# Gaddis' 2020 Mazama Monostand Lawn Renovation



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

This will be a bit of a "catch up" journal. I've been taking photos since I started this project back in early August but just haven't had time to post them. Based on a successful 1K test strip I renovated last season with a monostand of Mazama KBG, I decided to do the same on my remaining 4K of main lawn.

August 10 - Burn it down

I mixed up several batches of glyphosate with AMS, surfactant and marker dye and sprayed the entire 4K of yard. Had to swallow hard on this. My wife is NOT happy!

August 15 - scalped the yard with my Honda 217. Took it down in steps, 1 inch at a time. Finally went down to the lowest setting on the mower. Lots of bare earth visible now. 30+ tall bags of dead turf. Ran Greenworks Dethatcher everywhere. Lowest setting, multiple passes. Still had more dead grass remaining than I wanted so used my Groundskeeper II rake on the rest. Much more effective than the electric unit but a lot of work. Ended up leaving a lot more stubble than I hoped but with the amount of topsoil I have coming, I know I'll be smothering every last inch of it so I'm not that concerned.

August 17 - took delivery of 10 yards of screened topsoil. Had the truck dump it right on the front lawn. Several neighbors tell me I'm crazy. I spend the next 2 days carting the dirt into small piles everywhere in the yard and spreading it with a landscaping rake.. Of course, I picked 2 of the hottest 2 days of the year and I end up losing 9 lbs in the process. I start to agree with the neighbors. Before spreading the topsoil, I hit a few remaining spots that showed signs of life with the same Glypho mix as last week.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

August 31 - I've let the seed bed fallow for about 10 days now and there are some new weeds breaking through. I hit a few spots with a 3rd round of glypho. I break out the 36 inch wide level-lawn rake and smooth out all of the new topsoil. This is quite a bit of work but is strangely satisfying. When I'm done, both the front and the back look as smooth as a baby's bottom. Home Depot delivers 12 bales of peat moss.

Sept 1 - Seed down day

I prep the soil with a sprayer application of Humic 12, RGS and Air-8 from GCF. I weigh out the Mazama seed and apply at a rate of 3.5 lbs per K. I use a very low spreader setting and make many passes to get the seed distributed evenly. I fill the lawn roller with water and make 2 passes everywhere. I recharge the battery on the backpacker sprayer, dump in a quart of hydratain and coat the surface of the entire seed bed. I do the same with Tenacity (1/2 tspn/ K). Finally, I assemble the newly delivered compost spreader I ordered from Ryan Knorr ($100 cheaper than Amazon by the way) and start to fill bag after bag of peat moss into the unit. I have to say, it lays down a beautiful coating, is considerably cleaner than spreading by hand and saved me several hours of work. Nearing dark, the hard work is done. I start the first sprinkler cycle and head for the shower.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 4 - Washout

3 days after seed down, we get an evening shower. It rains gently for 2 hours....no problem but the last 10 minutes of the storm, the heavens open up and it pours. Too dark to see now, I wait for morning to assess the damage.



A moderate washout. A pain but not a disaster. I can fix this. I little more seed down, a bit more peat moss and and we have a reasonable fix.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 6 - Signs of Life!

In 2019, I noticed the very first seeds germinating 5 days after seed down so I was anxious to see if I would have the same results this year. Bingo! We have lift-off!


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 7 - A Green 5 o'clock Shadow!

Just like last year, there is noticeable germination in all areas of the yard, both front and back. I smile. I feel like I'm well on my way to nice, even coverage with the new KBG.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 10 - Son of a #$&@*%!

Seed down plus 9 days. Germination started 4 days ago. I'm awakened by the sound of rain striking my bedroom window in the dark. Almost nothing ever wakes me up so this is not good. I look outside and cannot believe what I see. My entire yard is completely underwater. I mean submerged. My wife hears me stir and joins me at the window, she bursts into tears and goes back to bed. We have a rain event like I've seen maybe 4 or 5 times in my life. It rains for 3 hours like this.



When it is over, I go outside to my 5 inch rain gauge to see how much has fallen. It has overflowed. That can't be right. We just don't ever get that much rain at one time. Even in most hurricanes. I see my next door neighbor. He too has a 5 inch rain gauge. His has also overflowed.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 10 - The Aftermath

It's not pretty. Most of the dozen bails of peat moss are gone. I find large piles of it 7 houses south of me. What peat moss is remaining must have floated up off the lawn and as the water receded, it was redeposited back onto the yard in what looks like wave patterns. These piles of peat moss waves are tall with some of them up to a inch in height. The young grass is embedded in them so it looks like it will be impossible to smooth things out without ripping out all the young grass. But there is hope. Most of the young seedlings appear to be still attached and in place. Where peat moss is still present, the seedlings remain upright. But everywhere else, the baby grass is matted down to the soil. It is still green but did it drown? Will it die? Will it stand itself up again? I have no idea.


----------



## UMStevo (Aug 25, 2020)

I came to comment on how incredible your germination rate is. 5 days!! Wow! I also planted Mazama in the TTTF mix. I feel for you on the submerging. I hope there was enough germination to keep you mostly OK.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Thanks UMstevo. This particular cultivar seems very consistent on germination time in summer temperatures if it kept moist. I keep seeing people quote 21 days for germination for KBG but thankfully that has not been my experience. I honestly don't know how you would ever get a nice lawn with a 3 week germination timeframe. It's almost certainly going to rain hard somewhere in that time!


----------



## Zcape35 (Sep 17, 2019)

Everything looks to have been done very well. I'll be following along to see how it recovers (well wishes sent)!


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Assessment - 8 Days after Germination

The results following the deluge are a mixed bag. Some of the young seedlings located in spots where the peat moss washed out have drowned. But not all of them. There is at least some grass everywhere. I used my reserve stock of seed and threw some more down in the thin spots in the front and covered it lightly with more peat moss. I ordered a small amount to throw down in the back which is a bit thinner than the front. All of the tall piles of peat moss are a concern. Most of them are 3/4 inch in height and if they don't break down over time, my new lawn will be a bumpy nightmare. I debated whether it would be better to rake the peat moss "waves" flat but they contained most of the seedlings and it felt like it would be a real shame to wipe out that much new grass. So I've decided to be patient and allow the seedlings to drive down some deeper roots before I try to do anything to flatten the peat moss. If anyone has any experience with the peat moss wavelets and how to handle them, I would appreciate your input.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 18 - 12 days after germination

The new lawn continues to fill in but the additional seed I added to the front on Monday has not popped yet. Temperatures have really dropped from the 80s to the 60s so I suspect germination will not take place in 5 days as it did earlier. I'm throwing another 10 lbs of seed into the back lawn which is thinner than the front. I'm really fighting the calendar now and I need a break from Jack Frost to stay away for another month or so like he did last year. I may need to do some dormant seeding if the new seed I'm putting down in the back doesn't harden off before winter. I hope not as the top soil I brought in definitely has a bunch of weed seeds and I really need to put down a pre-emergent in the spring.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 25 - 19 Days Post-Germination

Well, we're pouting. I remember this frustrating phase from last year where it seemed like the young grass did absolutely nothing for 2 weeks. But at least my secondary round of seeding to fill in the gaps left by the washout have mostly come up and have covered many of the weak spots. I still have a few places where the grass did not come in strongly but I don't think I have any locations where I can't get it to fill in with a little N and some patience. There are quite a few weeds popping up but I don't see anything that would be concerning long term. I'm slightly concerned that the huge washout concentrated grass seed in several places that now look as though they may be too dense. There isn't much I can do about that now except feed it really well (I know those spots will be extremely hungry!) and keep my fingers crossed. My biggest worry is what is the best way to deal with the large number of uneven mounds caused by the washed-out peat moss. These piles contained much of my freshly germinated seed right after the washout so I had to make a decision to either rake it all flat immediately and completely reseed (the raking would have uprooted most of my 4 day old seedlings) or let it be and allow the new grass to drive roots and then hopefully deal with the lumpy peat moss once the new grass was properly anchored in the soil. Given the late calendar date of my first seeding, I elected to take the later route. I expect I'll get a first mow in around a week from now so I hope to have a firm plan in place by them. My current thought is to soak the peat moss piles with a hose and then try to gently rake them out flat, leaving the now rooted turf in place. Any input on this plan would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 28 - 22 DAG

The Mazama is beginning to fill in nicely. As my nervous wife said this weekend, "Hey, it looks like we have a lawn again." I still haven't mowed yet but I did walk on the new grass a bit for the first time this weekend to blow off some of the accumulating fall leaves and pluck a few weeds. I sprayed it with 0.21 lbs of N/M with a mix of Urea and AMS which I watered in right away. I also mixed in a lite dose of RGS (2.4 oz/M). I'm beginning to change the watering schedule to only a couple times per day versus the 5x daily watering I use during germination. I tried lightly raking one of the peat moss wave piles and it did not go well. Virtually all of the seedlings got uprooted during the raking. Clearly, the roots are not that deep yet. The drier watering schedule plus the RGS will hopefully help with that. I have Subvert Depth 10+ (Peptide) on hand as well but I'm reluctant to use something like that on grass that is this young. The back is probably a week behind where the front is at this point but also looks like it will come in very full. Fingers crossed that we don't get an early frost!



This is the renovation in the backyard. It's a bit lagging behind the front but it looks to me as though it will fill in nicely, but bumpy, just like the front.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Sept 30 - 24 DAG

We had about 3/4 inch of rain last night and I was amazed how the color of even the youngest seedlings darkened up. This was the first rain we've had on Long Island since the big washout event on 9/10 so we really needed the water. It won't be long before I give the front a test mowing with the Fiskars. Just need to wait for the soil to dry out just a bit.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Oct 2 - 26 Days after Germination

I managed to get the first mow in on the new grass with the manual Fiskars reel mower. It looks to me as though the grass is finally done with pouting and is beginning to fill in. This is the fun part! Anxious to see how much filling / spreading will take place before winter shuts everything down. I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of the peat moss piles have already begun to flatten out somewhat. The mow was not nearly as bumpy as what I expected.


----------



## rob13psu (May 20, 2018)

Wow! For not even a month after germination that looks outstanding. Nice job!

This definitely gives me hope for my reno next year. I'm leaning toward Bewitched, but that Mazama is going to look great.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Thank you rob13psu! Prior to my test strip reno last fall, I had never grown KBG before (I was always a tall fescue guy). I was pleasantly surprised how well my test strip of Mazama did this summer. I have no experience with Bewitched but I'm definitely a big Mazama fan. Either way, I'm sure your reno will go great!


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

By the way, here are a couple of pix from my 2019 Mazama reno taken this summer. Provided so you can see what it looks like in a more mature state.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

This is looking great.


----------



## bencrabtree27 (Jan 8, 2019)

Wouldve never thought after it was under water it would look like this in less than a month... great job. I have no clue how you were able to sleep the past month


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Well, I have to confess, I was outside with a flashlight after midnight checking on the recovery quite a few nights this past month, hoping the neighbors didn't see me. Renos definitely have a negative impact on sleep patterns. I was lucky that I had a decent supply of reserve seed left over in case of washout and that saved my bacon. I dropped more seed in the areas between the peat moss piles and I was lucky to get a good amount of it to come up. I'm pretty pleased so far. Even my wife is happy with it and that's not so easy so it must be going well!



bencrabtree27 said:


> Wouldve never thought after it was under water it would look like this in less than a month... great job. I have no clue how you were able to sleep the past month


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Thanks g-man! I appreciate the kind words!



g-man said:


> This is looking great.


----------



## bencrabtree27 (Jan 8, 2019)

Gaddis said:


> Well, I have to confess, I was outside with a flashlight after midnight checking on the recovery quite a few nights this past month, hoping the neighbors didn't see me. Renos definitely have a negative impact on sleep patterns. I was lucky that I had a decent supply of reserve seed left over in case of washout and that saved my bacon. I dropped more seed in the areas between the peat moss piles and I was lucky to get a good amount of it to come up. I'm pretty pleased so far. Even my wife is happy with it and that's not so easy so it must be going well!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Happy wife, happy life


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Oct 5 - 29 DAG

I continue to see spreading of the Mazama into some of the thinner spots. I did a 2nd mow yesterday using the manual Fiskars mower and blew off some leaves. I see some weed pressure in spots that almost looks like goose grass but it's a bit too young to be sure. I'm hand pulling what I can. I'll be spraying 0.25 lbs N using urea within the next hour. I'm going to keep the N up with weekly feedings until I see top growth stop completely.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Oct 15 - 39 DAG

Most of the visible signs of the washout are gone. I do have some places where the peat moss piles were thick and after a good soaking rain earlier week, much of those piles have leveled themselves out leaving some thinner spots. But overall, the Mazama is really starting to spread now and thicken up. It won't get carpet-like this fall but if I don't screw it up, it should look amazing by next June. Gave the reno it's weekly spoon feeding yesterday with 0.2 lbs N / M of Urea. I planned on spraying this morning with a low dose of Subvert Depth 10+ (liquid peptides) plus some micronutrients but it's just too windy today. With a heavy rain predicted for tomorrow into Saturday, I'm not sure when I'll get this down. But they're "bonus" applications so I'm not really concerned. Leaves are starting to fall more heavily now so I mowed with the Honda at 2.5 inches just to vacuum them up and then used the Fiskars to do an actual cut on the entire lawn. For less than 40 days after germination, I'm pretty pleased.


----------



## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

That is impressive!


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

zeus201 said:


> That is impressive!


Thank you zeus201!


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

Oct 19 - 43 DAG

Well, things are progressing nicely. I sprayed the baby Mazama with 0.75 oz/M of Subvert Depth 10+ over the weekend which is well below the 2.0 oz rate I've been using on the mature Mazama test strip from last fall. I've noticed a darkening of the grass color since that application but it could just be the grass maturing normally.

It's funny how topsoil can vary so widely, even from a single source. Last year, I brought in several yards of dirt from a local supplier that ended up being loaded with Poa Annua seeds. It was a pain but with a lot of time on my hands and knees, I was able to mostly eliminate it from my renovation without a drop of herbicide. This year, I used the same supplier and was ready for the same boatload of Poa Annua. Instead, I haven't seen a single Poa plant but I'm loaded with what appears to be young goose grass (grows flat to the ground with a white center). I pulled 1/4 bucket of this stuff from just the front yard this afternoon. I'll do the same in the backyard tomorrow. I've never seen goose grass in my lawn before so I'll have to do some homework to see how to combat this stuff come spring if it ends up surging.

I gave the entire yard a cut with the Fiskars manual reel mower today and blew off some leaves. I may use some XGRN or Milo this week instead of spraying for the weekly spoon feeding. I haven't added any P or K for a while now and I want to make sure the baby grass has access to enough of the macros prior to winter. Also, I have just a few spots that look to have a little tip burn so going with the spreader this week seems like a good idea.


----------



## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

54 DAG - Pre-Halloween Mow

It's been raining for the better part of 2 weeks now on Long Island so it's been incredibly tough to find opportunities to mow or feed the baby Mazama. I really couldn't find a window where I could spray some AMS and allow it to get absorbed before being washed off by the rain so I dropped 31 lbs of granular XGRN 8-1-8 on the entire property a week ago. I know it's not fast release but I figured it could double as a winterizer feeding as it's getting cold now. I just mowed the lawn with the Honda at 2.5 inches to get up most of the leaves and the temperature was 39 degrees. I was surprised at how much darker the baby grass got after the XGRN but I assume that was a response to the iron. I was afraid that after all the rain (2-1/4 inches over the past 36 hours), the Honda might create ruts in the soil. But after a couple of rows, it was clear that the soil was holding up and I can only attribute that to the roots getting fairly developed already. I know the photos don't really show it, but the lawn is looking much more mature and dark than it did 2 weeks ago. I have some Poa Annua popping up now that I'll do battle with in the spring. I'm going to hold off on any pre-emergent for at least another 2 weeks since I threw down a bunch of seed in mid September to help fix the washout and that grass is not 60 days old yet.


----------

