# TherapyRequired's Lawn Journal



## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

Well, didn't always plan on being a lawn guy. This started as a "have-to" in my front yard due to drainage issues.

This year I redid my backyard. We bought the house 9-10 years ago as a foreclosure. House is on the top of the hill in the neighborhood. Backyard had a large slope and it was never really usable.





About 7 years ago I improved the retaining walls and had a new fence built. 














Now my kiddos are 7 and 5 and we needed another update. A friend of mine who owns and operates a commercial dirt work company said he would do what he could to help!


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## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

They moved a massive amount of dirt around the yard, basically making 2 flat portions for activities.









After 2 rounds of foundation work I put my gutter downspouts into 4" drain pipe and pushed out the backyard. While doing the backyard dirt work I asked them to bury 2 100' length 4" diameter corrugated pipe to the bottom of the hill. They are terminated into 4 inch pipe with 4 above ground "bubblers".









18 pallets of 419 Bermuda was laid on April 8th. The weather then dropped and there was a 2 weeks period where the night temps were in the mid 30's and 40's.











Shelter in place orders put neighborhood kids on the grass much sooner than it should have but it's starting to green.


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## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

Now....

I'll be putting starter fertilizer on it this weekend.

Issue....

The company that laid the sod aren't landscapers. So it's not very level and some of the bumpiness causes my first mower to scalp the yard.







I think I'm going to pull up some of the sod pieces and put topsoil under them to help level the area.

I'll try to keep this updated.

Please don't hesitate to give me opinions on how to better level new sod.


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## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

Well. The last week of May I attempted to level a portion of my backyard with sandy loam.

Couple things I learned:

1) don't pretend I'm Lawn-smarter than people on this forum. The sandy loam wasn't sandy or clean enough. I'll do pure sand next year.

2) again. Listen to the knowledge here. Dang near nothing can kill Bermuda besides shade. And I have/had too much shade.


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## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

2 weeks following the partial level job the edges were filling in well. The issue was I wasn't getting enough sun throughout the day to overcome the level.







At about the same time as the level I had my backyard trees trimmed (lifted and thinned) as well as 1 removed.

(There is 1 before pic and 2 after pics. They typically get jumbled with upload.)


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## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

Getting close to present day.

10 days ago I decided I needed to reset my HOC since I had about 2 weeks of inconsistency in mowing frequency and was scalping on typical mow.

I scalped as low as I could go with my Honda 1-1/8" and will maintain at 1-3/4".

I filled 12 trash bags of clippings!


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## TherapyRequired (May 13, 2020)

Lawn pics of from this past Sunday which makes 7 days post scalp. It's filling in nicely.

I also had the tree company come back out and further thin the trees. I'm going to grab a handful of new sod pieces and put them in the corner now that it's getting more sun.


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