# jumpzakjump's Lawn Journal



## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

My wife and I bought our first home in August 2018. We have an acre of property with about 27k sq ft of lawn, 3-4k of which is an old dirt bike track that the previous owners left for us :roll: I'm not ready to reno that section yet, so we'll call my lawn 24k sq ft (~10k in the front of our house and the rest is split between the side and back yard). 
When we first bought the house the lawn was overtaken with weeds, not much actual grass. The soil was compacted and uneven. We have lots of pine trees lining our driveway and the grass around them is thinned out. 
I aerated and overseeded with Jonathan Green Black Beauty before winter last year. I definitely started too late and did nothing for the weeds. I got some germination but not a lot. Sorry, I don't have any pics of the lawn last year.

Here was my back lawn this May a few weeks after I put down an app of Jonathan Green Green Up & Crabgrass preventer.

I definitely got a late start with it and never kept up with weeds, so the crabgrass came in full force during the summer heat.

Here was the lawn in early July after one app of weed & feed from Jonathan Green.

*Side yard*


*Back yard*


Around mid-August, I decided I wanted to get more involved with the lawn. I found this site and figured I'd like to take it from where it is now to at least a tier 1, and eventually to a low-mid level tier 2. I just want a nice thick lawn with minimal weeds that stays relatively green throughout the summer. We don't have tons of money to work with, and 24k sq ft is a lot of lawn to buy for. I decided to work with what grass I have for now, and not do a full reno.

On August 27 I sprayed the entire lawn with Tenacity according to the label instructions hoping to kill off any weeds that are there now. The lawn is littered with crabgrass, bentgrass patches, nutsedge (I think?), clover, and tons of other broadleaf weeds that I can't identify. I am planning another Tenacity application in two weeks or so.

Here's the front lawn on the day I sprayed. It's a pretty good representation of the other 15k sq ft of lawn around the house  


4 days after tenacity app you can start to see weeds turning pale green, some of the clover is already white.


I know I'm a little late to the game for overseeding this year, but I'd like to give it a shot. I ordered 100# of TTTF (25# each of 4th millenium, Titanium 2LS, Summer and Raptor III from United Seeds). I've aerated the lawn again to get rid of the compaction & I plan to get that seed down as soon as it's delivered.

I'm still new and learning so please feel free to give advice and let me know your thoughts.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The main tip, ensure you apply a prem next year.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

g-man said:


> The main tip, ensure you apply a prem next year.


Thanks! If I have tenacity left over would that do the trick?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

No. It only last around 30 days. In the cool season guide (below) you will see a few options.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

#100 of TTTF delivered today from United Seeds. Got a labor day discount 
Getting the lawn prepped for overseeding. I aerated once last week with my tow behind aerator and will probably do another few passes to get to the 20-40 holes per sq ft range.
The tenacity is starting to kick in. Seeing more and more dead weeds every day. I'll do another application at seed down and probably spot spray anything that's remaining a few weeks after that.

#25 each of Titanium 2LS, Summer, 4th Millenium, and Raptor III TTTF. The 4th Millenium wasn't blue tag certified for this batch. Maybe too much inert matter? Regardless I'm happy with 0% other crop and weed seeds.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Here are some pic updates. Just about a week after the first tenacity application & aeration.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

I'm expecting some light rain throughout the night tonight, so I thought today would be a great day to seed.
Started off by mowing at 2.5". I usually keep it at 3.5 so I figured this would be enough to halt the growth enough to let the seed grow a bit.
Ran the tow behind aerator in two separate passes again, this got me tons of holes and will hopefully help with my compaction issues.
Then I spread ~85# of the TTTF mix. Took a little bit to get the setting right on my spreader but now I know what to use.
I used my mower's tires to roll the seed in. My mower is about 1200 lbs so that should be sufficient 😂




There's a good amount of rain in the forecast so that should help me keep it wet. I have a few impact sprinklers to use when it doesn't rain, but 24k with no irrigation is a lot of work... praying for rain!!


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## TreyDoc (Aug 16, 2018)

I'm rooting for ya m8! :thumbup: Looking forward to that nice looking lawn, looking even better.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

I was able to get my another application of tenacity down yesterday. Should prevent any weed seeds I turned up with the aerator from germinating. Also trying to kill off the giant patches of bentgrass. Not sure how much of the grass seed will germinate in those patches..time will tell!

We've been getting some light rains and the morning dew is staying late into the morning, perfect temps!


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Day 6 post-seeding.
Starting to see some germination from the over-achievers. We started off last week with a decent amount of rain, but that dried up the past few days. We've had some dry and hot days. I've tried to keep the lawn watered as best as I could, but it definitely dried out a few times between waterings...we'll see what kind of germination we get.
Finally got some rain last night and looking like we'll get a few more showers today and some throughout the week.
The second app of Tenacity is really starting to kick in now. Most of the bentgrass is white and more and more weeds are dying every day. I'll probably spot-spray the bentgrass in another week or two to make sure it's done for good.

The seedlings are still super tiny, like 1/4" so you definitely can't see them here. But you can see the patches of bentgrass dying out.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

I forgot to mention above...I've become addicted to checking the minutecast on accuweather


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## Rswarren14 (Aug 17, 2019)

Now we wait for the green! I'm doing my first reno to my front yard and already seeing some good results and seeing the tenacity doing it jobs is pretty cool too. Nice work! and looking forward to seeing your results!

- Rob


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Rswarren14 said:


> Now we wait for the green! I'm doing my first reno to my front yard and already seeing some good results and seeing the tenacity doing it jobs is pretty cool too. Nice work! and looking forward to seeing your results!
> 
> - Rob


Your reno is looking great! I love watching the weeds I've been disgusted with the past year wither up and die  
We've had mist all day today, the seedlings are loving it, I swear they've grown in the past few hours.


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## Rswarren14 (Aug 17, 2019)

@jumpzakjump Thank you!

I'm jealous your getting mist all day long. I have been watering like a crazy man since it has been upper 80's and low 90's here in Maryland. I'm not sure when the appropriate time would be to back off the water since the grass has germinated already. If I did back off the water I would probably water about 30 minutes starting around 330AM with my first zone and move across the other zones throughout the early morning. For cycle two I was thinking late after noon starting around 5PM and water another 30 minutes across the zones. I'm trying to keep the soil moist without over-watering. I have the Hunter MP rotatory heads which do a good job IMO spreading the watering love across the seed bed. When would you start to back off your watering?


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Some warmer temps and not a lot of rain coming...I might be making a trip to the store to grab a bunch of diy irrigation supplies for the time being.

In the meantime, I picked up a couple of new blades for the mower for the first few cuts.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Day 9 after seed down: More and more seedlings coming up. Lots of them are coming up white from the Tenacity applications. From what I've heard this shouldn't be a huge problem? I guess we'll see!


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Doing my best to keep it watered. Mostly concentrating on my front lawn since that's what most people will see, the back and side are pretty secluded.
According to the forecast we have about a week with no rain coming up 😩 cooler temps though.
Most of the bare spots are filling in nicely with mostly green seedlings. Some white ones popping up here and there. Looking throughout the rest of the yard I can see seedlings in most of the holes from aerating.



The old grass is starting to kick in after some rains last week. It's starting to get pretty high. Hopefully the seedlings mature quickly and I can get a mow in 😁

Also, most of the bentgrass patches are completely dead now...I'll do a light application of tenacity in those areas after a couple of mowings to make sure it's gone for good!


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

So it's been a few weeks since my last post  
After that post we had record hot temps (not an exaggeration) and 0 inches of rain for a good 3 weeks. I did my best to keep things watered but I definitely lost a lot of seedlings.
That being said, that grass has started looking really nice the past few weeks. We've had good rains and perfect temperatures. There seems to be a good amount of KBG from the old grass that's filling in a lot of the bare spots that didn't germinate. There are still a few problem areas that didn't get enough water, or where bentgrass started to creep back in. I'll do my best to remedy that in spring.
I've been spoon feeding urea for a few weeks now at 0.25lb/1000 per week. I'll probably throw down my winterized application soon if we have rain in the forecast. I've been mowing a little lower (2.5") and the grass seems to love it. It's filling/spreading much more than it has in the past.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Been having some warmer temps, the lawn is starting to kick back into gear, so I am as well 

I've ordered my first every soil test from Dairy One in Ithica NY (anyone ever done a test with them?). I'll be sending that in soon.


Also got the 'Early' alert on the GDD tracker for crabgrass germination. I've got my prodiamine ready to go down..late next week most likely.



I'm planning a trip to Levitt's in Parisppany NJ soon to pick up a pallet of OceanGro if they have it. That should be enough N for my lawn and my parents for the whole season (I take care of their lawn as well).

I've got some larger landscaping projects (garden beds, trees/bushes etc...) to get done as well, and we're finally having a driveway installed. Things are starting to shape up and I'm getting super excited for this season!

Here's a new garden bed I dug out last week. I've got over 200 spring bulbs coming (mostly dahlias and caladiums) to get a nice pop of color in our front and give us some privacy. Some of the dahlia's will get to over 6 feet tall.


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## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

jumpzakjump said:


> Here's a new garden bed I dug out last week. I've got over 200 spring bulbs coming (mostly dahlias and caladiums) to get a nice pop of color in our front and give us some privacy. Some of the dahlia's will get to over 6 feet tall.


That's nicely done. Did you do it by hand with a showel?


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

uts said:


> jumpzakjump said:
> 
> 
> > Here's a new garden bed I dug out last week. I've got over 200 spring bulbs coming (mostly dahlias and caladiums) to get a nice pop of color in our front and give us some privacy. Some of the dahlia's will get to over 6 feet tall.
> ...


Thanks! Yep, by hand with a garden spade and pickaxe. Used the @wardconnor method for cutting a clean edge.


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## kds (Apr 28, 2017)

Your reno looks good! I'm excited to see what it looks like when it continues to wake up!


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## wardconnor (Mar 25, 2017)

jumpzakjump said:


> uts said:
> 
> 
> > jumpzakjump said:
> ...


I love this look when its crisp and clean


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Put down my first app of Prodiamine yesterday. Came out to about 0.375 lbs/A. Slightly under where I wanted, but know I know my sprayer's exact calibration for the second application in a few weeks. 


Yes...I did use this handheld sprayer for 24000 square feet lol. My shoulders are sore today, but it was good to get out of the house and moving around a bit.

The lawn is waking up after it's second mow at 2.25", starting to fill in nicely.

In the right of this picture here you can see some tulips just getting ready to push out their flower stems. I love this time of year!


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## Wolverine (Jan 17, 2018)

Looking good1


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

:thumbup:


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

The weather's been on and off, but the grass seems to be in full gear now. I've been mowing at 2.25" every 3-4 days.
I've been using the quarantine time to cut out some new garden beds and prepare them for planting. Spread about 2 yards of compost mulch in each bed yesterday.

I have a ton of caladium and dahlia tubers ready for this bed.


There are 2 hostas that will pretty much cover this whole bed, but I'll add some colorful annuals in a few weeks.


Planning on some colorful easy care perennials for this new bed around our utility pole.


Overall I'm pretty pleased with the grass. It looks the best it ever has since I moved in two years ago. There's one section that seems to be filled with quackgrass, and some spots of bentgrass here and there, but I'll deal with all that in fall. For now, I'm mowing often and spoon feeding .25 lbs N/week.


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

Just updating with some pics. Lawn is looking better and better. I did a blanket app of WBG last week and most weeds look to be dead or dying. I'll do another spot spray in a week or so.

We had our huge driveway paved which makes the lawn pop 😁 Also our tulips are in full bloom now, I love this blend so much! There's not many (I took the leftovers from my parents from last year's mother's day gift) but I plan on getting 600 more bulbs in this blend for next spring.

My wife and I planted about 50 dahlia tubers in our front garden, some have started sprouting so we're excited about those too!













Here's my parents tulips...their entire property is outlined with these gorgeous colors:


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## jumpzakjump (Aug 29, 2019)

A quick fall update:
We had some extremely hot temps and very little water this summer so the lawn was pretty crispy for a few months. Within the past two weeks we've had cooler temps and a ton of rain coming, so everything's starting to look good again. I'm planning another big overseed project this year. I have 200 lbs of 4th millennium, Amity and Regenerate TTTF ready to go.
Also, I've been doing some plumbing work so we can run sprinklers off the well better. I installed a cycle stop valve so we'd have constant pressure to the sprinklers from the well pump. If I stagger the overseeding between the front and back/side lawns a week I should be able to keep everything wet while the seed is germinating.
Our property is pretty hilly and bumpy so I'll be doing some leveling work before seeding. We purchased a John Deer 1025r tractor to help with some projects around the house so it will be perfect for spreading topsoil and leveling. Today I'll be welding up a lawn drag that I saw on one of @wardconnor videos.
Not lawn related but our dahlia garden is doing awesome as well! We love the blooms and the chickens love the deadheads 😂 
Here are some pics of the lawn and dahlia garden:












The new tractor:




...and the chickens enjoying some dahlias


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