# c0mical's "lawn"



## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Well boys, I figured I'd post a few pictures of what I am working with. The backyard is in much better condition than the front. Full disclosure, we moved into this house in December and so basically this is just what I am working with. The previous owner of the house was in poor health the last few years, died, his house was sold and flipped, and we purchased it. Here are some pictures of the backyard. I will post some pictures of the front yard in the future, but it is basically some more St Augustine and dormant sod from this winter. The flipper put the sod down in the fall/winter before we purchased...


























With that said, the lawn is ridden with weeds. I put down Scotts Bonus S Weed n Feed before I researched too much into things. It has atrazine in it and is taking out some of the clover...that's about it. I spend an hour pulling up these tough as F weeds in the backyard. Here is a picture.










Anyone know what this is? I'd love to find a chemical that will kill it and stop it from coming back. The tree in my backyard is a pecan tree, by the way.

I'd like to make this backyard look nice. We have plans to remove all the brush on the fence line, remove the fence, and put in a 8ft privacy fence. We also will tear down our temporary garden and put a real one in once the fence is in place. *Sigh* Lot's to do...
Full res photos available here


http://imgur.com/HYScY


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

That weed looks like a baby Pecan tree, they send down a deep root right out of the gate. My parents have 2 at their house and they have them coming up throughout their flower beds from the squirrels.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Makes sense that they are baby pecan trees. I will keep pulling them out by hand and hope for the best. Long shot here....would a pre M keep the pecans from germinating going forward?

I also have various broad leaf weeds throughout the lawn. I already have some Ferti-lome Weed Free zone aka Trimec that I will apply to the lawn. Going to run a test patch first and then do a broadcast spray if it goes well.


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

I've never seen pecan trees under the PreM labels but I'll admit I never was specifically looking for it. It couldn't hurt though and should be a part of your lawn plan for the year anyways. You can pull them if you want but once they get mowed I don't think they would come back.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

I am in an almost identical position with my St. Aug lawn. Looks like you have a ton of compacted soil near that temporary garden. Would recommend aerating lawn with particlaur attention to bare area in question.

I was given this advice yesterday, but I have not used it yet: Consider application of prodiamine for PreM.

What is your height of cut (HOC)?


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Well, my HOC is not determined yet. The grass has yet to reach it! I will be using either the highest or second highest setting on my rotary. Right now my grass is 2-3" depending on where I measure. I want 3.5 so whichever setting gets me that or just over will be what I go with. Like you, I have oaks in my front yard. They are live oaks...evergreen... Aka constant leaves and acorns ALL year?

I do plan to core aerate in May. My soil is definitely compacted. Maybe I should push it up sooner if it would be more beneficial? I could do it this weekend and put down some prodiamine right after. Anyone have an opinion on that?


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

c0mical said:


> I could do it this weekend and put down some prodiamine right after. Anyone have an opinion on that?


That would be fine, but you may have to delay it depending on how much rain we get. An aerator will work best on moist soil, but if we get multiple inches of rain, we will go way beyond moist. Our lovely sticky clay soil likes to get stuck in the tines too if it's to wet, so finding the perfect time to aerate here becomes something of an art form.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

c0mical said:


> Well, my HOC is not determined yet. The grass has yet to reach it!


I was in Dallas last Saturday. Let me tell you it was a bit of a shock getting out of the car to 36 degree weather... after leaving Houston in the 60s @ 7 AM. This spring hasn't been very friendly thus far. Looks like it is coming for us again tomorrow. Another stinkin' cold front!


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

WBrown999 said:


> I was in Dallas last Saturday. Let me tell you it was a bit of a shock getting out of the car to 36 degree weather... after leaving Houston in the 60s @ 7 AM. This spring hasn't been very friendly thus far. Looks like it is coming for us again tomorrow. Another stinkin' cold front!


Yeah, but we can at least hope for some solid rain to grow our *THICC* grass.

Here are a few photos of the front yard. The sod was laid late Fall/early Winter and is still trying to wake up, slowly but surely.


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## Bunnysarefat (May 4, 2017)

With as cold as it got this winter, I think a lot of people's St. Augustine in shade is slow to come out of dormancy this year. And careful with that atrazine. I know Scott's make it so easy but there are more robust pre emergents out there that aren't as toxic. Atrazine concentrate for spraying is good to have in your arsenal but the granular is iffy IMO.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

One thing I am seeing is the thinning of the grass at the root of the oak on the right side if your house. Is it a losing battle to try and grow the grass around the base of a tree that large, or are we relegated to mulching?


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

WBrown999 said:


> One thing I am seeing is the thinning of the grass at the root of the oak on the right side if your house. Is it a losing battle to try and grow the grass around the base of a tree that large, or are we relegated to mulching?


This is my first growing season at our house. I will try to let the grass fill in there around the tree this year, and if not will put in a nice shade loving flowerbed. I wish I already had an answer but will have to find out on my own. Just going to throw fert and water ar it while hoping for the best.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

c0mical said:


> This is my first growing season at our house. I will try to let the grass fill in there around the tree this year, and if not will put in a nice shade loving flowerbed. I wish I already had an answer but will have to find out on my own. Just going to throw fert and water ar it while hoping for the best.


Cool. I will be monitoring.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Put down some Trimec postM last weekend. Walked the lawn today and made a follow up pass on some of the weeds that were still hanging on. It looks like it left the St Aug unphased... found my postM mix and might make it slightly hotter next time.










I've continued watering the front sod. I think I am going to throw in the towel on the sod and call it officially dead. There are some live spots...but not enough to convince me to keep it. I will have a lawn company come out on Tuesday to core aerate my entire lawn and will ask his opinion. Pretty sure he will agree and I will either re-sod or plug the front. What do you guys think?


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

I think that's about as dead as it gets.


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## PHXCobra (Mar 20, 2018)

Definitely looks dead.

Positive side, you get to pick what you want to put in its place and can do proper prep-work before it goes down.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

Why bother with the core aeration?


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Movingshrub said:


> Why bother with the core aeration?


The backyard needs it. Very compacted. I will only end up replacing the sod in the front.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

Got it. Makes sense now.


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## Jeff20 (Jun 30, 2017)

Hey cOmical I feel your pain. My last house I had large oaks like you have in your front yard and nothing but thin S.A. I noticed in your front yard you did some limb trimming, How far did you go up? Your tree canopy might be the problem. You might need to thin out your tree to get more light on your grass. I would still find some way to loosen up your soil. S.A. is pretty hard to kill. Maybe mix in some good compost find some runners off your S.A. and plant into the soil and they it grow don't worry about cutting. Keep your soil wet, with all that shade it want let the rain in either.


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## raldridge2315 (Jul 1, 2017)

You can grow trees or you can grow grass. Growing both in the same place seldom works out very well.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Jeff20 said:


> Hey cOmical I feel your pain. My last house I had large oaks like you have in your front yard and nothing but thin S.A. I noticed in your front yard you did some limb trimming, How far did you go up? Your tree canopy might be the problem. You might need to thin out your tree to get more light on your grass. I would still find some way to loosen up your soil. S.A. is pretty hard to kill. Maybe mix in some good compost find some runners off your S.A. and plant into the soil and they it grow don't worry about cutting. Keep your soil wet, with all that shade it want let the rain in either.


Thanks for the tips! The lowest branches are 15-20 feet, however, the tree on my east side is VERY dense all the way up. I plan to get a pole saw to help with that. I'm hoping this core aeration did something to loosen the soil a bit. It looks like they went down 2".


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## Jeff20 (Jun 30, 2017)

Good luck, Even if you have to till some spots it want hurt. Your pretty much starting over anyway.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

*2 years later update*

Wife and I had a kid. We put in a new front flowerbed and ripped out the old brush and chain link fence and put in a better one. Did a lot of research and even put together a schedule for how to take care of the St Augustine.

In that research, found out that the spots on my grass are actually from the St Augustine decline virus.... sigh. Looks like I will need to plug the backyard (front yard is not affected at the moment) with a resistant strain; either Raleigh or TamStar. Some spots are soooo thick in the backyard I must have different strains of st augustine back there.

Planning to apply my first app of liquid iron using my new backpack sprayer/dfw wand and fungicide as preventative this coming weekend.

Still have burn spots in the yard from a 65lb labradoodle....but what you gonna do? *shrug*

Edit: I also took a soil sample and sent it off to Texas A&M. Still waiting for results.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Looks like it is going to rain all weekend here so I'm going to try and put down that fungicide/liquid iron app tomorrow evening.

Not having any luck finding a dealer for TamStar turf.

Here are some shots of the front yard at least. That flower bed was PITA to put in but it looks nice. I replaced all the sod last year after we finished putting it in but it still didn't take. I think TARR got it all... Had not don't enough research then. I am now armed with two different fungicides in 3 and 11 categories.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Received soil test results. Looks like I will focus my fert apps for Nitrogen, Phosphorous (surprisingly, right?), and Iron + micros. Soil pH is high as expected, but continued feedings with liquid iron should supplement nicely. Anyone care to weigh in on soil test results?

Attempted to spray the fungicide mix + liquid iron (at half rate) combo today but my backpack spray (cheapie from Harbor Freight) started leaking. Ordered Chapin backpack sprayer from Amazon. I at least get to say today's mishap was really just my "test" application LOL :lol:

EDIT: I heard back from my local country extension office regarding TamStar... it is no longer available.



> Currently, TamStar is out of production in the sod market. I do not believe anyone is selling it right now due to it having some issues holding together once cut. In the future, TamStar could be sold in plug form but is not available right now.
> 
> Raleigh is the typical choice for North Texas since it is more cold tolerant than other varieties. It is also off patent, so if I was the client I would be sure to get certified sod. Certified sod has been inspected and should be only Raleigh with no other grass variety contaminants. Raleigh will need approximately 5-6 hours of direct sun with some filtered light to sustain itself. If it gets less, then it could thin out and ultimately fail over time.


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## c0mical (Apr 8, 2018)

Got some nice rain recently. Enjoyed the mow yesterday. She's coming in nice and thick this year. Hopefully she reaches the fence by the end of the year?


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