# cpolette1321's Lawn Journal



## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Hey All,

I'm Curtis from St. Louis, MO and I decided it's time to start a lawn journal. I have an HGT Bluegrass lawn that I planted from sod just over a year ago. Now that I'm through the first year, I figure it's time to publicly document everything so that I can get some good feedback and knowledge from this great resource - and hopefully make year 2 even better than the first.

I thought that I had done my last mow of the year three times now, and I'm thinking today's might actually be the last, but we have forecasted highs in the 60's for the next four days, so it's anyone's guess at this point... Front and back yards were single cut at a height of .75" this afternoon.

Back:


Front:


Over Labor Day weekend this year, I renovated the strip between the sidewalk and the street. When I tore up and sodded the front and backyard last year, I couldn't decide if I wanted to seed the strip or do something else with it, so I left it as it was. I finally got tired of maintaining the bermuda/dirt/weeds/cool season mix that comprised the strip, so I tilled, leveled, and sodded with HGT, to make everything uniform. I've spent the rest of the season reducing the height of cut to match the rest of the lawn, so that's why it's less aesthetically pleasing than the rest of the lawn. I'm down to a 1.375" HOC, so that should be a good little project for the beginning of next season.

The Strip:


I'm here to soak up as much information and knowledge as I can, so any questions/comments/recommendations are welcome! Thanks for the read!


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## macattack (Nov 2, 2020)

Hey there Curtis. I see a lot of StL people on here. I just started a journal too. Lawn looks great, wish i was that far along in my quest for lawn dominance. I've got a real mix of grasses that needs a complete makeover if I had the time. No one in my neighborhood mows low. I have to keep it at 4" to hide all the unwanted grasses.
MAC


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

macattack said:


> Hey there Curtis. I see a lot of StL people on here. I just started a journal too. Lawn looks great, wish i was that far along in my quest for lawn dominance. I've got a real mix of grasses that needs a complete makeover if I had the time. No one in my neighborhood mows low. I have to keep it at 4" to hide all the unwanted grasses.
> MAC


Hey MAC! Yes, lots of good info from STL people on here, so that's helped me out quite a bit this year.

I feel your pain with the unwanted warm season grasses trying to invade. I have one neighbor with a zoysia lawn and another with a mostly bermuda lawn, so it's a never ending challenge to keep those from creeping into my lawn during the summer. I've found that propiconazole helps suppress the zoysia and triclopyr ester helps suppress the bermuda during their growing season, so just my two cents if you're looking to try and stop their invasion without going through a full reno. Both of those products do seem harm the KBG slightly, but short-term sacrifices for long-term benefits. I'm hoping that adding some PGR into my maintenance program next year will help in my battle, so I guess we'll find out!

Hope you're enjoying the warm December so far!


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## Rule11 (May 5, 2018)

cpolette1321 said:


> Hey All,
> 
> I'm Curtis from St. Louis, MO and I decided it's time to start a lawn journal. I have an HGT Bluegrass lawn that I planted from sod just over a year ago. Now that I'm through the first year, I figure it's time to publicly document everything so that I can get some good feedback and knowledge from this great resource - and hopefully make year 2 even better than the first.
> 
> ...


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Rule11 said:


> cpolette1321 said:
> 
> 
> > Hey All,
> ...


Thanks Rule11. Credit to wifey for the patio color choice!


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Mowed the front and back again today at .75". The grass catcher on the GM1000 was about 1/4 full, so I'm still getting a bit of growth (mostly in the back yard) with the warmer temps we've had for the last few days.

Two angles of the back yard:




Front Yard:


The low angle of the afternoon/early evening sun makes the stripes all look different, so I thought that was pretty cool.

I left the strip alone today, with the exception of trimming a few areas to clean them up, so I'll plan to leave that as is until next spring and see how it grows in.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Ended up running out of daylight, so no pictures today. Cut the front and back yards at 5/8". I have three mows in this year at 5/8" because the many freeze and thaw cycles of this past winter have created high and low spots and I need to topdress soon. Maybe this weekend if Mother Nature and time allows…

I also cut the street strip and a small strip between my house and my neighbor's house at 7/8" with the modified Fiskars reel mower as those areas are easier to maneuver with the manual reel.

I finished off the evening with applying some liquid nitrogen fertilizer w/ iron and soil conditioner. The lawn has been looking hungry lately and the spots where my dog has peed are growing much faster than the rest, so my assumption is that my fall feeding has been consumed. We're supposed to get a decent amount of rain over the next few days, so I was happy to get that down tonight and have the rain water it in over the next few days.

I put down a liquid application of prodiamine and a 25# bag of granular chick'n'poo organic fertilizer two weeks ago, so just trying to get things off to a solid start this year without going too hard.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

I finished my unintentional 2 year long landscaping renovation on Saturday by removing the old mulch and throwing down some new, fresh stuff. I'm happy to have that project finished, and since everything I planted is evergreen, the maintenance should be pretty much nothing.

On Sunday, I aerated some areas that are prone to high traffic and compaction before I mowed. I mowed the front and back yards at 5/8" and the street strip at 7/8".

Front:


The bottom of the hill just above the sidewalk takes a beating and has a bunch of bare spots because that's where I make my turns with the GM 1ooo. I've tried relieving compaction and plugging those areas to some success, but it's a tough area and takes quite a beating, so I feel like that's always going to be a battle.

Street Strip:

Filling in pretty nicely. I have some seams that are somewhat visible, so a topdress should take care of those and help even out some undulations.

Back:



My plan for this weekend is to topdress with soil to bring up some of my low spots. Once those areas fill themselves in, I plan to bring the height of cut up to 3/4" as that seems to be the height both the grass and I like best. I also plan to ease into a PGR regimen to help with some additional lateral growth and to help build strength against the inevitable hot, humid summer. If I'm lucky, the PGR will also help to keep my neighbors warm season grasses from continuing to invade.


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## ReelWILawn (Aug 29, 2021)

Reel mowed KBG :thumbup:

Any reason why you wouldn't use sand instead of soil to topdress and level. Lawn looks very smooth already.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

ReelWILawn said:


> Reel mowed KBG :thumbup:
> 
> Any reason why you wouldn't use sand instead of soil to topdress and level. Lawn looks very smooth already.


I knew I was going to get this question, haha

I thought about it way longer than I should have, but it came down to a few reasons.

1. This is my starter home, and good chance the next owner isn't going to know how to maintain the lawn, so I figure topsoil is best in this situation so I don't leave them with something that's way over their head. My next house's lawn will be topdressed with sand for sure.
2. I topdressed with a mix of 70% topsoil and 30% compost last spring and it worked better than I expected. Unfortunately, the mix was filled with a lot of small sticks, pieces of mulch, etc., and I had to screen all of that out before I was able to put the fine material down on the lawn. It would have totally wrecked the reel and bedknife on my mower if I didn't screen, so it ended up being way more work than it should have been.
3. Like you mentioned, the lawn is pretty flat already, so I'm not worried about having any of the topsoil wash out if I get a heavy rain. The plan is to lightly cover areas that are good and go a bit heavier on the low spots just to bring them up slightly.


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## ReelWILawn (Aug 29, 2021)

You haven't lived if you have not hand screened topsoil :lol:

Sounds like a good thought out plan. I was genuinely curious. Look forward to see this continue as your backyard looks like it's a lot of fun to reel mow.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

ReelWILawn said:


> You haven't lived if you have not hand screened topsoil :lol:
> 
> Sounds like a good thought out plan. I was genuinely curious. Look forward to see this continue as your backyard looks like it's a lot of fun to reel mow.


Very true! And now that I've been there and done it, I know to avoid it as much as possible, haha

I do have to admit that it's a lot of fun to reel mow, so I really look forward to it when it's time to mow. The front yard is challenging with the slope of the hill and tight spaces, but still totally worth the trouble.

I look forward to watching your lawn progress as well! You've taken the time to do everything as properly as possible, so you've set yourself up for success!


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

Looks great and really cool to see a fellow St. Louisan reel mowing. Just wish Missouri would figure out that it's spring and quit with all the freezing temperatures!

I give you props for mowing that slope on your front yard, I have two slopes on my side yard and getting the greensmower up and down is sometimes a pain. I'll be following along with your progress this year!


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

lbb091919 said:


> Looks great and really cool to see a fellow St. Louisan reel mowing. Just wish Missouri would figure out that it's spring and quit with all the freezing temperatures!
> 
> I give you props for mowing that slope on your front yard, I have two slopes on my side yard and getting the greensmower up and down is sometimes a pain. I'll be following along with your progress this year!


Thanks lbb091919 !


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Sorry for the two updates in one; I was sick last week, so I didn't feel up to posting the last couple weekends.

I finally got around to topdressing two weekends ago. The topsoil had a lot more clumps in it than I was anticipating, so I had to break out the homemade screen and sift every shovel that when into the wheelbarrow. Not fun... Luckily, my dad was available and came over and helped me, or else I would have been at it for a few days.

Photos from right after we finished dressing and leveling are below:










I left the lawn alone last week and it grew and filled back in pretty well. I double cut everything with the Fiskars reel mower at 7/8" on Saturday and noticed there were a pretty decent amount of clippings, so that was good to see one week after the topdress.

Street Strip:


Between the houses:


Front:




Back:


Some areas where I went heavier are, expectedly, filling in more slowly. 


I planned to spray some nitrogen fertilizer, but it was windy all weekend, so I never had a good window for spraying. I ended up buying some granular fertilizer with dithiopyr and putting that down to push some top growth and help fill in. I don't have a weed issue, except one here and there that I hand pull, but I've been told that applying both prodiamine and dithiopyr in the spring is a best practice, so it ended up being a happy accident that it worked out that way.

I'll continue regular mowing and monitor top growth and see how everything is filling in and thickening. Once it's back to condition similar to before the topdress, I'll begin applying PGR to help with additional lateral growth and to start toughening up the lawn for the warmer temps we'll start to see later in the month.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Hey All,

Sorry for the hiatus. Kiddo #1 was born two Wednesdays ago, so I haven't had a chance to put together a journal entry in a couple weeks.

Before going to the hospital, I started my PGR regimen by applying half rate. Since then, I applied again going full rate and I'm down to mowing once a week, so the plan is working out well so far.

Photos from Friday evening's mow:

Front:



Street Strip:

Some dog pee spots from while we were in the hospital needed to be repaired, so as you can tell, the street strip became my donor area.

Back:


Note how easily you can see the spots where doggo went #1.

The front yard and the back yard were mowed at .75" with the Greensmaster, and the street strip and between the houses were mowed with the Fiskars at roughly 7.8".

The dog pee spots told me that I needed to add some nitrogen, so I went ahead and applied a liquid application last night. Hopefully that and some rain this week will give me some color back. Other than that, the plan for the near future is to just mow as needed.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Been a long time since the last update and a lot has gone down.

As mentioned in the last entry, I put down some liquid fertilizer, which would have been great if it weren't for my massive mistake. I was overly careful in making sure I didn't put down too much nitrogen that I blanked and didn't account for the iron included with the liquid fert that I have. I ended up doing some fairly major damage to the lawn and it turned dark green, then almost purple, and then a decent part of my canopy died off. I went pretty heavy on the water over the next week or so until the lawn started to recover and look more normal. Once I saw some growth, I bought a SunJoe dethatcher/verticutter and used the dethatcher to rake up the dead leaf blades. It worked pretty well and I was impressed by that little machine!

I did throw down some more liquid fert (without iron this time) shortly thereafter to help with kickstarting some new top growth. Since then, I've been watering and mowing regularly to get things back to normal as soon as possible. However, since a lot of the canopy had died and had been removed, I now have a bunch of little weeds everywhere. I've just been hand pulling them when I can until the lateral growth smothers most of them out.

I sprayed triclopyr ester at my property lines a little over two weeks ago to try and suppress the bermuda creeping in from my neighbors yards. I also have quite the nutsedge issue at the moment, so I did a blanket application of sedgehammer last Tuesday. I'll continue to keep an eye on the nutsedge and spray again in the future if it continues to persist.

I mowed all areas last night at .875" just to keep the height up a little for summer. While mowing, I noticed some fungus rings, so I'll need to put down some propiconazole in the near future. That will also help a bit with suppressing the zoysia that's creeping into my yard from a neighbor. Granular application of grub control applied last night and watered in this morning, so I'm done with that for another year.

Sorry no photos, but I've been mowing up until dark recently, so not very good for pics. I'll try and get some and add after I mow this weekend.


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## M1SF1T (Jun 1, 2021)

Looks great!


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

M1SF1T said:


> Looks great!


Thanks!


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Some photos from tonight's mow. All areas cut at 7/8".

Front:





Back:


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Was in a hurry when I was cutting yesterday, so no new photos for this update. All areas double cut at 7/8". I applied propiconazole on Thursday so that should help out with some of the fungus issues I've been experiencing.

We got some much needed rain today. As of right now, my house got about 1.25" of rain, so the lawn is going to love that. A couple days of sub 90 temps is also welcomed.

I need to apply another round of triclopyr ester to continue in the attempt to suppress the bermuda trying to creep in from my neighbors, so I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to do that tomorrow evening.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

I got the triclopyr ester down two Mondays ago, so still battling with the bermuda to keep it at bay during the summer.

After getting at least 10 inches of rain this week, as well as some cooler temperatures, the lawn is looking healthier. I had to triple cut with the greensmaster yesterday and break the one third rule to get the height back down to 7/8" HOC. I don't have my rotary mower right now or I would have cut at 1" with that first, so I just made do with what I have at home. Luckily we have another couple days of temperatures in the 80s, so I'm not worried about stressing it out.

Couple quick photos from this morning:

Front:


Back:


I'll probably try to mow again in the next few days, but I have some areas that got hit by fungus, so I probably need to power rake to remove the dead material. We'll see if time allows me to get to that... I also picked up some azoxystrobin to add into my fungicide rotation, so I'll try and get that down soon as the temps are going to pick up again starting in a few days.


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## cpolette1321 (Sep 15, 2020)

Got a lot done over the weekend. On Saturday, I double cut at 7/8" with the Fiskars reel mower. Then, I cleaned it up with the rotary mower to collect the clippings. I also watered all areas for about 30 minutes just to keep the soil moist and prevent any further stress. Photos from last Saturday:

Front:



Street Strip:


Back:



As you can see, a lot of fungus areas and stressed areas all over the backyard. I've pretty much lost the battle this summer, so I'm just trying to hold on to what I have.

On Sunday, I applied propiconazole at the 3 oz per 1,000 sqft rate in an attempt to cure/save any areas that I can. I also sprayed triclopyr ester to suppress the bermuda that's crept in. Finally, I applied .5 lbs of urea nitrogen per 1,000 sqft to kick off the fall nitrogen blitz. The plan is to continue applying nitrogen at that rate for a currently undetermined amount of time.

I plan to verticut the weekend of August 26th - 28th to relieve any compaction issues I might have, as well as help the soil better retain the nutrients I'm feeding it. I also plan to do a light overseed that weekend to help fill in and thicken the canopy as we move into the fall season.

Time to hit it hard and get things back in order now that it looks like we're past the hottest days of summer. Let the fun begin!


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