# Robertgagnon726's Lawn Journal - Yukon Bermuda



## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

So last fall, I fell off the roof trying to get the leaves off it. Ladder slipped from under me. In a spiteful vengeance, I had 15 trees removed, which turned my "yard" into a mud pit:




Needles to say, I was beyond ready to plant some grass. To make it worse, I have two dogs who love to track clay into the house. I seeded Tall Fescue in the front on March 12th and the backyard on March 30th. I plug aerated and used a tow behind de-thatcher to tear up the dirt before each. Then applied starter fertilizer 5 days after throwing down the seed. This is what what the backyard looked like on June 1st:









And the front yard on April 30th:


By the end of May, I realized I have a ridiculous obsession with a nice looking lawn. The fact that I've been golfing more recently only made it worse. I decided, I want my yard to look like a fairway, and that I'd like a putting green out there at some point in my life. I ordered 10 pounds of Yukon Bermuda seed to plant in the front yard, 8,000 sf. I know it's not enough seed but I wasn't fully committed at that point. The bermuda will spread anyway so I didn't see the point in spending an extra couple hundred on it.

I had 2 1/2 yards of mortar sand delivered and leveled the lawn with a mix of that and bagged topsoil(A terrible idea. It was full of wood chips which isn't terrible, but now I have a manual reel mower which I mow at 1/2" with and it turns something I love doing into a bit of a chore). There's a lot more leveling to be done, but I just wanted to get to the point where I'd be able to mow low without tearing up the lawn mower blades and scalping half the lawn. I also dug up a lot of the roots from trees that were removed. The blisters on my hands still haven't completely healed and this was on June 8th.

Before seeding, bagged the lawn at the lowest setting, de-thatched and bagged, and plug aerated the yard. After laying down the seed, I pulled the de-thatcher around to work the seed in a bit. Then I applied starter fertilizer 5 days after seeding.

This is what the lawn looked like on June 22nd:


Here is what it looks like today:
















Looking back, I should've been patient and killed the weeds and fescue(The dense green is weeds and fescue, just beccause). Lesson learned... It's just so hard to be patient sometimes. Waiting for grass to grow basically like watching paint dry, except it lasts months. I would've also leveled more and removed the remaining roots instead of electing to wait. All in all, I'm excited about what it's going to be one day. You can't really tell from the pictures, but the yukon is starting to come in nicely. I'll continue to mow at 1/2" in hopes that it encourages it to spread. Mowing every other day with a manual reel mower is definitely a workout. Been doing it before work to wake me up :lol:

I fertilized 1/2 pound of N last saturday and around 1/2 pound today. I plan to apply 1/2 pound every week to encourage spread and fescue/weed takeover. I still haven't applied herbicide but I probably will in the middle of July. Still haven't settled on which one to apply. Probably a liquid though.


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

Well I ended up ordering some Celsius last night and plan on broadcast spraying it when it comes in. I just finished cutting it again and the weeds have been growing like crazy with the fertilizer. Even though I'd rather have weeds than dirt, I guess I'll have to do this at some point anyway.

I think it's incredible how much better it looks from yesterday. When I grew the fescue, it seemed like a consistent slow roll. But with the bermuda, it started off super slow and then just started to take off.

I've also been thinking about how high to cut the lawn. I've been cutting it at 1/2" but the reel mower has been getting caught on the mulch bits from the bagged topsoil. When I was cutting it down, it wasn't nearly as bad when I cut it at 3/4". Will I notice a difference for the growth rate if I raise the height a bit?

I'm planning on getting a gas reel mower too. I'm curious if I should wait until the mulch isn't an issue anymore. Like if the gas ones have some mechanism to stop the reel before it gets damaged beyond repair? I don't mind tearing up the manual one but I'd get annoyed if I had to keep buying replacement reels.


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

I realized today that the fertilizer I just put down was slow release so I got some of Gordon's 20-0-0 and put down 1/2#. Hopefully I didn't burn the lawn


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

I keep having this internal debate of whether to keep the tall fescue or put down a zoysia. I just really doesn't like how course the fescue is, but it's easy to take care of. Also if I have zoysia, I wouldn't have to use a different mower on the front and backyard.

I can't do Bermuda in the back because of the amount of shade.


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

So I mowed today and decided I had to bring the height up until I level it and the wood chips are more broken down. I made a height chart when I got the mower and I realized I was mowing at 3/8". Whoops. Brought it up to 3/4" and it only caught once or twice. It was so nice lol but there wasn't any point in me mowing that high. Only a few weeds were cut at that height since I mowed two days ago. It was infinitely easier to push without catching on some uneven spots and the wood chips. I think right now, I'm just going to push out buying a gas powered reel.

I also applied some Lawn Star Liquid Aerator to the backyard. I have two dogs and a heavy clay lawn. Even with plug aerating, the dog pee destroys it. But looking at the ingredients, I realized that the Lawn Star is way overpriced for what I'm getting so I order Aerify and Natures Magic.

Lawn Star Liquid Aerator:
3% Humic Acid
2% Fulvic Acid
1% Amino Acid
Cost per ounce of humic and fulvic acid (at 1 gallon pricing) - $10.91

Aerify:
60% Ammonium Laurel Sulfate
40% Other Ingredients

Natures Magic:
58.2% Humic Acid
41.8% Seaweed
Cost of humic acid and seaweed acid (at 1 gallon pricing) - $0.21

I'm the king of over thinking, but at 2% the cost of Lawn Star for the actual ingredients, I'd say it paid off this time. The only downside is that it doesn't have amino acids. I'm tired of researching now but I'll look into it later. I can't help but think now that Lawn star is the equivalent to a bag of chips. It looks like so much, but then you open the bag and find it half full. Once you read the bag, you realize it's all marketing.

Seriously considering doing away with the fescue in the back and ordering some Zoysia sod to plug throughout. I'd sod the whole thing but I'm just cheap. If I can save a dollar, I will. I feel like I'll regret plugging instead of all sod, but I'll deal with it.


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

So yesterday I was spraying Nitrogen on my front and then humic acid and aerify in the back. I was using the chapin 4 gallon backpack sprayer and it just quit working. I've only had it for a month so I was able to return it but it was still annoying. I didn't want to leave the job half done so I finished with my 2 gallon manual sprayer. Never. Again. On the positive side, a cold beer never tasted so good. Just got back from Northern tool and picked up the 31 gallon tow behind broadcast/spot sprayer. I am beyond excited to use it. I've also decided switch up my fertilizer and am about to order water soluble urea and then eventually all the extras. Need to get in contact with my ag extension to do a soil test first.

Either way, the yukon is really starting to look nice in some areas. I'll have to plug the rest of the yard at some point so I'm trying to figure out how long to wait until it's mature enough. Also plan to spray the celsius next week.


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

Broadcast sprayed celsius on the front lawn and Roundup by the mailbox area. The boom sprayer makes life so much easier.

Read a study that said most of the urea is unavailable two/two and a half days so I'm thinking about spraying .25# N twice a week to really push the growth.

Also took a few plugs yesterday, hopefully they survive. Waiting until 7/27 to measure progress. If good, I plan on plugging as much as I can.

Here are some progress pictures:









And the plugs(5 in total):


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## robertgagnon726 (Jun 29, 2020)

This is what it looked like on Wednesday, July 15th:


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## Kizzle65 (Jan 24, 2020)

Starting to get there bud. Yeah TopSoil is the devil's child. It's nothing but a marketing junk scheme. Seeing bags say TopSoil is super misleading until you start opening it. I planted two different beds of Yukon, one with left over miracle grow and another with TopSoil (thinking it was dirt and me being cheap). In 3 weeks, I have cut the miracle bed 3 times and the TopSoil is barely covering the bed. I almost think to start over with the second bed and get further ahead instead of the TopSoil/bark mulch "soil". lol


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