# SoCal_Bermuda's Seeded Blackjack Bermuda Lawn Journal



## SoCal_Bermuda (4 mo ago)

Hello TLF  I've been lurking in this forum for the last year and have finally made an account to share my experience of renovating my lawn! I couldn't of have done it without your insight from the hundreds of threads I've read through though, so I want to thank you for sharing all the useful information on here :thumbup: I had a lot of pics to share but my Ring decided to delete everything stored so I will only have recent pictures..

I purchased my home with a 2600sq ft lawn at the end of 2018 in San Bernardino County and the lawn was just a mix of dying Bermuda, St. Augustine and a ton of weeds. Before finding this forum I didn't even know what type of grass I had, let alone taking care of a lawn. So like any amateur, I started throwing random seeds and fertilizers down but if anything it looked worse than before..

Fast forward to the beginning of this year, I devised a plan based off of all the information I gathered from this forum and decided to take a crack at it.

1st Attempt
May 2022 - right after Gavin Newsom announced that watering will be limited to 1 day a week. Weather was still in the low 70s so I kind of knew i was setting myself up for failure :lol:

Swapped out all my sprinkler heads to MP Rotators
Swapped my old sprinkler controller to a Rachio that I got on sale at Costco!
Glyphosate and water each week for 3 weeks
Mow at lowest setting and vacuum with my Honda HRN216VLA 
Use Sun Joe dethatcher to break apart top layer and use the mower as a vacuum again
Tilled top 4 inches with my Sun Joe tiller
Spread out 2lbs/1000sqft Zenith Zoysia
Spread out The Andersons lawn starter
Rent peat moss roller from HD and put out a thin layer 
Water 3 times a day

1st Attempt 
Started seeing a little bit of germination at 2 weeks but never really continued growing. Instead, the purslane that I previously had in the lawn had completely blanketed everything. So yes, a total failure 

About a week later I came upon a posting from the city I live in and it said that we don't have to follow Newsom's orders because our city has it's own well!

2nd Attempt
2nd week of June 2022 - I decided that I would go with Blackjack Bermuda this time because of its "shade tolerance" as well as the quicker germination time vs. Zenith Zoysia.
Blanket sprayed glyphosate once a week for 2 weeks until everything got fried
Mowed but didn't use the dethatcher or tiller this time around

7/6/2022 Day 0 - Spread about 5lbs/1000sqft of Blackjack Bermuda seed that I got from OutsidePride.com, liquid micro nutrients from Amazon, starter fertilizer, and a thin layer of peat moss. Watered about 4-5 times every day since the daily high was in the high 80s to low 90s
Saw germination at around day 4!

7/25/2022 - first mow to 1.75 since it was still very patchy and some areas were only little seedlings. The Purslane was the worst thing to mow!! It's full of water and would clog up my mower after every pass and leave a mushy mess all over the place.

7/29/2022 - pictures after first application of RGS





7/31/2022 - 1/2lb of N and every week after that. Also started to mow at 1.25" once a day to try and promote some sideways growth



8/3/2022 - sprayed Bifen insecticide





8/5/2022 - blanket sprayed Celcius for the Purslane and started mowing with my Earthwise 7 blade that I swapped the original plastic roller to a metal conveyer roller





8/9/2022 - lawn started yellowing from the Celcius treatment





8/11/2022 - I can see the Purslane is slowly dying





8/21/2022 - just been watching the Purslane die and new Bermuda grow in its place





8/30/2022 - applied Air8 and most of the Purslane is gone!





9/9/2022 - reset hoc for front to .80 and looked pretty bad for a bit



9/10/2022 - hoc reset for back to .80



Post hoc reset pics













Today 09/26/2022











Theres a shady part of my backyard that is a little thin due to the shade that my house is creating, but it is slowly filling in. Now I have to figure out when to apply my Prodiamine and last fertilizer app. Of the season. Still some work to do but I'll get there. Thank you for taking the time to read this!


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