# Noob Lawn Renovation



## jayteebee (Mar 26, 2019)

I want to first give a big shout out to this board for teaching me a ton since I bought my house in January. The house was vacant for 15 years so you can only imagine what I've been dealing with. I went back and forth on reno vs. just overseeding, and came to the conclusion that I would spend a lot more time and money on weed killing if I didn't start over. So... here we are. A newer fella to the lawn game attempting a reno. My seed wouldn't of stood a chance with the Bermuda, wedge, grab, etc that I had.

I'd like to tag and mention @social port, a local to middle TN for giving me advice through private messenger the past few weeks. Everyone's called me crazy but here we are.

TL;DR

I did my first app of glyphosate a couple weeks ago and currently raking all of the heavy thatch that's dead. If got a pull behind dethatcher for the Deere would it get down and dirty? Or am I stuck manually raking and hauling all the debris off? I tried rented a push behind bagger from Home Depot but it just wasn't cutting it. I want to make sure the next round of glyphosate can hit the low hanging weeds like Bermuda - as well as good seed to soil contact when I throw it all down.

I'm here in middle TN so I'm taking off work the 13th in order to grade, add drainage and ultimately seed/ fert that weekend. I've got a bottle of tenacity that I'm going to throw down for a nice PreM. According to LCN's cool season guide, you want seed down 1-2 weeks before soil temperatures hit 70 and this is what works best with my schedule and studies.

If you've made it this far, I congratulate you for taking time out of your day to read this. I'm a few beers in and rambling at this point, but D-Day is approaching and I've got all the feels.

A few pictures posted - my dead lawn, my wife helping me rake as well as all the seed and fert to scare someone.

Look forward to all the feedback and ultimately getting made fun of for my mistakes. Cheers!


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## canadian lawn (Aug 12, 2019)

Good luck, that's a lot of lawn and a lot of raking. I'd invest in Sun Joe AJ801E 12 Amp 13" Electric Scarifier Plus Lawn Dethatcher with Collection Bag. It helped me out big time during my renovation. Can't wait to see updates &#128515;


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

jayteebee said:


> If got a pull behind dethatcher for the Deere would it get down and dirty? Or am I stuck manually raking and hauling all the debris off?


You definitely are not stuck raking. It would be convenient if you had a machine that would dethatch and bag. On the other hand, I use a very inexpensive pull-behind dethatcher. I load it down with bricks, hook it up to the zero-turn, and then it's off to the races. For large renos, I have rented a gas-powered dethatcher. 
Definitely plan to mow as low as possible and bag the clipping before you run the dethatcher. You should have no problem roughing up the soil with the dethatcher.

Note that you can use glyphosate as late as your seeding date if you need to hit a few stragglers or if something comes up after you work on grading, etc.

Good luck, @jayteebee :thumbup:


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## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

My lazy self bought a blower/vacuum/mulching electric machine to pick up the mountains of dead grass from the dethatcher and blow away all the leftover dead grass to expose the dirt . It works good for my 5k lawn . I sewed the bagger just to reinforce the joints .


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## jayteebee (Mar 26, 2019)

@Avalawn T can't thank you enough for the bluebird dethatcher. Almost down to dirt and then I'll use my lawn sweeper to pick up the debris tomorrow. Immediately followed by my second app of glyphosate - even though the lawns dead as a doornail. I'll be seeding, ferting and squirting this time next week! 🙌🏼


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## Avalawn T (Sep 11, 2018)

Glad to help, its going to look great!!


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## craigdt (Apr 21, 2018)

That is a ton of work! 
Good job and stick with it- you will love the results


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## jayteebee (Mar 26, 2019)

Well... better late than never. Had my hands full this winter with work, honey-doos and all sorts of work travel. Now that temps are warming up so is my excitement for this year in the lawn.

The reno went well except for the fact that I got 4+ inches of rain the day after I seeded - oops. I never claimed to be a weatherman :lol: I must say I'm pretty proud of the results. It's amazing how many people have stopped, young and old, and complemented on my patch. They all admitted that they couldn't help but think I was crazy at first killing everything off. It's funny how they're all now in awe. There's definitely some bare spots that I'm praying are going to fill in this spring. If not my overseed should take care of that this fall!

Last Sunday I blanket sprayed Triad Select to help with the winter weeds. I took work off Monday to throw down my CarbonX, Prodiamine, RGS and Air8 since I saw it was going to rain Tuesday. It all worked out great and got watered in.

First picture was last year after my first mow in the fall, and the second picture was this past Monday after all the fert'n and squirt'n. Cheers!


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## 1028mountain (Oct 1, 2019)

Looks great my man.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

Yep.. Most people don't realize that often the fastest way to a pristine lawn is to nuke what you have...


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@jayteebee its time to update the profile. I don't see a Salad bar anymore.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

jayteebee said:


> First picture was last year after my first mow in the fall, and the second picture was this past Monday after all the fert'n and squirt'n.


What a transformation! Looks really good. That grass is about to take off, so get ready to enjoy the mow...a lot.


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## jayteebee (Mar 26, 2019)

g-man said:


> @jayteebee its time to update the profile. I don't see a Salad bar anymore.


you make a good point - consider it done  :thumbup:


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## jayteebee (Mar 26, 2019)

social port said:


> jayteebee said:
> 
> 
> > First picture was last year after my first mow in the fall, and the second picture was this past Monday after all the fert'n and squirt'n.
> ...


I appreciate the kind words. It was a TON of work but I'd do it all over again if I had to.

Yea I'm a little worried about how quick this grass is going to take off with the new CarbonX :lol: Bring it on!


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Nice job! It looks like your hard work has paid off. Good luck in the upcoming season. You should move this thread over to the Cool Season Lawn Journals and keep tracking your progress.


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