# KDN's Central England PRG Lawn Journal



## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

Welcome to my journal.

After getting into lawn care earlier this year I quickly discovered that it consisted of mainly grassy weeds. Poa annua and Poa Triv were the main issues. Moss was also a big problem thanks to one of the wettest winters on record.

From May to June I did a lot of research and came up with a plan, full reno.

*July 14th*
Bought a 5L pump sprayer and sprayed Glyphosate.

*July 21st*
At this point things started to look sick, but it was still green, so I sprayed Glyphosate again.

*August 3rd-4th*
Everything was toast at this point. I removed the top layer of dead grass and used a landscape rake to level.

I started fallowing the bare dirt.


*August 12th*
Early morning rainstorm with 25mm of rain in 20 minutes. I covered the drain which stopped some erosion, but left the dirt under water slightly compacted.


*August 14th*
Seed down day. I used a mixed from Hurrells which contains:

30% CSI CORSICA Creeping Ryegrass
30% ****ENS Dwarf Perennial Ryegrass
40% TOPGUN Dwarf Perennial Ryegrass

Raked seed in, spread peat moss, and rolled with a 75Kg roller.

Applied 2.5kg HumicK-PRO (0-6-16) 26% Humic 6% Fulvic.

*August 19th*
Germination! Woke up to a full lawn of grass babies. Nice even germination with only a couple of bare patches.

*August 31st - 11 DAG*
This PRG does not hang around. Some spots are 80mm, but mostly around 50mm.


First cut at 40mm.


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## Carlson (Apr 16, 2020)

Wow beautiful. I like the pathway with the circular stones too - really gets set off in all that dark green!


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

It's pretty clear that the bare patches I have now won't be filling in anytime soon. So I threw some seed in the thin patches.

Ran the seed through quality control before spreading.


Still growing like crazy, only sensible thing would be to apply nitrogren. Sprayed some urea at 0.2lb of N/ksqft, which was rougly 180g urea.


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

Insta lawn! Looking good already! 
Nice to see another UK member, I'll be following :thumbup:


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

@Carlson Thanks man!

@Mark B Thanks, been reading yours and other UK members journals to see what other people locally are doing. Been helpful to find suppliers as well.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

Got a second mow in toady and picked up some ammonium sulphate. Had to deal with a bunch of wormcasts this mow. :|

40mm cut with rotary.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

*20 DAG*

Third cut, used the manual reel at 30mm (1 3/16 ″). Sprayed 0.25lb of N/ksqft using AMS instead of Urea this time.

Starting to see a few yellow grass blades which are loose. Not sure what's going on, maybe disease or natural die back, will be keeping an eye on it.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

*24 DAG*

First time using the powered reel today, aligned the reel so it cut paper clean. Struggled to cut without leaving stragglers and washboarding, It had grown a fair amount since the last cut.

Cut at 30mm (1 3/16 ″) and then lowered the HOC to 25mm (1") for the second cut. I think I will stay at around 25mm for the rest of this year.

Edging is a pain I'm thinking about adding some pavers around the outside so I can get right up to it with the reel mower. That is likely a job for next spring though.


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

@kdn Why didn't I see this journal 😀 Looks awesome mate, love the colour and progress. CSI is nice right.

Did your overseed work? I have bare spots and want to overseed but worried about watering 3-4 times a day as want to avoid fungus. Did you cover the overseed with something?


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

@RCUK The CSI is awesome, wish I knew more about it before buying my mix. Knowing what I do now I would probably go CSI monostand or a high percent CSI mix.

The overseed worked well, I spread the seed and top dressed with peat moss in the thin/bare areas. Only watered once a day at about 12 after the dew had dried up.

The 10-day weather forecast looks good so I might overseed again in some spots created by the worms.


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Great thanks. The other two varieties are nice, I think the CSI should outlast them though given it is a spreading type.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

*27 DAG*

Cut at 25mm today.

Mixed and sprayed:
425g AMS
200ml seaweed extract
50g sulphate of Iron
4L of water

Had planned to water this in after 24 hours, however after 2 hours the grass started to look sickly. I think the iron might be the culprit since everything was fine last week.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

50g of 20% iron? Into a new lawn? I do think that's high.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

@g-man Yup that was a mistake. Do you know what rate would be safe or is it best to let it mature before using iron?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I would let it mature or keep it low 15g.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

Ok I'll let it mature. Thanks @g-man


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

The label does suggest high doses huh.
3g/m² (10oz/ksqft) is listed on the label for turf hardening so I understand your thinking in the usage.
The label even suggests 4 and 5g/m² (13-16oz/ksqft) for blackening of moss. (I have actually used this rate on a mature fine fescue area with success for moss control). I like iron sulfate for moss control. You do need to be very mindful of soil moisture availablity and also air temperature at these extreme rates. Also your grass type. I had leaf burn on my KBG at 2g/m² during a warm dry spell this spring.

However, on young grass, I would hesitate to use any iron sulfate until about 50-60 DAG, simply because it is acidic and harsh on the leaves and I would question if the plant needs iron at this stage.
@kdn Have a look on pitchcares website at Maxwell bullet chelated iron https://www.pitchcare.com/shop/maxwell-bullet-chelated-iron-5l.html?&gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxTurSEQAcxina8vSKwlPvcUFwv4PaqoQtePCAN5WLerItX_MxdHBljxoCNhIQAvD_BwE and the blurb talks about iron sulfate stripping calcium from the grass plant leading to weakening. This maybe what has happened to your grass plants that are looking sickly for the time being. I think it will bounce back when it's had a chance to rebuild itself a bit.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

@Mark B The reno section is around 80m² so 50g iron sulfate would be around 0.6g/m² if I have calculated that right? I think your point on air temp is a good one since I sprayed at 1pm and by 3pm it was 27c so that did not help.

I will be letting it mature now, probably wait for spring.


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

Smh, yep I screwed up that maths there, trying to rush a work break reply. I'll edit my reply above to avoid confusion.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

Cut at 25mm today removed most of the wispy blackened tips from the iron damage.

@RCUK found this guy in my 3 month old test plot. Do you think this is the CSI starting to creep?


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

@kdn Certainly looks like Rye with it's shiny leaf blade, is CSI the only cultivar in your test plot? Did you find the runner underground or above? Nice colour!


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

@RCUK Test plot is the same mix as the reno, so potentially not CSI. It was an underground runner, so all the signs suggest it's the CSI starting to creep.

Clippings from test plot vs reno, you can probably guess which is which.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

Since my last update the grass growth has slowed quite a lot. Temps have dropped to around 14c and we are only getting 11 hours of daylight.

Over the last 3 days rainbands from storm Alex over France brought almost 100mm (4") of rain. Since it has been so wet I have been using the push reel for the last 3 mows and I'm surprised how well it handles the wet grass.

*Sept 20*
Mow at 25mm
200ml seaweed extract
550g AMS
1.4KG Humic-K pro
Leatherjacket nematodes

*Sept 25*
Mow at 25mm

*Sept 27*
Mow at 25mm
450g AMS
200ml seaweed extract

*Sept 29*
Mow at 25mm

*Oct 5*
Mow at 25mm
450g AMS
200ml seaweed extract

*Sept 25*: Last mow with the powered reel, hopefully It will dry out so I can get back to this.


*Oct 5*: Look at the size of this hole under a wormcast I removed, must be an absolute unit of a worm living in that.


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

October has been a good month for the reno. At the start of the month worm casts were causing big problems so I picked up some Vitax Enhance C which is a saponin based soil conditioner, applying at 30g/m2 gave me about 90% reduction in worm casts.

Overall very pleased with how the reno is looking at this stage. There are a few thin spots and some bumpy areas which will be need to be addressed in spring.

*Oct 11*
Mow at 25mm
450g AMS

*Oct 17*
Mow at 25mm

*Oct 20*
Mow at 25mm
350g Urea

*Oct 25*
Mow at 25mm

*Oct 28*
Mow at 25mm

*Oct 31*
Mow at 25mm
350g Urea


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## Johnl445 (Feb 11, 2020)

Nice looking PRG, have you noticed a difference between using urea or ammonia sulfate?


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## kdn (Aug 26, 2020)

@Johnl445 It does seem to respond better to the Urea apps, but I'm applying about 65g more nitrogen so it's hard to compare.


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