# Lamontjb's lawn journal el paso tx bermuda



## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

Thanks inadvance for any advice anyone is willing to give me. I've always enjoyed nice grass and over the last decade, ive moved 6 times. Good thing is that ive been able to experience different issues. Ive manually sodded 3 of those 6 yards (im never anywhere long enough to enjoy a seeded yard and even feel guilty sodding because i feel like its cheating). My current yard is tiny (625 sqft). I sodded 3 months after moving and which i did it earlier.

I currently live in El Paso, Tx. I laid celebration Bermuda. These before pictures were taken on 21may2018


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

Picked up a pallet of celebration bermuda on 15June2018. I decided to pick it up myself to aviod $125 delievery fee. Big mistake because i likely exceeded the load of my truck, but took it real slow and got home safe. Ill never do that again.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Anxious to see pics of the finished product!


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## nt5000 (Jun 13, 2018)

lamontjb said:


> Picked up a pallet of celebration bermuda on 15June2018. I decided to pick it up myself to aviod $125 delievery fee. Big mistake because i likely exceeded the load of my truck, but took it real slow and got home safe. Ill never do that again.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

Almost forgot, i prepped the yard by renting a tilling machine. Honestly, not sure if that did a lot since the ground was super hard. I mean, that last pic was mid may and i didnt even see any weeds growing in my yard, so im getting nervous that laying sod won't work. I tilled as much as i could then added one yard of topsoil/compost mix. I then raked as much as i could to help level out the ground. Hindsight, i wish i spent more time on this phase. Im not sure if topdressing and leveling with a mat would have given me a good flat surface. I do think it would have helped


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

The pallet got me about 550sqft. By the way, i paid about .62 cents a sqft. This didnt seem like a lot until later when i started calculating how much it would cost to lay a larger yard, or dream yard. Anyways, i came up about 75 sqft short, which i knew would happen, but also knew i could fit more than a pallet on the truck (but didnt know i shouldnt have even done that). Frustrating thing was, whe. I placed a new order, i could pick up the extra 100 sqft until the next third workday... so because of my work schedule, the yard looked like this for about 10 days.

The kids had fun pushing the drum. I had rolled the laid sod at 25% full drum, then 50%, thrn 75%, then 100%. I emptied it back to 25% so they could push it. Hindsight- i should have rented a trailor and bought more sod than i needed. Laying all in one day would have been much better, especially since i had no plan to rent the roller the second time around.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

10 days later, i picked up the 100 sq ft and finished the job. This was a pain because some of the 10day old sod had started growing out. I used an old kitchen knife to cut new straight edges so that the new and old pieces fit nicely. I had slight issues leveling new and old, but only in one edge so a win all around.

25June2018


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

28june2018

Grass is starting to fad together. Lots of water


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

I decided to drop some sand in some areas that were low. Not a real leveling job because the grass was so new i didnt want to stress it. I got the sand from chapparel gravel and sand: http://www.chaparralsand.com/sand_gravel_products.html

Paid $7 for about 600 lbs. I used about 400 lbs.

I continue to be stubborn and use my own truck. A few days later, i found a nail in one of my tires... so probably not saving me $ in long run.

01jul2018


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

08jul2018


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## Thor865 (Mar 26, 2018)

lamontjb said:


> 08jul2018


Looks awesome 👍👍


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

10july2018. I started noticing some trouble spots since about 07july. Each day they are getting worse. It hasnt even been the hottest time in the last couple of weeks. I am wattering every day for 30minutes at 0730. I think irrigation is good, but i could be wrong... if i water more than 30minutes, i start to get a large puddle at tge lowest point in the yard, where i intended for the water to drain out the yard.

I just put down milorganite and so i am hoping it just needed some food.

Can anyone provide ideas?


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## Ral1121 (Mar 19, 2018)

Yard is looking good.

On the tilling, it is a tually better if the tiller did not do much. Reason being is it is hard to till at the same height through out the whole yard. The ground will then settle at different rates leading to an unlevel lawn over time. There are also some other reasons though too that I have forgotten. Maybe someone else will be by to explain those. Even so you yard looks really good.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

Just a reminder that this is only a 625sqft area, which makes a few bare spots much morr significant. I wouldnt stress this if i had 6,000 sqft. Ill reassess is a week when i think i should start seeing the fertilizer do something. I cut every two days using a manual push reel mower. As of a week ago, i started bagging.


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## nt5000 (Jun 13, 2018)

:thumbup: Scott's classic! Luddites unite!


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## nt5000 (Jun 13, 2018)

I'm new here but I'm gonna guess what they'll suggest.
-screwdriver test for foreign/buried objects.

Bro-in-lawn would say put some sand on it (his answer for everything)

What about baby shampoo for those spots!? :?

Edit: Looking closer now... do they look like high/scalp spots where the dirt is higher?


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

I do not think it is scalping, because I instantly know when I do that and gringe. although I agree thats what it looks like. The first spot is actually where I thought I may have put too much sand.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

A couple close ups of the first area that started concerning me on 08july. You may be able to see the sand.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

Anyone willing to suggest one of four options:

1) Rake the area to dethatch and loosen soil
2) aerate using some manual plugger system (not sure what, but im sure something exists)
3) leave it alone and do nothing
4) something else you recommend

12july


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## nt5000 (Jun 13, 2018)

Now that I see the close ups the leaves look damaged in the spots, whatever that means......like from a chemical that was on the ground before (oil or something?)

What's in the bucket?

I'm sure some high quality h2o wouldn't hurt the spots.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

The bucket is just a collection of grass clippings and leaves from that day's cutting. Nothing i put on the lawn.


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## nt5000 (Jun 13, 2018)

I'm surprised none of the more knowledgeable guys have chimed in yet!


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## Ahab1997 (Jun 30, 2018)

I wonder if this is a time to look into the stuff from Greene County Fert (http://www.greenecountyfert.com/). The soil below that sod didn't look to be super high quality, so maybe breaking it up with Air8 and getting some humic and RGS in there (along with a fert program) could be what the bermuda needs. Anything that jump-starts the root cycling effect would be helpful.

Just a thought.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

The brown areas might be dry or hydrophobic spots that repel water. Commercially, I use either the pellets that go into the hose end dispenser or else I use one of the purpose formulated products from Aquatrols. For your own lawn, I would try 4 oz of dish liquid in a hose end gun followed by more water. I am also curious as to the pH and base concentrations/ratio of your soil.

If you have an irrigation system, dry spots in hot weather can mean the sprinklers are not covering as evenly as you thought. These days I am working on a certain amount of that. After raining almost every day 12 months out of the year for the past 7 years, we have truly warm and dry weather in Honolulu. People are finding out that their irrigation system is not up to task. My normal correction includes making the irrigation system distribute water as uniformly as possible and then scheduling the controller so an inch of water is applied per week.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

15jul2018. Looking nice today. Trouble spots are still there but have not gotten worse and no new spots emerge, which was my greatest fear. Since a few suggestions point to irrigation, i will do a tuna can test in the trouble areas vs other areas and see.

I picked up the rotary scissor head attachment and a ego power+ string trimmer. Unfortunatly i did not do my homework because while i thought i had purchased the string trimmer with detachable arm, it was not. Tge st1502sf has a power cord go all the way to tge string trimmer head, where as the trimmer that ward shows has a spinning shaft. Anyways, the kit that ward shows in his video is now on order and the st1502sf will be going back to home depot. The st1502sf looked awesome by the way. Immediate power at a squeeze of a trigger. Knowing i can trim without fear of being a loud neighbor is going to be awesome.


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## lamontjb (Jun 24, 2018)

21jul2018. Got a lot of rain last week and a couple areas that i was worried about looks a lot better... so i guess i need to extend my watering times a tad (20% maybe). Grass looks great though and i can honestly say that while this is the smallest lawn ive ever had, it is the best looking lawn.

I just got my ego power+ tools yesterday and attached the rotary scissor head. The setups was a lot heavier than i expected, but i loved that it wasnt gas powered. I am also using the edger attachment so i finally have nice edges whereas before, i messed up and scalped the lawn because i just wasnt experienced enough.

I do wish i had the weed eater attachment for certain areas, so i might look into finding just the pole portion.


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