# NickRod's Bermuda Lawn Journal



## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

So I'm finally starting a lawn journal after lurking this forum for over a year. When I moved into this house, I inherited a nightmare of a backyard. The only reason we bought was because it was on a lake.

The first summer (we bought in June) was all tree removal, here's the second tree coming down.


July 2020

The next was mostly grading and fighting with fescue. Unfortunately, with the trees gone, the yard just gets too much sun for the fescue to survive the NC heat.

After spending ~$1000 on seed, erosion control blankets, and sprinklers, I ended up with thin fescue and dirt.


April, 2021


April, 2021


February, 2022

Now at this point, my wife has lost all faith in my ability to grow grass from seed. She was begging me to sod the yard, specifically with Centipede, which our neighbor has.

I really have some reservations about centipede. From what I can tell, it's slow to spread, and I think our dog/kids will absolutely destroy it. As a temporary appeasement, I threw down some annual rye to show that seed can in fact grow in the yard.


April 17, 2022

With that image in her mind, and the knowledge that it will be dying off soon, I finally convinced her to let me try some Bermuda seed. However, she limited me to the cheapest Bermuda I could find (I know, I tried to explain the perils).

So, I picked up Scots Southern Bermuda (Gold Glove is the cultivar I believe) and threw it down. She wouldn't let me glyphosate the lawn, as she was terrified of seeing dirt again, so I've been cutting the rye/weeds as low as my toro can go.

I seeded on the 28th of May and have been hammering the water to keep it wet (we've been in the high 90s with no rain). This morning (June 2nd, 5 days after seeding) I noticed some baby Bermuda starting to pop out. I hit the yard with the mower one last time and threw down some fert, at this point I'm just trying to give the baby Bermuda the best chance possible to establish. In a few weeks, I'm going to start pushing it hard, keeping it very short and watering deep to try and crowd out the weeds as much as possible. I'm hopeful, since I'm seeing a lot of germination, and I'll post updates here as it goes along.


June 2nd, 2022


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Obligatory germination pic.


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

​Cut today at 1.75in (lowest setting on my Troybilt). Planning to maintain this as HOC. Honestly was cutting more crabgrass than Bermuda, just trying to keep the canopy open to give the Bermuda a good chance to compete.

Also put down .5lbs of Nitrogen, plan to do that every weekend for the rest of the growing season.

Overall, I'm very happy with it. I've got some very strong patches but solid germination throughout the yard. I'd say we're at 75% weed coverage at the moment. I'm hoping that keeping it low and backing off the watering will start pressuring some of those out and allow the Bermuda to spread.

Not ready to pull the trigger on Celsius and the temps are too high for 2-4d, so really just going to hope the low mowing does the trick.


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## Ben S (Oct 6, 2018)

Keep it up. That is a nice looking property. You'll have a great lawn once it fills in.


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Ben S said:


> Keep it up. That is a nice looking property. You'll have a great lawn once it fills in.


Thanks! I'm hoping so.


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## Humbert810 (8 mo ago)

NickRod said:


> Ben S said:
> 
> 
> > Keep it up. That is a nice looking property. You'll have a great lawn once it fills in.
> ...


I remember when I started mine. Same seed you're using. Check out my journal you can see the progress you will have! I remember those exact stages. So exciting. Stay after it and don't get discouraged!


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

Following, love seeing a renovation from seed!
0.5N/M every weekend seems like a lot. I know bermuda loves to be fed, but I'd question if it's going to be able to utilize that much, that often. 
Good luck!


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## Humbert810 (8 mo ago)

dubyadubya87 said:


> Following, love seeing a renovation from seed!
> 0.5N/M every weekend seems like a lot. I know bermuda loves to be fed, but I'd question if it's going to be able to utilize that much, that often.
> Good luck!


I agree with Dub, .5LB N/1000 seems like a lot of N each weekend. I would split that into 4 apps of .25 lb or do it every other weekend.


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Humbert810 said:


> dubyadubya87 said:
> 
> 
> > Following, love seeing a renovation from seed!
> ...


Thanks for the advice guys! I believe I watched a GCI Turf video where Pete was putting down 2lb/N per month to try and really push his Bermuda to spread. I saw the Bermuda bible only recommends up to 1.5, so maybe I'll scale back to that. Just trying to get as much out of this growing season as possible.

And I have checked your journal Humbert! I was searching the forums for anyone else that has used Scott's Golden Glove and yours came up, it was incredibly encouraging! I hope to be looking close to what you have by next summer!


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Quick update. Got a mid week now in today.

Growth has been pretty good so far, still quite a bit of weeds but it looks like the frequent mowing is definitely stressing out the crabgrass.

There's still a lot of ground ivy ish things that the mower isn't touching, I'm hoping as the Bermuda continues to spread it will strangle some of that out. Still too hot for any big box weed treatments and not ready for the good sprayer/Celsius investment.

I'm trying to keep the HOC around 1.75in (lowest setting on my troybilt). I discovered on my Sunday cut that the bolt holding the blade is stuck/fused, meaning I can put a fresh blade on and I'm stuck mowing with the dinged up blade on there at the moment. I'll make another attempt to get it off this weekend and if that's unsuccessful I might start shopping around Facebook marketplace for a new to me Honda.

I ordered some Urea from Home Depot that came last weekend. I plan to use that for the rest of the season. Based on the advice received here I'm going to scale back from .5lb/1k to .375lb/1k, getting me to 1.5lb/month rather than 2. That's about 2.5lbs of Urea per week for my 2600sqft, so the 40lbs will last me the rest of the season.

That's all for now, looking forward to the continued spreading, hopefully I'll have some really good coverage by the end of July.


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## Humbert810 (8 mo ago)

NickRod said:


> Quick update. Got a mid week now in today.
> 
> Growth has been pretty good so far, still quite a bit of weeds but it looks like the frequent mowing is definitely stressing out the crabgrass.
> 
> ...


Make sure you tell your wife you can grow grass! Looking forward to following along. Trust me, seeding Bermuda requires a lot of patience and time. Don't get too worried about the weeds. Give the turf some time to get established and just keep pushing the N. A good pre-em this fall and next spring will knock back almost all of that crabgrass making it much cheaper and easier to control next year with hopefully spot treatments rather than blanket apps!


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Humbert810 said:


> NickRod said:
> 
> 
> > Quick update. Got a mid week now in today.
> ...


Thanks Humbert. Yeah, definitely plan to control most of it with some pre-m in the future. I guess my frustration right now is that there are large "blankets" of crabgrass that the Bermuda is having trouble pushing into.

But yeah, next season when none of that germinates it's fair game for the Bermuda to move in!


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Quick cut today.

Got the mower blade changed (had to use an old fence post to get more tension on the wrench). Turns out the little pieces on that hold the blade are ground off. I ordered a new one that should be here next week.

The fresh blade cut great though! Could definitely see the difference as I was walking it.

Finished off with the new Urea I got from Home Depot at .375lbs/K, watering it in as I type this.


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Just got back from a weekend trip, got a quick mow in and put .375lb N/K down.

Supposed to rain all week so I think I'll leave the sprinklers on the side of the house.


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## NickRod (Aug 24, 2021)

Another weekly check in.

Excuse the picture quality, it's late and overcast.

No changes to the routine.

I've made two observations, maybe I'm just going crazy but I think:

a. The crabgrass is getting lighter in color every day.

b. The patches of crabgrass are getting smaller with more Bermuda fighting it's way into the seams.


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