2018*
_Bagging thatch and core aerating_

Bright and early Tuesday morning I got out and started to bag up all the thatch on the lawn. It's crazy how much stuff came out of it but there was still more I could have taken out. Looking back I should have gone over it a second time with the dethatcher in a perpendicular direction. I had borrowed the FIL's truck for the day so I loaded it up with everything I had just took out of the yard and bought it to one of the cities lawn waste collection sites.

















I rented a Bluebird Core Aerator from the Hardware Hank across the river as they were the cheapest ($35 for 2hrs). I was working by myself so I rented some ramps at the same time ($5) to assist in loading and unloading this beast.








Getting it out of the truck was a bit of a challenge. I had the wife come out and watch me so if it fell on me I wouldn't die bleeding out in the driveway. It was sketchy but I got it on the ground and after hearing the wife's opinion of my intelligence several times I got to work.

Now, I had heard in several Youtube videos that these machines really beat you up. I always thought, "The thing has an engine, it couldn't be that much different from a regular lawn mower, how hard could it be?" I get it now. The thing weighs a ton and goes from 0 to a fast walk in a split second. It took me a few minutes to get a hang of it but I eventually got two passes over the lawn. I didn't get as deep of a core as I would have liked in places, I guess I should have made sure that the lawn was good and watered beforehandbut overall it seemed to do the job.









Now came time to load the thing back up. I knew what the wife thought about this from her comments a couple of hours earlier so I decided to go it alone. After consulting with the discord guys I found the best way to get it back in the truck was to drive it up the ramps. I added a 2x6 to increase the length of the ramp and went for it. This goes in the top 10 most unsafe things I've ever done so make sure you have a strong helper to guide the thing back in the truck.

This pretty much took everything out of me and I thought I had some time before the top dressing would be delivered in the morning so I called it a day and planned on getting my humic down in the morning.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Wednesday 8/22/2018*
_Topdressing_

Wednesday morning I went to Menards to pick up a few things when the guy from the lawn center called to say he was on his way with my topdressing. I wasn't expecting him until the afternoon but thank goodness he showed up early. This part of the project took the most work and the longest time by far.

The top dressing I had ordered was a mix of topsoil and compost that the garden center ran though a big shredder. The mix was 2/3 topsoil and 1/3 compost. I ordered 6 yards at $40 a yard. In the end I was about 250ft² short but that corner of the lawn should be fine so I call it a success. Out of the 6 yards about a half a yard was unusable for the lawn. Sticks, rocks, and hard clay balls. I was able to rake most of this out with some effort. Other than that I was pleased with the quality as it was fairly easy to move and spread. 









My first priority was leveling out the dips in the front yard. I filled them out and raked them level with the rest of the ground using my landscape rake. Then I tamped them down with the end of the rake and repeated the process until things were nice and even. One of the holes spills into the neighbor's yard, I spoke with him about it before starting this project and he's on board. 

















Then it was on to topdressing and grading the rest of the yard. The equipment I used was a dumping yard wagon to move everything around, a large landscaping rake to spread and level out the dressing, a maintenance rake to pick some of the garbage out, and the back of a plastic leaf rake to work it into the soil without moving it around too much. 









It took me all day to work out a good strategy but what I landed on was this.

Make a long line across the yard with the lawn cart about 6" deep
Use the landscaping rake to spread it out in one direction
Go back and forth over everything with the landscape rake until it's level and uniform
Use the maintenance rake to pick out the garbage
Go over everything with the back of the leaf rake to work it into the existing grass


























By the end of the day I had all of the front yard done and one line done in the back. Speaking of backs, mine was a wreck. On to the next day!


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Thursday 8/23/2018*
_More Topdressing aka "Oh God, please make it stop!"_

It took all day but I eventually got everything spread out, cleaned up, and raked in. I went back to some of the lower spots in the corner of the back yard and added more dirt. I also discovered a bump in the yard that was an old ant hill. It was high enough to barely stand out but not enough for me to spare any time to shovel it down. Maybe I'll get to it next year. For now I just wanted this done. By the time the sun was starting to go down I had everything nice and clean and level and raked in.

The places you see in the pictures that have more dirt than grass were either really thin areas or places where there were elevation inconsistencies (or I went a little heavy).


































After I cleaned up a bit I sat down and had probably the most deserved beer of my entire life. Seriously, this was a crazy amount of work to do by myself. I had plenty of time to think about it and I could easily have kept 6 guys busy moving dirt around and raking. If you can try and lure some friends to your yard with beer and then hand them a rake or shovel.

If you've been keeping track you can see I'm way off my schedule at this point. "No biggie," I thought. "This is why I set aside all that extra time on Friday" Oh really past me? You think you can catch up tomorrow? _maniacal laughing from exhaustion_


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Friday 8/24/2018*
_Seeding_

I didn't take any pictures this day (nothing that's worth sharing anyways). I put down seed with my broadcast spreader (I have the Scott's mini and I hate it but that's another story). Went with a rate of 3-4#/K . Then I went back and hand applied a little extra on the bare spots. I made sure to save about 5#s of seed in case there are some places that I missed, time will tell if that's enough.

After putting down seed I walked the entire lawn dragging the maintenance rake behind me with firm pressure to get the seed into the topdressing. I'd say about 90% of the seed got covered. No turning back now, the fuse is lit!

The plan after this was to roll the lawn with a lawn roller. I went to go pick it up but on the way home the tiniest little rain cell opened up over the lawn and soaked everything. I wasn't sure how this would work but I filled up the roller and got about 3 feet into the lawn when I realized that everything would just stick to the roller and ruin it. I had the thing rented for 24hrs so I put it in the garage to see if things would dry out. (Spoiler: They didn't).

Now, it was getting late in the afternoon and I had to work a 12hr shift at 8pm. I quick ran to the hardware store near my house and cleaned them out of peat moss. They had 6 2.2ft³ bales on hand. I wasn't sure if it would be enough but I needed to get a nap in so I had to call it a day and try and get peat down in the morning.

That's about all I have time to type up today. I'll try and spend some time tomorrow getting us caught up.


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## dacoyne (May 27, 2018)

I like this, its like binging a Netflix show, you can sit and watch the whole thing and not have to wait till the next episode comes out! Good work, cant wait for the next season to see what happens :lol:


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

Lol @dacoyne my sentiments exactly! @gravylookout killing it! Excellent write up and nice pictures! Very nice sir!!


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

@gravylookout you and your wife are wrong. It is definitely a competition. The neighborhood just doesn't know they're competing.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

JohnP said:


> @gravylookout you and your wife are wrong. It is definitely a competition. The neighborhood just doesn't know they're competing.


I think you missed some of the sarcasm there.


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## wardconnor (Mar 25, 2017)

Great write up. I know the work you put in. That is a lot of work and you did well. You will be happy with the outcome for sure.

The best part is just going for it and scalping that baby down. While it is not recommended, the lawn will be fine and it becomes necessary at times to take drastic measures. Imagine trying to spread all that top dressing at the 3 inch height.


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## Powhatan (Dec 15, 2017)

Cheers to ya buddy :beer:


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

Lol @gravylookout I know, was just feeding into it!


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Saturday 8/35/2018*
_BINGO! Peat Spreading_

It seems I can't find time for anything these days between the newborn, lawn project, and work. Maybe I can type a few up tonight. So, when we left off I had seeded the lawn, raked it in, and we had a bit of a shower pass through. When I came home from work on Saturday morning I busted out the most questionable piece of equipment I've ever purchased lawn care wise. It was an impulse buy, I'd heard good and bad things about it, and it was kinda spendy for what it was but I took the risk. Today we're going to talk about my bingo cage roller (aka compost spreader).

I bought it on a whim while I was thinking about trying to spread peat moss in a thin layer over the entire yard. Surprisingly, JCPenny had the best price I could find online. I was impressed with the quality but before we get to the complete review let's see how she rolls.

I only filled it up a little bit for a test pass. 









And here we go! 








It's like a freaking peat moss marker! 









I think through the whole project this was the most excited I could possibly be. I didn't use the roller for the compost because I was leveling and grading. Honestly, when that package showed up at my house I thought I had wasted $140 and that thing would never see the light of day but it probably saved me money in just this one project.

I proceeded to cover the lawn with the peat I had purchased the day before and managed to get the front yard done and about 1/4 of the backyard. I learned some valuable lessons that I'll share with you here so get your peat moss bookmarks ready.

*Peat Moss Tips*
Note: all of these tips pertain to spreading with a bingo cage roller and ymmv

Coverage varies between brands of peat moss. I bought Black Gold 2.2ft³ from Ace and it covered about 800-1kft². Later, I spread the only brand from Menards (green and white bales, 2.2ft³) and it covered about 600ft² but thicker.
Dry peat is harder to break up than wet. If your peat is super dry try adding a little water and it kinda expands and repels itself
If you need to move the roller over sidewalks while it's still loaded it won't hurt to just pick it up. If you need to go further distances put it in your yard cart or wheelbarrow.
You'll get clumps that won't go through the roller and block the good stuff from getting through. If you're being stingy you can try and force it through the grating to break it up but it's usually not that much so save it for your garden or something.
The roller lays a very thin layer. If you have bare spots you'll still want to hand apply a little more to those areas.
The way you save money with the roller is by consistency. with an even layer over everything you'll use much less peat and end up with more consistent coverage. I highly recommend it.









I still needed to get more peat for that last ~1.5k in the back and return the lawn roller that I didn't get to use but my day was done. A couple hours sleep and back to work before we pick this up on Sunday.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Sunday 8/26/2018*
_Existential Crises and Redemption (or, how I learned to set up an automatic irrigation system in about 4hrs)_

Got off work Sunday morning and rolled out the peat I had purchased from Menards. It didn't go as far as the peat I had bought from Ace but whatever, I had covered the critical bare spots by hand so that's all that really matters. I decided it's time for the water and this is where I hit a big fat cold hard brick wall.

I'm sure we've all experienced this feeling in some way. Weather it's related to lawn care, or home improvement projects, or even personal relationships. You think to yourself, "I've screwed this whole thing up, there's no way this is going to work. All this time and effort down the drain."

That was where I was at about 2 minutes into trying to hand water my backyard. It took me almost an hour to cover everything. I thought about that kind of time sink and the fact that I worked 12.5hr shifts and the wife and baby and it just sort of came over me. I was at that point of failure and all those thoughts about the lawn being perfect beforehand came crashing down. At work, once I got everything squared, I lamented to the dicord chat my feelings on this project and the daunting task of watering everything.

I owe a debt of gratitude to @JohnP for talking me off the ledge and @b0nk3rs for working with me on setting up a watering system/plan. We went over my back yard layout and what was available at the local big box stores and inside of an hour or so we had something together that looked like my 4k back yard could water itself with.









At that point I had one gear drive sprinkler, 2 cheap as could possibly be impacts, a couple of fan sprinklers, and 2 hoses. Here's what we came up with: 

4 of these orbit gear drive sprinklers (I already had one)
One of these Melnor 4 valve Digital Water Timers
And a bunch of hoses. I went with the 3/4" x 50' hose from harbor freight. No complaints.

I set it up in 4 zones with the 90-180° zones running for 8 minutes, every 6hrs. The 360° running for 16 minutes every 6hrs. And the cheap impact left to cover the side yard for 5 minutes every 12hrs.

As for the front yard; It'f full of odd shapes and nothing that could work with a rotary sprinkler of any kind. So, it gets the fan sprinkler once a day that I move around. I also hand water a few places.

I really can't say enough about the guys in the discord chat. Thanks friends!


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Monday 8/27/2018*
_Make it rain!_

I wish I had more to say about the project at this point but everything from here on out is pretty straight forward. Water, Water, Water. I got off of work at 8am, ran around and assembled all the parts I had picked out the night before, and go to work.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Friday 8/31/6018*
_Happy Birthday!_

On Tuesday morning I finally got my application of Air8, RGS, and Humic12 down before things got too fragile to walk on. Whenever I spray apply soil additives I always add Mycorrhiza to the mix. There's debate whether or not it makes it to the root zone but I had a lot left over from a replanting some hostas earlier this summer and the results on that were amazing.

I also put down the 14-20-4 starter fert I had picked up in Fargo earlier this season at label rate (that usually means I put a 10k bag on my 8k lawn).

Anyways, FF to Friday and this happened!!!!


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Sunday 8/2/2018* 
_It's so green!_

Quick update; Here's a couple pics form yesterday, the lawn is coming back!


















The existing lawn is loving this cool weather, compost, water and starter fert. First mow is scheduled tentatively for this Sundzy.


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

@gravylookout it's lookin good dude!! That's a good feeling you're at with that hard work. Wait a couple mows but get in on the fall nitro blitz and especially the Urea winterizer. Spring, you'll be amazed.


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## iowa jim (Jan 22, 2018)

Nice job, i wish i would have had a peat moss roller when i did mine, but couldn't find one to rent and to cheap to buy one. Did 12000sf. by hand and it was a real pain. good luck


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## JQuinn (Aug 24, 2018)

Really enjoyed reading through this and following the progress so far... Looking forward to seeing how it fills out this fall, and what the spring looks like!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

This thread is an awesome read! Thanks for taking the time to write it up and share your experiences here. We'll be following the ongoing saga!


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

u mayk gud poasts :thumbup:


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Tuesday 9/4/2018* 
_Just a few progress pics_

Just wanted to post a few pics of the lawn's progress. These were taken on Tuesday, about 1.5 weeks after seeding:

Here's the dip off the driveway that I filled in. It's germinating well but there are some gaps. I expect it to fill in a bit over time but I'll probably have to put more seed down in the spring (remember that I saved about 5#s for this purpose) 









The berm is greening up nicely 









Lastly, here's a side by side of the back yard. First picture is just after I finished top dressing. Most of the existing lawn has grown to 3-4" in this short time span. 

















Temps got down into the upper 30s overnight but it looks like we'll see 80s again next week. My plans to mow on Sunday are out the window due to an all day forecast of rain so Saturday it is. I'm going to take down the irrigation setup Friday morning after it runs to give the lawn a day to firm up so the lawn mower doesn't trash it too bad.

Hmm... maybe I should take it down this evening before work. It's so cool that it may take a bit longer. We'll see how much I want to risk it. If I miss the Saturday mow it'll be a week before I can get back out there due to my work schedule.


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

I usually don't take mine down, I just use the trimmer to clean up around the heads and then mow over top the hoses.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnP said:


> I usually don't take mine down, I just use the trimmer to clean up around the heads and then mow over top the hoses.


Probably not a good idea at a 2" HOC


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Saturday 9/8/2018*
_First Mow After Seeding_

I debated for a long time this morning on mowing the lawn. We had about 1.5" of rain Thursday night into Friday and the lawn is still pretty wet, I didn't want to tear it up too much. On the other hand, the existing grass was approaching 6" in some places and I was worried that the seedlings were getting smothered. There's rain in the forecast for tomorrow and I work long shifts all week so it was today or next Friday.

The original plan was to mow twice to mulch up the clippings and bring the HOC down in two steps but I thought it would be better to just get on and off as quick as possible. I also removed my striping roller. The way the irrigation is set up in the back yard I only have to break two connections and move the hose a couple feet to get most of it out of the way. I set up for a 3" cut and went to town.


























There was minor damage from the mower wheels to the thicker parts of top dressing but nothing that needs correcting. My phone's camera does the lawn a lot of favors but I will say that it's growing in well. You can see a couple spots in the front yard where I killed off some crabgrass that will need attention next spring. I also greatly reduced my watering times to twice a day for about 5-6 minutes. Just enough to keep things damp.

Next up is another mow on Friday and a Milorganite application.


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## gravylookout (Jun 22, 2018)

*Sunday 9/23/2018* 
_Final Update and some Conclusions_

It's been a couple of weeks since my last update. I've mowed the lawn now 4 times since the seed went down a month ago. I can't believe it's really only been a month, it seems so much has changed in that time. I didn't take any pictures and the only things I've done besides mow is a milo app, a sulfur app (trying to lower my high soil pH but that's outside the scope of this journal), edged all my concrete, and put down some Humic12 and MicroGreen. We've had some rain over the last two weeks and the grass has been going crazy! There was a stretch last week where it clocked in at 1/2" per day.

Today I put my Checkmate striper back on the mower and cut the lawn at the 2" HoC that I've been targeting this fall. Everything looks really healthy and full. I have some 46-0-0 urea that I was planning on spoon feeding the lawn but between the starter fertilizer and milo I'm afraid I'd be overdoing it. Besides, there's frost in the forecast next week and we've had highs in the mid to lower 50s for a few days now and I don't want to stress it out before it goes dormant.

Anyways, here's some pictures of what is likely one of the final mows of the season.










































Closing this thing out I'd like to review the goals I had for this project from the beginning of the journal and see how we did:


*Repair bare areas* 
I'd say I was modestly successful in this regard. The super damaged areas you saw in my first post have improved some but there are still sections where I killed off crabgrass that didn't come back all the way. I should have seeded these areas as heavy as I did in the completely bare spots where I leveled. Instead I went with the same 3#/k as I did on the healthier parts of the lawn. You can kind of see what I'm talking about in this picture. 









Luckily, I saved about 5#s of seed that I can fix some spots with in the spring. Also, here's a comparison of a spot that I leveled with about 3" of dirt. 









*Thicken up the lawn, especially in areas that get the most sun* 
Definitely filled out those sunny areas. The pictures above speak for themselves.

*Level out the bigger dips* 
Another win here. There's no longer any dips or holes in the lawn. The two big ones out front where I assume some trees used to be planted came out great. When I'm going over them with the mower it stays level the whole time.

*Grade the entire lawn to reduce bumpyness* 
In general, I'd say that the lawn is much smoother than before. However, if you recall, it was way to wet to use the lawn roller I rented so there are still a few minor bumps here and there. I think I may try and pick one up again next week if the lawn stays dry and see if I can even things out now that the top dressing won't stick to the roller. An easy fix.

*Learn a lot* 
Man, did I learn a lot. 

Always make sure your soil is well watered before aerating. You'll get much better results. 
A landscape rake and a yard cart are the top-dresser's best friends. 
Top dressing takes way more time than you think. However long you think it will take, double it. Triple it if you're working by yourself. 
You should go heavy on the seed, especially in areas that need some help.
You can't use a lawn roller on wet bare dirt. 
Those bingo cage compost spreaders are the best when it comes to evenly applying peat moss to your lawn. 
Plan out how you're going to water this thing before you start. It'll save you a lot of mental anguish. 
Lastly, be patient. New grass takes a while to grow and even longer to mature. All your hard work will pay off in the end.


Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for keeping up with this, commenting on my updates, and supporting me through the whole thing. Thanks to all the members of the TLF discord for their advise while I was in the thick of it. A huge shout out to @JohnP and @b0nk3rs for their help talking me off the ledge and walking me through the irrigation setup.

And most importantly, thanks to my wife for somehow putting up with all this while you were watching our newborn son. I promise I'll clean the garage out before it snows.


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## JohnP (Oct 24, 2017)

I didn't do crap with irrigation. That was all @b0nk3rs. I think my extent was, "Man just keep it moist!" which is not helpful when you're panicking. 

Patient wives are the best wives. Don't forget her patience and make sure she knows you appreciate it.

Get ready with that Urea. I know there's a lot of controversy, but I swear by the winterizer.

Top growth stops. Like really stops. Like you run the mower and bag nothing then a week later run the mower and still nothing. Ground isn't frozen though...hit it with that Urea at 2#/M and water it in. I did the spoon feeding and winterizer last year, and the spoon feeding was a lot of mowing, I enjoyed it a *LOT* but I'm tellin' ya, the winterizer is what I think made my lawn pop out first in the neighborhood lookin' like plush green carpet.

*One of the final Fall 2017 Mows:*


*Spring 2018:*
I mean the tulips were just starting but the grass was green as can be!


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