# NightshiftNinja's Lawn, It was a large neglected lawn....Now



## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Afternoon Fellow Lawnies,

I moved to an acreage a year and a half ago and last summer was almost a lost cause for lawn care.

I'm pretty sure the previous owners didnt do much other than cut the grass. I hit the ĺawn with a blast of ParIII this spring to try and get rid of the mass of weeds, thistle, and mass of dandelions. That seems to be doing a pretty good job, so far. I did put down a dose of a 30-8-0 +iron synthetic but as you can see my assumption on the width of the spread from my cheap home dept spreader was a little off. I will be buying a new one because ~65k sq ft of lawn sucks to deal with 20lbs at a time.

So my question for you guys is what would be the best way to go about turning this mess into a stronger healthier area of nice soft turf for the kids with out spending an excessive amount of money or nuking the whole thing and starting from scratch. (Wife wouldn't let that fly.) Also something that would allow the kids to still play on the lawn while I'm doing this would be nice.

Have been planning to overseed but just haven't had a chance to do that yet.



Current lawn care equipment:
John Deere z465 Zero turn, 62" deck, mulching kit.
Stihl trimmer (cant remeber the model off hand)
Cheap home depot (Scott's maybe) spreader.
Hand pump back pack sprayer.

Planning on buying a better spreader and power sprayer (probably a trailer style)

Looking forward to becoming active on here and learning from you guys.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

Welcome fellow Canuck..

Looks like you have a nice big swath of yard... I have half of what you do, but feel your pain...

First thing you might want to do is a soil analysis to tell you what is going on... most on here will recommend this..

Since you have a huge area to tend I will assume you do not have irrigation... This will mean timing will be important as you are going to need to keep it healthy through dry hot weather... so fertilize once or twice at most in the spring and then wait until mid Aug for your weather before hitting it again... do not fertilize leading into the hot weather....

I would suggest 4.5 lbs N per season to start... 1.5 lbs across two apps in the spring and then you can do another 3lbs across three apps around Aug 15, Sept 15 and Oct 15... these dates are just approx....

Since your space is large it will be more economical to use synthetic fertilizers... coated products will be better for beginners, but by fall you might try 46-0-0 urea as a cheap application.. in Ontario we have TSC which usually has 55lb bags of fertilizer on sale every couple of weeks.. look for something similar in your area... feeds store etc... will be much cheaper than the big box stores...

Get a new spreader as you have learned the scotts is good for 5k properties..... I use a 130lb agrifab pushsoreader.. it is the expensive one, not the cheaper model.. it works great.. I have a tractor pull one, but it is easy to burn the grass when using synthetic fert.

Then just mow twice per week with sharp blades and see how this year goes..

If you have weeds and need something more powerful than the big wigs think you should have PM me...


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Thanks for the reply Stu, Ill fire you a pm shortly.

I have a farm supply store which i bought 50lb bags of a slow release synthetic for $31 this spring. i put a few bags down and am going to go grab a few more bags this week and hit it again. i may also price out the natural stuff from brettyoung, we have one close, and with the kids playing all over the yard regularly natural seems like a good way to go... but it will depend on cost for sure.

you are right in the assumption of no irrigation... i am currently trying to rig up a system so that i dont have to string a hose from the well hydrant to the wifes garden every time.... who knows, it may be the start of a long slow diy irrigation install.

ill look into the agrifab spreader.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

I think you will find natural to be very expensive for you size lawn.. As it is you need roughly 200 lbs of a 30-x-x product for a 1lb N per 1000 sqft... so like $120 per application.. I would not be worried about the fert on the kids... PAR 3 yes....

I saw your pm, and suggest a tow behind boom sprayer.. I have a 15 gal unit and it is great, but you brobably need bigger... I can cover 15,000 sqft per fill...


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Thanks Stu,

Yeah I gave our local Brett young rep a call today, he priced out a single application of the milo alternative to be close to $600.... ouch....

After that I took a drive to the local farm fertilizer store and picked up 275lb of this stuff of $150





4 of those bags went down today after a fresh cut, seeing as we are calling for 4 straight days of rain. (That puts me at 220lbs of fert for ~65k sq ft. )

it also proved to me that my home depot special, Scott's spreader needs to go. So after many phone calls I found a local dealer for the agrifab spreaders, now to decide if the extra cost is worth the bigger size.... 85lb =$120, 100lb =$220, 130lb = $360.... seems like a big jump in price relative to the size increase... although I'm sure the quality goes up accordingly as well....

This is what the yard looked like when I finished up in the garden tonight....


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## Thick n Dense (May 7, 2019)

@NightShiftNinja 
Awesome yard man! Keep posting photos, this is the type of yard that some of yard city folk can only dream of !

Whats your hoc? Without irrigation, you may want to be at the higher end of the spectrum . 3.5-4"


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Thanks man, I have always wanted an acreage, it took us 5 years of looking until we found this place.

Yesterday I cut at 3 1/4 knowing that I was going to fertilize and we are expecting 3 or 4 days of rain. Typically I cut at about 3 1/2.


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## W8INLINE (May 27, 2018)

Nice size lawn. A bit overwhelming I bet. I got a bit over one acre myself and I'm starting to think a big inground pool with about 50 or 60 large evergreens would cost me less than taking care of a lawn this size...lol.... thinking of ways to decrease the lawn size to 15k or less.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@W8INLINE have you research pool chemicals?


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## Sinclair (Jul 25, 2017)

Can confirm - pools cost more to maintain than turf.


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## W8INLINE (May 27, 2018)

LOL.....Just came back from HH. Ordered my next fert app with their 9-2-2. 4 bags at $64.99 per bag. Don't know much about pools but wouldn't salt water pools be less maintenance?.... hmmm maybe some artificial putting green would do it no? hahaha


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Its actually not that bad.... it takes me a little under 2 hours to cut, a 62" deck on the zero turn mower helps in that aspect. It's the trimming that's a time suck... the fence line is brutal to trump under/around.... and the spruce trees.... oh how I hate the spruce trees...


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Pgr underneath the fence will help you, if you can get it in Canada.


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## W8INLINE (May 27, 2018)

I think a nice big mulch bed around those trees is in order...maybe along the fence too :lol: :lol:


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Any one have any experience with a striping setup on a higher hoc??? Do they work just as well on a 3.5" hoc as they do on a low cut turf


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

NightShiftNinja said:


> Thanks Stu,
> 
> Yeah I gave our local Brett young rep a call today, he priced out a single application of the milo alternative to be close to $600.... ouch....
> 
> ...


Looks great.. that fertilizer looks good.. going to have to see if I can find that... looks like you made a good choice with 0.8 lb N per m.. I put the same down with Urea two weeks ago...

You are right about the quality differences in the Agrifab units... the cheaper ones have smaller gear boxes and plastic mechanism. I have the 45-0462 and it is a quality piece... Not a Lesco but nice... Doc on YouTube does a review of it against some other models..


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

W8INLINE said:


> I think a nice big mulch bed around those trees is in order...maybe along the fence too :lol: :lol:


I could handle a mulch bed around these ones for sure....



Last year these along with all of the other large ones were growing completely to ground level, I trimmed them back to the height seen here which helped.

But to do a mulch bed under these ones would be impractical since the go around a good chunk of the property.


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## W8INLINE (May 27, 2018)

I'm thinking of a tree line around my property with a width of 10-15 ft wide by 190 ft length on both sides and 160 long by 10-15 ft across the back. One big U shape. Have you checked out Pete from GCI Turf? Look at his trees.


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

So we have had almost 10" of rain so far this year, 5 inches in the month of July alone. So the lack of irrigation has not been an issue for me. We are preparing to head out on a 3 week vacation so over the last week and a half i have cut the lawn 3 times and lowered my hoc to about 2 1/2" in Hope's that it will still be manageable when we return.

While it will likely never be a LOTM candidate I am quite happy with where my lawn sits at this point.



I have removed the $350 john deere mulch kit because it is a complete pos.... it does not actually mulch, it just dumps two rows of grass behind the lawn mower.... what a waste of money that was.... about the only thing I can think it would be good for is if I get a tow behind lawn sweeper....


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

Sorry to hear about your mulch kit.... I have one on my JD and it works great...Looks like you have a zero turn? What kind of blades are you running?


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## iowa jim (Jan 22, 2018)

I put the mulch kit on my x370 and i am not impressed as it leaves a line of grass behind the mower. Don't even think about breaking the 1/3 rule and the grass had better be bone dry. I am using the mulch blades that came with the kit. I am thinking of using the gator blades this fall for leaves.


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

I tried both the "lift" type blades that came with the kit and gator blades... the gator blades are a little better in the fact that they chop the pieces a little smaller before they get left into the little rows....

Looks like I'll be sticking with the side discharge, and either working in an outwards pattern or an inwards pattern and just take up the piles of grass at the end.... although I may buy one of these and tow it behind to pick up the rows....



Also thinking of looking into some sort of chute blocker, to easily keep the grass out of the beds


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Rather than start a new thread I'll put this in here and see how much of a response I get.

I have an area the the previous owners used as a "dog run" for their little dogs, the grass in this area grows much faster, thicker and a different color than the rest of the lawn that I have.







I'm not sure how well it showed up in the pictures but 2 days after a cut, this stuff is a solid 1/2" taller than the rest of the grass, it grown in much lighter and then turns darker once it gets tall.

I always knew this stuff as quack grass while I was growing up.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It looks like quackgrass from the clasping auricles.


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

Thanks @g-man round up the best way to handle it???


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Yes


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## NightShiftNinja (Jun 15, 2019)

So this is what happens when you go on vacation for 3 weeks, and the person that was supposed to cut you lawn for you "forgets" to do it. 


I set the mower on its highest setting and knocked it down and essentially windrow'd the clippings.



Then since I do not have a bagger or a lawn sweeper....





After 6+ hours of work today and cutting the lawn 3 times to tray and clean it up as best I can.... it looks acceptable... will probably try to cut it at least twice more over the weekend to get rid of any of the left over clippings.... and I still need to do the trimming!



So a note to everyone... make sure if you have someone look after your lawn while on vacation that they actually do it for you!!!


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