# Confederate Lawn Journal



## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

I am attempting to make some video's documenting my journey of getting my lawn back in order. I am honestly embarrassed at the amount of weeds I have in my yard vs. grass. I did not do any weed treatment last year so now I am paying the price. No pre-emergent and no post-emergent. Didn't put down any insecticide either and I have a bad mole cricket and grub problem in late summer early fall. I have a lot of leveling to do as well but I have enough black topsoil for that from digging out my pool 2 years ago. I applied Spectracide Weed Stop with Crabgrass preventer granules this past weekend and a spray application of atrazine about a month ago. I have a bag of Tifblair centipede seed (about 5k sqft) and 3 bags of Milorganite. The video I am putting together is based on this lawn renovation/journal using only products from the big box store. I haven't seen anyone do this. Usually everyone uses the professional grade specialty stuff. I want to try and prove it can be done this way. Not sure but its worth a shot. I will take some pictures when most of the weeds are dead and I'm ready to start leveling and aerating. Stay tuned!


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## bassadict69 (Apr 2, 2018)

Looking forward to your videos!


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

did aerating and overseed this past weekend with centipede. pics to come.


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

I really don't have a lot of patience but I know that's the name of the game. These are photos after I started my process a little over a month ago. steps in order:

-1" scalp (while still dormant)
-Dethatch
-Atrazine
-wait
-Spectracide Weed stop with crabgrass preventer
-wait
-fill lows with topsoil from the back and level the best I could
-Observation: Poa Annua and annual blue eyed grass are the abundant weeds. There's a few others that I can spot spray or pull later. 
-low mow again about 1.5" (lowest setting on my push mower)
-Aerate (agri-fab tow behind aerator)
-Overseed entire lawn and spot seed spots with no grass (Pennington Tiffblair Centipede seed 4, 5lb bags)
-Milorganite (about 3/4 lbs (N) per 1000sqft)
-Now daily water and prayer ;-)





left and right side of the driveway





Left and right side of driveway looking into street







Left side of driveway close. Seeing a lot of Bermuda I didn't know I had. but most of what you're seeing is a mix of established centipede and carpetgrass (well, and Poa Annua)







Right side mid and by mailbox. More Bermuda (had no idea) mostly Centipede and Carpetgrass and poa annua.

There is a strip of St. Aug up by the porch on the right side. it gets no sun and stays wet so I'm not too sure on how that is going to do with centipede. Might have to dig it out and make another planter.

Tips, tricks, thought, opinions??? I welcome it all. This project is going to help me prove to my wife that I can run a lawn care business... haha!


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## BakerGreenLawnMaker (Mar 13, 2018)

You could apply a 18-25-12 starter fertilizer to see if you could promote some growth to what you currently have. My St Augustine, very similar to centipede was in rough shape three years ago and I've worked with her and been patient as it's grown the past few years.


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

BakerGreenLawnMaker said:


> You could apply a 18-25-12 starter fertilizer to see if you could promote some growth to what you currently have. My St Augustine, very similar to centipede was in rough shape three years ago and I've worked with her and been patient as it's grown the past few years.


I'm going to give that a shot this week. I'm a little curious if I am doing this correctly. I know my circumstances are a little odd so bare with me. I am seeing a ton of weeds coming up in the dirt that I brought up from the backyard. Pretty sure that the barrier of the pre emergent is under the dirt I used so I will have to do some weed control on those spots. My germination of the overseed is taking forever because we had a 47 degree night last night and I think it was in the low 50's the night before. The Poa annua is getting really tall and I'm wondering if it would be wise to cut it back. Common sense tells me that its blocking all the sun and nutrients and stunting the germination of the seeds also. Centipede seed has a 25 day germination time and that's for ideal temps. Would it damage anything if I mowed the weeds back or should I keep watering and ride it out? I keep telling myself too, "the more you mow, the more it will grow." and I haven't mowed in 11 days. needless to say the only thing growing is the Poa. Any advice on what to do here from anyone?


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## BakerGreenLawnMaker (Mar 13, 2018)

Well, one thing the temps in S. Carolina this week is going to be in the 80's, so you should see some germination if I had to guess. Honestly, I know you don't want to hear, but throw down the starter fert and wait to see if it promotes some growth. How much are you watering it?


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

@BakerGreenLawnMaker 
I'm watering every day. not sure the exact amount but the soil stays moist. Would the starter fert play well the with Milorganite I already put down? Its pretty cool to see the domination line with the established grass. My grass is a drastic darker green than the neighbors. I ran a string on the property line and used the edge guard on my spreader. noticeable difference with both neighbors.


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## BakerGreenLawnMaker (Mar 13, 2018)

Confederate Lawn said:


> @BakerGreenLawnMaker
> I'm watering every day. not sure the exact amount but the soil stays moist. Would the starter fert play well the with Milorganite I already put down? Its pretty cool to see the domination line with the established grass. My grass is a drastic darker green than the neighbors. I ran a string on the property line and used the edge guard on my spreader. noticeable difference with both neighbors.


Absolutely. I have used both the starter fert and Milo all in the same application. The domination line is a beauty to look at, it separates the good from the bad.


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

@BakerGreenLawnMaker I cant find any 18-25-12 at the home depot or lowes. Whats your take on the scotts starter fert? I think its a 24-25-4. StaGreen has a 18-24-6, that might be a better choice. still learning and probably always will be seeking knowledge. I appreciate your suggestions.


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## BakerGreenLawnMaker (Mar 13, 2018)

I'd go with the 18-24-6.


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

Alrighty! Below is an update to the project. I have been watering everyday in the afternoon when I get home from work. Things are greening up nicely but I'm definitely finding out some things that I could have done differently for less weed growth but oh well. I think this growing season is going to be a good one. Also put down some Insecticide to get rid of the mole crickets and grubs. I did that about 2 days ago and as far as the mole crickets go, I already see a significant slowing of their activity. I still have a half a bag of that and a full bag of some other stuff for later in the season.





Look at that domination line!





My salad. Carpet grass next to centipede. They are very similar from far but very different in growth structure





Left side under the pine tree is greening up nice. mostly Carpetgrass and centipede (lots of centipede sprouts)
and the right side you can tell the Poa Annua is starting to die off from the heat





This is the right side of driveway with a big salad of weeds, 3 grass types and bald spots. Note: all bald spots have a lot of centipede sprouts popping up. I'm going to put down some Scotts Bonus S probably in June/July. I'll keep y'all posted as things start looking better. Thanks for checking in.


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

In those last 2 pictures you can see a lot of sedges (I think mainly Kyllinga and yellow nutsedge) does anyone know of a good product from home depot or lowes? I have been eying the Image brand stuff for nutsedge (I think its imazaquin or sulfentrazone) does anyone know which of those is the right stuff to kill kyllinga and or nutsedge? I cant pinpoint what type but I do know it's a type of sedge


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

I did some plugging this past weekend. Pics to come. Grabbed it from my St. Aug and Centipede donor spot in the back. probably some of the best looking and most healthy turf on the whole property. hard work with the plugger I bought tho. Definitely sore today


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## Confederate Lawn (Apr 4, 2018)

Still compiling some footage to do the video on how the entire season went. I'm still really heavy on the weeds and now the temps are a little high for herbicides. If anyone follows Pest and Lawn Ginja, he's a wealth of knowledge and recommends doing the herbicide in the evening before dark to give the herbicide a chance to seep into the weed plant. One of the main reasons you don't want to spray over, say 85 degrees is the evaporation rate at that temp prevents the plant from taking in the product. Made sense to me. I'll probably do an application one day this week in the evening. I have included some pics of the progress from early spring pre emergence, core aeration, overseeding and fertilization. I also did a dethatch before I put the pre emergent down. I did a test patch with some sulfentrazone on an area of kyllinga and nutsedge and it smoked the stuff. However it left a bald patch that I plugged that is coming in slow but looking nice. pics below 

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## bmw (Aug 29, 2018)

+Confederate Lawn Journal

Did you like the seed you used? Where did you get it? Does it perform well in partially shaded areas? I have a big centipede backyard and a lot of bare spots that I was thinking of seeding this spring/summer, but didn't know if this seed worked well in partial shade.

Also, I've used Pennington seed before (annual rye) and had a ton of Poa Annua the following spring. Does this seed you used create weed issues? Thanks


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## sabanist (Mar 28, 2019)

Confederate Lawn said:


> In those last 2 pictures you can see a lot of sedges (I think mainly Kyllinga and yellow nutsedge) does anyone know of a good product from home depot or lowes? I have been eying the Image brand stuff for nutsedge (I think its imazaquin or sulfentrazone) does anyone know which of those is the right stuff to kill kyllinga and or nutsedge? I cant pinpoint what type but I do know it's a type of sedge


Sulfentrazone is the active ingredient in dismiss and it does a good job on nutsedge. Cant buy it at hd or lowes but its avail on amazon and other online retailers. I posted this pic on the warmseason forum. 3 days after applying dismiss to some nutsedge


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## bmw (Aug 29, 2018)

@Confederate Lawn The last pictures look really good and filled in. I have some similar spots in my backyard that are just bare and was wondering if it's worth the effort to do this. Looks like you got some great growth/fill-in after a couple of months. This is encouraging. Also, it looks like your yard gets a fair amount of shade, yet the seed still germinated well. Is that a fair assessment? My areas are partial shade and I'm debating on getting some TifBlair seed or GulfKist Premium Centipede Seed. I'm thinking of starting in late April and should have some good coverage by June/July.


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