# Operation Jolly Green Giant



## Mayor (Apr 2, 2020)

Hey Everyone!

I bought my first house right outside Chicago on the Indiana side a couple years ago. Built in 1926, and within walking distance to Lake Michigan. The last occupant was an older gentleman who just had a basic lawn mowing service once or twice a week when I moved in. I've done landscaping and mowed lawns before, but never had to actually think about the development of a lawn system.

The first attempt at improving my lawn was last year when I put down a weed and feed in the spring, and having almost no knowledge on anything. Pretty sure it was Menard's Crabgrass Preventer since I still have half a bag or so of it in my garage, but that could've been from the fall maybe. Around late May or June I put down a bag of Milorganite and figured I would be good for the summer. Couldn't be more wrong! Everything going into summer looked decent if I kept the mower deck high, but yeesh, by midsummer, it was completely brown and very patchy. Anthills were starting to take over so I had rethink my strategy and increase my arsenal.

I went to defcon 0 and launched operation Jolly Green Giant after watching a bunch of lawncare videos.


By late summer going into fall it was just limpin along, patches of these thin tall weeds that I'd be pulling out for what felt like hours at a time like some kind of jerk and making like 10% progress.

I had gotten a manual core aerator and a soil test kit around the beginning of Fall. Aerated full lawn and tested soil. I interpreted the results as deficient in Phosphorous and Potassium, adequate-deficient in Nitrogen, and a neutral-slightly acidic pH level. I bought a bag of Milorganite and Menard's Starter Fertilizer. I'm pretty sure I have some type of Tall or Fine Fescue, and after minor research of different types of grass, looked for seed mixes with mostly tall or fine fescues. I picked up a few bags of Pennington Sun & Shade mix and threw er down after my aeration.

Tried to water as much as I could despite working lots of overtime. I did see noticeable growth, and was pretty excited to see the seeds actually sprout up in my dirt patches.

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Fast forward to today, and I'm pretty excited to start the year with a slightly risky plan so I can maximize growth in the fastest way possible. Last week soil temps were hanging out around the mid 40s, and lots of rain over the weekend. According to the forecast, weather should warm up throughout this week, and should have plenty rain soon. On Monday 3/30, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year to mulch all the leaves sitting on top, and to prep for fert/seed. After I mowed, I raked as many patches I could to loosen up the dirt. I threw down a 3lb bag of Pennington dense shade on my north side, then 12lbs of Sun & Shade mix between front and back. Also threw down about 20lbs of Milorganite, and 9lbs of Menard's Starter Fert between front, back, and side.

Menard's Crabgrass Preventer is Dithiopyr, and rumor on the street is that dithiopyr has some post emergent properties. So I will wait until end of April, early May to put down crabgrass preventer. Since my lawn isn't too big, I think I can get away with a little bit of crab grass. I just wanna try and get that grass seed powered through as fast as possible for the summer and try to build up that turf. I bought a soil test kit from the LCN's website today, so I will get some soil samples ready for that right before I put the crabgrass preventer down, and probably get the N-Ext bio-stimulant pack around that time too because I'm willing to bet I'm deficient in a lot of mircos. To what extent I'm not sure, so hopefully the fert I put down the other day will work its way in by then so I can get an accurate reading.

Also need to develop a good watering strategy and make sure I'm on top of that _before_ the heat comes in.
I took these pictures a couple days after I did the work, but you get the idea -

Overall Front:


Looking Out:


Landing Strip:


Front Trouble:


Front trees, I think they're Maple? Need to figure out how I want to mulch


North Side Shade:


Grass Borderline:


You can kind of see some of the new grass I planted last Fall. Should have gotten closer on this one:


There's a big rock under here that I should really pull out:


This shrub needs to be heavily trimmed. People always end up walking on the grass here and stressing this spot out:


One of my favorite spots right here:


Extremely patchy here, I always get blasted with dirt when I mow:


Going into the back:


Patchy by the fence and another good dirt blast from the mower:


The whole thing is just really terrible, I didn't even sweep up after raking:




By the Garage:


Would you look at that:


Rabbit made a burrow near garage last year. Almost mowed a baby even after I thought I checked it. Those things are deep!


More bad news:


Yup:


Goin back towards front:


I think I'll put gravel here, for now it's just a glyphosate desert. It used to be a full weed jungle up to the gutters at one point in time:


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Soil tests performed at the launch of Operation Jolly Green Giant:

Overall pH color, I think it's Neutral/Slightly Acidic:


N:


P:


K:




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Seed I threw down on March 30th 2020

Sun & Shade:


Dense Shade:


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Bonus pic from when I did aeration Fall 2019. Gave the front and back a stabbin.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Awesome documentation and great pictures!
I'm still a newbie at all of this myself, but the first thing I'd do if I were you is start tackling the weeds. You'll soon learn that it's way cheaper and more effective to spray liquids instead of spread granulars for things like herbicides and pre-emergents. Plus, it's more fun, too &#128527;.


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## Mayor (Apr 2, 2020)

Hey thanks bud! Yea, you're probably right about the weeds, but I was feeling adventurous and it's down so I'm fully committed now lol. I didn't know it's cheaper to be spraying, but it makes sense that it would be more effective. I have half a bag of my granular pre-emergent from last year still so wanted to use that up first before I start getting fancy on that front. However, I was eyeballing 2 gallon pump sprayers when I was at Ace last week haha. I'm sure I'll be picking one up by the end of the month.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Don't mess around with the hand cans, go straight for the backpack. You will not regret it.


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## Mayor (Apr 2, 2020)

Alright, been about a month since anything major, been holding off on throwing down or anything so I was able to get a reliable soil sample last weekend. Once I got a few samples, did some work on Sunday May 3rd.

XSoil DIY Amendment
20 lbs/1000 sqft

XGN DIY Carbon
8-1-8
4 lbs/1000 sqft

Scotts GrubEx
3 lbs/1000 sqft

I got a 2 gallon automatic pump sprayer in April, which is perfect for my lawn because I just use half tank in front, half in back.

Applied a mixed liquid application of:
MicroGreene
0-0-2
~10oz/1000 sqft

RGS
~10oz/1000 sqft

Lots of clover and broadleafs trying to take over. I got some Tenacity last month, and I think I'll start that treatment beginning-mid June.

I also built a raised garden bed recently at 11'x2.75', so I have even less square footage now lol. I'm a little upset at myself because even though I knew they would stain, I still sprayed my liquids a little too close and stained the garden bed a little. Not a big deal at the end of the day, but that's why I can't have nice things. Picture below is how the lawn looked before I mowed and stuff, it was starting to get late by the time I finished everything. I did find a few grubs when digging up my garden bed, so a little concerning, but they were pretty spaced out, and there wasn't any grub damage last year.


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## Mayor (Apr 2, 2020)

Mowed the lawn yesterday, but was too late to apply anything, so I applied an application of liquid fertilizer today.

Liquid Applications
Humic12

Air-8
0-0-5

I replaced the nozzle to a more slower/wide mist type, and I walked a little too slow, so probably applied a little more than the max label rate.

Got my soil sample results back today, and I was pleasantly surprised that my N and P were close to my expectations. I kinda figured my P would be a little high because of the starter fert applications I put down fall last year and early spring this year. PH level was dead on my expectation, and it was interesting to see all the other nutrient levels. I actually expected the micronutrient levels to be lower.

I was surprised that my K is really low, so that's something I can work on, which honestly should already be somewhat better with the XGN DIY Carbon 8-1-8 and Microgreene 0-0-2 app I put down last week, and the Air-8 0-0-5 I put down today.



After my mow yesterday


This pic better shows some of the problems I need to fix


This side is starting to come along. The weeds will be very happy until I spray my Tenacity apps later in the season.


I have lots of amendments for my garden that aren't in this pic, but that's another topic. I'm going to throw down a lawn app of Azomite sometime soon. Maybe that will get my boron levels up to optimal.


Rabbit burrow repair is coming along with a bunch of clover in the way too.


Lots of clover here. They have about another month or two then gettin the big T!!


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