# Dsbuckle's Lawn Journal 2018



## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

A little about my lawn:

We are going on our 5th year in our house. We were the first on the block in a new neighborhood. My first yard was TIF 419 put down in December 2013 right before we moved in. It never grew that good the following year, was patchy, had a lot of dirt build up from the blowing dirt on the empty lots around me, etc. So I had my landscaper come back the following year in May 2015, when I knew that sod was actively green, and cut out my old yard and replace with fresh TIF 419. This will be my lawns 3rd year.

I only have grass in my front yard, pool and turf in the back.

I did do some sanding here and there to fill it gaps between the sod pieces, and other problem areas, but have never done a total yard sanding. I am overall pretty smooth, but do think that I will be sanding this year to make it "pool table" smooth.

I sure am glad that I found this forum, and am soaking in all the information. I am most excited about the PGR. I grew up in a farming family, and we used PGR's for years on cotton. Never knew it's use on grass! Most years, I start out around 1/4"-1/2" height after scalping, but wind up around 1.5" or as high as my Tru-Cut will go by the end of the season, from missing a mow here and there for summer vacation, etc.

My neighbors hire out their lawn services (chemicals/fertilizers/reel mowing). But they always comment every year, how my yard always looks better than theirs. 

Anyway, I figured this would be a good place to document this years progress, where I will be incorporating a lot of tips, tricks, and knowledge I have gained here in this forum.

So far this year, I applied Pre-Em late February, and then scalped my yard the week of March 5th. I began weekly mowings last week. I took my Tru-Cut in for service after the first mow, hoping to get it back this week for another mow. Otherwise I will HAVE TO borrow @bauc54's Swardman while he is out of town! :lol:

This picture was last Saturday 3/24


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## gijoe4500 (Mar 17, 2017)

That's a neat looking house. Some low voltage lighting out front with the right shrubs would make it really stand out and look awesome at night!


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

gijoe4500 said:


> That's a neat looking house. Some low voltage lighting out front with the right shrubs would make it really stand out and look awesome at night!


Thank you!

My wife is in charge of the beds, she likes to redo them every year. We usually wait till after Easter because of the typical late freeze in our area.

I'm a low voltage guy by trade! My whole house is LED, and I have 18LEDs on the exterior! Ill post a night time pic later this evening.

Here is an overhead view I took a couple of years ago with my drone. You can see some of the lighting just before dark.


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## gijoe4500 (Mar 17, 2017)

dsbuckle said:


> gijoe4500 said:
> 
> 
> > That's a neat looking house. Some low voltage lighting out front with the right shrubs would make it really stand out and look awesome at night!
> ...


I'm looking forward to seeing that picture! part of me wants to do some low voltage lighting at my place, but I don't think it'll look right with how plain my house is.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

I'm not a very good photographer. Seems a little washed out.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Today I was a local hardware store and found a Digital PH meter. "Rapitest Digital Soil Ph Meter".

For $10 bucks thought I'd give it a try.

I came home and tested my yard in several spots. Around 12 spots. All readings were 4.8-5.0.

Couple of questions:

1) Should I trust the accuracy of this meter?
2) Ideal PH should be between 5.5-7.0 correct?
3) Should I attempt to raise it?

So far this year I have
1) Had my landscaper put down Pre-Em
2) Put down Milorganite
3) Put down GrubEx yesterday after I noticed Grackels hunting/eating grubs.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Should also mention that for reference I tested some of my plant pots and they were around 6-6.3. Most of these have bagged top soil and potting mix.


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## raldridge2315 (Jul 1, 2017)

dsbuckle said:


> Today I was a local hardware store and found a Digital PH meter. "Rapitest Digital Soil Ph Meter".
> 
> For $10 bucks thought I'd give it a try.
> 
> ...


Get a professional soil test and throw that thing away. The probes that the laboratories use cost several hundred dollars. There is a reason why. They also compare to standard pH solutions to ensure accuracy. A Waypoint test is only $16.50 the last time I checked. I would never adjust pH without a good test.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Not saying that it can't be correct, but typical Lubbock pH values are around 8.0.


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## Llano Estacado (Jul 18, 2017)

dsbuckle said:


> A little about my lawn:
> 
> We are going on our 5th year in our house. We were the first on the block in a new neighborhood. My first yard was TIF 419 put down in December 2013 right before we moved in. It never grew that good the following year, was patchy, had a lot of dirt build up from the blowing dirt on the empty lots around me, etc. So I had my landscaper come back the following year in May 2015, when I knew that sod was actively green, and cut out my old yard and replace with fresh TIF 419. This will be my lawns 3rd year.
> 
> ...


Nice place! Is that mistletoe in the tree? I'm also a fellow Tru Cut owner. Who do you have service yours? I used Howards last season. Didn't have mine sharpened this year just back lapped it myself at home. And I completely agree about PGR. That stuff is a game changer.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Llano Estacado said:


> Nice place! Is that mistletoe in the tree? I'm also a fellow Tru Cut owner. Who do you have service yours? I used Howards last season. Didn't have mine sharpened this year just back lapped it myself at home. And I completely agree about PGR. That stuff is a game changer.


Sorry, somehow missed your comment.

Yes, that is Mistletoe, I missed out on cutting it out this past winter. I plan on doing that in the fall.

Lubbock Power & Lawn services my mower. They are located on 120th and Indiana.

My Neighbor uses Howards, its just all the way across town for me. I have used Lubbock Power & Lawn who used to be Lubbock Saw & Knife to service all my reels for over 10 years. They always do good work, and are fairly priced. $119 to sharpen the reel. They wont/dont do a backlap, says he would rather sharpen. I have never backlapped, but will probably try it this year. I have/had been taking my reel in once per year for sharpening, I could probably extend that to every other year if I did the backlapping myself.


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## Llano Estacado (Jul 18, 2017)

Back lapping is pretty straight forward. I've got some lapping compound if you need some. Doesn't take much, I've got about a pint which will last a LONG time.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Llano Estacado said:


> Back lapping is pretty straight forward. I've got some lapping compound if you need some. Doesn't take much, I've got about a pint which will last a LONG time.


Thanks for the offer! When the time comes I'll hit you up!


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Been a while since my last update. I did some sanding yesterday.
I got 3 yards of sand, and used about 2.5 of it.
I borrowed @bauc54 Swardman with the brush attachment to work it into the canopy.
Im not very good at remembering to take pictures, but I put about 1/2 inch of sand over everything, and a little thicker in the low spots. There was no green to be seen after spreading the sand.

I drug the sand around with my drag to level, and then ran the brush over it to work it in. The brush seemed to work like a vacuum! The sand just dissappeared! I saved some of the sand for some spot leveling in the coming days.

Temps yesterday were in upper 90's, and supposed to be the same for the next several days. Should fill in nicely, and be well on my way for the growing season!

Some Before Pictures







After


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## Llano Estacado (Jul 18, 2017)

Looks great!


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## raldridge2315 (Jul 1, 2017)

Llano Estacado said:


> Looks great!


+1


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Are you sure you put sand on that yard?


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

So, I mowed Thursday, and then sanded. Friday there were several Seed Heads, so I mowed again. Sunday, it had grown another 1/2", so I mowed again. Today same thing, mowed again. Im trying to maintain a 1/4" HOC, and on Sunday/Today I caught a full basket and a half with my TruCut 27. I have been putting down 1.5# of N since the first of March, and also 2 doses of Milorganite. I may have awoken the beast!

I am going out of town on Thursday and wont return until Sunday which will be 4 days. It will probably get out of hand, so I will be applying PGR tomorrow to hopefully hold it off some.

These pictures are from just now after about a 1/4" of rain. Our first rain in several months!





Still have a few SDS that I wanted to fill in more before PGR, but hopefully the PGR will encourage the horizontal growth to speed that up.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

On another note, not Lawn related, but I have a new project going on this year as well.

Hydroponic Greenhouse.

I started half of my plants on 4/24 and the rest on 4/30. This will be a fun hobby I hope.

These pictures were taken 1 week after transplanting from soil to my Hydro Pots





And these were taken today 3 weeks later





Excuse the Beer can, it is for reference!! This plant was smaller than the can just over a week ago!


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

That root system is crazy! Very cool.


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## Llano Estacado (Jul 18, 2017)

dsbuckle said:


> These pictures are from just now after about a 1/4" of rain. Our first rain in several months!


Lucky! We didn't get a drop in Shallowater. Thankful some fell somewhere on the Llano today!


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Lots of great stuff going on in this thead! Looking good @dsbuckle


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

That's a neat system that you have there. I found myself watching a fellow who builds aquaponic systems in Honduras for some of the missions that they have there that were pretty impressive with the IBC totes and lots of sturgeon. Made it pretty sustainable after a few months once the levels got normalized and some beneficial algae were created for the fish (duckweed).


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Put down some PGR last night. Leaving today for the Byron Nelson gonna miss at least 1 mow while I'm gone. Have @bauc54 checking on my yard. He might get double mow duty this weekend!


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Sadly just 5 days after my first PGR app, we had baseball sized hail. Didn't look to bad from afar, but a closer look and my yard looked like a golf course practice green!





Did a little light sanding to help fill in the bigger ones, added some 29-0-4 and just a week later it looks to be almost 100% recovered.









Still have a few SDS that are about filled in, and an area up near the house and sidewalk that is always last to green because it gets the most shade.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Forgot to add this picture. Mowing just under a 1/2". About 3/8ish


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Recovered nicely from that pounding of those huge hailstones that you guys showed in pictures earlier. Those were some monstrous hail stones.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Very nice!


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## Llano Estacado (Jul 18, 2017)

Looking great


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Verticut and ran scarifyer last week.


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

One week post verticutting


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

The verticutting took out a lot more debris that I thought it would. About 9 50 gallon trash cans full! It really stresses the yard for about three days looked really thatchy and yellow. Then I applied my monthly dose of 29-0-4. Today a week later it's almost back in action. My yard looks really good. I still can't get a uniform color though. I have several dark spots as seen in the pictures. I sprayed some FEature down tonight to see if that would even it out. The dark areas are really green. Almost black.

Had a much needed 1/2 of rain yesterday. And looks like might get some more today.

Fertilizer - Iron - Rain. Should be really popping again.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

That verticutter or whatever appears to have done wonders, now looks like carpet!

Is your profile out of date re Equipment ?  Thought maybe you have a swardman ....maybe a van haus ?


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

jayhawk said:


> That verticutter or whatever appears to have done wonders, now looks like carpet!
> 
> Is your profile out of date re Equipment ?  Thought maybe you have a swardman ....maybe a van haus ?


My brother in law @bauc54 has the Swardman. I borrow from time to time for certain tasks.

I actually will be running it tomorrow on his lawn while he is in Taiwan for the week.

Like driving a different car once per month. It's fun! But I still love my TruCut!


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## dsbuckle (Mar 6, 2018)

Had to share this photo too from the wifey.


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