# The second time around - bigger, better, wetter.



## david_ (Aug 22, 2019)

I closed on my new-to-me house in DFW in late May. It's been a month of mayhem, but I'm almost ready to start focusing on the lawn.

By my standards, it's big. The lot is 1.2 acres. Take out the structures and pool and I'm left with 30,000-35,000 sqft of maintained lawn. I'm coming from a well-maintained 10k lawn - a mix of Bermuda and St. Augustine. The new house is similar - St. Aug up front and Bermuda out back. The front grass is already 7 out of 10 - other than some Dallisgrass, clover, and a couple weak areas, it's in good shape, partially thanks to consistent septic irrigation. The back is rough - maybe 50/50 grass/weeds. Should be a fun transformation as I bring it back. I plan on growing what I have - no sod or seed. Just fert, plugs, and water. And about water - this time I have a *well *and full irrigation. :bandit:

There's some 100+ year old post oaks bordering the back fence - I plan to leave them plenty of space from the herbicides. I put the kids swing set there, and for now will keep it woodsy / shady. I will only actively hunt poison ivy/oak, mosquitos and fire ants in that area.

I'll post pictures and projects in this thread. I've invested in irrigation and a new sprayer so far. More to come.

The Layout:


Front:


Back..


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## RentalLawn (Jan 4, 2022)

Congrats on the new digs! Yeah, the backyard "baremuda" needs sunlight and nitrogen.

Be sure to to start a new Lawn Journal on here if you're inclined to do so! Progress is amazing to watch!


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## david_ (Aug 22, 2019)

Thanks. For the last couple weeks I've been working through the irrigation system. Overall, it was in fair shape when we moved in: 18 of the 19 zones coming on, but with several mismatched/broken heads and poor alignment. My first goal was to get it working so I can put down pre-emergent and water in.

The well feeds the irrigation, so I got that inspected by a pro. I'm getting 10gpm @ 60psi and 17gpm open flow (not sure which number counts when irrigating?). There is 0.6-1ppm iron in the water, so I'll want to keep it off the house as much as possible to avoid staining. He estimated my well is 125ft. Given those specs, I think in several zones there are too many heads to maintain good pressure. I'll probably end up swapping most of 90+ heads on property to help get even coverage. Digging up these Turf Birds is a beating in this heat:


I got the front yard to working condition last week, and wrapped up the back yard a few days ago. A big help was upgrading the controller to a Wi-Fi one so I could toggle zones remotely. I went with this as I could salvage modules from the controller that came with the house.

I threw down a couple bags of 21-7-14 I had on hand to perk things up in preparation for weed control. I'm almost ready to spray - need to calibrate on my new sprayer.


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## david_ (Aug 22, 2019)

I used a hand-pump 4 gallon backpack sprayer for my previous lawn and I hated it, especially since I had to fill it 3 times to cover the whole place. Once I knew we were getting this property, a pull-behind was a must-buy. Given the lawn size, I went back and forth on the Northstar 31 and 41 gallon units. In the end, I decided I wanted the stronger pump and higher capacity of the 41 gallon.


I'm glad I did - tonight I did my first test run and I went through ~33g on ~31k sqft. I'll get more efficient, but I wasn't even covering all the lawn (still need to fix some irrigation issues by the shed). The sprayer had nice even coverage and I still can't believe I covered 3x my old lawn in probably a third of the time. I'm very happy with it so far.

I did realize I'm going to go w/ low rates on my herbicides as I'm sure I'll overlap as I learn the path/pattern. I'll be spraying 3 month dose of prodiamine and low rates of Celsius and Certainty shortly. This should relieve a lot of pressure on the Bermuda and we'll really start to see it fill in. Thinking about a time lapse.

I was also able to remove an old brick surround for a firepit and fix a drain for gutters:


Some more starting pics:


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## david_ (Aug 22, 2019)

Big morning! Did my first spray application. I loaded up 34 gallons of water and measured chems to cover 29k based on my measurements and two practice runs (water only). Overall, it went really well. Took less than an hour. Would have taken 5x that time with my old 4gallon backpack sprayer. I did have issues getting the last couple gallons out b/c the pickup is bit high. I ended up diluting and spraying out what I could. Not perfect, but not bad.

I continue work on irrigation - correcting spray alignment, adjusting nozzles where needed (low pressure), swapping out old heads. I must be over 40 replaced by now, but it's good enough to water in the pre-emergent.

Chems:
Celsius low rate - 1.6g * 29 = 46.4g
Certainty 1.0 rate - 0.8g * 29 = 23.2g
Prodiamine 6mo rate - 12.25oz

Domination lines forming 1 month in.. Talked to my neighbor with the trailer - I'll be resetting my sprinklers to get close to his driveway to help him out as he has no heads over there.


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## david_ (Aug 22, 2019)

Seeing some progress on Celsius/Certainty, mostly with sedges and broadleaves at this point. I'm curious if it'll knock down the crabgrass at all. That may have to be rectified with good pre-m next year.

I also made an interesting irrigation discovery; my water bill was a bit high this month so I checked all my zones with my well pump off. One of the zones around the house is actually city water as it fired right up. This was a common approach in the area - city water around house and well water in the yard to prevent iron stains. The previous owner(s) have made some significant irrigation changes and it'll take me some time to unwind.


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## david_ (Aug 22, 2019)

Been a busy summer with house projects, but the lawn has made progress. Weed pressure has been building all summer and although it's late in the season, I want to wipe out the dollarweed and clover that has come back. Will be spraying the same cocktail as before, but increasing Celsius rate and adding NIS:

Celsius med rate - 2.4g * 29k = 69.6g
Certainty 1.0 rate - 0.8g * 29k = 23.2g
Prodiamine 6mo rate - 12.25oz
NIS - 1.5tsp * 34 gallon = 1 cup


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