# Pat's NJ Lawn Journal - TTTF/KBG/PRG Mix



## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

Hello Everyone,

Been working on my lawn now for a few months trying to get it in better shape, lurking here and r/lawncare, watching videos, ryanknorr and grassdaddy on youtube have been a big help. Inspired by Eric and Greg's renovations planned to overseed my lawn.

Posting here to help on next steps and hopefully keep my lawn from turning to shambles over the winter and spring.

Decided against a whole renovation due to not wanting to risk the whole lawn being dead and for some reason if this didn't work I didn't want to be left with nothing. I figure if the results come out good but not exactly to my liking I can always do a full renovation in a few years.

History of the lawn, moved in about 5 years ago, lawn was ok fit in with the neighborhood, since then my lawn had gotten worse while my neighbors on both sides and across have gotten better and amplified how bad mine started to look, no irrigation which was part of the problem, plan on installing something more permanent next year if this works out. Called trugreen last year, they came out a couple of times and I realized that my lawn needed more attention and time then they could give it for results. so began this summer, put a hitch on my car and got a little utility trailer with plans on hauling lawn equipment, digging up the yard anyway so put up a fence gate that I had been meaning to put up, fenced off an area for the dog to prevent him from digging up the yard and messing on it then began work on the lawn.

Steps taken so far:
~7,500 sq ft
9/1 - Glyphosate on problem areas that were mostly weeds (~20% of lawn in various patches)
Tenacity (had a lot of crabgrass, wanted to get ahead on killing it before getting started)
9/15 - dethatched entire yard 2 passes, raked, mowed low with bagger to get remainder up
8 yards of topsoil delivered (this was a lot more than expected would have been ok with 6)
9/16 - core aerate entire yard
9/19 - spread topsoil over entire yard to top dress, then went back and filled any low spots and level some problem areas off.
9/22 - scalped lawn as low as mower would go. 
SEED DOWN - 45%TTTF 45%KBG 10%PRG
Lesco starter fert
Tenacity
9/23 - Set up sprinklers with timer every 4 hours 12 min each zone (4A, 8A, 12P, 4P, 8P, 12A)
9/27 - TTTF/PRG Germination begins
10/4 - KBG Germination begins
10/5 - brown spots in 1 area, turned off sprinklers overnight (new times 8A, 12P, 4P 8P)
10/7 - Scotts Disease ex (as of today (10/11) brown spots have not grown or spread)
10/14 - First Mow @ 2.5"
Milorganite - 1 bag for full lawn
Grub Killer - full rate
Humic DG - 10lbs for whole lawn
Urea - 0.165 N /k
Propiconazole 14.3 - 2oz per gal /k
10/20 - Second Mow @2.5"
10/21 - Milorganite - 2 bags for full lawn
Urea- .66 N /k
Adjusted sprinklers to once every 3 days
10/31 - mow @2.5"
turned off sprinklers for the season.
11/10 - mow @2.5"
11/17 - mow @2.5"
11/25 - last mow of the season @2.5" bagged last of leafs
Urea .66 N /k
0-0-7 with prodiamine - 3 lb/k
Pillar G Fungicide - 3lb /k
wash and wax car
christmas lights up

Before: 

10/11:


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@golfgtimk6 welcome to TLF. I moved your journal to the journal section.


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

Thanks!

10/14 - First mow today, bagged


happy with how it's looking

also today:
Milorganite - 1 bag for full lawn
Grub Killer - 1 bag full lawn
Humic DG - 10lbs for whole lawn
Urea - 1/2 lb /k
Propiconazole 14.3 - 2oz per gal /k
also threw some seed down in some bald spots
adjusted sprinklers to 1x a day.

the grass under the trees in the back had fallen over and gotten matted down i think from the rain. anyone have any advice on what I can do for that? I mowed over it but most of it stayed down.


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

so got an issue with the grass under my tree that I could use some help with.

my backyard looks like this except for under the trees


Looks like this:



not sure where to go from here, I'm already prepared for having it not being full but I would like to prevent this from getting worse and spreading to the rest of the yard.

Its just laying flat and real thin, currently watering 1x a day.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

Hey Pat, looks like a good start! :thumbsup:

That area under the tree, does it stay wet longer?


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

ericgautier said:


> Hey Pat, looks like a good start! :thumbsup:
> 
> That area under the tree, does it stay wet longer?


Hey Eric, thanks! Been using your lawn journal as an inspiration and somewhat of a guide.

Was kind of thinking that with the water, the area where this is gets the least amount of sun so I backed off the time on the sprinkler in that area. Think i may need to prune the trees up in the summer to get some more light back there. The seed in that area seemed to get longer quicker and had fallen over before I mowed after some heavy rain.

Any idea on how to trim up the longer blades that are laying flat? the suction of my mower is just kinda swirling the grass blades around rather than lifting and cutting them. And would hitting this area with more or less nitrogen help at all? plan on putting down .33 lb of N /k this weekend.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

Do you have a leaf blower? Maybe blow those grass blades up before giving it a mow? N can't hurt.. those baby grass needs nutrients. However, we are near or at first frost date... so this would probably be the last N app until the winterizer.


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

ericgautier said:


> Do you have a leaf blower? Maybe blow those grass blades up before giving it a mow? N can't hurt.. those baby grass needs nutrients. However, we are near or at first frost date... so this would probably be the last N app until the winterizer.


planning on getting a blower this weekend so I'll give that a go. for the N was planning on doing another application of .33 lb of N per 1k sq ft next week as well, think I should just put .66 down this weekend?


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

10/20 - Second Mow @ 2.5" - mulched
10/21 - Milorganite - 2 bags for full lawn & Urea- .66 N /k

last nitrogen until end of growth, planning on putting down 1lb of N /k beginning of December, should i put a preventative dose of fungicide down as well to prevent snow molds?

under the tree still looks bad not pictured, nothing I can do now, just going to wait until spring to see what it looks like and probably re-seed those parts then, trim up the trees to let more light in over the summer and if doesn't keep then re-seed again next fall.


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

That looks fantastic! :thumbup:


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

jessehurlburt said:


> That looks fantastic! :thumbup:


Thank you! Couldn't have done it without this forum. I am very happy with the results so far.


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

anyone have some insight on what I should do about watering? currently watering every 3 days at 20 min per zone. should i keep this up until temps get closer to freezing? temps have been between 40 lows at night to mid to high 50s during the day.


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

If the grass is growing, then it's expending H2O. I don't know about your area, but the humidity just plummetted here. This means the ground doesn't stay as wet, and a few spots in my reno started showing drought stress for the first time.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I'm averaging 0.05in of ET per day. This equates to ~1/3in per week of water needs. I continue to water my Reno at a very reduce rate unless it rains.


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## golfgtimk6 (Oct 8, 2018)

samjonester said:


> If the grass is growing, then it's expending H2O. I don't know about your area, but the humidity just plummetted here. This means the ground doesn't stay as wet, and a few spots in my reno started showing drought stress for the first time.





g-man said:


> I'm averaging 0.05in of ET per day. This equates to ~1/3in per week of water needs. I continue to water my Reno at a very reduce rate unless it rains.


ok, thank you both I checked the problem area under my tree and the ground was dry so upped the time in that area. for the rest of the lawn the soil was still moist so going to keep it as is for now.


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