# sethgho's bermuda patch



## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

We just bought this property in late Summer of 2019. The neighborhood is called "Honeycomb Hills" because we're sitting on top of a ridge full of honeycomb limestone. I think I know what this means: rocks are going to be my enemy!

My medium-term goal is to collect rainwater off of my 50x50 shop roof, but it might not be until Summer or Fall at the earliest that I get all that setup.

So, for now, I'm going to work on this small area between my shop and my house. It's all weeds, it's uneven and it has some trees: A couple of oaks and some cedars.

Here's the only decent photo I have from early Summer 2019 when we viewed the property:



This is two weeks after the first round of glyphosate and 1 day after the second round of it.



As you can see, I've already begun digging up rocks and inspecting my soil. I've definitely got a few large limestone rocks near the surface that I'll need to rent some equipment to dig up:





and I've got a few parts of this section of lawn that seem to have very gravelly/rocky soil just a few inches below the surface. Right now I'm not entirely sure how much I should be concerned about this. I'm thinking I'll try to till it up a bit, remove the rocks, and till in some fresh soil. I might just skip that this year and hope for the best.



I'm currently planning on seeding a TBD Bermuda cultivar. I was all St. Augustine at my last home and I'm looking to change it up a bit and hopefully start overseeding with ryegrass in the winter after a couple of seasons.


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## Kballen11 (Mar 26, 2018)

Cool! This will be fun to watch! Thanks for sharing.


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

I'm building a home for my parents on the property. Today while they were clearing that area the operator for the excavator saw where I dug around the rocks in the previous photos and offered to dig them for us while he was waiting on the dump truck to come back from hauling stumps!







We tipped him for his time. This guy saved me a ton of trouble! I was planning on renting a mini excavator for $240/day this weekend to dig these up, but there's no _way_ it would've handled these rocks!

I probably won't make any lawn progress in this area this weekend. It'll still be a few weeks before the weather starts warming up in Central Texas. I'm planning on seeding bermuda here. I still need to pick out what seed to order, determine when the right time to plant it is (April? May? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), and then work backwards from there. I expect to have a lot of grading & leveling to do before it's ready for seed.


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

We received a half inch of rain this morning within 30 minutes. I've got some preexisting low spots to raise up as well as some new low spots thanks to the rocks that were moved.



I'm thinking I'll leave it as-is for about a month. In April, I'll order a few yards of soil to level it out and then seed some Arden 15 in late April.


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

That last statement was a lie. I got out there Sunday afternoon and ran some string levels to check my grade.



The grade was generally pretty good. It roughly followed ~1inch of drop per 4 linear feet. I have some existing low spots that will need to come up 3-4 inches plus the larger areas that are now lower because of the massive rocks that were removed.



Of course, in the process of doing this, I found a few more rocks. Between the removal of rock and the addition of soil, I'm fairly confident I have at least 4-6 inches of soil everywhere here.

I'm guessing I'll need around 5 yards of soil. That should give me enough to raise some of these low spots and account for settling. My only open question before I can do that is "What type of soil should I get?" Please let me know if you have a suggestion!


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

During my COVID quarantine time I ordered some top soil over the phone. What arrived was some pretty clumpy/chunky stuff, but it looks pretty rich. In hindsight, I don't know if this was the right soil to get. Nonetheless, it's here so I'm using it.



And here's a pic after spreading it out plus using the tiller on a couple of high spots.



As you can see, it still looks pretty chunky. I've got a low spot in the middle I need to raise a bit more, so I'm going to take my small trailer and get another 1-2 yards. If you have any advice on what type of soil to use, please let me know. The only opinions I've found online so far all have to do with using screened sand for top dressing.


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

Soil test results arrived. 


The calcium is off the charts, but with all of the limestone I'm not too surprised. After seeing this, I think I'm happy I leveled with enriched topsoil. It looks like the soil could use it.


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

It was a much-anticipated weekend for me! I threw down some starter fertilizer (Sta-Green 18-24-6 @ bag rate) and 2.2 lbs / 1k of Arden15. I've got ~7 cu ft of peat moss on top and 3 surface-level sprinklers running for 5-10 minutes every 12 hours. I've got a few small spots not getting the best water coverage that I'll just try to water by hand for now. I'm working from home every day so I can give it plenty of attention. But that also means it's going to be a LONG couple of weeks waiting for germination. Fingers crossed!


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

Day 7: First signs of germination! It looks like a green 5 o'clock shadow. Stubble everywhere. Hah. I was really nervous about how long it would take. The sand layer was getting really hot this week during the afternoons and drying out quickly so I feared I wasn't keeping it moist enough.

Day 8: I can already see a green tint when I look out across the area. Shocking what a couple of days' difference can make.



I'm seeing good germination across >60% of the area! The places that tend to get more shade don't show much at all, but this soil stays much cooler. I was worried that the area directly around the sprinkler head was getting too much water, but I'm seeing good signs there too. What a relief!

Barring any new information, I'm planning on watering ~every 4 hours like I have been for another week and then backing off a bit for deeper & less frequent watering.


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## acegator (May 31, 2018)

very nice journal.

Those rocks were huge!


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

acegator said:


> very nice journal.
> 
> Those rocks were huge!


thanks! I've got a _lot_ more rock removal in my future.


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## sethgho (Jul 30, 2019)

It's been a while since I've updated. Today marks Day 30, so it's time for some catch-up!

Day 15: Some heavy rain after day 8 screwed with the consistency of my germination, but overall things are looking positive. I was seeing some purple sprouts and realized I probably haven't been aggressively fertilizing enough. The roots haven't reached beyond my sand layer yet, so the starter fert is running out. I applied another 0.5lb N/1k of starter fert on Day 13. I also did a liquid humic app here. 


Day 21: 


Day 19: I trimmed some of the adjacent trees. A few spots are too shady. I think to fix my worst spot, I'm just going to pay a professional tree trimmer to get up there and cut back the canopy. I may or may not reseed the small spot after that. It really depends on timing and how well the established turf is spreading.

Day 20: 13-13-13 general fert granular @ 0.5 lbs of N / 1k

Day 23: I gave in and bought the N-Ext products after seeing a 7-day before/after for Don's Lawn on Youtube. On this day I applied Air8, RGS, Microgreens, and Humic12. Here's a pic before the application (it's looking pretty lime-green and my soil test indeed show very low micros including iron). 


Day 29:


And finally, today (Day 30): I had these little dudes pop up, which is encouraging. 


I'm at that point where I feel really good about it when I drive up, then as I walk closer and see how thin and patchy it really is, I'm impatiently frustrated. 

I've got a smattering of small patches like this. I'm trying to just be patient and let them fill in, but it's hard.


*Weeds*: I'm shocked I don't have more weeds coming in. Given all of the topsoil I brought in, I was bracing for a weed nightmare. So far, so good. I'm not sure when I should apply certainty/celsius, but I'm in no hurry right now. I'm just plucking up the little weed seedlings when I see them.

*Water*: Also, I've backed off on my watering. I'm shooting for 0.5" twice per week. We've gotten a lot of rain recently, so I'm not too concerned in the short term.


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