# rock42 2020 Minnesota KBG reno



## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Hello fellow lawncare enthusiasts - been lurking about a year to learn before my 2019 backyard reno. Learned some things (backyard summary in future post) and decided to start a lawn journal for front yard reno this year. Backyard was ~3k and front yard is ~4k sq ft. Back is a KBG/fescue/PRG mix. Front will be all KBG (hopefully!).

Below is my plan so far, will try to get pics of current lawn added soon.

*Supplies*

*Seed *- KBG (Blue Note, Zinfandel, Legend, Bewitched). First three from The Hogan Company, Bewitched from SeedSuperStore. Compact America, mid-Atlantic, midnight, compact type, respectively. Chosen based on NTEP performance in Minnesota. No desire for in-ground irrigation once established so drought tolerance was also in consideration. ¾ are "A-LIST" qualified. Bewitched for shade due to a tree in front. Shade area still gets a few hours morning and a few hours afternoon sun, so KBG should be fine.
*Soil moist seed coat*
*Glyphosate *to kill old lawn. Maybe some dye to ensure even coverage.
*Scotts starter fertilizer with mesotrione* - decided to use this instead of Tenacity due to cost and I'm more confident in my ability to spread granular than spray. Also did a soil test last year and phosphorous is a bit low, so the phosphorous in this should help.
*Milorganite *- I used this to "bulk up" the grass seed last year to ensure even distribution. Worked well so I'm doing it again. Hope the seed coat doesn't transfer from seed to Milo when mixing.
*Irrigation *- this was my biggest stress last year and will be again. No in-ground irrigation so last year I used two oscillating sprinklers and a timer. Going to pick up two more oscillating sprinklers and another timer for this year. We have water restrictions banning watering from noon-5pm (ugh). That + the timers only doing 6+ hour increments + work makes watering a pain.
*Peat moss or EZ straw* - EZ straw worked OK last year, but I think germination suffered due to lack of sunlight. Eventually I ended up raking it all up. I am putting down compost+peat moss mix beforehand during grading (see below), so maybe that will be enough? I might end up doing a very light coating of peat moss (1/8") just to be safe.

*Schedule (assuming Aug 15 seed down)*

*June/July *- having 3 trees removed and stumps ground. Did the same thing in back last year with 5 trees. Will have to remove wood chips, which was a Herculean effort last year. Hopefully this year is easier since less trees and two are small.
*July/early August *- Glyphosate spray to kill old lawn before grading. Will follow other posts on spray timing and removal.
*July/early August *- Stump grinding tears up the lawn pretty bad, so I'm having someone come in to regrade with a skid-steer. Did the same thing last year and they recommended grass seeding soil (70% compost, 15% sand, 15% peat moss). Worked well and didn't cost much more than regular topsoil. A bit worried about having a layer of old lawn then this on top. Seems it should be tilled in a bit, but tilling seems to be not recommended here. 
*Early August *- Spot spray any new growth with glypho. Adjust seed down based on weather. Set up sprinklers.
*Aug 15 *- Seed coat grass seeds, seed + milorganite down, then Scotts starter. Roll with makeshift lawn roller. Water in and maybe peat moss or EZ straw - depending on if I think the seeding soil keeps enough moisture.
*Aug - Nov* - Adjust water as needed, add nitrogen per recommendations, mow when ready

Looking forward to all your advice and feedback!


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

*2019 Backyard*
(pics with captions below)

In Fall 2019 I did my first reno, and it was really my first dive into lawn care outside of standard mowing. Years of neglect from the previous owner and 6 trees in ~3000 sq ft left the backyard with almost no grass, poor soil, and tons of surface roots. I really wasn't savvy to a lot of the great information on this and other sites yet, so the steps I took aren't necessarily what I would recommend someone else do in the future.

First step was getting the trees down, which happened in April. It took until June for the stump grinder to come out, which took spring seeding out of consideration. I was left with a HUGE amount of stump grinding debris, which I foolishly decided to remove by hand. I don't want to think about how many total hours it took to remove the debris, but it was at least a dozen. After that I had a very ugly dirt backyard for June and July. In August I dug up a couple dozen weeds that had popped up and rototilled (only a few inches deep).

In mid-August I had a guy out to grade due to so many bumps, and he recommended an inch of local seeding soil (70/15/15 compost/peat/sand). He did a great job, and after that I put seed down Aug 24. Seed was a local KBG/PRG/FF mix: 
(JRK Premium Sunny Mix - 20/20/20/20/10/10 ARC kbg/Rock-it kbg/benchmark prg/pathfinder crf/ginney ii kbg/double time prg)
I bulked up with Milorganite to help spread evenly, put down starter fertilizer, and covered with EZ Straw. Watered consistently and had germination on day 6. Unfortunately I didn't document very well after that - probably just some standard fertilizer feedings every few weeks and mowing when needed. We had one of the wettest Septembers on record, so the EZ Straw helped avoid too much runoff.

Overall I am very happy with the results. On one hand I wish I would have gone with all kbg, but on the other hand it was great having a fast establishing mix for my first reno. I was suprised I had almost no issue with weeds. I didn't use any tenacity or any other pre-emergent. Had a few dandelions and clover that I've been able to hand pull. I've been mowing at 3.5-4" this spring, which I think has helped choke out the weeds.


Trees and stumps. We had 5 total taken down. In bottom left you can see the massive amount of surface roots from a big maple that was too close to the deck.

A collage with red numbers days from seed down. I think I spent an hour checking it out every day. So much rain even the EZ straw had trouble staying in place.

Almost two months after seed down and pretty well established.

Bonus pic with baby! A big motivator for getting this done, but man getting yard stuff down with a baby and career is challenging.

March 30 waking up from winter. In MN I'm sure most of the PRG didn't make it, maybe some of the weaker kbg died off too.

May 30 filled in a bit. Had some dead spots from rabbit pee that are slowly filling in. Dropped about 2 lbs of nitrogen to the young and hungry grass in the spring over 3-4 different applications. Hoping this fall it's finally "fully" established.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Reserved for update posts


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## Sinclair (Jul 25, 2017)

Welcome aboard.

You should aim to start your glyphosate apps earlier.

I would do the first app In early July.

3 apps, two weeks apart, with plenty of water in between.

You can even do a full app on seed down day if you see any spec of green after all that.

Good luck!


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

@Sinclair Will do. Just gotta make sure I get tree removal and grading all set up beforehand. Would hate to kill it all then have something fall through. There is also a (small) possibility of a complete irrigation ban in my area.


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

I'm planning a front lawn reno as well and having some nice topsoil spread out before seeding (obviously will let it fallow).

Do you think the skid steer is going to potentially add compaction issues to the area to be seeded?


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

JerseyGreens said:


> I'm planning a front lawn reno as well and having some nice topsoil spread out before seeding (obviously will let it fallow).
> 
> Do you think the skid steer is going to potentially add compaction issues to the area to be seeded?


I'm far from an expert, but in my backyard I had someone do the same thing with a skid steer and everything seemed to work out fine. Not sure how to test compaction exactly, but grass came in fine and I've had no issues pulling some weeds out with a ProPlugger.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Added my 2019 experience (what I remember) above. Happy to answer any questions about it! Will be updating what I've done for front reno intermittently. Mostly just ordering stuff and getting stuff scheduled with tree company and dirt guy.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Sunday (July 19) was the point of no return. Applied glyphosate per label with 1% NIS and blue dye. Took way longer than I planned using a 2 gal hand sprayer-almost 6 hrs. It was pretty gusty so I took my time and sprayed really close to avoid drift. Will touch up any green as needed before seed down. I was hoping to spray earlier, but life got in the way a bit.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Looks like I got pretty good coverage with my one blanket spray of glypho so I don't need any more. It's been about 12 days and the only thing left is some dandelions. I'll probably hit them with some 2,4 D this weekend, blow the grass up with a leaf blower, and scalp what I can with the mower. Dirt guy is scheduled for next Saturday and seed down shortly after that.

I grew my cultivars in cups and got good germination for everything but Zinfandel - not sure why that one struggled. I think I'll seed at 3 lbs/1000 sq ft with 30% Zinfandel and 23% of the rest. That'll give somewhere between 2 to 3 lbs depending how much Zinfandel decides to germinate. I don't think I'll mess with peat moss top dressing since I'm putting an inch of 70/15/15 compost/peat/sand down.

Below are pics of dead grass, stump mess, and grass cups.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Dont use 2,-4D before seed down. I would do another app of gly in that soil. I still see some green. The dirt you are bringing in will likely have weed seeds in it. You want to fallow it (water + gly).


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

g-man said:


> Dont use 2,-4D before seed down. I would do another app of gly in that soil. I still see some green. The dirt you are bringing in will likely have weed seeds in it. You want to fallow it (water + gly).


+1. 2-4D has residual activity in the soil for several weeks that will adversely affect your baby grass.
Stick to the gly plan you already outlined in your Early August schedule in your first post.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

g-man said:


> Dont use 2,-4D before seed down. I would do another app of gly in that soil. I still see some green. The dirt you are bringing in will likely have weed seeds in it. You want to fallow it (water + gly).


Thanks for the tip. I was waffling between glypho and 2,4d and forgot about the residual effect. The green in the pic is actually just some residual blue dye when you look up close, but I'll make sure to spray any green I see.

Edit: Forgot this pic was only ~8 days after. Some of that was grass that has now turned brown.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

I was hoping to have seed down last Saturday (the 8th) but it's been an awful week. The dirt guy did great work, but unfortunately the stump grinder didn't do a great job. The grinder was able to come back on Monday and regrind the surface roots, but now I have to clean up and grade a ~300 sq ft section by the entryway/driveway by hand. My wife had surgery Monday, so I was hoping to have seed down before then to help out with her and our 2 year old. Need a few hours to get the grading done and seed down, but I have no free time with the surgery situation. Hopefully my wife recovers well and I can get it wrapped up this weekend. Family is coming up to help out too.

I guess it is probably a good thing I'm delayed a week. We've had a few rounds of storms that fortunately skirted us, but could have just as easily washed out all the seed. With my luck that'll still happen after seed down. I have 1 bag of EZ straw left from backyard reno I'll probably thrown down where I see some runoff from our current rain.

In non lawn issues this week- we also had our garage door break and had to go to urgent care due to 2 year old's first allergic reaction...rough week.


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## Zcape35 (Sep 17, 2019)

Sounds like a tough week for sure. I hope the little one is ok.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Zcape35 said:


> Sounds like a tough week for sure. I hope the little one is ok.


Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, he's doing well now. Not sure what his reaction was to, but they'll run a test soon so hopefully we figure it out.

Here is a pic showing the current state of the front. Hopefully no weeds pop up since they'll have a week head start on the kbg.


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## Zcape35 (Sep 17, 2019)

After my last reno I realized that weeds aren't too big of a deal. The only pain I had was random grasses that are harder to kill. I'm sure you'll be fine.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Got it all cleaned up and hand leveled to the best of my ability. Looks like a chance of thunderstorms tonight, but mostly good weather after that. Planning on seed down tomorrow.

Doing 3 lbs/k 30/30/20/20 Legend/Zinfandel/Blue Note/Bewitched, Soil Moist seed coat. I plan to "bulk up" with several pounds of Milo just to make spreading consistently a little easier. Scott's Starter with mesotrione going down after that then rolling in and setting up sprinklers.


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

Looks like a nice seed bed. Hope for no washouts and you should be good.


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## WyGuy (May 5, 2019)

Did you dodge this last storm? I plan on putting down seed this weekend, glad i waited as I definitely would have had some washout if I hadn't.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

WyGuy said:


> Did you dodge this last storm? I plan on putting down seed this weekend, glad i waited as I definitely would have had some washout if I hadn't.


We got quite a bit of rain fast, but I did a quick check in the dark and it looks fine. Glad I didn't have seed down though since about 500 sq ft might have washed away.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Seed down! 

Used a landscape rake to clean up large debris

Leaf rake to scratch a very small amount of dirt

Put down coated seed/milo/starter fert

Upside down leaf rake to very lightly cover

Full lawn roller for seed to soil contact

Set up sprinklers and watered. Three oscillating seemed to mostly do the trick.

Going to set up and monitor watering schedule tomorrow. Watering restrictions say no watering from noon to 5. Hopefully that's not an issue. Will set two times right before and right after. Big tree gives nice shade too.

Will post pics after germination (hopefully) in a week or so.


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## Slingblade_847 (Apr 13, 2020)

@rock42 
You might want to check with your town hall. I know that in my area you can be granted permits to water regardless of restrictions. @Di3soft got one for his current Reno. I think he told me he is the first to get such a permit since like 2006 or something crazy. Anyway, might be something to look into given how crucial water is.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

@Slingblade_847 Normally restrictions only let us water every other day. I did get a permit, but it only allows for every day watering and says in giant letters that you're still not exempt from the noon to 5pm restriction.

It's supposed to be sunny and a bit warm today, so I'll see how dry it gets between noon and 5. Fortunately we have a giant maple that shades ~75% of the yard from noon to 5. If it seems to get too dry I might just water at 3pm for 5 minutes anyway for the first week and hope I don't get caught. Worst case the $50 fine is small compared to how much money we have in this project already.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Grass babies! I think I saw more and more every time I went out there throughout the day.

Six days since seed down. About a dozen or so grass sprouts came up that are not the kbg I planted, but other than that I haven't seen anything else undesirable pop up.

I've been stressed about watering all week, so I'm glad at least some are coming up in several areas. Upper 80's with a blazing hot sun all week and windy too. I Have three oscillating sprinklers set to water at 8:45am, 11:30am, and 5pm. Manual watering at ~7:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm. Watering definitely could be better as there are some spots I need to hit manually every time...If I could do it again I probably would research temporary irrigation set ups better. Honestly I was a bit intimidated with all the parts, hoses, and set up for something I knew I would never use again.

Storms in the area tonight and tomorrow morning, hoping I don't have a washout. Hot and humid here until Wednesday, hoping no disease hits the young sprouts. Should I put down some DiseaseEx just to be safe or wait until I see an issue?

Excited for more green in the coming weeks!


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Pretty happy with day 8 germination so far. Most spots have at least some green poking up already. The edge by the street seems to have the fewest sprouts. That is definitely the highest soil temp region due to full sun all day and concrete. Hopefully it starts sprouting in the next week or I might have to drop some more seed in a couple weeks.

Battling the heat since seed down - it seems I'm touch up watering all the time. Upper 80's through Thursday with humidity as well. Not sure if I should put down some fungicide now as a precaution or wait.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Day 14. Really happy with germination so far. The picture doesn't show very well, but there are some green sprouts in most of the patchy areas. Most sprouts are on the two-leaf stage already. I plan to start spoon feeding (0.2 lb/k) some N next weekend. Our heat wave is over and now we're getting some good grass growing weather.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Day 19


Day 28


Things are going great. We decided last minute to visit our parents ~4 hours away for Labor Day, so I set up a Wyze cam and trusted the sprinkler timer and everything went well.

Before leaving I decided to give a small amount of N (0.15 N/k fast release) on Day 19 since about half of the lawn was done pouting. Gave the same amount of N on ~day 27 and mowed for the first time. We've been really cool and cloudy so I'm done with the daily watering. I think it's mostly all out of the pout stage now so just weekly nitrogen and mowing at 1.5" until it spreads and fills in.


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Finally have some time to update. We're having a nice fall and the front is coming in great. Haven't had much rain, but overall can't complain too much about the weather. I've been spoon feeding nitrogen, mowing every week, and trying my best to keep it watered. I didn't bother with any fungicide and have just a little powdery mildew in the tree shade, but nothing I'm too concerned about.

The back is 1 year from the 2019 reno and I'm really happy with it as well. Had some rust late summer but it's gone now and no lasting damage. Probably due to a little too much grass seed during the reno.

Day 43


Day 50


2019 backyard reno after 1 year


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## rock42 (May 16, 2020)

Mid-March

Mid-May

Update after winter- we had a nice long fall, so I was able to get fairly well established and spoon feed N as needed.

Spring weather has been strange...in April we had warm temps and nice rain so I spoon fed two 0.25 lb N/k apps hoping to get an early start. Then it got cold and dry for a few weeks so everything seemed to pause. I've only done a couple clean up mows cutting probably ~20% of the lawn at all so far.

Areas were starting to wilt last week so I pulled out the sprinklers and got an inch down to avoid stress. That plus the warmer temps kicked in some growth, with warm sections near the street starting to seed out. Rest of the lawn is starting to grow high in patches.

A few weeks ago I painted glypho on some quackgrass and hand pulled about a dozen or so clumps of what appeared to be triv. Wanted to stop those early before they had a chance to spread. Other than that not many weeds yet.

Warm temps and good rain forecast, so I put down 0.5 lb N/k milo today and I'll follow up with some quicker release after its done seeding out. Lots of weed pressure from neighbor lawns so I want to get it thick and tall ASAP to outcompete.

Back yard had some rust last year and looks a little thin where that was. Hopefully it fills in now that we have rain and warmer temps. Since it is on it's second spring I'm waiting a few more weeks before spring N.


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