# Poopgiggles Lawn Journal



## Guest (Aug 26, 2018)

My interest in having a nice lawn started in the spring of 2017. Followed & applied a few of LCN methods I ended up with a decent looking yard. The one thing that really bothered me about my lawn was the amount of quack grass. So the plan this year was to glyphosate those areas and start over.


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2018)

July 27/18 
This is about 14 days after Round Up was applied and scalped and detached. The plan was to seed mid-August but after reading another fellow Edmontonian journey (@llO0DQLE lawn journal) and deciding to plant mostly KBG I realized that I needed to start ASAP. Yes, the way it looks was done on purpose. There are several areas of my lawn that I was happy with and I didn't want to make more work for myself considering I have never done this before.


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2018)

July 29/18 (Day 1)

Seed down. Went with Scott's sunny mix (75% KBG, 25% PRG). Went with Scott's because of it's availability.
Topsoil>seed>starter fert>peat moss.


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2018)

August 6/18 (Day 9)

Watering 3-4 times/day. Sprinkler is not that good.

FRONT




BACK


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

@Poopgiggles Nice work! Looking forward to some updated pics once you see some grass babies :thumbsup:


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2018)

August 9/18 (Day 12)

FRONT


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Oh, these are all going up at once....I get it! I missed those dates somehow :roll:


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2018)

August 22/18 (Day 25)

Got busy and forgot to take pics! 
So this is pretty much the current state of the lawn. Already cut it twice. Unfortunately a lot of bare areas. Because of where I live it's too late to throw down more seed and even the new growth could end up killed over the winter. My plan is to fill those areas next spring.

Has anyone tried dormant seeding? I'm thinking of giving that a try.

FRONT


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## llO0DQLE (Dec 4, 2017)

As I said in my reply to you in my thread, in my experience, it's better to start earlier to seed due to our short growing season. The recommendation of seeding in the fall is mostly geared for people in the US. I tried seeding August 19 in 2014 and it all died after the winter. Our evenings start to cool early to mid August and the daylight is pretty short by September. Average first frost is between Sept. 11 - 23 and grass is slowing down it's growth by then.

One of the things that you mentioned in my thread that raised a red flag for me was the fact that you've mowed twice less than a month after seed down. I was gonna ask you what seed you used and I now see that you used a mix with 25% PRG. That explains the quick establishment. The problem is PRG does not survive our winters. Are you still watering multiple times per day to germinate seed? I have used Scott's sun and shade in the past but I watered multiple times per day for a whole month so I was able to germinate the KBG and CRF in the mix as well. I didn't really know what I was doing back then but knew that KBG could take 30 days to germinate from what I read so I decided to keep watering multiple times a day for a month. It worked out well. It wasn't a full reno, it was an overseed into a very thin lawn so it was kinda like a reno.

Here's a pic of my previous lawn in 2014 with Scott's Sun and Shade mix before I renovated to elite KBG in 2015. (the failed reno in August 2014 was the backyard). I seeded this lawn in June 2013.



At this point, I'm not sure what you have growing there, if that's mostly PRG or if you have some KBG there. It however looks like there are some grassy weeds as well.

I've tried dormant seeding, it didn't work well at all. When our snow melts, temps are too cold for seed to germinate but it doesn't keep it moist enough to germinate as we don't get enough rain. If you wanted to germinate the seed then you'd have to water it to keep it moist. You end up watering the lawn multiple times a day during a time that the temps are not favorable and once you water, you have to keep it up until seed germinates so you're watering needlessly for 2-3 weeks before conditions are favorable for seed to sprout. I would just seed in May when temps are warm enough, usually around May long weekend, sometimes earlier if we're lucky.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2018)

@llO0DQLE appreciate your comments and insight. Among a few other things, especially helpful was how early I should have started the reno.

Aside from starting late, a couple of factors in hindsight that might have contributed to my current lawn state. 
1)Watering. I watered 3-4 times per day for a good 15 days. I cut back when we received some decent rain. But when the 
new grass reached around 2.5", I slowly cut back on the watering. What I should have done is kept a solid watering 
schedule for at least 30 days like you had mentioned.
2)Seed. I also don't think I applied enough nor was it distributed evenly. I used a rotary spreader and I think the growth 
patterns shows it. I chose Scott's Sunny Mix because it had the highest content of KBG but I don't mind the look of RCF 
so I'm guessing the Sun and Shade Mix would have been better.

As for the grassy weed, I'm not sure what I'm dealing with. I took a couple pics. I was hoping it would be PRG because of how evenly distributed it is throughout the lawn. When I google images of PRG, I really can't tell them apart from quack grass or even some of the KBG images that are shown.


In this photo the grass in the lower half of the image is what I pulled from the reseeded area, and the top half is what I believe to be quack grass that I pulled from a section of the lawn that I didn't reno.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2018)

pennstater2005 said:


> Oh, these are all going up at once....I get it! I missed those dates somehow :roll:


Started the journal late in the reno process and it was easier to do the write up and pics over several posts instead all in one post.


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## llO0DQLE (Dec 4, 2017)

Poopgiggles said:


> What I should have done is kept a solid watering
> schedule for at least 30 days like you had mentioned.


Sorry I may have given you the wrong impression. KBG _can_ take up to 30 days to germinate but can also germinate as early as 5 days. IME it germinates around day 9 - 14 for me. I was just talking about what I did back when I didn't know anything. Since I read that KBG can take up to 30 days to germinate and I was seeding a blend and couldn't tell the grasses apart, I watered for 30 days to ensure the KBG sprouted.

Also, nothing wrong with a rotary spreader to spread seed. I actually like it a lot as it spreads it fairly evenly. I've used the manual Scott's hand spreader in the past but now I like using the Whizz spreader. It's normal for germination not to be perfectly even as not all seeds germinate at the same time. That's why they say it can take up to 30 days to germinate but a lot germinate way before that.


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## llO0DQLE (Dec 4, 2017)

I suck at grass ID. I know what KBG, CRF and Poa Annua look like but can't really say I can ID other grassy weeds. Check this tool out from Purdue. https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/master-gardener/mglinks/turfgrass-identification-tool/


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

@Poopgiggles the easiest way to ID quack grass is to look at the auricle:

The auricle clasps around the stem. The blades of quack are also significantly thicker/wider than the average blade of grass.

I believe it also grows in bunches. You would see a good sized patch of it, not just a few blades here and there.

The only way to eliminate it is glyphosate. Hand pulling isn't an option because it builds a very deep root system. It is a rhizomous grass that spreads. Each rhizome is capable of producing a new plant.


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2018)

A little behind on updating the journal.

Day 34 (Sept 1)
- dropped the HOC from 3" to 2"
- I can't tell if the "grassy weed" is quack or PRG. Pulling a few strands makes me think it's PRG because of roots, but
the auricles look like quack.

Backyard


Frontyard


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2018)

Day 56 (Sept 23)
- getting lots of cool wet weather
- continuing to cut at 2" in-between the rainy (and sometimes snowy) days
- I'm ok with how it's developing. It's slowly getting there.

Frontyard




Back yard


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## llO0DQLE (Dec 4, 2017)

That's looking good. It will fill in next spring. You should have a nice filled in lawn by July.


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2019)

Pics of the front and back yard on May 5 after a spring clean up and seeded the bare spots. Looking pretty rough compared to last fall.

Front Yard:


Back Yard:


The back yard on June `17. Leaving for work in the morning, had to grab a couple of pics. 2" HOC



June 24 after more rain. Looking shaggy. 



The grass is thickening up and filling in nicely. There are several patches of quack grass that I will spot treat next month.


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## llO0DQLE (Dec 4, 2017)

Looking good!


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