# Baretta's 2021 Lawn Journal



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

Back for another year. Had some disease set in last September on spring reno and I wasn't feeling up to snuff to take care of it. Lawn only received a few spoon feeding of urea and called it a season. Looking forward to a turn around in 2021.

The good news is the grub treatment worked out well. No starting over...score!

The plan for this spring is to overseed with an additional TTTF cultivar. Stay tuned.

First cut was March 16th @ 3". Aside from all the dead grass due to last September's downer, it looked not bad. I decided on an overseeding due to the fall reno not taking well in the shaded areas. Thus the reason to getting something more shade tolerant.

Sending out another soil sample to Waypoint. Look forward to comparing from last springs results.

The pics take 3/17...


----------



## Carlson (Apr 16, 2020)

Looking pretty good! Definitely not as beat up as mine haha


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

@Carlson Thanks! It did look early in the season.

Started noticing Poa in this area then it quickly became wide spread all over.



Pulled about 2 buckets full so far.

Love the colour this time of year. Hope to work on the flower bed around the front of the house this week sometime. I hacked back the shrub in the middle this year. Normally it's flowering right now.





4/16 - Starting lowering the cut in prep for dethatching/scarifing and overseed.









4/19 - Mowed on lowest setting with the old Craftman and ran my Yardworks dethatcher in two directions around the front lawn. I think grass was still too tall because it pulled out very little. Borrowed my neighbours Sun Joe and scarified the thin areas around tree island. Decided to give it a run on the front lawn and I was amazed how much thatch it pulled. The Sun Joe is the real deal! Hope to get one when it comes on sale.

The pics...



Construction signs up.







4/20 - Overseeded with Rhizing Moon tall fescue and Chantilly Creeping Red Fescue mix.

Was a week late as temps were in the high teens to mid 20's C with no rain.

4/22 - Applied CalPril and 20 lbs/m of Activ80 AG granular. (80% Humic Acid)


----------



## Carlson (Apr 16, 2020)

I think I have a bunch of poa A all over too. Once my new sprouts have been cut a couple times I'm planning the tenacity double-tap - seems too widespread for me to be pulling by hand.

Also - _fantastic_ choice on the Rhizing Moon. :thumbup:


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

4/30 - Sprayed Urea @ 0.5 lbs/m

The bad. Overseed is slow to germinate thus far. Poa is now starting to compete.

The good. Picked up a Sun Joe Scarifier/Dethatcher off Amazon.

5/4 - Received my soil results back. Made good progress with my pH. Phos is off the charts and I didn't apply any following last years results. Barely made a dent in Potassium. This year vs last.

2021


2020


5/5 - Applied 0-0-22 + 22S +11 Mg (KMag) @ 3.3 lbs/m


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

5/12 - Applied 34-0-12 to B,C,D @ 0.75 lbs/m

Got some noticeable green up from the urea spray application. Lawn is starting to thicken up a little on some areas but not great in others. I'll wait another week before deciding to drop more seed and try out the new toy. Went back to the rotary after using the manual reel on the last few. Lowered the deck to 2.5" from 3" to even out the cut and remove unwanted seed heads.

Picked up a 2012 Bannerman mini topper of CL for $150 Cdn. Has some rust on it but overall in pretty good condition. Replaced all the nuts, bolts and washers. This model drum is meant for organic topdressing material, peat moss, loam etc. The other model drum to spread sand and finer topdressing materials.



Early evening pics.



My favourite patch...fall reno was a success here. Still some work to do on the edging.


----------



## amartin003 (Apr 30, 2021)

Looks great! Nice dark green!


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

Thanks @amartin003!

Two weeks after N app colour looks great.





Overseed earlier in the spring is a bit of a disappointment. Areas to work on.



Still very thin in lighter area with poa mixed in.



Poa now setting in to my favourite patch.



What was once a birds nest in the neighbours attic is now home to squirrels. They says they make lots of noise but apparently don't seem to mind. :shock:


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

5/23 - Borrowed my neighbours gas powered aerator and used it on the fenced in area. Added a layer of 70/30 sand and compost mix for leveling purposes. Also brought in 3/8" aged mulch to top up my beds minus tree island.





Finally made use of the small rocks collected through sifting over the years. Used them along the back fence which is always very dry during the summer months.


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

6/4 - applied 34-0-12 to B,C,D @ 0.75 lbs/m

6/12 - applied Dolopril @ 10 lbs/m

Started getting Red Thread. Had a warm dry spell then back down 10 degress to seasonal. This was the hardest hit area.



6/19 - sprayed urea to B,C,D @ 0.5 lbs/m

Ordered Hydretain due to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully I can apply on Sunday my next permitted watering day before the lawn checks out with this heat wave coming through. Lawn got a good soaking today.



The good news is hopefully the Poa I have checks out as well. I think most of it is Triv however.  Seedheads are visible.

Last cut was @ 3" but currently at around 4" I'll let it ride for a while.


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

7/4 - applied Grub control and watered in.

A five day stretch with record breaking temps ranging from 33C/91F to 43C/109F last week quickly put areas of the lawn into dormancy and much of where the lawn meets concrete. Current have a grey dark hue setting in parts as we haven't any precipitation since June 15th. Currently getting 1.5" in a two day permitted watering scheduled but with work hours will go down to one. Getting a two day cool down before temps resume in the high 20s.

Last years fall reno which I didn't realize at the time area that gets mainly shade was approx. 40% poa. I killed it all off with glypho but much with of it has returned. My hunch is it's trivialis. I will dig some out and inspect it further. This area mainly stays green except for the perimeter of tree island. So I've been procrastinating how I'm going to deal with it this year. I've noticed it grows taller than the TTTF within a week after cut so I'm curious to get peoples thoughts on painting it with glypho. Did you find it effective and which brush would you recommend?

Here are some pics before the heat dome set in. Area of the poa patch not shown.


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

Now into day 37 with no rain and none forecasted anytime soon. Lawn is quickly shutting down and we haven't hit what typically is the hottest/driest month of August. Needless to say, we've already hit record temps and unusual to have a dry run this early...luckily no watering bans as of yet. Now back to work full-time, 2 good waterings could be a tough task.

I'm a little more convinced what I thought was Poa Triv in the area mentioned in last post could be Poa A. I've let it grow a bit longer and seeing seedheads popping up. Plan is now to get an early overseed while still scheduling pre-m down sometime in September.

Gated yard wasn't watered for about a month. Slowly trying to wake it back up the last week. Plan there is to kill of some Poa A areas (pretty much all that's still green) and get some levelling done. May include 2 zone 8 head underground irrigation if I don't run into too many large rocks.


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

52 day drought came to an end on Friday. Cool conditions was a relief the last few days with 0.9" of rain. Unfortunately short lived as it gradually heading back into the high 30s/100F.

Only thing green on the neighbours lawn are weeds. Mine is hurtin' pretty bad. Cut down to 2.5" to make appear even with dormant areas. Abused the 1/3 rule. :fool:


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

Been on the fence on overseeding or just applying pre-emergent and see how it looks next fall. Approx 800 sqft is infested with Poa... hoping Annua. Pulls out quite easily under moist soil conditions. Annua or Triv?





Looking over this section I'm now leaning towards an overseed with Tenacity at seed down and again at day 30. Pre-m at day 60. What would you do?









Two bears appear after taking this pictures.


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

8/20 - Aerated and scarified Section E area to be overseeded. Cut down to 2" and dethatched remainder of from front lawn/tree island street side.

8/22 - Sprayed Urea @ 0.25 lb N to front area.

8/23 - Overseed Section E (Rhizing Moon TTTF/Chantilly RF mix), peat moss

8/23 - Applied 34-0-12 prilled fert to front lawn/tree island street side @ 0.75 lb N.

First time using the Sun Joe. Highly recommend.
Scarify setting -5, Dethatch setting 0.









9/4 - Scarified gated yard and overseeded with no mix. Lawn received next to no irrigation during the summer. Only 20% came back.

9/10 - Applied 34-0-12 prilled fert to front lawn/tree island street side @ 0.75 lb N.

9/13 - Organic Gardner's Pantry cocktail (EM, Humic and Kelp) applied front lawn/tree island street side.

9/16 - Applied Dolopril 10 lbs/m.

Current state,
Overseed





Dead spots





Fairy Ring area will be addressed.


----------



## Baretta (Apr 8, 2019)

10/2 - Sprayed Urea @ 0.5 lb N to front area.

10/11 - Applied Dolopril 10 lbs/m.

Poa appearing close to the driveway.



Pleased with how the overseed turned but still a little thin near the cedar trees.
Pics taken 10/11





Gated yard overseed didn't so well but a reno there is in the plans for next year.

Maybe only a few cuts left. Cool temps and buckets of rain lately. Falling leaves will keep me busy.

Picked up a Landzie/Ryan Knorr leveling rake off Amazon. Can't wait to make use of it next spring.


----------

