# snapdown91's Lawn Journal 2021 (TTTF in TN)



## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

I am a new-ish homeowner as of last year, so this is my first full season caring about my lawn. I did lawncare throughout high school and college, but that was just mainly cutting, trimming, maybe a little weed killing in flower beds. Never cared about the grass growing or looking green, filled in etc.

This year I haven't done much. I put down prodiamine in March and Milorganite a few times throughout the spring/summer. I don't have an irrigation system so I didn't get much watering done. Not in great shape but I'm working on it.

I have been wanting to do an overseed since I missed the window last fall. This year I am acting on it.

Wed 9/15 - Mowed low and basically scalped the lawn (1"). Bagged clippings.

Thu 9/16 - Rented power rake from HD and dethatched and raked it up. I fear that this wasn't a thorough enough job, but it is what it is.

Sat 9/18 - Was planning on overseeding, but the skies opened up and dumped 2" of rain on us at around 9am. Lasted until late afternoon. Once it was over I got out there and saw dead grass piled up in rows in one section of my lawn. Raked all that up.

Sun 9/19 - Rained again. Another inch. More grass built up in rows and raked again.

Mon 9/20 - Rained again through the night. Didn't do anything.

Tue 9/21 - Raked up more dead grass in rows. By now, the grass had gotten taller and I did another scalp at 1". Bagged clippings.

Wed 9/22 (TODAY) - Rained another inch overnight. By now, the yard was a muddy, saturated mess. I figured it was best not to seed today because of it. I raked up any excess grass I saw and prepared things for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is D-Day. Finally going to put this seed down. I have 25lbs of TTTF from Hogan. This is my first time spreading anything without a spreader setting on the bag, but the consensus is to set it low and do multiple passes until it's all gone. I've also heard about not putting down starter fertilizer at first, so I'm going to wait about a week to 10 days before doing that. May throw down some fungicide too as a preventative. Finally, going to put down peat moss on it and hope for the best. I hope it works because I don't want my wife to be pissed at me for spending so much money for nothing.

I will update tomorrow after it's over, maybe with pictures.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Good luck! You're definitely on the right track. If you have the $ and time to topcoat with peat moss, it will help to keep the seed moist, especially since you don't have irrigation.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

Keep it moist and have patience it will be just fine. Good call on no fertilizer you don't want to stimulate your existing grass to out compete with your new seedlings. Stay patient on dropping any fertilizer.


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## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

Seed day. I mistakingly thought I could get it all done before dark after work. I was wrong. Here's how it went.

1. Blew off any leaves from my yard.

2. Measured out and laid seed. 
- Went with a super low setting at first, but my second round I upped it a lot. Ended up working out perfectly. Ended up doing about 18lbs (maybe a little more, like 18.25) for 3,500sqft.​
3. Rolled the yard. 
- Much harder than I thought, especially on the slopes. Maybe I put too much water in.​
4. Time was running out and the sun was setting, so I skipped fungicide. Laid out the germination blanket for my slope in the back and staked it in.

5. Peat moss. 
- I was worried I didn't have enough but I think I'll be good. Wasn't sure how thick to do it - I know they say 1/4" or so but it's hard to gauge as you're doing it. I ended up just emptying a bag on the grass then spreading it out with a rake. Check picture at the bottom to see how I did. 
- Didn't get to do my entire yard before sundown. Probably about half of it. I figure I could come back tomorrow and finish up.​
6. Water in. 
- I didn't think about it until afterwards, but maybe I should've skipped this step since it was 7:00pm, but I thought it was necessary to do it once it was down. Too late now. Watered about 10 minutes…maybe I should skip the first watering tomorrow morning to compensate?​
In my setup for my sprinklers, I discovered I have a 200sqft (20x10 in side yard) section of my yard that is out of reach. I only have 2 spigots and 4 hoses (using a 2-way connector on each) so it's difficult to get it. I am using a Rainpoint timer on each spigot so I can water while everyone's away during the day. Am I okay to just water that section twice a day, before I leave for work and after I get home? Everywhere else will get 3x a day for 10 minutes each. I'm also unsure if that's too much time. I felt the peat moss after I watered tonight and wondered "how moist is moist?"

Still unsure about a whole lot, but seed is down. Here goes nothing. These first pics are pre-seed and pre-moss. The one at the very bottom is my side yard post peat moss. Did I put too much? Not enough?

Front Yard


Side Yards




Backyard




Post Peat Moss


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Nice job! :thumbup: The peat moss topcoat looks nice and even, and looks to be an appropriate thickness. Now, the challenge is to keep it moist. You will find yourself out with the hose, handwatering a lot. If you don't have a multi-pattern spray nozzle, pick one up with a short wand and a good "shower" setting, and front trigger lever. It will gently put out a lot of water, if necessary, but you can keep it moving to not wash the seed out. I find that it has been my favorite tool right now.


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## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

Chris LI said:


> Nice job! :thumbup: The peat moss topcoat looks nice and even, and looks to be an appropriate thickness. Now, the challenge is to keep it moist. You will find yourself out with the hose, handwatering a lot. If you don't have a multi-pattern spray nozzle, pick one up with a short wand and a good "shower" setting, and front trigger lever. It will gently put out a lot of water, if necessary, but you can keep it moving to not wash the seed out. I find that it has been my favorite tool right now.


Thanks! Yeah, those spots the sprinkler can't hit I'll have to do it. The one spot is full sun for about 10 hours of the day though. Hopefully I can get by with watering it twice a day before I leave for work and after I get home. Temps are in the 70s and low 80s for the next 10 days. We shall see.


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## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

3 DAS. Trying to get my watering schedule down pat. Starting to figure out where I need to water more and where the sprinklers can't reach. I can cover about 90% without moving the sprinklers so I feel like that's a win. Some spots are small and I have given up on them - behind trees or bushes - and I'll try to reseed in a few weeks. Right now my existing grass is getting longer and I keep checking for signs of germination. I think it'll be hard to tell if it's old grass that was matted by peat or new grass. We'll see. Weather has been great - no rain, mid 70s, sunny.


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## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

4 days DAS. Discovered a portion of my yard doesn't drain too well and gave it more water than it needed. It's my side yard that gets the most sun but just holds water like crazy. I have an oscillating sprinkler over here and I guess it just puts out too much. Watered it this morning for my first watering (6:15am) and watered it again at 11:00am. It was super saturated and I discovered the peat moss has been puddling up in lines a little bit. I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but I see it in person:



I really think it may only need one watering a day but it's difficult to do. This side yard can't be reached with the one sprinkler and the way I have it set up is with 2 hoses per spigot. The other hose does the entire backyard so this sprinkler gets moved in between waterings. There's a little portion near my sidewalk that gets dry pretty quickly but I may just have to get my wife to do it with a watering can while I'm at work.

Still playing with the watering schedule and watering amount. Keeping everything moist but not too wet is more difficult than I thought. The existing grass is responding well to the watering and is getting taller, but it's going to be hard to distinguish between old grass popping through and seed babies. Can't see any germination yet. I feel very unconfident about it all but I'll just keep forging ahead, even if it's in a "skiff made of paper."


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## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

WE. HAVE. GERMINATION!

It's not much. It's really only in a couple of spots I found (my front yard and side yard that gets the most sun), but it's grass! Didn't find any in my backyard or other side yard. It really was a pretty small area that I found and I had to look hard but man it felt good. I can only hope in the next few days that it gets even more widespread.

Do I count today as germination day? Or wait until I see more grass babies? Not sure what the usual is.

Begin the paranoid phase of overseeding that I've only read about. Happy about it though.

Side Yard


Front Yard


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Yessss! Grass babies! Congrats! :yahoo:


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## snapdown91 (Mar 11, 2021)

Update. We are 10 DAS and 4 DAG. I consider Wednesday 9/29 to be Germination Day since that's when I saw widespread sprouts. Since then, it's been taking off! I've been pretty happy with it and although some spots are slow and lagging behind, I'm confident it'll atleast look better than it did this past year.







Last night, however, we got about an inch of rain. My side yard has bad drainage and although I know I need to level it and work on it, I obviously can't do that right now. The peat moss has gathered together in rows like my dead grass did after I dethatched. This section was where I had some of my strongest germination.

For anyone reading this - since I'm 4 DAG, is this something I need to fix/worry about? Did this mini-washout affect my current seedlings and do I need to fix this peat moss?


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