# Dono1183's Hill Country Lawn Journal



## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

After reading so many journals over the last 8 months, I figured it was time to jump on in. I can't thank the users on this forum enough for all of the help you provide. It's been a lot of fun learning on here.
We moved into our house in April of 2021. The previous owner just mowed everything over, and had created a lot of exposed rock sections as there wasn't really any turf to speak of. He had also not controlled the sand bur problem on the property. Once we started to get things greening up, we found out that most of our front yard was infested with sand burs, and there were large patches of sand burs in the back of the lot as well. Below is where we started off.



Looking at the house from the back yard.



Looking to the back of the property.



I figured the first year, I would let the grasses and plants do their thing, and see what we were working with. I also took down the play set as we don't have kids, and got rid of the old sheds that were in disrepair. Once the spring swung in, we realized how bad the sticker bur situation was, so I started to glypho it, and added on Ike's sand bur pre-em. It's helped some, but it was a super heavy infestation. We also saw that we had some bermuda, so I began encouraging that around the front of the house, driveway, and back yard. Some did better than others. I've also allowed the lower portion of the property to go native and will only be mowed one time per year.

View from the old patio with growth on lower portion of lot.



Front Yard after glypho of sand burs. (Most of this area is King Ranch Blue Stem which I will be addressing this year.)



I got some great common bermuda growth in the southern side yard, as well as the barren rocky patch next to the driveway. That area was used to park on, and was seriously just rock. A true testament that bermuda will basically grow anywhere.

Side Yard






Rocky area next to driveway:



After living in the house for a few months, we took down the old deck, and replaced it with a solid patio. This of course tore up most of the back yard area from the equipment and masonry work. But I took the chance to get some soil in and added a pallet and a half of celebration bermuda. It took well, and looks nice. I'll be doing the rest of the upper area with celebration in March.
Old Deck:


Construction:






Post Construction before sod:



With Sod:





Neat sky with a big rainbow just for grins:


I mowed the front yard as low as I could and seeded it with PRG. It did ok. The mounds of King Ranch Bluestem (KRB) blocked a lot of the seed. But it did provide a nice green lawn for us over the winter which was nice. A lot better than when we bought the house the prior January anyways.





Then last month I found a good deal on a cal trimmer on FB marketplace. So I have started using that on the yard.



We've also planted some trees on our property line to provide some privacy from our neighbors as they sit higher than us on the hill. They're very nice folks, but we need some distinction between the properties as we don't have a fence. In order to plant the Crape Myrtles, I had to get in there with a jack hammer. We are on a shelf, and man, that limestone can be a pain to work in. But we got some good holes in, and hopefully they'll have survived over the winter.

I started scalping the bermuda, and I've been doing that in phases. I'll post some pics once I have it done. I'm looking forward to tracking the progress this year, and learning from all y'all on here.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Mowed the large native area in the back of our lot yesterday with a brush hog. It took a couple of hours due to the different levels of the lot. Running that thing up hill and then turning it was not very easy, but I only do it once a year. Ran into a whole bunch of field mice as I was going. This explains how the cats are always finding more mice to eat.



Here you can see how tall the grass was.



I still have some cleanup weed eating to do. But I'm going to pass on that today. It's about 36* and windy with a drizzle. Yesterday was tough due to the cold and wind, but I guess that's better than hot and dusty. 🤷🏼‍♂️


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Ended up doing one last pass on the back yard and side yard to try and encourage some greening in the Bermuda. The rescue grass is still going strong, and I think it'll be another month before it dies out. But at least it provides some green.



The area on the left is going to get scraped in the next couple of weeks. We'll be adding top soil and then sodding w celebration Bermuda.



And just for fun, I've added a photo of my soccer game today. It's 419, and it's always interesting to see how it compares to home.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Did a quick mow, to get some more dead material off the small Bermuda patch. It's starting to get some more green in it. I'm not sure if it will show up in the images. Hopefully it will be very green in a couple of weeks. The fertilizer I applied to the front yard really helped the rye, but I'm still not getting much growth out of it despite the warmer weather.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Friday and Saturday will be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to finishing out the back yard. I have a guy coming over to scrape around 3,500 sq. ft. and do some grading. I also have 12 yards of soil being delivered for him to spread into areas that are rocky, and need help. Then Saturday, I'm having 7 pallets of celebration bermuda delivered. I have some guys coming to help me get it laid down, and hopefully our crazy winter won't cause me too much trouble with very low temperatures expected. I'm excited about having a real back yard this summer where I can walk around barefoot. 🙂 The colored areas are being graded and sodded.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got the addition to the backyard started today. 38* and wind chill of 17* was a bit of a whopper, but the 37 MPH gusts definitely helped get the excess organic material off the ground. :lol: A guy in my neighborhood does bobcat work, and he came over to do the job. He was very judicious with the soil, and did a good job implementing my requests. 


I ordered my soil from Kinser Ranch. They were great. They have a lot of options, and their prices are really reasonable. The mix I got was 25% granite sand, 25% loam, and 50% compost. I ordered 12 yards, but having completed everything now, I could have used another 8 lol.



Tomorrow I'm getting the sod delivered, and we'll see if that suffices to cover the areas that we are looking to improve. This area right off of our patio is the main renovation space. We spend a lot of time over here, and I want to make sure it turns out well. The area on the left is almost entirely rock less than 1/10" down. So I had him focus on that area the most to ensure that the sod would be able to put roots down and hold water.



A couple spots had some big rocks so we got those removed.



The end result was a nice level surface with quite a bit of new soil throughout the areas that will be sodded.









I also ended up adding a lot more soil next to the driveway than I was hoping to. There was about a 6 inch drop from the concrete to the "soil". So that area will now be sodded despite there having been common bermuda there previously.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got the sod laid down today. My buddy who's a GC sent over three guys to help out which made it a lot easier. We got all seven pallets laid down in just over 2 hours. It turned out pretty well. It was interesting to see difference in how green the grass that came in was vs my small Bermuda patch. I only had one of the pallets that was very dry. It was a big upgrade over all the native grasses and weeds and it will be nice to have a real backyard this season.
This is the side yard where I ended up putting more soil down than anticipated. But now it hits up to the driveway which I'm happy about.



This is the second level which was nothing but weeds previously. This is also the area that the two large boulders came from.



This another shot of this area.



This is the main "backyard". This area is where we spend most of our time and it will be very enjoyable to have more space. Especially space that doesn't have sticker burs. The ability to walk around bare foot is something that we haven't really been able to enjoy since we moved here. This will go a long way in alleviating this issue.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Unfortunately the frost last night really dinged my sod. It's very disappointing, but it'll do ok once the temps warm up this week. This weather has been bonkers here. We normally don't have frosts this late here. This is the latest one by almost a week.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a final scalp in today. Thanks to @DFWdude for the help with the positioning of the roller on my CalTrimmer. I looked at it several times previously but hadn't gotten through my head (not a big stretch for me) that it wasn't in the middle setting. Man that really took my scalping to a much lower level. Sometimes it just takes someone else pointing something out for it to click with you. So I finished up the side yard w all its rescue grass, and the small patch from last year's patio.







Then I got a quick mow in on the front yard. The prg has started growing again, and so has the other native clump grass. It looks ok for now, and it's green. We have gotten next to no rain for a month, and things are pretty dry.



The new sod is coming along. The frost last Saturday night really dinged it. But the temps have rebounded this week, and a little green is starting show. I'm a little concerned because the roots haven't begun to get through the cuts, but perhaps it's due to the cooler temps. I've never laid sod this early before. I also put down about 40 pounds of Microlife Brown Patch 5-1-3 earlier this week. I'm hoping 🤞🏻 that with the rain expected Monday and Tuesday, we'll get some good green up and root growth.









The sod pieces that were mowed the lowest seems to do best.


Also a big difference in the green up on the southern facing small area that is protected by the patio.



Hopefully by next week, the roots will be coming in, and after that it will be ready for it first mow in April.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The sod is starting to green up which is great. The weather is warming up starting this weekend, so I'm hopeful the grass really starts getting some good growth to it. The sod roots still aren't growing, but again, I hope the upcoming string of highs in the 80's will push it along. 






For some reason the green up doesn't show as well in the photos, but irl it looks quite a bit greener.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

In an effort to be smart, I tried adding a bunch of images all at once from my phone, and they're all spread out, so unfortunately there's not much order to this post. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I cleaned up some of the grassy areas at the seam with the new sod, which makes it look better. I also included some photos from other parts of the back of the lot as this time of year is always interesting to me.

We have this lone red bud that has 2/3 of it that need to be cut down, but the remaining live third is producing a lot of flowers. It's really tall, and trying to compete with the oaks for light. I'm not really sure how much longer this tree will make it, even with aggressive pruning.



When they built our house, they didn't put much thought into the location of the septic. It's right outside the kitchen window, and off the side of the patio. It's really quite an eye sore, and they previous owners covered it in about 1.5 feet of pea gravel. That material caught just about every seed known to man, so I dug most of it out, and used it to keep shoring up the berm I'm building between the property line with our northern neighbor. I also planted some lavender in there, which we hope will do ok. I'm also going to get some soil on top of everything here so that the runners from the lawn have a good environment to grow into.



This week I'll be adding back the two missing condos from the purple martin house, as well as cleaning the others out. I've seen a few scouts this past week, and hopefully we can entice them this year.



This is a view from the back of the property near the purple martin house. The grasses are starting to come in.



Update photo of the sod, and how it's doing.



A view into the oak motte from the edge of the lawn.



Starting to get some root tips in the grass. It's been in the mid-high 80's for a few days and the grass is really much happier for it.



Update photo of color.



These little wild flowers are the first to show up this year. I always find it interesting to see what gets growing first. This fall we'll be seeding wild flowers on our berm, and in other areas of the lot.



The next two shots are from inside of the oak motte. There's about 8 oak trees in this area, but the main motte is made up of 5 big oak trees. They create a really great canopy, and now that I trimmed them up some, this past winter, the breeze is able to get in there. I'll be hanging a hammock in there soon to enjoy the shade. They're losing their leaves right now, so it looks sparse, but they'll all come back after they drop their pollen sacks.





This is the last image of the lawn which was for color purposes.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The yard is really starting to green up a lot more. We're supposed to get some rain tonight. It's been very dry here this spring. Hopefully we'll end up getting more than the .25 inches they're calling for in my neck of the woods.


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## Meximusprime (Jun 21, 2019)

Looking good! Just a matter of time before you get to see that Celebration hype! Absolutely love this grass type.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Thanks @Meximusprime !


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Today I got some work done early before the Manchester United game which is about to start. I changed the oil in the Cal Trimmer. I've never changed oil on an engine before, but when I bought this machine I decided I needed to learn more about small engines. So far I've done some basic maintenance on it including a new air filter, and I have a new spark plug, but I need to get a gapper for it. The oil was pretty dirty, and I'm glad I got that done today.

I mowed all the yards today. The front prg is starting to fry, so I decided to just let it go. There's some common Bermuda out there, so I'm going to try and encourage that to grow and slowly remove the king ranch blue stem.



I got my second mow in on the sod and it's coming along well. I did a double cut to continue smoothing the it out as much as possible. I've got the height set at 1 inch. The lawn really needs a lot of leveling, so I'm going to have to do that sooner than I was hoping to. But the green up continues and I think it will be looking really nice in a couple of weeks.

This is the side of the driveway. I'm glad that it's coming in at the rate it is. There's a lot of common Bermuda that's coming in outside of it right now. So it needs to be thick quickly.



Second level area before I mowed.



These are different angles of the backyard. I'm really enjoying the work out of pushing the lawn mower up the hills. 🤣🤣 I do like the way it looks though.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The last few weeks have felt tortuously slow w/ the lawn. But this photo of one month before and after shows how far it's come. 
March 5 


April 5


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Not much going on here. Got a mow in yesterday, and certain areas are growing faster than others. I've also begun watering the sod less. I'm starting to water deeper and less frequently now that the roots are well set.

Unfortunately the big story In this area is drought. Between November and now we typically get about 14.5 inches of rain, and this year we haven't even hit 7. We've also had very low humidity (like 7%) which is very atypical for spring in central Texas. La Niña was supposed to taper off late spring, early summer, but now the forecast is saying that it won't end until August. This likely means very little rain for us, and more people relying on wells, like us. Hopefully the well doesn't go dry, but I'm guessing that I'll be having to trench to the city tap this summer to get a water meter installed 😒.

Also, side question on photos. It seems that when I take photos of the lawn, the camera tends to focus in on the remaining leggy areas and not the green. I feel like my lawn is coming along nicely, but when I look at photos, it just doesn't translate at all. Any tips?


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> Not much going on here. Got a mow in yesterday, and certain areas are growing faster than others. I've also begun watering the sod less. I'm starting to water deeper and less frequently now that the roots are well set.
> 
> Unfortunately the big story In this area is drought. Between November and now we typically get about 14.5 inches of rain, and this year we haven't even hit 7. We've also had very low humidity (like 7%) which is very atypical for spring in central Texas. La Niña was supposed to taper off late spring, early summer, but now the forecast is saying that it won't end until August. This likely means very little rain for us, and more people relying on wells, like us. Hopefully the well doesn't go dry, but I'm guessing that I'll be having to trench to the city tap this summer to get a water meter installed 😒.
> 
> Also, side question on photos. It seems that when I take photos of the lawn, the camera tends to focus in on the remaining leggy areas and not the green. I feel like my lawn is coming along nicely, but when I look at photos, it just doesn't translate at all. Any tips?


I feel you on the rain. Evens over here in college station it's dry and I can't even water lately with how windy it's been 24/7. Your grass looks great though. It's still only early April and I'm sure it was just in the upper 30s where you are yesterday morning.

Thinking about it, did you scalp and what height of cut are you at?


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > Not much going on here. Got a mow in yesterday, and certain areas are growing faster than others. I've also begun watering the sod less. I'm starting to water deeper and less frequently now that the roots are well set.
> ...


Thanks @ag_fishing, the sod wasn't scalped, I've been maintaining at 1". It definitely still looks leggy due to the freeze damage it got the first night I laid it. It's definitely been cool here at night. I here you on the watering. It's been crazy windy, and we're on the side of a hill, which seems to whip it up even more. Hopefully we'll get some meaningful rain soon 🤞🏻.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

We got just over .2 inches of rain here last night which is great, as we weren't expecting anywhere near that. I'm watering this morning to get a good soaking into the sod, and keep weening it off the consistent watering schedule now that I'm just over 4 weeks in. So happy to get some rain!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Everything continues to green up. I'm getting a lot more weeds, so I'm planning on addressing that in a couple of weeks or so once wverything is going strong w the sod. I've cut the watering schedule way down, and it's doing well. There are a couple of spots along the edges that get dry faster, but these are easy to hand water.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

We got a nice drizzle yesterday afternoon and evening. While it wasn't much (.2") I'll take it! I got my midweek mow in today, and it was a dewy one.


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## Necrosis (Jul 12, 2018)

Looking great!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Necrosis said:


> Looking great!


Thanks @Necrosis! I really like your lily-like ground cover in your garden too btw.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Mowed, and weed eated the yard yesterday. The temps and the fertilizer seem to really be helping everything fill in. I can definitely see how celebration needs to be verticut on a regular basis. I'm also super happy with the color of the grass. It's so deep, it's almost blue. It's really neat looking. I'm planning on maintaining at 1" as it reminds me of being on the pitch 😂.







Even our mousers seem to be enjoying the new grass.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I've been noticing that the area that I laid just off the patio hasn't been doing all that well. I have been seeing some dead leaf material, and I'm pretty sure I have anthracnose &#128530;. I put down a curative rate of propiconazole, and will follow up with another treatment in two weeks. I am also going to get some disease-ex as it's got azoxystrobin as the ingredient, since it's a different group than propiconazole. Should I alternate these in a preventative application method going forward?


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Be careful with the Prop as it will have some PGR effect on your bermuda. I'm not a fungus expert but if you post photos of the trouble area some of the experienced members may chime in on the best approach.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Redtwin said:


> Be careful with the Prop as it will have some PGR effect on your bermuda. I'm not a fungus expert but if you post photos of the trouble area some of the experienced members may chime in on the best approach.


I'll be sure to post some photos. I'm hopeful that I saw the orange leaves soon enough that I won't have to do too many more treatments. Thanks @Redtwin.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> Mowed, and weed eated the yard yesterday. The temps and the fertilizer seem to really be helping everything fill in. I can definitely see how celebration needs to be verticut on a regular basis. I'm also super happy with the color of the grass. It's so deep, it's almost blue. It's really neat looking. I'm planning on maintaining at 1" as it reminds me of being on the pitch 😂.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's looking really good. I noticed mine has really started to pop the past few days with the heat and is that awesome deep blue green color. Hopefully you got some much needed rain today with the system moving through


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > Mowed, and weed eated the yard yesterday. The temps and the fertilizer seem to really be helping everything fill in. I can definitely see how celebration needs to be verticut on a regular basis. I'm also super happy with the color of the grass. It's so deep, it's almost blue. It's really neat looking. I'm planning on maintaining at 1" as it reminds me of being on the pitch 😂.
> ...


@ag_fishing, yeah the last week brought a noticeable change in the growth rate, as well as the color. It's been a lot of fun to watch. We've definitely already gotten over a half an inch of rain, and it should continue on for a bit. The hill country really needed it. I hope y'all over in the BV don't get flooding or anything like that.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Yesterday's rain highlighted some water trouble spots. I'll have to address these. Nothing some leveling and vegetation can't help.


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## Getting Fat (Dec 31, 2019)

in S austin we got 4 inches. much needed....


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Getting Fat said:


> in S austin we got 4 inches. much needed....


@Getting Fat that's pretty wild. I guess it's like they say, in Texas we live in a constant period of drought punctuated by flood. I'm from south Austin. My mom still lives on Brodie.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Here are some photos of what I diagnosed as anthracnose based on the UNC website.




I do feel like the prop has made a difference in the grass already, but time will tell. The reason I say that is that it's got more growth laterally and vertically, and there doesn't seem to be any more leaf damage occurring in the areas I've been closely monitoring.

It was quite dewy out this morning for my cut. I didn't mow the afflicted area as the site noted that lower hoc can cause stress during recovery, so I'll just mow it this weekend which means it gets one less haircut.


The difference in growth and fill is more obvious in the above shot with the dew.









You can see I left the upper area unmowed.

Our septic system has been a sore spot since we moved in. It had over 10 full wheel barrows of pea gravel that I removed recently and used to create a better berm between our neighbors and our property. Now that the grass is crawling into that area, I plan to cover it with soil and let the runners do their thing. I hope to make it less conspicuous. We also planted some lavender to create a bit of a hedge.





I added fertilizer to the front yard to help the Bermuda that's there spread, but between that and the rain, the prg that I was trying to kill decided to pull out a new lease on life. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I guess it's fine. It's green. 🤷🏼‍♂️


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

That area will be filled in by the end of the season. I had a section of sod that has completely doubled in size from lateral growth since being put down last April.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> That area will be filled in by the end of the season. I had a section of sod that has completely doubled in size from lateral growth since being put down last April.


Glad to hear that @ag_fishing ! I'm looking forward to not having to look at pea gravel, or bare dirt in that area.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

One of the things I've most been looking forward to with having an updated backyard is getting to do my work outs on grass instead of my driveway. Wanna find out how bumpy your lawn is? Put a speed ladder on it and go to town. You'll definitely figure out your ankle strength! 🤣🤣


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## DFWdude (Aug 28, 2020)

Lots of hard work and progress. Great job


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

DFWdude said:


> Lots of hard work and progress. Great job


Really appreciate it @DFWdude!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Yesterday I mowed and edged, and generally got my outdoor work done. We moved some old cedars I cut down over the winter and never got around to burning. We settled on a spot to place our limestone remnants for our fire pit. Our wheel barrows is over at my in-laws so that will have to wait since Gabby can't help me move anything due to her ankle injury. But it's not a huge priority. I just hate seeing that pallet of rock every time I look out at the lawn. 
This is how the prg decided to bounce back despite me not giving it anything until I thought it was dead as I'm trying to foster Bermuda growth in that area.


The side lawn has come in well. There's a big blend of common along w celebration that I laid in here. It held up well during the last rain storm.


The backyard continues to fill in and the fungal affected area is improving as well.




Gabby has also enjoyed putting some lawn furniture out to hang out on the lawn. Last year was tough w all the sticker burs, and this is a big change. So eating out on the lawn is such a treat.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got my mid-week mow in today. I hadn't mowed since Saturday, and boy, there was a lot of growth on it. I also placed some image broadleaf on it on Monday since I had quite a bit of weed pressure. That seems to really be helping out. The area behind the driveway which is common Bermuda has really struggled to get going this year due to the winter rescue grass. I'm hoping that next weeks temps in the 90s and the image do it in, so that the common can really fill in.

Going on vacation on Saturday, so I'll likely mow again on Friday evening.

When we started to discuss how to redo the backyard, I don't Gabby and I ever thought we could have something like this. I can't stress enough how much this forum and the generous folks on here have helped make this happen. I've learned a whole lot, and I feel like there's still so much more to know, and levels to get the lawn to! 😂 Anyhow, big thanks to all those taking time to help others on here, we really appreciate it.

Side of the driveway:

Second level



Backyard







The area just off the back patio has really been improving since I treated the fungus, and it actually had a good amount of clippings today. I'm hoping that it will continue to improve at this same rate and be all healed up by the time I get home.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Wow! That Celebration is getting DARK!!!


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Did you notice any PGR effect from the propicanizole? I might just do a preventative app in hopes it'll slow my celebration down as an added bonus to the fungus prevention. I could get clippings even if I mowed everyday and it's only the beginning of may.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Redtwin said:


> Wow! That Celebration is getting DARK!!!


Thanks @Redtwin, it's really coming into its own now. It's been 7 weeks since it went in, but it feels like a year lol.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Did you notice any PGR effect from the propicanizole? I might just do a preventative app in hopes it'll slow my celebration down as an added bonus to the fungus prevention. I could get clippings even if I mowed everyday and it's only the beginning of may.


@ag_fishing, I noticed maybe a little, but nothing that I would write home about. Mostly I feel like the areas that were hardest hit are recovering, and didn't have much growth on it before hand. The other areas that were doing ok, seemed to grow _slightly_ slower than the rest of the lawn. I hear you on that growth though. I was mowing twice a week and I wonder if I need to add in another. Your lawn is getting some nice striping going in it!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

So we went out of town for a bit, and just got home last night. Overall, I'm very fortunate to have had my in-law come over to water and mow! The man's getting a nice bottle of wine for his effort. It made a huge difference when I did all my work today.

We got a crazy seed head explosion. So I had to run my ryobi rotary over them to get them semi controlled lol.







After I mowed the seed heads, I mowed the front yard. We don't have much grass up there, but a lot of seeds from king ranch blue stem which I am trying to minimize.

I did some spot watering as there were some hotspots that got missed. It was in the upper 90's while we were gone, and no rain in sight. Again, huge thanks to J for helping out. I'd be toast if he wouldn't have been willing to do that.

I also cleaned up on the north side, which doesn't have much going on. I did however get requested by the boss to put some grass down there. It wouldn't be more than a pallet, so I'm hoping I get to pull the trigger on that this summer. 😏

But overall, things are coming in nicely, and I am planning on getting a leveling job done over memorial day weekend. They have a leveling mix where I got my soil from and I'm going to go with that over pure sand since I have so little soil, and I need to add more organic matter. Plan is to get aerated, scalped, then level in. Realistically, I'm gonna need to do that like 6/7 times more to have a decent amount of top soil.


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## Getting Fat (Dec 31, 2019)

great progress.

That your purple martin house?


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Getting Fat said:


> great progress.
> 
> That your purple martin house?


Thanks! It sure is. We've had some flirting w it, but no takers this year. Maybe next year.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got an early morning mow in. Had to water more as I was getting some drought stress. It's very hot here, especially for this time of year. It's been a real bummer as May is typically our wettest month of the year. Fingers crossed we get some rain this week. 
Going to put down some fertilizer later today, and help some of the grass that got crispy recover with the cooler temps next week before I aerate and level.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Put down .5 lbs/k of N. We are expecting some rain, so I will be watering it in tomorrow morning.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a quick mow in yesterday before my soccer game. Things are coming along well. However, the big story for us around here was .67 inches of rain. We hadn't had measurable precip in many weeks. We are supposed to be getting a solid rainfall over several days this week, which is much needed. It may even bring May to a more respectable deficit than where it stands now.

I have a aerating appointment for Wednesday, but we'll see if that happens due to the rain.





The grass very thick, and a ball sits right on top of it despite it being at 1".



Gabby's dad recently bought a chipper shredder so the plan is to get this pile of dead trees mulched and laid basically right where it is. I'm really looking forward to it being gone.


The celebration in this area has gotten very thick and choked out the common that was trying to come in after the sod was laid. The common has filled in very well, and getting thicker. I'm curious to see how these two develop next to each other.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Step 1 for this weekend just got done. I got a flyer in the mail for core aerification and they did my back yard for $79. The guy knocked it out in less than 20 minutes. Way better usage of time than me taking half a day and "saving" $10.

We got 1.73" of rain last night which was phenomenal. I think it made his job a lot easier.







When we redid the patio, we used only sandy loam, and a fair amount of it has gotten pretty well compacted.



The areas that I used the new soil for the lawn expansion seemed to be doing better, but they're fairly recent additions. Do y'all think that the grass needs to be verticut? It seems like it to me.



Overall it seems like I'll get some good additional organics and water penetration when I level this weekend from these spots getting filled in.



Once it dries out a little bit, I'll go collect the cores prior to mowing at .5" tomorrow to level on Friday.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Mowed .625 in three different directions. It was very thick. Material gets delivered tomorrow am.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

It's looking fantastic. My celebration had a thatch layer just like yours when I was pulling plugs both last year and this year. It's crazy how thick it grows.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> It's looking fantastic. My celebration had a thatch layer just like yours when I was pulling plugs both last year and this year. It's crazy how thick it grows.


Thanks @ag_fishing, I appreciate it. I'm glad to hear that it's normal.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> ag_fishing said:
> 
> 
> > It's looking fantastic. My celebration had a thatch layer just like yours when I was pulling plugs both last year and this year. It's crazy how thick it grows.
> ...


I would not recommend the classen unit from Home Depot though. Those flailing blades were way to rough and in a couple spots I have zero grass whatsoever


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > ag_fishing said:
> ...


Man, I was wondering about that. Is it healing up ok though? Thanks for the info on that @ag_fishing!


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## scarlso2 (May 8, 2017)

Great deal on the aeration! I wish they'd come by my house!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

scarlso2 said:


> Great deal on the aeration! I wish they'd come by my house!


Gotta love those promo rates!


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> ag_fishing said:
> 
> 
> > Dono1183 said:
> ...


Not sure what's in New Braunfels anymore, but sunbelt rentals carries a Ryan ren o thin that I believe may have the vertislicer option instead of the flail blades.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The material just arrived. Now to start the hard part 😂😂.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

We'll… that was a beating. Overall the leveling went fine, but the terrible part of it are the thousands of small stones. Last time I ordered this stuff there were no rocks in it at all, and once we had gotten most of it down and worked in, they started to become visible. It's frankly pretty infuriating. But I guess that'll teach me to use anything but mason sand going forward.




We did order enough to give the septic tank a good base for the grass to grow into. I'm looking forward to that area really taking off.

I'll be thinking of ways to work this way down into the grass since I keep it at one inch.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Is that Texas sage bushes over by the septic cover?


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Is that Texas sage bushes over by the septic cover?


@ag_fishing, it's Spanish lavender. It's not supposed to get too tall, so we shall see how it does over time. We do have potted Texas sage in that same area covering the old patio concrete footers.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I've got some update photos now that it's been almost one week. Watering in the material has helped out a lot. The soul is retaining water much better than it has been previously. The combo of dressing and aerating really is helping a lot. 
Friday


Monday


Today


Same chronology






We also chipper shredded three piles of trees/limbs we had accumulated around the property.



The plan is to keep spreading the mulch in the same low area then add soil on top. Hopefully this will help the grass run over there.


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## Getting Fat (Dec 31, 2019)

well done Dono


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Getting Fat said:


> well done Dono


Thanks @Getting Fat!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I watered yesterday, and then got an unexpected rain today of .4 inches which is great bc we are having a 10 day string of 100^ weather starting Sunday. 
I also got my first mow in post level/top dress. It went better than expected. I spent about 6 hours pulling rocks from the lawn this week to try and minimize any issues w the mower and very low expectations tbh. Overall it's recovering well, and I'm happy that it's slightly more level. I had 50% OM, so I expect more settling. I may do a straight sand level again this summer. Maybe in a month or so. It'll help cover up the rocks, and get things flatter. 
Before mow:














After mow:







The side continues to fill in. I used a lot of soil here, and it's coming along nicely.


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## Sbcgenii (May 13, 2018)

Looks amazing. Good job.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Sbcgenii said:


> Looks amazing. Good job.


Thanks @Sbcgenii, I appreciate it!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. I've decided to raise my HOC on account of the fact that we are in June, and we have 10 days straight in the 100's with no rain in sight. I'm on a well, but I can't justify maintaining 2" of water/week to have the lawn at 1". I raised to 1.125, and may raise to 1.25 based on the response I get out of it. If somehow La Niña ends before it's forecasted to, then I can reset the height and go from there. My experience in CenTex is that once we get into these weather patterns, the only thing that gets us out is the remnants of a hurricane, or a tropical depression. So obviously, as much as I would like rain, that's a terrible proposition for those on our coast. Fingers crossed this storm season that's expected to be very active doesn't toss anything very potent our way.

I put down .5 lbs/k of nitrogen today. I'm going to stay on the two week rotation for that. I don't see as big of a drop off in the lawn as opposed to doing 1 lb./k every 4-5 weeks.

This past weekend I stopped off in Blanco on my way to a buddy's birthday party in San Antonio to get ethanol free fuel. I've been using Trufuel but I'm tired of throwing money away. Each can runs about $20ish, and it's less than a gallon. I bought a five gallon can for $30, and filled it for $20. I'll break even after I consume 2 gallons. I also added sea foam to it to help reduce engine gunk.

I'm watering today, and it hasn't gotten any water since Saturday. It was holding up well. I have a stretch of 13 work days straight, so I'm altering my typical schedule to squeeze it in where I can.






And one of the sunrise this morning just because.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Anybody's lawn ever have this puffy look? I wonder if it's due to fertilization and still having leveling material on it from less than two weeks ago.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I had to work all weekend, so I didn't get anything done around the house. This morning I did a quick maintenance mow. Not much to cut off to be honest. The heat and lack of rain has the lawn relying entirely on irrigation. Some of it is doing well, other parts are struggling. A lot of it has to do with the substrate it's on. Some has more om to work with so it does better with less water. Other areas only have a few inches of soil, then they have kaliche/rock. Once the roots get down there I'm sure it will be better, but I wasn't counting on extreme heat/drought in May and June. 
I bought some hydetrain last week and will be putting it down this week. I'm curious to see if it works. At $30 I felt it wasn't terrible if it doesn't. 
I also bought some pop up sprinkler heads and spikes to put them on. I'm going to rig up a semi-permanent above ground set up so I can just move the hoses and have a more consistent watering plan. We'll see how that goes.




The southern yard area that I really covered with topping is coming pretty well. It's right at 2 weeks post level.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Sprayed a curative rate of Propiconazole for some type of fungus that showed up. I'll add photos later. Going to put down another preventative treatment of azoxy later today.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. I brought my hoc to 1" and it's noticeably nicer looking. It's almost completely filled back in from the leveling. I recently bought some new sprinklers and attached them to spikes. I've been messing around with them and they're much better than the impact sprinklers. I think I'll get them set up and leave them in fixed spots. 
I sprayed a bottle and some change of hydetrain on the lawn yesterday. I'm curious to see how it will do in terms of watering. My project for the weekend (if I can get to it) is to start figuring out how much water I actually need to be putting down.






This is the area that's been filling in pretty well over the last couple of weeks.








Celebration:

Common:


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

This is a wonderful write up. Great looking yard and a lot of work went into it.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Deltahedge said:


> This is a wonderful write up. Great looking yard and a lot of work went into it.


Thanks @Deltahedge, I followed your journal last year and really enjoyed it. Loved the leveling video too.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a quick mow in this morning and watered yesterday. I had some heat stress so I'm trying to improve my watering system. It's recovering well, but it's been a crazy summer so far with no rain essentially.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

One of the things I like the best about where we live is that we get some cool wildlife. This morning while doing some hand watering I got to see one of the foxes that lives on our lot.


She didn't mind me too much and was looking for breakfast I'm guessing. 
We also have wood peckers, road runners, and even bobcats. I haven't seen the bobcats yet. I have however run into the coyotes previously. We also have a deer problem due to a lot of our neighbors hand feeding them.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Didn't get around to posting on Friday, but I mowed and watered on Thursday. When I watered I actually measured what was going down and needless to say I wasn't putting down near enough. It explains all the drought stress my lawn is experiencing right now. We have some rain coming this week (I'll believe it when I see it) so hopefully I can help it catch up. I'm putting down fertilizer tonight and a preventative treatment of fungicide as temps next week will barely break 94. I'm looking forward to the temp reprieve for sure.


Some more area fill in photos.






And came across this guy yesterday while we were in the front yard.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> Didn't get around to posting on Friday, but I mowed and watered on Thursday. When I watered I actually measured what was going down and needless to say I wasn't putting down near enough. It explains all the drought stress my lawn is experiencing right now. We have some rain coming this week (I'll believe it when I see it) so hopefully I can help it catch up. I'm putting down fertilizer tonight and a preventative treatment of fungicide as temps next week will barely break 94. I'm looking forward to the temp reprieve for sure.
> 
> 
> Some more area fill in photos.
> ...


Looks like it's coming along great. Same where I'm at. Rain chances all week, but won't believe it until I see actual rain falling. You going to try for a HOC reset or keep it where it's at?


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > Didn't get around to posting on Friday, but I mowed and watered on Thursday. When I watered I actually measured what was going down and needless to say I wasn't putting down near enough. It explains all the drought stress my lawn is experiencing right now. We have some rain coming this week (I'll believe it when I see it) so hopefully I can help it catch up. I'm putting down fertilizer tonight and a preventative treatment of fungicide as temps next week will barely break 94. I'm looking forward to the temp reprieve for sure.
> ...


Thanks @ag_fishing, I'm going to keep it where it's at. It's super stressed, and I want to try and help it recover before the real summer gets here 🥵. I'm thinking July is just going to be brutal.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

This morning I watered, and put down .5 lbs of N/K. Hopefully we get some rain.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I hope you got some rain yesterday. We got a little over an inch in Houston.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Deltahedge said:


> I hope you got some rain yesterday. We got a little over an inch in Houston.


We sure did! Almost half an inch. It was steady over a few hours too, so we were able to actually absorb it. I was watching the storms fire up over Houston yesterday, and hoping for them to grow out our way. Sure glad they did, and that y'all got some much needed rain as well!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in this morning, and I put down a preventative rate of azoxy before it rained yesterday. I'm hoping that the fertilizer and the heavy water it received yesterday help the lawn bounce back. It's looking pretty rough out there. Now that I've begun to understand water management a little more, I'm hoping to not let my soil's water bank account get too low to help the lawn make it through what is sure to be a brutal July and August. I only got one pic this morning as I work in the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I'll post others this afternoon. But this is legitimately the last decent area of turf on my lawn... 😂😂.

Edit: added pic.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The lawn seems to have enjoyed the rain, hopefully the lower temps this week and some additional precip will help it recover.


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> The lawn seems to have enjoyed the rain, hopefully the lower temps this week and some additional precip will help it recover.


I was waiting to see if you got any rain. We've yet to get anything and I scalped down to .25" the other day. I bet your grass is going to explode after that rain now


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > The lawn seems to have enjoyed the rain, hopefully the lower temps this week and some additional precip will help it recover.
> ...


Sure didn't, the front on Tuesday pushed everything just south of us and we didn't get anything at all. Either way it's looking better and now I can get better with my watering to keep it happier. I hope that low pressure system ends up turning our way but so far o haven't heard anything one way or the other. Hope y'all get some rain soon!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Finally got around to ordering my hoses to use all six sprinkler nozzles I built. I was able to water the whole yard effectively in about 3 hours. That's a huge improvement from half a day before. It's kinda janky, but oh well. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣.


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## Humbert810 (8 mo ago)

If it works it works!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

:thumbup:


Humbert810 said:


> If it works it works!


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> Finally got around to ordering my hoses to use all six sprinkler nozzles I built. I was able to water the whole yard effectively in about 3 hours. That's a huge improvement from half a day before. It's kinda janky, but oh well. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣.


How'd you set it up and how many rotors do you use at a time? My existing irrigation system doesn't have head to head coverage and this seems more effective


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > Finally got around to ordering my hoses to use all six sprinkler nozzles I built. I was able to water the whole yard effectively in about 3 hours. That's a huge improvement from half a day before. It's kinda janky, but oh well. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣.
> ...


@ag_fishing, I bought 6 rainbird 5000 rotors, some risers and the stakes. The stakes are two way so I can link up two rotors with two hoses. I just move them around the lawn. I make sure I have coverage in the areas where I set them out and have measured their output to try and get the right amount of water down. I have three hose bibs, and I'm on a well with decent pressure. I also have a pressure tank that is good sized which helps too. As a supplement to an irrigation system this would likely help with no digging. Altogether the heads and parts cost $80 for 6 of them. The hoses were the most expensive part 🤦🏼‍♂️. 
Hope y'all get some of that depression rain heading north!


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Dono1183 said:


> ag_fishing said:
> 
> 
> > Dono1183 said:
> ...


I may give it a try since I have 10 new i20 rotors and plenty of water hoses. Looks like it's working well for you. Not a drop and most likely won't get any rain. Last rain was may 25 or so.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

ag_fishing said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > ag_fishing said:
> ...


Dang man, sorry to see that you won't be getting any rain. You may tempt it by leaving your car windows down, put some clothes out to dry, and water your lawn. 😉 but seriously, I hope y'all get some rain soon.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

This morning I mowed, and it was such a difference in the turf. The rain we got and then the proper amount of irrigation has really helped it bounce back. Now I just need to stay ahead of it since we are going back into the 100's for the foreseeable future… aka September. June set a record for most 100* days at 21. The previous record was 20. We had 1 day below average temp and 29 above average. Needless to say, this isn't typical. But w/ La Niña not abating, I expect this summer to push the record for 100* days for this area. That number is 90. Our average is 15 days all summer long. Enough ranting about the weather.






Spots that are filling in:







And this is the area that I removed a lot of my Bermuda stunt mite infestation.

My plan is to get rid of a lot of it mechanically by digging it up, and then adding new soil. The remaining amount will also be removed as it's found, in addition to treating the area with Abamectin. We shall see how it goes, but I'm not messing around with letting this get out of hand. Those little things are super damaging. 😡🤬🤬🤬


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Yesterday was a watering day for me, and then I mowed after. The improvement continues in the lawn. I'm getting more efficient with the watering, and it's making mowing fun again.






I bought a couple bags of sand for a few spots that were really uneven. Hopefully that will make mowing a little smoother.


Got some new pots and put Esperanzas in them. Also the fill in of the common continues.


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## GoNads (6 mo ago)

Awesome yard man!

I'm a little up the road from you now, but I grew up in Bear Creek Oaks off 1826. Family still lives there.

I pretty much dealt with a lot of what you're fighting these days. Makes it that much more impressive that you've got what you got!

Had to send my brother a picture of your fox. They've been on a fox killing rampage since the foxes learned there's a chicken coupe in the back yard. They lost quite a few chickens in a short period of time. What's interesting is that the foxes are actually there now. I don't know if they were there back in the late 90's-10's, but I never saw any. Gotta be all the growth that's pushing them more to people.

Roadrunners are awesome. They help with snakes quite a bit, too. Quite a bit of coral snakes out there, fyi. Soooo, heads up on that. Lol.

Also, a couple tricks for irrigation that will expedite your learning curve:
- Double up your coverage. As in, you ideally want every sprinkler head to be able touch at least one other sprinkler head.
- Make a loop. Especially for the "mobile" sprinkler systems like the one you've created. You can put many more heads on at the same time, and maintain your water pressure. I did the same thing in Lubbock when I was there. I actually swapped to a straight 3/4 ball valve at the faucet, and then put something like ~10 heads on one giant loop around the back yard.
- I imagine you've looked into an in ground system already. Are you shying away from that rabbit hole? If so, because of the trenching? Just curious.

First post! I was searching stuff about celebration. Happened across your thread. It brought up memories of blisters from Texas toothpicks, etc. Just relatable as hell for me. So, I posted. Forgive anything naive to this forum I may have said.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

GoNads said:


> Awesome yard man!
> 
> I'm a little up the road from you now, but I grew up in Bear Creek Oaks off 1826. Family still lives there.
> 
> ...


Hey @GoNads, always nice to meet someone from around here. This whole area has really changed since I was in high school. Just drove by your old neighborhood on the way home lol. I appreciate the kind words on the lawn, it's been pretty wild with all the drought and temps, but it's central Texas. The foxes are pretty neat. I don't have chickens, so it's not bad for me. I definitely agree that all of the new subdivisions are creating bottlenecks that the animals can't get out of, and so they resort to easy pickins'. 
We got the cats to take care of the snakes. We used to live just down the road off circle drive and 290 on Ledgestone. We had a crazy amount of coral snakes. The mousers have got a pretty good handle on that.

So how does the loop work? Never seen or heard of that. Totally interested though. Do you connect the hoses to two bibs, and then link up the heads with other hoses?

I would love to have an in-ground system, but I'll tell you the trenching costs and installation around here have gone through the roof (I'm sure you know 😂). Basically, that project is at the bottom of the list. Thanks in advance for the sprinkler info too!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Watered and got a mow in yesterday, it's holding up ok considering this string of hundos and no rain.


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## GoNads (6 mo ago)

I drew a picture for you. (The 2 year old and the four year old really wanted me to say "be nice" and they wanted to draw a couple hearts. So, that's what that's about.)

In the picture, the black would be a zone with with three heads set up in a series. The red is the added loop with additional sprinklers on the other side to demonstrate doubling coverage, but those aren't required. I also drew in red the original sprinklers newly gained throw coverage.

To just tell you the time, and not how the clock is made: Just put another splitter in between your first head and the faucet. Then run another hose from the end of the original line back to the splitter. At some point you're gonna have to connect the ends. I'd just keep it simple and cut the female off and put a male hose mender on it.

There's much more math and such involved, but this is a basic way of understanding how the clock is made: Notice how the heads closer to the source throw the water further? Water and air take the path of least resistance in a ducted/piped system. And at each head in a series is another opportunity for the water to take one of these paths. This leaves that much less water/pressure for the next head.

When you loop it back to the source, you're putting much more volume into the system. And creating an additional path back to the source essentially. After a period of time the loop will pressurize. Then every head on the system gets a somewhat equal amount of water pressure similar to what they'd have gotten connected to the faucet by themselves.

The picture on the right is just something showing a a little more what I meant by doubling your coverage from a top down view.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

GoNads said:


> I drew a picture for you. (The 2 year old and the four year old really wanted me to say "be nice" and they wanted to draw a couple hearts. So, that's what that's about.)
> 
> In the picture, the black would be a zone with with three heads set up in a series. The red is the added loop with additional sprinklers on the other side to demonstrate doubling coverage, but those aren't required. I also drew in red the original sprinklers newly gained throw coverage.
> 
> ...


@GoNads, thanks so much man! I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. I'll definitely start working on this. Also, thanks to the kiddos for their input! :thumbup:


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Watered this morning and mowed this afternoon. I mowed on Thursday, and hadn't mowed since, and the south side of the house (the one with soil 🤣) got away from me. So I took it down a notch and reset the height. I'll need to stay on top of mowing at more regular intervals. 
In other news it was 107* today, and it's not ending anytime soon. I also go to see a perfectly good thunderstorm split right around my house. 😒 

The backyard is hanging in there despite the temps.




Here's the south side;


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I'm heading out of town for work tomorrow and won't be home until Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday was my normal mowing day, so I mowed and I put down a .5 # of N. This morning I woke up and watered. And since it would be too long between mows, I went ahead and cut again this afternoon.
Side lawn is coming in pretty well. I got a lot of clippings from it both days despite the hoc reset.



The back lawn is doing well now that I've the watering schedule more dialed in. There's definitely some spots that aren't so great, but I hand water them. That being said, with our temps and drought, I'm not gonna complain.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got back in town yesterday. There was some solid drought stress in the grass. At this point, it is what it is. But overall it held up pretty well. Watered and mowed.






A couple of struggle spots.




I can confirm though that rain still exists. I saw some in Chicago this past weekend. It was glorious. 🤣🤣


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. This weekend has been really enjoyable in the yard. Had some friends over yesterday, and family over today. Played some croquet and overall it's so nice to be able to be barefoot and enjoying the out of doors (despite the hot temps). Lots of seed heads. Likely due to stress from not getting rain since whenever ago. But trying to keep it holding on.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I'm seriously over this summer. I'm tired of 100+ degree days, months with little to no rain, I'm just over it. I've had no measurable rain since June 28. Maybe one day it will rain again. Until then it's a rough lookin' lawn, w enough seed heads to fill a wheel barrow.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Watered and mowed today. Saw some rain again in the distance. At least some water is coming down to help with our drought.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I watered and mowed on Tuesday and the seed heads are going crazy. I'm kinda growing fond of them as they help me keep my lines while mowing 🤣🤣.

I watered today and put down .5lbs of N. Gonna get a mow in tomorrow morning before leaving town for the weekend. We are still in the hundos but hopefully we'll only be in the upper 90's this weekend. I also got my birthday present in, and I plan on installing them today. 😁



The tournament I'm playing in this weekend is in Frisco at the FC Dallas complex, and I love playing there. The fields are always top notch. I'll be posting some images once I get up there. It's always fun to play on a great surface like that.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. I also installed my new rotary scissors and played w those. Pretty cool tool. I understand how guys get super clean edges now. I started working on mine at lunch, but they'll need some more attention. I'm looking forward to getting better at using them.


I was able to get a morning mow in today, and it's so much more enjoyable than late day mows. The dew helps me keep my lines straight and mowing when it's 75 is way better than 93.

The lawn continues to hang in there. Seed head production tells me it's stressed since we haven't had rain in so long (June 28). But I'm not willing to increase my watering as this drought continues to challenge records with the aquifer. I'm currently putting down around 1.5" per week.

I base it on the Texas a&m evapotranspiration station in my area. It's not perfect but it's a good enough guide. 
Pre-mow:

Post-mow:


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The fc Dallas complex seems to be managing the conditions pretty well. There's definitely some dry spots, but overall the pitch is in good condition. It's been super nice to play on. We won our group and semis are tomorrow am.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got to define the edge of the driveway really well today at lunch. I really like these rotary scissors! I'll keep working on getting the edging cleaned up as I start incorporating that into my lawn care.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Watered yesterday and mowed today. No rain at my house. #Rainwatch continues. At least we've had more humidity and lower temps, so that's a positive. Plus the area around us has gotten some rain. I'll take what we can get.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

#Rainwatch has finally ended. We received .06" of rain. Which while not much, is measurable, and got the ground wet. So hooray for that!

On a separate note, our local armadillos have decided the lawn is open for business. I'll have to trim this up. Not super thrilled about it .


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I got my watering in and mowed today at lunch. It doesn't translate super well, but the grass is growing significantly better now that we have had a string of days where it's below 104*. Yesterday the high was only 91 at our house and today it was 97*.

Places that were hardly growing before had decent growth, and the areas that were growing before were growing a lot. I'll need to reevaluate how often I mow as we se to have a decent run of normal high temps instead the previous run of surface of the sun. 




I also cleaned up the dillo damage with the rotary scissors before I mowed. It was passable.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. It was a rough one. I went perpendicular to the house the whole way which meant a lot of up hill with the mower. And as well as the Cal trimmer does goin up hills, let's just say that I had to put some back into it. All things being equal it will help me get into shape for the start of my soccer season lol. The grass is getting out of control, so with the lower temps and rain in the forecast I think I'm gonna scalp the lawn and reset it. We shall see…






On to the sore subject. We were slated to get nearly three quarters of an inch today. We ended up getting .01 inches. My in laws got 1.25 inches and they're 4 miles down the road. The rain literally worked it's way around us.

Needless to say, after the last two months of no rain, I'm pretty butt hurt to not get any rain. I would love anything more that we could get but it's really tough to see the rain just dance around you. Rant over.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Finally got some meaningful accumulation. We got right at half an inch. That's more than we have had here since May in a single sitting.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The lower temps this past week along with the rain had led to the lawn getting unruly. I hadn't given it a reset since Memorial Day. Today I scalped to .75" from "1 inch". I say it like that because there's no way I was mowing at 1". The mower was definitely floating and not getting down to the true hoc. I made several passes to get it as close to .75 as I could. I'm pretty happy with the results. The lawn feels much closer to a true hoc.


















As our summer has changed, from 100*+ every day to 90's and rain occasionally, the lawn experience has changed a lot. The grass is growing much faster. I'll need to mow one more time per week to keep it looking good. I'm looking forward to having some more normal weather that helps the lawn look it's best.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I put down .5# of N on Monday and it was a balanced 13-13-13 to help with the scalp. The timing worked out well, as it rained less than an hour later. We've also received over 1.3 inches of rain. It's not the crazy 3-4 inches they were calling for, but it's made a huge difference in our area. The temps have also been significantly lower. It barely hit 90* here yesterday, and that's pretty wild for August in central Texas. I'm planning on mowing this evening after work, to make sure the grass fills in well.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

One week post scalp. It's looking a lot better. It definitely needs to be verticut. Next year I'll reevaluate the cultural practices based on the weather. Hopefully we don't have a repeat of this summer.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. I've had several insurance issues the last few days. Got rear ended on Friday, then my float switch failed on my ac and had water coming through the ceiling. Anywho, got a chance to get in the yard which helped mitigate some of the frustration.








I'm hopeful that some of the rain we have forecasted will actually hit us and help finish the fill in right at two weeks.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got an early morning mow in before work today. We got .2" of rain which may not be much, but makes a huge difference. Austin got over 5" of rain in August. We got less than 1". The hill we are on definitely creates a rain shadow. Hopefully we'll get some more since we're in a wet pattern. 
The lower temps help a lot to help with the lawn. It's been going through a nice recovery since I scalped it a little less than two weeks ago.






This area is where my outdoor table was for a couple of weeks. It was struggling so I've loved the furniture to help it get some additional sunlight.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

This weekend had some great temps but no rain again at our house. The cooler weather really has been great as August and early September tend to be really hot around here.
I got a couple of mows in, as I noticed that three days was really too long with how fast the grass is growing.




Some friends came over on Sunday and they brought their koob set. It's a lot of fun. It's a game based entirely on sticks which is neat.


We started moving some of the old planter edge rocks to create a more level area for the trash and recycling bins. The cats seemed to really enjoy the trench it left behind 😆.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in yesterday morning before work. It was quite dewy. The grass continues to do well despite the lack of rain. We keep getting rain around us, and with the lower temps the evapotranspiration has been very manageable. I am however back to watering twice a week.




I also came across this guy in my travels of the lawn.

I tend to see more tarantulas around this time of year. They're super neat. 
Also got a couple of nice photos of sunrises since we've had a lot of cloud cover.


Hopefully the continued lower temps will allow the irrigation i'm doing to help the grass stay happy until fall gets here. I'm guessing it won't get "cold" until around Halloween.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I continue to have to deal with the armadillo. It's about to go to the next phase of our disagreement on what's available for him to forage through. 
Mowed single doubles which fun. They're kinda hard to make out though since I don't mow them often and my mower doesn't have a drum on it.




On a separate topic, I was driving around south Austin on Saturday and got to see the B-52 that overflew the Texas -Bama game up close. They were doing loops until their scheduled pass. Doesn't look like it in the image, but this was no more than a few thousand feet high.


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## Buffalolawny (Nov 24, 2018)

UFO's are Everywhere.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

#rainwatch is back. Lol. We've gotten .8" of rain at my house since June 30. I bet if I total my rain for the year it's less than 7". It's been brutal. I hope that this cycle gets broken, but they're forecasting another La Niña winter which likely means low rain totals again for us. The real question is whether or not we'll get a wet spring. 🤞🏼


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I put down .5 lbs of N last week. Temps are forecasted to be in the 90’s and high 80’s for at least another two weeks. We typically don’t get our first cold front until Halloween. Lawns chugging along. Still no rain, and we don’t even have an elevated chance for rain for the next two weeks. I figure at the end of the month I’ll put down my pre-em and get ready for our winter time.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got a mow in today. Lawn is still growing well. We’ve had temps in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s so I haven’t had to water as much. That being said #rainwatch continues. Still don’t have any rain in the forecast. 
I’ve had to slow down my mowing in certain areas where I’ve been scalping. The lawn has gotten spongy since I didn’t verticut this year, and my height of cut reset didn’t do much to thin it out. Next year verticutting will be part of the regular maintenance with the celebration. So long story short, I mow slower, and my scalping isn’t as bad. 















Bonus pic of a very pretty sunrise this morning.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

This post is more of a comment on the “macros are macros” take on fertilizer. While I agree in principle, there is a chance that the cheap fertilizer you buy is not very good. 

For example, I bought a bag of 1-1-1 and I ended finding out that it was full of small rocks. These rocks were evenly distributed across my lawn. I’ve been cleaning them up ever since.

So yes, saving money is good, but understand that there is a quality difference between fertilizer brands. I’m not advocating to go for the designer stuff, just make sure it’s a reputable source.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Mowed, watered and put down my last fert app for the season on Sunday. Lawn’s looking a little not so great. I guess the cooler temps don’t agree with it.

I’m looking forward to being able to verticut it next year along w some actual rain on a regular basis. Bc you guessed it… #rainwatch continues. In 3.5 months we are still at .8” of total precipitation. I’ve really enjoyed the lawn this year, but like summer, I’m kinda ready to move on and hopefully have a more normal year next year. Unfortunately they extended La Niña even longer, and we’re not supposed to go ENSO neutral until the spring. 
















We also had another really nice sunrise.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

We finally got some rain! .75 inches to be exact. It was also very cool yesterday. Temps around here are going to yo-yo but will be back to the 80’s by Thursday. I also put down my pre-em for the winter. It’s my first time using pre-em in the lawn, so I’m curious to see how it goes. 
I mowed on Sunday:







In other news, we are finally redoing our front lawn. We are getting a circle driveway to facilitate ingress and egress, and to regrade the area. I’ll put down prg for the winter and then lay sod in the spring. I’m looking forward to having a complete front reno done instead of our rock farm that we currently have.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Mowed today. Lawn actually had quite a bit of growth despite the highs in the 60’s the first half of the week. The rain really helped I guess. Hopefully we can get some more soon. Overall pretty stoked that the lawn is this green in late October. 
























I started tearing up the walkway in the front yard. Construction should start next week and I hope to have this completed by this weekend. I’ve found that doing low skill demo can save me a lot of money on these types of projects, so I get to use a jack hammer for a bit. Thankfully there’s no rebar in it, but it is fairly thick. Anyhow, this one section took about 50 minutes. I get to work from home three days a week so this is perfect lunch time work. My goal is to make it easy for the bobcat to just scoop the stuff up and not have to take the added time to break it up.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I mowed on Monday and then that night we got .75” of rain. That’s 1.5” in about a week, which is great. Unfortunately the areas that were drought stressed have really slowed their growth despite the water due to the temps. So I think that they have just kinda quit for the season. Oh well. As long as we get some precip, I’ll take that, especially due to the extreme/exceptional drought conditions we’re in.








The strips between our stone pavers in the lawn have gotten pretty big throughout the season. It’s been fun seeing how they behave. I never reset them during they year to see how it would turn out. 








Our front yard project should start on Monday barring any unforeseen issues. We’ll be adding a second entrance and a loop to the driveway. Our current setup is a real hassle. I’ll be removing the two cedars and the other trash tree in the front, and replacing those w some different ornamentals. We won’t have as much lawn area, but that’s fine by me. I got done breaking up the walkway as that will be going away. That was a fun lunch time workout sarc/. But it’ll save us time on the project which saves us money.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Since my last post we’ve gotten another .61” of rain. We even have some more forecasted for Friday. This has been really helpful as we’re still over 10” behind for the year. The lawn is holding up. I put down a preventative rate of azoxy for the fall. Color seems to be going, and the previous areas of drought stress have checked out. I’m only mowing once a week now. On Thursday I did a double cut. 























The front yard project got underway in earnest yesterday. Over the weekend I cut down the trees and left stumps for the bobcat to push the root balls out. 








We also took our fish pond liner out. It is getting replaced w a bigger deeper tub. We enjoy watching the fish from the office when we wfh. 
They started carving out the driveway and put down the culvert. The road base will be finalized today and grading tomorrow. I’ve also ordered 15 yards of nice soil to put down over the recently regraded soil that’s there. A lot of rocks came out, and I think that it will make a good base for the lawn. My mowable area is going down to about 3,000^ ft. So it’s considerably smaller, but I’m pretty happy to not have a ton to mow out front. Once that soil is down I’m putting down three yards of sand to level and I’ll seed prg for the winter. I’ll sod in spring.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The front yard is coming along well. We’re right on schedule which is nice. Tomorrow they’ll start lining the driveway with limestone block. After that they’ll top it all with decomposed granite. I changed my soil order to 10 yards since I saw how small the area actually is. It worked out well. I put down a 50 lb bag of seed. It’s not actually fifty lbs of seed as it’s only about 50% seed based on the label. But it was enough to thoroughly cover the new soil. Anywho, I’m excited that this area has a good base for the sod I plan to lay down in the spring.































The masonry sand that they ordered is really nice quality. I ordered a couple extra yards to have on hand. I may use it for the front in the spring when I sod. Since I already seeded I don’t think there’s any use to it for the front. The front soil needs to work in and get a little more compacted. It’s pretty loose right now. Once the grass is in the mower will help with that.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

That looks great. I can't wait to see what it will look like in season next year.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Deltahedge said:


> That looks great. I can't wait to see what it will look like in season next year.


Thanks @Deltahedge !


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Yes that looks great and will keep getting better and better!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

WillyT said:


> Yes that looks great and will keep getting better and better!


Thanks @WillyT !


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

We got .75” yesterday. I was happy for the rain, but we got half of that in about 10 minutes. Needless to say it washed out a good bit of the soil. I had a good amount of germination, and that held in, but the areas that had t come in yet are a big question mark. Most of the front is done, and they just need to finish lining the driveway, and covering the road base. That’s scheduled for Saturday.









A couple weeks ago I put down a preventative fungicide treatment in the back yard. Then I noticed that the areas I thought had checked out improved. It seems I had a good amount of fungus damage and completely missed it. It’s been warm here, but that’s about to end. I’m hopeful that the improvements made are going to help the lawn come spring.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Got what may be the last mow of the season in yesterday. We have a strong front coming in, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting back out do the 60’s for 2+ weeks. I put down another fungicide treatment, and the grass continues to recover. I’m glad that it was able to repair before the winter arrived. 
























We also got some more rain on Tuesday afternoon right before I put down some more seed. We got a ton of seed washout and it’s a bit of a bummer, but nothing that can’t be fixed. I’ll take the rain any day. I dropped the seed on Tuesday afternoon, and hopefully it will be coming in by this weekend. The other grass is getting tall already. In the pics you can see how bad the spots are after the rain lol.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Been a little while since my last update. We went out of town for two weeks, so coming home was a bit of a crap shoot. Turns out that it rained nearly the whole time we were gone. We got more than 2.5” which is great. The temps also got pretty low sending portions of the lawn into dormancy. But the backyard still looks pretty good overall, but has definitely lost some color. I got a mow in after it had dried a little, because much to my dismay, the mower was leaving ruts. I hadn’t had this happen before, so something new to consider going forward. 








The front yard project is nearly complete. I still need to fill in the areas next to the masonry work with soil. I mowed it yesterday and the deer have made holes all over the yard. The rain combined w my boneheaded move of not rolling the new soil really caused a lot of clumps from where they would take off running. Needless to say, I’m over the deer in our neighborhood between this and them eating everything. The mower helped to get things smoother. I’m borrowing a roller to put some more weight on the soil and try to improve it. The big issue is the mounds and holes. I’ll work on those and get some additional seed down too.
















I also dug a hole for the new fish pond liner. That was a real treat. At least I have a jack hammer which made the job manageable. I’ll move the fish over this week. once everything is settled I’ll reseed the area. All of this will be sodded in the spring anyway. This is about 20% of the way through when I thought I was 75% of the way through 🤣🤣.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

On Friday morning I put down another round of seed. I have a lot of bare spots, so I’m working on getting those to fill in. I hope to see some germination by Tuesday. I’m still fighting w the deer. They keep eating the rye, and pulling it up by the roots. 🤬 the front yard is a total Monet. Looks good from far away, but up close it’s a real mess. 🤣🤣
















I also bought some soil, as well as harvested some from the property to fill in the edges next to the masonry work. That’s filled now, and I made sure that was well seeded.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

I sheared off a grease fitting the other day which led to getting some good advice on here that helped me get up and running for under $15. It’s times like that these I am so grateful to have all of this advice.
It’s been unseasonably warm here, so my backyard decided to come out of dormancy. AI was finally able to mow it today. It actually looks pretty good lol.






















The front yard is starting to germinate a lot better. I was under-watering it so the seed wasn’t going. Once I increased the irrigation it really shot up. I’m hopeful to be able to mow it this coming weekend as the first round of seed has tilloried quite well and needs to be cut. 
The area around the new fish pond is also seeing good germination, and I’m hopeful it will look good some time next week. I’m hopeful in two weeks I won’t have any bare spots to speak of.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Last night we got a light frost. However, since my lawn was in full growth mode, I noticed that areas got dinged pretty hard. It’s faint in the picture below, but the darker grass is what’s damaged. We are supposed to be dropping into the 20’s next weekend, and I’m worried that the grass will still be growing. I’m hopeful that the next week with highs in the 50’s really slow it down aggressively. 








Today I went ahead and mowed the front lawn. I had been pushing it off to give the new germination some time to establish, but I couldn’t take it any longer 😂😂. I mowed with the rotary and bagged that. Then I did another cut with the reel. I’m pretty happy with it, despite the areas that are still to fill in.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The lawn has gone completely dormant, and I trimmed it up today. The freeze last weekend definitely shut it down. The front yard got some damage as well. I’m going to reseed up there to help it out.
December 15:







December 28:


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

After letting the front rest and recover from the freeze it was ready for a cut. The color has really come back. Last week I put down roughly .4 pbs of N on it to help it along. I used Pennington ultra green starter fertilizer since the lawn is less than 1.5 months old. I’ve got half left, so I’ll use that in a few more weeks. But the extra iron has helped darken it quite a bit.


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