# Erik's lawn journey success and failures of 2018, time for 2019!



## hunt4turf (Jul 23, 2018)

Hey everyone, first time poster on here! Great to be a part of the community and bounce ideas and tips off each other. I'll get right into it. I didn't properly take care of the lawn from 2004 to 2018, NEVER DETHATCHED, properly watered, fertilized, always let it grow to 5 or 6 inches then mow and leave clippings on grass etc. In 2018 I decided to change my ways, and be a better lawn person.

April - I contracted a local company here in Ontario, Canada for only fertilization, aeration, weed control, etc. 
They did aeration and a couple rounds of fertilization and weed control in april and may.

May- mid July I relied on mother nature for water and still bad mowing habits.








Mid July is when I started to watch hours of LCN, Ryan, Pete, Ginger, Connor, Jake. I took a good look at the lawn and it was dried out, weeds everywhere, patchy. Started a mini war with the lawn care company, but felt bad after watching the videos and realizing I still needed to take responsibility for the other stuff like proper watering, dethatching, and mowing habits. Regardless we parted ways and I said no need for any further applications or treatments. I picked up a used dethatcher on kijiji and a cheap used bag mower. I mowed at the lowest setting, dethatched, went over the lawn with mower to pick up the thatch, threw down CIL one step lawn fertilizer/seed mixed together, didn't follow bag instructions just tripled the amount needed probably, then another 2 or 3 bags of CIL only seed bags, then watered once or twice a day for 20 mins at a time. (Yes I started the fall reno in July, more like a summer reno)



















August - I threw down Scotts starter fertilizer a couple bags for a 800 sqft backyard and 2500sqft front yard first week of August, I think it was 4.5x the amount I should of put down. Mid August I put down the Scotts Turf Builder 30-0-3 and I again put down maybe 5x what I should of put down. I realized I should calm down and possibly I ruined my lawn, said a prayer and really watered it down. By Mid August I saw a huge improvement and that's what prompted me to feed it more but should be more careful going forward. Looked into Milorganite based on the youtube vids I was watching and the fact that it's slow release and non burning. They don't sell it here in Canada, bought it online from HD and paid via Paypal to pick up at Niagara Falls,NY location for labor day weekend. It's legal to bring over as long as there's no weed control products. I also didn't mow the lawn from mid July till like mid August so about 4 weeks since overseeding.

























September - Labor day weekend, I was in Niagara falls NY at 8am picking up my first bags of Milo. Put it down by noon, I just followed Allyn's instructions "Throw er downnnn". One bag for the front(2500 sqft), one bag for the back( 800sqft). Watered 1.5 inches a week for a longer period of time and once or twice a week. Then mid September put down one bag of grass seed for the front and another for the back and just thought maybe to overseed again but let whatever happens happen when it comes to germination and not worry about the 3x day 15 min watering schedule. Maintained a 3 inch HOC. for all of September, I was mowing every 3 days. I also fed it with Milo, one bag every 10 days or so.



















October - Started lowering the HOC till the last mow which was at a very low setting but didn't scalp in end of October and just raked leaves. Oh and one final feeding of Milo last week of October, some crazy idea that maybe it could help for Spring. This last pic is how the lawn looked end of October. Due to the lawn feedings and better care from July to October surprisingly my lawn is the greenest in the neighborhood currently in April coming out of dormancy.



*side note - I always bagged every mow since August

And that's basically it.

My issue now is that I want to build on this and get it better so by next year the 3rd season of taking care of it I can have a fully matured lawn.

What I'm thinking of doing this April
- Aeration scheduled for April 28th, then overseed with TTTF which I will get from GCI(Pete) and let it mix in with whatever it is I have which I think is a mix of KBG and perenial rye whatever the scotts contractor mix and CIL is. Eventually keep overseeding with TTTF this year and next year to the point it starts to take over??? Or maybe next year just glyphosate it all and then overseed completely with TTTF. Then this year I'm thinking of not dethatching cause i did it quite heavily this past July and even exposed the soil I think during the reno and I bagged since then. I'm going to continue bagging and maintain a HOC of 3". We don't have good pre-emergents here, all the good stuff is across the border. I wasn't going to do any kind of weed control other then focusing on thickening the turf with overseeding, milo, proper watering, and mowing habits. I really want to overseed again now after the aeration April 28th and throw down starter fertilizer but if I'm going to do that I can't use any pre-emergent for 8 weeks at least? And end of August I'm going to overseed again.

Based on the history of this lawn from where it was to where it is now. What would you guys recommend. Extremely sorry if this took up too much time to read. I still have a long way to go, the primary goal this year I think for me is to thicken the turf and crowd out the weeds


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

So far you've made some good improvements. You seem to have a good understanding of what you need to do. Now, you just have to keep putting in the work. Be consistent with your mowing habits. Follow the specified amounts when you fertilize. DO NOT over feed. No need for weeds control chemicals if you feed and cut the turf. It will choke out the weeds. Having a nice lawn is easy. IF you can spend the time on a consistent basis.


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## hunt4turf (Jul 23, 2018)

[email protected], hopefully I won't run into any fungus issues from the excessive feedings during the Reno.


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

Looks like you've come a long way from what you started with. Good on you for putting in the time yourself instead of paying a company.

My advice if your interested would be to forget about overseeding this spring and focus on getting pre e down.

Get a soil test done and see what feeding needs your lawn needs. Make sure you do this before you add any fert for the season.

Spend the spring getting a good 3 way herbicide for your weed issues or spend countless hours hand pulling them.

You can then overseed late this summer. I might reconsider TTTF. I'd probably do a KBG/rye/FF mix. That will probably blend better with the grass you have already. You don't often see TTTF around our area.

Or you could gly and reno the lawn if you felt confident enough to do that. That's a decision you'll have to make.

Welcome to TLF by the way. :thumbup:


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