# 2020 Front Yard Renovation - Kill and Seed



## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

After several years of basically nothing but weeds and dirty, I decided to kill off the front yard and start over. I'm a rookie at this, so I likely will make mistakes. The front yard is 5,800 sqft.

*Problem*: 5 river birches that have grown so tall that they blocked sun from the majority of my front yard. Additionally, lot of exposed roots.

*The Plan*: 
- Kill off the weeds with Roundup (done on 4/5)
- Remove the 5 river birches(with stumps) and bushes, convert island back to grass (done 4/14-4/15)
- Bring in a yard or two of dirt to fill in any really bad ruts, but not 'leveling' the front yard.
- Seed with Arden 15. 2lbs/1000sqft from Hancock. Looking at ordering 14lbs to have a bit extra.
- Use hose and oscillating sprinklers until Covid eases. After that install my own in-ground irrigation system.

The Before Pictures....









Here's what it looks like now, after taking out the trees and stumps...

Looking from the back yard up the hill to the street.


Street view


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

I called Hancock seed today. Great people with good advice. Ordered Arden 15 and Millet. Using a 75%/25% ratio of Arden to Millet for a total of 2lbs/1000sqft. Should ship Monday, so sometime mid to late next week I should have my seed.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

Finished cleaning up the mess after taking down the trees. I still need to clean up a bit more.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

So, looking at Arden 15 info, it's wanting soil constantly above 65 degrees. Looking at Soil Temperature tool by GreenCast

It's 69 at 9pm, with an avg of 63. I'm awaiting my contractor to Harley rake the front yard and smooth out with 18yds of soil. I'm looking about May 15th to be ready to seed.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

Soil sample sent in to the UGA County Extension yesterday. The results will be back tomorrow. The contractor to Harley rake the front yard is scheduled for May 16th. Looking at the contractor's cost for 20yds of dirt, I could get the same amount of screened top soil at that price ($450). I verified with him the cost of the harley rake and spreading the soil would the same if I brought in screen soil from somewhere else. He said it didn't matter if I got dirt delivered from someone else.

Worked on pulling out some scrubs from the front of the house, trimming a few others. I started to empty a small pond I have in the front yard. I need clean it out and track down where the water is leaking from the waterfall. The Gorilla Cart was helpful taking all the debris/leaves from the pond out back to dump.

To Do list:

1) Working on figuring out my watering solution. I expect to be back in the office in a week or two. Looking at a hose & osculating sprinkler system with faucet timers. I'll need 3, maybe 4 hoses to water the front yard. I asked for advice in this thread: Watering setup for seeded lawn

2) I need to work our my fertilizer schedule. Before I found this site, I was watching and reading Doc's site. So I have PGF complete, which is just 16-4-8 with some extras, and his super juice. I'll use it this season, since I already have it, but I expect I'll be find other solutions in here for next summer.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

I received my soil test results today. I'm not going to till 6", I'll be adding just under 1" of soil/compost mix to the top yard. A harley rake will combine it in with the soil, about 1-2" deep, and smooth the surface. I'll have to figure out how I want to handle the lime.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

I picked up some Sta-Green Fast Acting Lime, it's calcitic lime. I picked up two 25lb bags, so I could put down 10lbs/k as recommended by @g-man here Fertilizer Plan. Watering it in.

Friday I have soil/compost mix arriving. It will add 3/4" of soil to get mixed in when they Harley rake Saturday. Temps are rising, and I should finally be in the 80's next week, hoping to seed Mon-Wed of next week.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

It's been a few days, but this past weekend things started moving along

So, I picked up some toys







I now have two 4-zone Melnor Bluetooth timers. Each zone can have 12 start times per day. You can set watering times from 1-360min. I couldn't make 4 zones work, so I needed a second one.

I found a used 80lb Lesco spreader on CL.

This past weekend I had 18yds compost/soil mix delivered and a bobcat grade and harley rake the front yard.

















I'm ready to see, but the weather isn't. Not sure how long to wait before planting.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

My hand rake and my back are very envious of your Bobcat! Eager to see how this goes, good luck!


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

@dubyadubya87 Thanks. I think I might be raking my yard too. Two days of rain, 12 more days of rain to go. We'll see how bad it gets. Luckily I haven't seeded yet. It's looking like I wont be able to seed until the first week of June.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

RobotGuy said:


> @dubyadubya87 Thanks. I think I might be raking my yard too. Two days of rain, 12 more days of rain to go. We'll see how bad it gets. Luckily I haven't seeded yet. It's looking like I wont be able to seed until the first week of June.


That has been one of my biggest fears after undertaking all this. My seed investment is a drop in the bucket compared to yours, but still. 
I just have one sloped area I was really worried about, but am relaxing a bit now that I've got sprouts. One thing, I made sure to go over my seeded area repeatedly with the lawn roller just after.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

I bought my seed from Hancock. Their recommended 75% arden-15 and 25% Millet, which should help with erosion. The Millet germinates in 5-7 days. So if I can get a week of no rain, the millet should hold the arden-15 in place. We'll see.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

I tried to put down millet today. Well, I did put it down, and promptly 2hrs later the worst thunderstorm in week was unleashed. I'm pretty sure all the seed is gone. I had pumped out most of the water pond/waterfall to fix some leaks, but the rain storm put a 2" in that pond in 30-45min. My current 10 day forecast seems to be non-stop rain, so I guess I'll stop. I'll wait until I have clear weather then I'll try to smooth the erosion issues.

On a positive note, I was able to determine what setting to use to put down .5lb/k using the Wizz spreader. The little marketing tag on the spreader said it throw 5ft and that the settings are designed for walking at 4ft/s. So that's 40sqft/sec. That means that 25s would cover 1000sqft. I then started testing settings, by pointing the Wizz at a carboard box, Pulling and holding the trigger for 25 seconds. Then I dumped the seeds on to a plate so I could weigh them.

Turns out a setting of 3.25 delivered 7.9 pounds.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Nice reno progress, it looks soooo much better with those birches gone. It's a lot of work but it's worth it.

I'm also going against the rain....most of my topdressing is gone.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

Nice work!

Looking forward to following your progress!


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## sam36 (Apr 14, 2020)

Honestly, with living in Georgia, I'd just do several "half apps" of seed. Something like .5 lbs per 1ksqft. Yea some will get washed away, but some will stick, especially with fresh soft soil like that. You should be able to rake it in real good.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

Well, new 10-day forecast. I guess I'm seeding this weekend. I'm getting a green haze from the millet starting. The past few days have left the lawn with "waves" and 'ruts" from the rain runoff. My plan is to put in a good amount of effort to smooth out the topsoil/compost mix again. The millet has taken to it nicely in 4 days. I'm camping nearby this weekend, so I'll work on the yard Saturday morning until lunch then head up the to campground. Then try to be home by 10:30 on Sunday to finish working on the yard. My goal, put down my Arden-15 (1.5lbs/k) on Sunday.

I'm not sure how working on the lawn will effect the millet. If I have some 'bare' spots late next week, from smoothing out, I will spot seed some more millet. I don't want the arden to wash down the hill. I hoped the seeding of millet last weekend would help. It didn't work out. The daily rain caused damage with erosion that I still need to fix. My concern is not knowing if the millet will survive my fixing the lawn.

if things work out right this weekend, I'll be do my first watering Sunday night.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

FYI, if anyone has a recommendation on how to smooth out the ruts and waves from the rain, please let me know. I'm hoping to avoid hand raking it. That would take me a day or two. I'd gladly spend the money on a tool rental, to make my life easier. Not sure if a power rake would work? Maybe dragging a chain link fence behind a riding lawn mower? Ideally something that would allow me to rake/move the excess top soil/compost back up the hill.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

After seeing what @SWB did to fix his lawn after a washout, I'm going to use a Classed over seeder. I won't be using it to put down seeds but instead to break up the top of the soil and smooth things out. Here's his recommendation and results 65k Yukon Renovation.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

I have 10 days of clear weather (you know I just jinxed that right?) So, did I get a lot of rain? Yup! The pond was about 5" deep last Sunday. The outer 9" is shallower than the middle. The outer 9" is about 2" deep.





The millet is taking hold. Handcock Seed said the millet should sprout back up if I use a Classen over seeder and cover it up. If I don't see the millet by Wednesday I'll put down more seed in the bare spots. I'll likely go light, .25lb/K, in case the existing millet comes back.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

Getting ready to seed and fertilizer this evening. Putting down 1.5lbs/k Arden-15 Bermuda seed. And putting down 5lbs of 10-10-10.

My my Whizz, I did some testing.

A setting of 4 puts out 1lb 7.5oz of Arden-15
A setting of 3.5 puts out 14.5oz
A setting of 3.25 puts out 11.5oz.

I'm going to put down 2 perpendicular passes, so 12oz is the exact rate. I'm going to select the 3.5 setting for first pass, and setting 3.25 for the second pass for a total of 1.6lbs/k. Since I tilled up the yard to fix my erosion from 18 days of rain, I think some of the millet won't recover. So going a little bit heavy won't hurt.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

Ok, long day today. Yesterday was a big fail for working on my lawn. I wanted to rent a self-propelled overseeder. I didn't want it to put down seed, I wanted it to break up the surface. The Home Depot 30min away, in a another city had one. Turns out Home Depot rental department thought they had a self-propelled overseeder, but they only had a push version. That thing it way to heavy to push on my lawn. So after another hour was lost returning the overseeder.

So I texted my boss asking for Monday off to take care of seeding my lawn. I promptly called Sunbelt Rentals, since the have the self-propelled overseeder on their website. Nope, they don't have one, just the push version. Finally I went to the HD near me and see what I could make work. I looked at the large Mantis lightweight tiller and a large walk behind. I choose the Mantis. The tines are similar to a overseeder and I was afraid the large walk behind would go too deep.

For my 10-10-10, I set the lesco at 14, which should be about 5-7#/k

So I tilled, raked, pulled out roots, seeded, fertilized, and bought some straw rolls for the hill. Started at 8am, finished at 9:30p. I needed a headlamp to seed and fertilize.

Next steps: Put down straw and straw rolls tonight. Get a couple more hoses so I can keep sprinklers in place. Setup my melnor timer so watering happens automatically. I'm nervous about the sprinklers on the top that will water the flat areas that have a light coat of straw but also hit the slope cover in a straw roll. The straw roll will area will take longer to dry out. I'm going to focus on the the time needed for the flat area, since that's what people will see when they drive by.

Here are the obligatory photos.

Here's how the tiller did, before raking.


Main Front Yard




Small 500sqft area on the other side of the driveway.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

Sounds like a long day, but I think you've checked all the boxes and done all that can be done to put your yard in the best position to thrive. Looking forward to seeing some bermuda sprouts!


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

dubyadubya87 said:


> Sounds like a long day, but I think you've checked all the boxes and done all that can be done to put your yard in the best position to thrive. Looking forward to seeing some bermuda sprouts!


Thanks. Putting down straw tonight and cleaning up. Also, getting 3 more sprinklers added to my Melnor timers, so I get scheduled waterings without having to move a sprinkler.

Side note: The Bluetooth connectivity with the Melnor time is meh at best. If you' re only using a schedule, no problem. But the Bluetooth issues make manual operation a bit of PITA. I'm going to look at hacking the Bluetooth communication to see if I can put a Raspberry Pi on the WiFi network, then have the pi speak Bluetooth to the melnor. I get really motivated I might see about trying to control the timer directly from an Arduino. We'll see, I'll need to have a free timer to play with first.

Now that I don't have a lot on my plate, I can start planning for a fall renovation of the backyard with fescue


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

So, I put down my Arden-15 seed and 10-10-10 on June 1st, and covered it with wheat straw. I found a local supplier for wheat straw blankets, since I will have erosion problems on the hill. Here's some photos everything covered. I've been watering daily every 2-3hrs for 10-15min depending on the time of day and how hot it is. It's been 17 days, I'll post current lawn picks tomorrow. I think I should have more bermuda than I have, but I knew it wouldn't be all unicorns and rainbows. I'm going to switch my watering to be 2, maybe 3 times a day to get a deep soak. Once I get the Bermuda to take hold, I'm going to have to push it, unless something surprising happens in the next week. I'll put down more fertilizer in the next 7-10 days. I'll have to figure out how and what to use to "spoon feed nitrogen" to push the bermuda.

Top of the front yard


The hill with erosion blankets on it.


The small section on the other side of the driveway.


I also fixed a erosion problem in my flower beds. A down spout eroded a tunnel under my walk way. So I opened it up slightly and put in corrugated pipe. I tied the pipe in to an existing french drain pipe. Finally I tied the down spout in to the pipe.


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## RobotGuy (Apr 23, 2020)

Ok, day 18. Here's how it looks. So, with the Millet I used to help fight erosion, it's survived. I put down millet, waited a week due to rain. Then I used a rototiller to gently fix the erosion damage. I wasn't sure the millet would come back. It did, all the tall green you see is the millet. Since my bermuda is still young, I don't dare using the lawn mower. Maybe this weekend I'll get a line trimmer out and carefully trim the millet.

Since I have some germination, I'm looking at doing fewer waterings. Likely 2 deep soakings (20min) and one keep moist (10min). I'll put out some more 10-10-10 next weekend. I need to see what I can do to try to encourage it mature faster so I can start spoon feeding nitrogen to push it to cover bare spots.

Any advice on watering or fertilizer, please post. Always looking for advice, since I'm a rookie here and still learning.





Here you can see the larger one, but to the right of it you can see single leaf sprouts.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

Bermuda babies!


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