# Ken-n-Nancy's Lawn Journal 2021-08-11 - Lilac Area Reno - One Year Later



## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

​
*Ken-n-Nancy's Lawn Journal 2020 - KBG Partial Reno*

We really hadn't planned to renovate any of our lawn this fall. However, a few different things conspired to lead us to where we are now -- two days after seed-down on what is now our sixth renovation in the last eight years!

This thread is intended to document our 2020 partial renovation. We had a separate lawn journal for our prior "War on Triv" renovation of our front lawn in 2018, but thought it would be best to start a new one for this new project. However, before getting in to the log of what we're doing, though, a little background is probably in order...

We renovated all lawn areas of our property in the three years from 2013 to 2015, with a different section each year: 
2013 Front Lawn Renovation (Northern Mix)
2014 Back Lawn Renovation (Fine Fescue / Prosperity KBG Mix)
2015 Side Yard Renovation (Bewitched KBG)
 In 2016, we did unexpected mini-renovations to repair localized lawn damage from a transformer oil spill and septic tank replacement.

In 2018, we did our first "re-renovation" of previously renovated lawn, converting the front lawn from northern mix to KBG, and as a "War on Triv".

This year is a "re-renovation" of the remainder of our original 2013 "northern mix" renovation to the same KBG blend as the front lawn -- 50% Bewitched KBG and 50% Prosperity KBG.) The goal is to get it looking as good as our front lawn.

Front lawn as of 18 July 2020:









This year's renovation is the result of two causes:

1 - The "northern mix" just doesn't tolerate July and August as well as the KBG. Fundamentally, the "northern mix" is, by design, a "compromise" lawn. The different grasses in a northern mix have the advantage of never all struggling at the same time (well, except for December through April in New Hampshire) so the lawn survives whatever nature throws at it with at least some of it remaining green. However, other than for two brief stints a year (mid-spring and early fall, which come in mid-May and late September here in New Hampshire), the "northern mix" lawn is never really firing on all cylinders.

Below is what the area under renovation looked like back on 16 July 2020, pretty close to its peak (before summer decline, except for heat stress at the cobblestone border):









However, after the heat of late July and early August, we get a fair bit of decline in the northern mix every year, I think mostly due to the fine fescue going dormant in any "heat wave" that rolls through.

I didn't end up taking an "immediately before glyphosate" picture, but below is a picture taken the next day, which is still well before the glyphosate has had an opportunity to result in a visual change in the grass. This shows the difference in this section of lawn after a "hot and dry" 5 weeks since the above photo.

Driveway Side on 16 August 2020 (before renovation):









(to be continued...)


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

2 - Our street was rebuilt this year through full depth reclamation (FDR). This ended up leaving us with nice, new pavement, but the roadway ended up being raised from its prior height by about 5-6 inches and widened by at least six inches. This meant that the slightly sloped "no-mans-land" that we created between the road and our bordering cobblestones became narrower and too steep.

Below is a "moments before" picture of our roadside granite cobblestones -- note that there is a slightly sloped "no-mans-land" between the pavement edge and the granite, with the cobblestones being only a couple inches lower than the pavement. At the time this photo was taken, the opposite side of the road has been ground up, but our side is still intact. (By the way, this photo is from May 18th, at which time New Hampshire is still emerging from winter -- the grass hasn't fully greened up and many of the trees, mostly the oaks, haven't fully "leafed out" yet.)









Within an hour of the above photo, the "road reclaimer" came by, turning pavement into base material...









and then came back for a second pass...









Then, just a couple hours later, the former pavement has been turned into a new base layer which is higher and wider than the old pavement, even without the forthcoming two new layers of asphalt!









(to be continued...)


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

On the third day after the road was turned into gravel, the paving crew arrived to put the first layer of asphalt onto the road surface and do a little bit of height accommodation with partial driveway aprons. They worked fast and were only in front of our house for a few minutes, most of which was spent waiting for the dump truck to provide more asphalt!










While they were here though, I had a chance to talk to the town DPW lead for the project. He said he thought the cobblestones were great and wanted to talk to me to decide what to do between the cobblestones and pavement. The next step of the project was going to be that a crew would return in a few weeks to adjust the grade for the shoulders. The standard things they were planning were to either (1) install additional topsoil along the road edge to "ramp down" to the adjoining soil about 2-3 feet away from the pavement, or (2) install crushed rock in places where the property owner already had crushed rock or something similar along the road. He offered that if we would raise the cobblestones to just below the road height, the town would fill in the area between the cobblestones and the pavement, as well as grade their new topsoil down into the lawn on the lawn side of the cobblestone. After considering those things, realizing the effort involved with raising all those cobblestones and the roadside irrigation heads as well as reseeding much of the front lawn, I asked if they could just leave the packed gravel between the edge of the pavement and the cobblestone, as I wanted a surface that would be mostly inhospitable to weeds, but wouldn't get picked up by the plow in the winter and thrown into the lawn. He said that if I preferred it left as packed gravel, they could do that. I was relieved that we wouldn't have to deal with new topsoil or crushed rock (we've tried both of those approaches in the past -- growing grass right to the pavement, and having crushed rock between the lawn and the pavement, and both of those ended up being pretty high maintenance.)

Sure enough, a few weeks later, crews came to do the shoulder grading. Just as requested, they skipped over the road section in front of our house, neither adding topsoil or adding crushed rock! I was still concerned about the steepness of the packed gravel between the road and the cobblestones being a potential problem in the winter, but I figured we'd get through this winter and maybe it would be a project for a future year if we ever decided to renovate the front lawn. As part of the shoulder grading project, a crew arrived to grind an edge into the driveway a few feet back from the road, for eventual installation of inclined driveway aprons. All was still well, and the lawn looked good!










A couple weeks after that, the paving crew returned to put down the final coat of asphalt. They did the entire street in a morning. The aprons were not yet installed; the crew would come back on a future day to do that.

During the next few weeks, we realized that although the difference in height between the road and lawn wasn't optimal, that we would be glad to not be doing any major lawn projects this fall. We also agreed that having the northern mix section look only "better than average" during July and August was fine with us. So, we decided *NOT* to take on any lawn projects this year and headed off to vacation to enjoy some time with family and not even think about renovating the lawn this fall...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Not quite two weeks ago, we returned home from having been on vacation for 2+ weeks. While we were away, one of my sons mowed the lawn twice, following my guidance and mowing the lawn a notch higher than my usual cut due to the longer interval. He did a good job, saving me the hassle of having 10-12" tall grass upon our return, and keeping it looking good while we were gone.

The irrigation was on automatic while we were gone, with almost zero natural rainfall. The KBG sections looked great. A little bit of disease pressure had started to show up, since it had been nearly three weeks since last applying Serenade. The northern mix sections had a lot of brown in them, but at least looked no worse than everybody else's lawn on our street. However, compared to the front lawn, the northern mix area was downright bad.

More significantly, while we were gone, the town contractors came back after the final paving, graded the roadside edge in a couple spots and hydro-seeded their who-knows-what seed!! (Probably mostly annual ryegrass with perennial rye and fine fescue likely mixed in.)

What more, they didn't just do the grading in the area between the cobblestones and the road, but went a fair bit of the way into our lawn! Ugh. In doing so, they even buried cobblestones near the mailbox!

Photo from 2020-08-11 showing regrading over top of cobblestones, new topsoil and lousy seed mix hydroseeded into our lawn! (Note: this is also a good photo to show our original driveway pavement, the slightly higher pavement of the first layer, and the final top layer of pavement.)









They also added crushed rock between the cobblestones and the road, which although it currently looks nice, I know from experience will be a problem -- the plow will throw rocks into the lawn in the winter; the 3/4" crushed rock is too small to use a leaf blower to keep the rocks free of leaves or grass clippings; and the rock layer isn't deep enough to prevent weeds from germinating. The crushed rocks will look good for a few months and then become a long-term maintenance hassle. Sigh.

Photo from 2020-08-11 showing regrading of topsoil in "buffer zone" between our yard's cobblestone edging and our neighbor's wide gravel buffer:









We decided that we would need to reset our roadside cobblestones in those areas and do something different with the topsoil they added. It wasn't in the plan, but with vacation behind us, we felt we had to take the time to put it right again.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

We decided to start our fixes to the re-grading performed by the town's contractor in the area that previously did not have any cobblestones, since it seemed like it would be relatively straightforward to remove the excess soil that had been added, and set a new line of cobblestones at a height closer to that of the road. We had been considering adding cobblestones to that area anyway, as it looked kind of odd to not have cobblestones proceed all the way to where our neighbor's crushed rock started.

Needing cobblestones for that area added "one more straw" to the reasons to undertake the renovation of the remaining "northern mix" portion of our lawn, because we happened to have exactly the right number of cobblestones in the foundation for the basketball hoop along that side of our driveway! Ever since our youngest child had "aged out" of her basketball team, the basketball hoop had received less and less use. At some point a year or more ago, the backglass had broken, making it pretty much unplayable except for "swish" shots, so the hoop was really no longer serving any purpose other than that of being a bit of an eyesore. That, combined with the fact that renovating that side of the lawn would allow us to add about 3-4 inches of soil near the road to raise the grade on that side of the driveway and reset all the roadside cobblestones to better match the height of the road tipped the scales in favor of renovating that portion of the lawn. We also had all the seed we would need for the project left over from the front lawn renovation of two years ago -- we had purchased extra seed for that renovation which ended up not being needed due to perfect renovation weather in the two weeks after seed down that year.

So, we did it. On August 17th, we sprayed glyphosate on all of the northern mix lawn on the side of our driveway, an area of about 2250 sqft. (For those that note such things, we used 11.25 ounces of 41% glyphosate for those 2250 sqft, mixed at a rate of 1.5 ounces per gallon of water to cover 300 square feet, per the label directions.) The momentous step only took about half an hour, but marked the point of no return -- now we were committed to the renovation!

So, we removed and dismantled the basketball hoop, harvested the cobblestones, and headed to the far end of the line of cobblestones to start fixing things up!

The process of laying cobblestones was one that we were familiar with from in 2018, when we laid the cobblestones in the first place! (See photo below, follow the link to our old post for more photos.)









One complication of lawn work in this area is that neither we or are neighbor are sure where the property boundary is, and there's no reason for either of us to spend money on getting it surveyed, as it's too far from either of our houses to matter much. Back in 2018, we laid cobblestones only to a point that we were pretty sure was still on our property. Similarly, our neighbor's lawn stops at a point that he's pretty sure is his property, but there's this area in between that's about 20 feet wide -- that's the area that the town decided they'd botch things up. I had included that area in our 2018 lawn renovation and have been maintaining it ever since, but it may really belong to my neighbor for all I know. Some time in the past couple years, I'd asked our neighbor if he'd mind if I were to eventually lay cobblestones there, and he thought that'd be fine, so now was the time to do it!

The process actually went pretty smoothly -- the elevated road surface and new loam brought in by the town meant that we didn't need to excavate very far into the nitpack near the road to set the cobblestones. (That had been the most time consuming part of the project back in 2018.) We bridged the height difference between the old line of cobblestones and the new ones by removing three of the old cobblestones and resetting them on a gradual incline, to make the whole thing look like it belonged that way. We scavenged crushed rock from the rest of the area along the road to even make it look like all the rest. Working together we knocked out the job in a few hours. We prepared the soil for seed, sprayed glyphosate on any sections that seemed like the town's hydroseed mix had been sprayed there, and decided we'd tackle the cobblestones near the driveway the next day.

New cobblestones, looking towards neighbor's house, as of 2020-08-16:









New cobblestones, looking towards our driveway, as of 2020-08-16:


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Work and other responsibilities ended up taking priority in the next few days, so we didn't get a chance to work on the cobblestones after all.

However, on Wednesday, 19 August 2020, two days after spraying the glyphosate, I decided I'd start to lower the height-of-cut of the renovation area. We'd made the mistake in a previous renovation of waiting too long before starting to cut the dying grass -- if one waits too long until the grass is completely dry and brown, it easily becomes matted down and requires raking. We weren't going to make that mistake this time!

Our normal cutting height for the northern mix area is 3.75 inches. For our first mowing after applying glyphosate we cut it at 2.75 inches and bagged the clippings to help expose the soil.

On 2020-08-19, Starting to Lower Height-of-Cut -- Two Days After Glyphosate









Half-Done with Mowing at the Lower HOC, on 2020-08-19









Done with Mowing at the Lower HOC, on 2020-08-19


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

It wasn't until Friday that we had a chance to have a day to work together on the cobblestone project. We decided we'd tackle the left apron edge first, as it seemed like that edge would be easier, given that there was less new pavement on top of the cobblestones.

Our plan was to remove the old cobblestones along the apron, raise the grade where the cobblestones had been using sand harvested from the basketball hoop demolition to gradually ramp up the blocks to the correct height for the future apron, and then raise the entire line of blocks along the road by about 4 inches, so that the difference between the top of the cobblestones and the road would be only about 2-3 inches, rather than the current 6-8 inches.

However, before getting started on the cobblestones, we decided we should scalp the grass all the way down to the renovation height, partly because raising the cobblestones would make it hard to mow right to the edge, and partly because we knew that working on the dead grass to place cobblestones would surely cause the dying grass to become matted down. We ended up scalping the lawn as low as we could, bagging all the clippings. We ended up needing to mow the area three times, successively lowering the height of cut about a half-inch each time, to keep from clogging the entrance to the bag.

Eventually, though, we were able to start working on cobblestones!

Left Apron Edge, Before, as of 2020-08-19:









Left Apron Edge, Midway, as of 2020-08-21:









Left Apron Edge, From Grass, as of 2020-08-21:









Left Apron Edge, Finished, as of 2020-08-21:


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

@ken-n-nancy, how did you kill all of the hydroseeded areas? Had it all germinated by then? And were some of those areas in your existing KBG section rather than northern mix section? Or did everything happen in the Northern mix section?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

The next day, we started on the right apron edge, using the same approach. On this side, however, we needed to first remove the hydroseeded "junk seed" and soil to get to the cobblestones, then excavate them, fill underneath where they had been, and reset the cobblestones at the right elevation. However, we've done this enough lately to be quicker at it than we had been the first time we did this!

Having nice sand for placing under the cobblestones is a big help in providing a solid, compacted foundation that is easy to adjust to the proper height. We forgot to take a picture when we finished, so I took one today and added it to this batch.

Right Apron Edge, Before, as of 2020-08-19:









Right Apron Edge, Midway, as of 2020-08-22:









Right Apron Edge, Finished, as of 2020-08-28:


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> @ken-n-nancy, how did you kill all of the hydroseeded areas? Had it all germinated by then? And were some of those areas in your existing KBG section rather than northern mix section? Or did everything happen in the Northern mix section?


We weren't sure of the best way to deal with the hydroseeded areas, either. Both of the hydroseeded sections are in our existing KBG of the front lawn. (Not the former northern mix section now undergoing renovation.)

Ideally, we would have fallowed for about 3 weeks and then killed off all the germinated grass with glyphosate. However, due to the need to get our seed down soon, we didn't have that luxury.

We did the following, and are hoping that it will be sufficient:

Raked off as much of the hydroseed mix as we could. We were careful to rake only towards the road (away from our grass) and not rake into our lawn. We disposed of this in the trash (we're not even trusting it to the compost pile!)
Physically removed the topsoil that was installed. We shoveled it out and disposed of it in our compost pile, where if "bad grass" emerges is fine with us. We did use some of the town-installed topsoil underneath the cobblestones that we raised, but we were careful to keep it separate from other new soil we have used in the renovation.
Sprayed glyphosate about 6-8 inches back into our KBG where the hydroseed mix had been applied. Yes, this will kill some of our KBG. However, fall is here now in New Hampshire. The KBG will be eager to spread into the void.
When we seeded new seed in these areas, we applied Tenacity at an 8oz/acre rate, which is the maximum recommended at seeding for KBG. It should be enough to stunt perennial ryegrass or fine fescue. The areas involved are small enough that we'll try to hand pull any obvious non-KBG which develops.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

First thing Saturday morning (2020-08-22), just before we started working on the right side apron, we received the delivery of "SuperSoil" (a loam / compost mix) that we would use to raise the grade about 3 inches in the area between the road and the lilac bed. We calculated that we would need 6 cubic yards of soil, which would hopefully also leave us a bit extra to fill in low spots throughout the renovation area.

The delivery was reminiscent of similar deliveries we received in the first renovation we ever did ourselves back in 2014 on the back lawn. Just enough time has passed since then that we had partially forgotten that we had said "never again" after spreading those 16 yards of dirt by wheelbarrow, shovel, and landscaping rake. Having only 6 yards to spread was much more manageable than the prior 16 tons!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

The remainder of the weekend was a bit of a blur, as we tried to remain focused on evenly spreading wheelbarrows full of soil in the appropriate places. We fell into a rhythm of Nancy filling up wheelbarrows of soil and Ken rolling them to their destination, dumping them out, and spreading them out with the landscaping rake. When we did this previously in 2014, a trick we used to get even spreading was using bricks as "depth markers" and the landscaping rake to screed between them. However, we didn't need to do that this time, since we had a height-controlled edge made by the roadside cobblestones and the lilac border cobblestones about 6 feet apart from one another. The goal was simply to be at the correct height at both edges, with a steady elevation change in between. This arrangement made it pretty straightforward to get the desired grade with a careful eye and patience.

Below is an old photo from back in 2014 showing the "depth marker" technique. I highly recommend something like this for spreading new soil at a uniform depth.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

There were a few other miscellaneous things we did before seed-down, some of which I've now gotten out of order, and others of which I've probably forgotten about completely, as we didn't take any photos on the day of seed-down. However, I should probably mention what we did with the irrigation heads...

We needed to raise the roadside sprinkler heads in the renovation area so that they would be at the proper height after the addition of 3 inches of topsoil. This really isn't a difficult thing to do, as long as the sprinkler heads were installed on swing joint risers. Ours were installed with flexible swing joint risers (aka "funny pipe") which I would highly recommend for anybody doing a sprinkler system installation. We actually did this _before_ spreading the new soil.

We also upgraded the sprinkler heads in the roadside portion of our front lawn in the same zone as the little "unknown property line" area, switching from Hunter PGP-ADJ rotors to Hunter I-20SS rotors. The reason for this is that the I-20 rotors have an on/off control at the rotor itself, allowing them to be turned off directly at the head. The on/off feature is very useful for renovations where a single zone has both renovated and un-renovated areas. Watering the established lawn according to "germination watering" means it is very damp all the time, which sets up the perfect conditions for fungal trouble. A way to avoid the overwatering problem on established lawn areas is to turn off individual rotors that are in areas of established lawn. If stuck with PGP-ADJ rotors, there is a "blank nozzle" (a nozzle with no hole) that can be installed in the PGP-ADJ rotors. We've made use of that previously, but changing the nozzle on a rotor is a big pain compared to just turning a switch at the rotor.

The only thing I don't like about the I-20 rotors is that the smallest standard (blue) nozzle for them has a 1.5gpm flow. That's significantly larger than the smallest of the PGP-ADJ (red) nozzles, which have three nozzle options smaller than that, going down all the way to 0.7gpm. I really like the 0.7gpm nozzle for getting matched precipitation rates at a corner (90° arc) in the same zone as heads on a linear edge (180° arc). As a result, in some places I've retained PGP-ADJ rotors where I would have liked to upgrade to an I-20 as the I-20 doesn't have an available nozzle with a precipitation rate as low as the smallest PGP-ADJ (red) nozzle.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

After getting the "pile" spread out in the renovation area, we were too tired to take any photos! There were then a couple days of forecasted downpours (only one of which we received, but one would have been one too many) so we held off on "seed down" day until Wednesday, 26 August 2020.

Wednesday was the big day! With this being our sixth renovation in eight years, we have become familiar with our preferred sequence of "seed-down day" activities, which has evolved a little over time. Here is what we did:


spray final glyphosate in any areas that may have new germination of weeds
moderately rake any old soil surface to provide a little loose soil on top
apply starter fertilizer (a quick release fertilizer with phosphorus) to any soil that may be deficient in phosphorus
roll with a lawn roller
sow seed (we sowed a 50/50 blend of two varieties of KBG - Bewitched and Prosperity)
_very lightly_ rake the seed in to the soil surface
roll with the lawn roller (again)
apply Tenacity (we used 5oz/acre for our KBG-only seeding)
spread peat moss as thin as it will cover the surface (we used 3 bales of 3 cubic feet each to cover 2250sqft)
start "germination watering" -- just enough to keep the soil surface continually moist, but without any runoff or puddling

It always seems that "seed-down day" shouldn't take very long -- the actual spreading of the seed on 2250sqft took all of 10 minutes -- but all the other steps always take longer than we expect. Particularly the spreading of the peat moss. However, we got through it all. We squeezed in various steps throughout the day amongst Ken's day job (currently working from home) and various other household chores. We didn't actually start the "germination watering" until right at sunset.

Accordingly, we didn't take pictures until the next morning. However, now, it's done, and it's time to wait! Patiently...

2020-08-27: The entire "driveway side" renovation area, on the morning after seed-down. Note that we have significant areas where we just seeded into the old stubble without any new topsoil. We did most of our 2018 front lawn renovation that way, but had to add more soil on this side of the driveway to level out the lawn better. There's peat moss in the "stubble" areas, too -- it just isn't evident from this angle.









A better "close-up" of the area between the lilacs and the street. This is the steepest slope where we could have washout issues if we get a downpour before germination.









The "unknown property line" area. We performed all the same steps here, just on a smaller scale. We applied glyphosate about 6 to 8 inches into the "good KBG" to hopefully eliminate any seedlings of "bad grass" in that area from the paving contractor's seed mix. We did an initial glyphosate a few days before seed-down which is responsible for the yellowing grass at the edge of the new soil.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

@ken-n-nancy, I think we may have discussed this a long time ago...

But there are 1.0gpm 30+ foot radius standard nozzles available for the I20. Sprinkler Warehouse has the nozzle set in stock. It's Hunter part number: 356605. It has the dark blue standard nozzles which include the 1.0 as the smallest, and it has the standard low-angle set (same as those included in the light blue nozzle set you're used to seeing). Hunter doesn't advertise that this set is available, but a lot of irrigation installers rely on it. The dark blue nozzles also have a straighter, more angled (less arc) throw compared to the light blue ones. The light blue set apparently was introduced to compete with Rain Bird, but they still make the dark (Navy) blue set as well.

I've used these dark blues, including the 1.0 gpm pretty extensively, and my installer used them originally as well.

There are also the black short radius nozzles that go down to 0.5gpm, but don't throw as far.

Do a search for "Hunter I20 nozzle" at Sprinkler Warehouse, and all the nozzle sets come up.

Your local supplier (e.g. SiteOne/Atlantic Irrigation) should also be able to order these.

There are 42 total nozzles available for the I20.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> But there are 1.0gpm 30+ foot radius standard nozzles available for the I20. Sprinkler Warehouse has the nozzle set in stock. It's Hunter part number: 356605. ...
> 
> I've used these dark blues, including the 1.0 gpm pretty extensively, and my installer used them originally as well.
> 
> There are also the black short radius nozzles that go down to 0.5gpm, but don't throw as far.


Thanks for the tip, @Green. I do vaguely remember you mentioning alternate nozzles for the I20 previously and I guess I didn't order any due to not having enough of a need for a new order.

Looking at these (https://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/hunter-rotor-nozzle-sets-356605), I wonder if they will fit my I20SS heads? The nozzles that I've been using are listed as the "UIltra" ones, and I'm not quite sure how they're different. It sounds from the description that the I20 Plus and I20 Ultra rotors take different nozzles, but maybe it's just a question of whether or not the nozzles have the "square top." I hadn't even realized that the I20 rotors weren't all the same...

I do have some of the black short radius nozzles, which are only 0.5gpm, but due to the shorter radius, they are actually a higher precipitation rate (less water per minute, but over a proportionally smaller area, so they actually have a higher precipitation rate!)

Do you have some of each nozzle set (light blue and dark blue) and find them to be interchangeable in your I20 rotors?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

OK, this posting finally catches us up to the present -- the photos below were taken a few minutes ago. There have been gentle, but steady showers through much of the wee hours of the morning, followed by on-and-off showers until about 2pm. Altogether, the rain gauge contains about 1.6 inches of rain since yesterday evening. Fortunately, there haven't (yet) been any downpours, though. With the exception of a couple small rivulets, we haven't experienced a washout. However, scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast for this evening, so the danger hasn't passed yet...

It hasn't been quite 72 hours since seed-down, so still too early for any germination.

2020-08-29: "Driveway side" renovation area:









2020-08-29: "Far End" renovation area:









2020-08-29: "Mailbox Border" area -- just relying upon the spreading of the KBG to fill this back in -- no seed sown here.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Do you plan on removing the gravel next year? I would hate the snow plows dumping it on the grass. Also, which way do you think the water from the street will flow? It looks like it can go straight to your driveway and the across the reno area.

I really like the coblestone look. I think there was a member in the warm season side that placed them around the perimeter of his house to keep the Bermuda from spreading.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Thanks for the tip, @Green. I do vaguely remember you mentioning alternate nozzles for the I20 previously and I guess I didn't order any due to not having enough of a need for a new order.
> 
> Looking at these (https://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/hunter-rotor-nozzle-sets-356605), I wonder if they will fit my I20SS heads? The nozzles that I've been using are listed as the "UIltra" ones, and I'm not quite sure how they're different. It sounds from the description that the I20 Plus and I20 Ultra rotors take different nozzles, but maybe it's just a question of whether or not the nozzles have the "square top." I hadn't even realized that the I20 rotors weren't all the same...
> 
> ...


Yes. All I20s have the same nozzle turret. All the I20 nozzles fit all of my I20 heads interchangeably (I have purchased and tried every nozzle set available). I have the following types of I20 sprinklers, and the oldest heads I have were manufactured in 2014, making them all I20 Ultra models:

-4 in stainless steel (many of these)
-6 in stainless steel (one of these)
-12 in plastic (2 of these)
-6 in stainless steel PRB model (several of these)
-a "shrub" (fixed; non-pop-up) style plastic I20 attached to a sprinkler spike for use with the garden hose

I have the following nozzles all in use:
-Light Blue
-Dark blue (including 1.0gpm)
-Short radius black nozzles
-a couple of "MPR" flat-front/no tab nozzles
-a green "high flow" nozzle

The nozzles I've had the most trouble with are the "MPR" ones, which are the newest. Those came out a few years ago. They have a tighter fit than the standard ones, and no removal tab. At least most others still have the tabs.

I believe the reason they state that the dark blue nozzles are only for the older I20 Plus is because those were the official nozzles (and only option) when those were available (before my/your time with in-ground sprinklers). They simply want us to use the newer nozzles with the current sprinkler heads, because they think they're "better". I'd argue with that. The older nozzles don't give the same "performance" standards according to the charts (radius, coverage, etc.), so all I can figure is that to get the advertised standards, you have to use the newest. But the fact that they keep making the older ones, even if they don't publicize it, is telling. I have a nozzle chart for the dark blues if you can't find one online.

This happens in many industries though. It's similar to how Kodak kept making VR-series color negative film long after Gold became available (I was a kid during that time). In fact, VR film is still available today under different names, if you know where to look.

The other piece of info, is that the low-angle nozzles are identical in both sets.

The dark blue nozzles give you not only the missing 1.0 gpm option, but also a couple of other intermediate options, like 3.5. And the dark blues have the rectangular "doorway" shaped nozzle cutout instead of the rounded cutout "keyhole" style of the light blues, which gives the water a straighter trajectory instead of more of an arc.

Something else worth noting: Many newer Hunter nozzles lack the removal tab, and have the "flat front" design. I've seen both light blue and MPR sets made like this. In fact, all of the I20 MPR nozzle sets seem to be made this way, and newer nozzle sets (that came with my newest PRB heads over the past couple of years) had the light blue nozzles without the tabs. Of course, the implication here is that you can't easily remove the nozzles...you damage the actual nozzle opening. So they become single use in the newest sets. Guess they want to sell more nozzles. Every dark blue/gray set I've bought has had the removal tab, though.

In short, everything fits the newest heads just fine. No issues.

Now here is something really interesting that I've never seen before: https://www.google.com/search?q=hunter+I20+nozzle&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWjoWXq8HrAhWQTN8KHdEKD9sQ_AUoBHoECA8QBg&biw=1204&bih=636#imgrc=SfmPXC0z5OoOfM

This image is from Hunter's site apparently. It shows light blue/rounded cutout nozzles, but in almost the same gpm series numbers as the dark blue (including the 1.0). I wonder if they made the light blue nozzles with 1.0 nozzles for a short time. It's not just lighting, either...these are definitely the newer style/light blue. And there is a light blue 8.0LA in this set as well. I don't think you can buy this set. Must have been made for a short time. Maybe marketed for the PGP Ultra? (which takes the same nozzles as the I20.

Hunter technical support has always answered questions for me. A few years ago, I asked if the dark blue sets were still made, and they said they were still a currently made product. Again, that is telling...many installers use the 1.0 nozzles.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Here is all the data, from the 2009 product catalog that someone uploaded...both nozzle sets listed side by side: https://issuu.com/jfagulha/docs/hunter_snaptech_full

Edited to add: I know you've been phasing in I20s for a while. Not sure if you've had some of the controls on top clog up due to sand from soil. I have. You can't turn it off when that happens. I remove the rubber cover and rinse it out when that happens. Unfortunately, it happens fairly often.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> Yes. All I20s have the same nozzle turret. All the I20 nozzles fit all of my I20 heads interchangeably (I have purchased and tried every nozzle set available).


Wow! Thanks, Green, for the very thorough, complete reply! This must have taken you quite a while to write up -- I appreciate it!



Green said:


> I have the following types of I20 sprinklers, and the oldest heads I have were manufactured in 2014, making them all I20 Ultra models...


I must have all I20 Ultra models, then, too, as I didn't get my first I20 until 2015. All of the ones I have are 4-inch stainless steel ones (I20-04-SS). I've been curious about getting some of the 6-inch ones as I cut my grass quite long, and sometimes the 4-inch ones aren't high enough to keep from pushing over the grass when watering. But, so far I haven't actually purchased any of those yet.



Green said:


> I have the following nozzles all in use:
> -Light Blue
> -Dark blue (including 1.0gpm)
> -Short radius black nozzles
> ...


Wow, that's quite the nozzle collection! I thought I had quite a few different ones, but you have me out-numbered by about a factor of two!



Green said:


> I believe the reason they state that the dark blue nozzles are only for the older I20 Plus is because those were the official nozzles (and only option) when those were available (before my/your time with in-ground sprinklers). They simply want us to use the newer nozzles with the current sprinkler heads, because they think they're "better."


Thanks for the explanation on this -- I think you're right that they just want customers to use their current products.



Green said:


> ... the fact that they keep making the older ones, even if they don't publicize it, is telling.


Clearly, they are still selling the older ones! I wish their new ones included some low-rate nozzles like the old PGP-ADJ red nozzles in size 1 and size 2!



Green said:


> The dark blue nozzles give you not only the missing 1.0 gpm option...


Excellent! It turns out that for my irrigation system, anything larger than the 1.5gpm is just too big, as I only have about 7-8gpm from my well and have 4 or 5 heads on most zones, so any larger than that and the pump just can't supply the needed volume & pressure.



Green said:


> Something else worth noting: Many newer Hunter nozzles lack the removal tab, and have the "flat front" design.... Of course, the implication here is that you can't easily remove the nozzles...you damage the actual nozzle opening. So they become single use in the newest sets. Guess they want to sell more nozzles. Every dark blue/gray set I've bought has had the removal tab, though.


A tip on getting the nozzles out of an I-20 without the removal tab -- turn on the zone at the controller, then go to the head with the nozzle you want to remove, and turn off the flow at the head. Then back off the adjustment screw until it no longer retains the nozzle. What you can now do is use the water flow to eject the nozzle from the head. You want to do the following steps in quick succession: turn on the flow at the head again, and when the water flow starts, the nozzle will get shot out of the head, and you can immediately turn off the flow again to not get completely wet. It is best if you put your hand over the nozzle when doing the above, so that you can catch the nozzle in your hand. (Otherwise you will have a new challenge in finding the nozzle wherever it got shot out onto the lawn! (Been there, done that...))

Wearing safety glasses while doing the above is very highly advised. Even then, be very sure when doing all of this that you are not looking into the nozzle from the front of the head, or the nozzle can put your eye out!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> Here is all the data, from the 2009 product catalog that someone uploaded...both nozzle sets listed side by side: https://issuu.com/jfagulha/docs/hunter_snaptech_full


Nice, thanks!



Green said:


> Edited to add: I know you've been phasing in I20s for a while. Not sure if you've had some of the controls on top clog up due to sand from soil. I have. You can't turn it off when that happens. I remove the rubber cover and rinse it out when that happens. Unfortunately, it happens fairly often.


I haven't had that happen with the on/off control yet. I regularly have the problem of the hex socket for the nozzle adjustment screw getting filled with sand and needing to peel back the side of the rubber cover and clean out the hex socket with a dental pick so that I can get a hex key into the socket! Thanks for the note to watch out for that with the on/off control, too!


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

You're welcome!

And of course I have the gray low angle nozzles (same in both sets) in use, too.

Most of my heads are the original 4 inch SS models, but there are many areas where I had to install 6-inch replacements to get proper clearance.

Shooting nozzles out: I've accidentally done that with nozzles once or twice, and my installer did it on purpose. I found nozzles all over after installation. I think I'd need a way to catch them before doing it on purpose.

As for the on/off, I trust that when off...I've put my face right near the head during nozzle swaps, as I'm sure you have, too. Hopefully off is really off.

If 1.5 is the largest you can use per head, I guess the mix of PGPs with the 0.7gpm nozzle and I20s is a good thing. Can't beat that. Too bad I20s don't offer a 0.7 or smaller with long radius. I think the black 0.5 is an 18 foot. In my case, I have 14-15 gpm available on a good day. And even if I exceed that rating with nozzles in a zone slightly, it seems to just cause a slight pressure drop, which is fine by me.

Not sure if it's an issue for you, but all the 6-inch replacements I've bought are PRB models, due to high city water pressure. The light blue nozzles especially, can mist pretty badly in the standard heads, so the pressure is clearly above 50.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> Shooting nozzles out: I've accidentally done that with nozzles once or twice, and my installer did it on purpose. I found nozzles all over after installation. I think I'd need a way to catch them before doing it on purpose.


Yeah, I've found that a bucket over the exit direction of the head works pretty well.

As for the on/off, I trust that when off...I've put my face right near the head during nozzle swaps, as I'm sure you have, too. Hopefully off is really off.



Green said:


> Not sure if it's an issue for you, but all the 6-inch replacements I've bought are PRB models, due to high city water pressure.


Yeah, we have opposite issues to deal with there! The well pump essentially provides the maximum pressure regulation for us, so too high of pressure isn't a problem.

Thanks again for all the helpful info. I'll have to prepare an order for over the winter when these online sprinkler suppliers hopefully get these back in stock again -- seems like COVID-19 has been a sales boost for irrigation systems!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Despite the forecasts for downpours last night, it doesn't appear that any arrived. Seedbed still looking pretty good. The 1.6" of water I dumped out of the rain gauge this morning was all from gentle showers from the prior night and yesterday morning.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Pick-up trucks from the town's paving contractor are starting to appear on our street. Seems like today may be apron paving day!


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Pick-up trucks from the town's paving contractor are starting to appear on our street. Seems like today may be apron paving day!


Prepare for chunks!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> ken-n-nancy said:
> 
> 
> > Pick-up trucks from the town's paving contractor are starting to appear on our street. Seems like today may be apron paving day!
> ...


Not long after I made my posting this morning, the contractors did indeed arrive and starting paving the apron. I ended up needing to reset three of the cobblestones that shifted when their equipment drove over just the edge of a few of them, but in all, I think it turned out pretty well. However, today has been such a crazy day with work and non-lawn activities, that I didn't actually take a picture after the paving was finished!

I did get one pic just as they were getting started before I headed down to watch more closely and make some special requests...

I'll try to take and post some pictures tomorrow!


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

It's nice that they did it today, and hopefully they are done and not coming back...
Tomorrow or the next day are probably the start of the days where stepping on the reno area soil might be a bad thing as radicle emergence begins for some seeds...about 2.5 to 3 days in.

By the way, have you found Bewitched and Prosperity to be compatible in growth rate in your blend?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> It's nice that they did it today, and hopefully they are done and not coming back...


It is nice to have the apron paving done! This morning, I got up and went out intending to take some photos of the newly-paved driveway apron, and found that the possible light showers were indeed falling lightly.

I took a quick look on the local weather radar and saw that the light showers were forecasted to continue for a while, so I quickly measured out 10.2 pounds of urea and applied it evenly over the not-under-renovation 10,200sqft with the broadcast spreader by putting plastic over the top to keep the granules dry. Nothing seems to help grass growth in the fall as much as light showers and a little bit of quick-release fertilizer! Nice to have a new "spoon feeding" of fertilizer down, too!



Green said:


> Tomorrow or the next day are probably the start of the days where stepping on the reno area soil might be a bad thing as radicle emergence begins for some seeds...about 2.5 to 3 days in.


Yeah, we touched up the area that got walked on, as it ended up being significantly disturbed when we adjusted those three cobblestones. We re-raked about 10sqft of soil, sowed new seed, and spread a little bit of peat moss we had left over. Hopefully it will all be just fine.



Green said:


> By the way, have you found Bewitched and Prosperity to be compatible in growth rate in your blend?


I think so. I haven't noticed different growth rates in the lawn. I also know that I surely can't tell the Bewitched and Prosperity apart. Even where there are abutting sections of Bewitched monostand with the Bewitched/Prosperity blend, I can't see a difference -- where there is variation in the yard, it seems to follow trends of sunniness vs shadiness, rather than the difference between the monostand and duostand. The shady areas are thinner, but darker and slower growing, while the sunny areas are very dense, yet not as dark and grow a bit faster.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

After the steady showers from the last 36 hours let up this morning, I headed outside at lunchtime to see if I should turn the irrigation system back on (we had turned it off the day before), and...

I found that *we have BABY GRASS!!!*










The other piece of good news is that even with yesterday being showers nearly all day, including some heavier rain at times, we were relieved to find that we didn't seem to have any significant washouts. There's a few places where little rivulets have washed away inch-wide sections, but nothing that seems to be a significant patch.

The germination is widespread, although not quite everywhere, as of now, Day 8 after seed-down. Seems to be right on track compared to our prior experience with Bewitched KBG and Prosperity KBG!


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## ruxie88 (Dec 20, 2018)

:thumbup:


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Grass babies! Time to celebrate! :beer:


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

With a crazy busy week, we just now have found enough time to post these pictures of the newly-paved driveway apron. We're thankful that Ken was working from home on the front porch, so he could hustle out and remedy a few cobblestones that became askew when the equipment drove over just the corner of them. We were able to reset them while the asphalt was still hot.

We also managed to steal a few shovelfuls of hot asphalt to patch some chipmunk-induced damage to the driveway.

Right-Side Driveway Apron as of 2020-09-03:









Left-Side Driveway Apron as of 2020-09-03:


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

We'll be trying to take weekly photos of the renovation to be able to objectively measure progress and provide encouragement to others that KBG starts out slow and not to worry too much!

As reported above, we've had germination as of the day of these photos, although you can't see it at all except for in a close-up pic!

"Lliac Area" as of 3 September 2020 (Day 8)









"Far End" Repair Area as of 3 September 2020 (Day 8):


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

ruxie88 said:


> :thumbup:





Chris LI said:


> Grass babies! Time to celebrate! :beer:


Thanks for the kudos! It's great to be the "proud papa!"


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Today is Day 15 from seed-down and the time for the next weekly installment of photos. We're pretty happy with how things are going so far. We seem to have reasonable germination everywhere. There are a few sparse areas we wish were a little more densely populated with baby grass, but we are hopeful that it will work out without needing to sow any more seed. We've had successful fill-in of the KBG on prior renovations, so we have no reason to think this one won't work out, too.

We also took a close-up of one of the sparser spots, for future reference.

"Lliac Area" as of 10 September 2020 (Day 15)









"Far End" Repair Area as of 10 September 2020 (Day 15):









Close-Up of a "Sparse Spot" in the "Lilac Area" as of 10 September 2020 (Day 15):


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Ugh. I was just finishing up posting the above update, when I happened to look out the window and saw that it suddenly looked very dark outside for the middle of the afternoon... Within two minutes, the rain was coming down in buckets.

We're now in the midst of a downpour... Seems like what has germinated to this point is what we're going to get, and what hasn't may very well be washing away!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Sorry about the downpour! But I think even with what you've got so far you'll have a huge success.

I've subscribed to your journal and just wanted to say that your detailed posts and pictures were extremely entertaining to read. I also love the "team" approach, something you don't see often! Looking forward to future updates!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> I've subscribed to your journal and just wanted to say that your detailed posts and pictures were extremely entertaining to read. I also love the "team" approach, something you don't see often! Looking forward to future updates!


Thanks for letting us know that you've enjoyed our journal. You've inspired us to check yours out, too!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

This morning, I had a chance to take some pictures of the effects of yesterday's downpour. I'm not quite sure of the correct path to proceed now, but we will try to figure that out by this afternoon.

According to our rain gauge, we received 1.3 inches of rain in about 20 minutes yesterday during the downpour mentioned (and pictured) in our prior posting. Comparatively lighter rain continued occasionally until the evening, for a total accumulation of 1.8 inches yesterday.

The downpour shifted a lot of the peat moss in a "rippled" pattern, kind of like sand ripples at the beach. This has left most areas clear of peat moss, but also resulted in piled ridges of peat moss up to about 1/2 inch deep. (See pics below.)

The grass seedlings and the soil seem to have stayed put, although at least half of the seedlings are bent over and laying flat on the ground.

We're not quite sure of the best path to proceed. Options under consideration include:

Doing nothing. (i.e. let it be as it is)
Raking (gently) the peat moss ridges back out to get approximately even spread again. 
Blowing (gently) the peat moss off of the renovation area (probably onto the driveway for cleaning up and maybe redistributing if we feel real adventuresome) with our leaf blower.

I'm concerned that doing nothing will leave the seedlings in the piled ripples practically buried. I'm not particularly worried about the mostly bare areas -- the seedlings have sufficient roots to have stayed put yesterday, so I think they are beyond the danger of washout now and should be able to draw water from within the top inch of soil, so having the soil surface dry out a little should be okay. The coverage is very sparse in some places, but we've seen from prior renovations that we have sufficient coverage for the KBG to fill in by the end of next spring. I'm concerned that raking may damage the KBG seedlings. Blowing seems like it would be less destructive, as long as we do so gently enough to not lift up clumps of soil. I'm currently tending to the leaf blower option, hoping that it may also result in gently lifting the bent over seedlings, too.

It does seem that the peat moss is currently still too wet to gently blow off the renovation area (although we haven't yet tried). I'm hoping that in a few hours or so it will have dried out enough to enable us to do that.

Any suggestions or other ideas?

Lilac Area on 2020-09-11 (Day 16) After Yesterday's Downpour:









Closer View of "Ripples" Formed by Water-Moved Peat Moss on 2020-09-11 (Day 16):









Close-up View of "Ripples" Formed by Water-Moved Peat Moss on 2020-09-11 (Day 16):


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> GrassOnTheHills said:
> 
> 
> > I've subscribed to your journal and just wanted to say that your detailed posts and pictures were extremely entertaining to read. I also love the "team" approach, something you don't see often! Looking forward to future updates!
> ...


Just promise not to laugh at me while my lawn loses a mega battle to Pythium


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> This morning, I had a chance to take some pictures of the effects of yesterday's downpour. I'm not quite sure of the correct path to proceed now, but we will try to figure that out by this afternoon.
> 
> According to our rain gauge, we received 1.3 inches of rain in about 20 minutes yesterday during the downpour mentioned (and pictured) in our prior posting. Comparatively lighter rain continued occasionally until the evening, for a total accumulation of 1.8 inches yesterday.
> 
> ...


Personally I'd choose the do nothing option. Not only is it the easiest option, but I had a similar experience in my reno and my lawn is much more sloped which meant even more peat moss rippling than you're seeing on yours. I did nothing and saw no difference in between rippled zones and the bare zones, since this was well after germination (probably a proportionate amount of time after germination when comparing my PRG to your KBG). I think my answer would change if it were a day or two or three after seed-down considering you'd likely see a large amount of germination in peat moss zones with very little in the bare areas due to seed migration.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

I had those ripples of peat various times. I used the back side of a plastic leaf rake and gently spread them out. If it was significant washout I did lightly reseed areas that looked barren and used more peat.

No fun.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I actually think you did not have a lot of washout at all. The pest moss moved. I would let it dry a bit and blow the peat moss. Mainly to avoid the moisture retention.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Thanks for the suggestions, @GrassOnTheHills, @pennstater2005, and @g-man.

What I ended up doing is kind of a bit of each possibility... As mentioned in my post from this morning (and as g-man noted), the soil didn't get washed out and the seedlings didn't get uprooted, it was just the peat moss which shifted. I don't think I had many ungerminated seeds remaining in the peat moss, being that we were 2 weeks after seed-down and both Bewitched and Prosperity seem to be comparatively quick to germinate. In any case, even if we did lose some seed, it looks like we have enough germinated to get to success.

So, since it was only the peat moss that got disturbed and we didn't really need the peat moss for coverage any more where the grass has germinated, I didn't worry about again getting coverage everywhere. So, for most of the area, I didn't do anything (@GrassOnTheHills).

However, there were places where the "ripples" of peat moss were nearly an inch deep and were smothering the baby grass. In those areas, I used the back of a plastic leaf rake, as suggested by @pennstater2005 to break up the clumps and spread them out a bit. I really only did that on ripples that were over a half-inch thick. The technique worked well and didn't seem to rip out any of the seedlings. The lesser ripples didn't seem to be likely to cause any harm, so I let them be.

After using the rake to spread out the "ripples" a bit, I used the leaf blower (@g-man) to spread the de-rippled peat moss out a little more and also to get some air underneath the matted-down blades of grass.

I think the combination of approaches worked pretty well. Photos are further below.

I did toss out about a handful of seed and some more peat moss (I have a tiny bit remaining, even still) in three small spots that I thought were a little too sparse and would benefit from a few more seedlings. I won't be extending watering longer for them, though, so they're going to need to try to do their best to follow along even though I'll be cutting back on watering in a few more days. I've made the mistake of changing the normal sequence of activities to help stragglers, but what happens when doing that is the 95% that had been doing well starts to suffer a bit while focusing on the 5% that is playing catch-up. My experience is that it's better to optimize for the "many" and let the "few" deal with the less than optimal conditions.

Lilac Area After Tidying Up A Bit On 2020-09-11 (Day 16):









Closer View After Tidying Up A Bit of "Ripples" Formed by Water-Moved Peat Moss on 2020-09-11 (Day 16):


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Thanks for the suggestions, @GrassOnTheHills, @pennstater2005, and @g-man.
> 
> What I ended up doing is kind of a bit of each possibility... As mentioned in my post from this morning (and as g-man noted), the soil didn't get washed out and the seedlings didn't get uprooted, it was just the peat moss which shifted. I don't think I had many ungerminated seeds remaining in the peat moss, being that we were 2 weeks after seed-down and both Bewitched and Prosperity seem to be comparatively quick to germinate. In any case, even if we did lose some seed, it looks like we have enough germinated to get to success.
> 
> ...


Right on! Love the multi-faceted approach.


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

Hi guys, great read! Following along&#128578;
I'm a bit late as you had some good suggestions already and what you've done looks to have worked well but thought I'd share my experience. I had matting down of baby grass like this after torrential rain and an option I used over the next few days was to carefully use a stiff nylon yard brush to lift the blades up off the soil. Worked best when things had dried up a bit, so did it in conjunction with using a leaf blower to help out.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Mark B said:


> Hi guys, great read! Following along🙂
> I'm a bit late as you had some good suggestions already and what you've done looks to have worked well but thought I'd share my experience. I had matting down of baby grass like this after torrential rain and an option I used over the next few days was to carefully use a stiff nylon yard brush to lift the blades up off the soil. Worked best when things had dried up a bit, so did it in conjunction with using a leaf blower to help out.


Thanks for the tip, Mark. I'll have to keep the "nylon yard brush" option in mind for next time as part of the "bag of tricks."

We haven't received any rain since the day of the deluge, and the forecast for the next week is looking generally sunny and definitely dry. Should be great weather for growing grass without worrying about heat, cold, or high disease pressure!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Today is Day 22 from seed-down and the time for the next weekly installment of photos. Even though we've done this many times before and know that the pace will pick up in the future, this* "sprout and pout"* period *is very discouraging*. It just kind of looks like everything has stopped growing and feels like the renovation is going to be a failure.

Having last week's pictures to look at compared to this week helps a little. It also helps to just look at the "from a distance" photos. The "straight down at one's feet" photos are very bleak. I don't usually post those, as they make it look real bad, but to help encourage other renovators that your sparse spots of KBG will work out okay, I'm posting a couple of those "bad pics."

I lightly blew leaves off the renovation area before taking the photos. There really weren't very many; not enough to make it really worthwhile, but it makes the pictures look better. 

We're staying the course and won't be adding more seed, so it won't really look like a lawn until the end of June 2021, but we're okay with that -- we just need to remember this isn't a sprint, but is a marathon.

"Lliac Area" as of 17 September 2020 (Day 22)









"Far End" Repair Area as of 17 September 2020 (Day 22):









Closer View of a "Sparse Valley" in the "Lilac Area" as of 17 September 2020 (Day 22):









Close-Up of a "Sparse Spot" in the "Lilac Area" as of 17 September 2020 (Day 22):


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

With progress being so slow during *"sprout and pout"* we put together a 4-photo sequence to help us look at the bright side of things.

We were hoping the pics would be encouraging. Alas, the Day 15 and Day 22 pictures look nearly identical. Sigh. Such is *"sprout and pout."*

"Lliac Area" on the morning after Seed Down on 27 August 2020 (Day 1)








"Lliac Area" as of 3 September 2020 (Day 8)








"Lliac Area" as of 10 September 2020 (Day 15)








"Lliac Area" as of 17 September 2020 (Day 22)


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## rob13psu (May 20, 2018)

That's looking good! I think doing the weekly progressions helps, especially with KBG. I've definitely been taking notes from past year's renovations to help with mine next year.

I'm not sure if you mentioned this earlier, but does that area get much sun? Most of the main portion of my front yard receives over 7 hours of sun, but I have a portion of the side yard that may get 2-3. I'm anticipating a more challenging time growing KBG there, even if it's one of the more shade tolerant cultivars (i.e. Mazama/Bewitched).


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> ken-n-nancy said:
> 
> 
> > Looking at these #356605 nozzles, (https://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/hunter-rotor-nozzle-sets-356605), I wonder if they will fit my I20SS heads? ...
> ...


@Green, I just wanted to say a big *THANKS* again for the suggestions on trying different nozzles. In the past 24 hours, I've acted upon some of your advice...

Yesterday, when observing that I was getting a fair bit of erosion from spray hitting the soil in the 8 inches right around one of the I-20 rotors in the renovation area, I realized that the problem was that at some time long ago, I had adjusted the radius screw a long way to reduce the radius of the blue 1.5 nozzle from the normal 31-ish feet to about 23 feet so that I wasn't watering the road. Well, as we know, that results in a lot of deflected spray puddling around the head. In this case, there was actually a bit of a high pressure stream going into the soil. I had apparently never really noticed in the established lawn, as the mature grass didn't mind. However, the bare soil in the renovation area was having the seed washed away from directly around the head and the excess water was trying to drown the baby grass that had managed to germinate there despite the washout. Inspired by your suggestions, I tried a few different nozzles and decided upon a black 1.5 SR (short radius) nozzle, which seems like a worthwhile improvement. Thanks!

Today, I also placed an order from sprinkler warehouse to take advantage of their 20% off "end of season blowout" sale and get some 6" I-20 SS rotors for potentially installing next year if we end up raising the long stretch of roadside cobblestones and thus having to raise the grade by about 3-4 inches. While placing the order for those, I ordered a supply of the 356605 nozzle trees for the I-20 that include the dark blue 1.0 nozzles. Those would be helpful to me so that I can put I-20 rotors in some corners where I currently have PGP-ADJ heads to take advantage of the old red "1" nozzle (which is actually about a 0.7gpm nozzle as the old red numbers weren't calibrated for gpm).



Green said:


> Something else worth noting: Many newer Hunter nozzles lack the removal tab...


By the way, yesterday I used the "trick" of changing nozzles on the I-20s by having the zone on, but the rotor turned off at the flow switch in the rotor. Then, after backing off the adjustment screw (with the flow off), I'd just barely turn on the rotor for a moment at the local switch, which would nicely eject the nozzle, with the nozzle landing about 12-18 inches away. It was then easy to put in the new nozzle. I did this quite a few times and it always worked about the same. A lot easier than trying to pull the nozzle out with needle nose pliers grabbing the removal tab.

In any case, thanks again!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

rob13psu said:


> That's looking good!


Thanks for the encouragement!



rob13psu said:


> I'm not sure if you mentioned this earlier, but does that area get much sun? Most of the main portion of my front yard receives over 7 hours of sun, but I have a portion of the side yard that may get 2-3. I'm anticipating a more challenging time growing KBG there, even if it's one of the more shade tolerant cultivars (i.e. Mazama/Bewitched).


I don't think I said anything about the sun exposure. I should have mentioned that. That section is shaded by tall trees across the road until about 10am-noon, depending upon the season. From that time onwards, though, it gets pretty much full sun for the remainder of the day. That's the most sun that any part of our lawn gets, so its "full sun" compared to everything else we have! The section right at the base of the woods line gets a little more shade from the trees directly overhead, but still gets a fair bit of sun.

Yes, growing KBG is more challenging in the shade, but as long as one gets at least a half-day of sun, there are some benefits, such as reduced water usage and slightly slower growth.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

After walking around the renovation area this morning, decided that it's time to start backing off of the "germination watering" which seeks to keep the soil continually moist, and start transitioning the watering to once-a-day watering. Then, once the grass gets to mowing heights, we'll water still less often to head towards the "deep and infrequent" watering (which isn't particularly infrequent on our sandy soil.)

Accordingly, I changed our irrigation controller to water only twice a day at 9:30am and 1:30pm, although for longer than it had been with the 4-5 times a day "germination watering." We'll likely leave it at twice a day for the next 2-3 days which are forecast to be sunny and dry, and think about backing off to once-a-day watering when we get a cloudy day.

There's not really enough progress for new pictures, so today's posting will need to be text only. Grass is still pouting as far as height goes, but individual plants are tillering into many blades now. Slow but steady wins the race for KBG...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Last night was the coldest night of the season here in Bedford, NH, so far this fall, with our thermometer going down to 34F (it's in a shaded spot), but the portions of the lawn with a lot of sky exposure had very light frost on the blades of grass, and there was a skim coat of light frost on the car roof and windshield.

That puts us roughly on track with seasonal norms here in southern NH. It doesn't officially count as "first frost" for our location with it having remained above 32F, but winter's coming, with tomorrow being the autumnal equinox.

Our "average first frost" date is September 26th, so we're basically on track locally here. Tonight's forecast is about the same as last night, so there's a possibility we might make the milestone tonight. If not, the week-long forecast will postpone "actual first frost" to after the 26th.

But, as we all know, the actual first frost doesn't have an impact upon our cool season grasses. Well, other than putting an end to the crabgrass, which really can't tolerate frost...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Today is Day 29 from seed-down and the time for the next weekly installment of photos.

It's agonizing that * "sprout and pout"* continues. Just like last week, it kind of feels like the growth is just in slow motion. However, there is some progress apparent in the pictures as compared to last week.

We again blew leaves off the renovation area before taking the photos. There still weren't enough to shade the grass much, but having them off the grass really does make the pictures look better. We're hoping that by this time next week, we'll have seen some growth start and maybe even have a reason to do some mowing. (In our 2018 renovation, our first mowing was on Day 27.)

"Lliac Area" as of 24 September 2020 (Day 29)









"Far End" Repair Area as of 24 September 2020 (Day 29):









Closer View of a "Sparse Valley" in the "Lilac Area" as of 24 September 2020 (Day 29):


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

ken-n-nancy said:


> @Green, I just wanted to say a big *THANKS* again for the suggestions on trying different nozzles. In the past 24 hours, I've acted upon some of your advice...


You're welcome. Sprinkler troubleshooting is always interesting.



ken-n-nancy said:


> Yesterday, when observing that I was getting a fair bit of erosion from spray hitting the soil in the 8 inches right around one of the I-20 rotors in the renovation area, I realized that the problem was that at some time long ago, I had adjusted the radius screw a long way to reduce the radius of the blue 1.5 nozzle from the normal 31-ish feet to about 23 feet so that I wasn't watering the road.


Sometimes, the 6-inch heads can also help with this.



ken-n-nancy said:


> Inspired by your suggestions, I tried a few different nozzles and decided upon a black 1.5 SR (short radius) nozzle, which seems like a worthwhile improvement. Thanks!


Yeah, those black nozzles can be pretty useful. I believe I have at least two of the 0.5s installed, at least one with the screw reducing the radius, in the shaded deck corner where the KBG is a battle to grow.



ken-n-nancy said:


> Today, I also placed an order from sprinkler warehouse to take advantage of their 20% off "end of season blowout" sale and get some 6" I-20 SS rotors for potentially installing next year...


Thanks for the info. I ordered a couple of extras myself after reading here that they went back in stock. In my case, I was a couple dollars short of $150 (free shipping min.) after ordering other random stuff like the pressure gague, but the 20% off equated to the same outcome.



ken-n-nancy said:


> By the way, yesterday I used the "trick" of changing nozzles on the I-20s by having the zone on, but the rotor turned off at the flow switch in the rotor. Then, after backing off the adjustment screw (with the flow off), I'd just barely turn on the rotor for a moment at the local switch, which would nicely eject the nozzle, with the nozzle landing about 12-18 inches away. It was then easy to put in the new nozzle. I did this quite a few times and it always worked about the same. A lot easier than trying to pull the nozzle out with needle nose pliers grabbing the removal tab.


Thanks. I'll give the method a try if I need to. It'll also be interesting to see if the nozzles I ordered have the tab or not.

By the way, when did you get the Cub Cadet SC100H? It never seems to be available or in stock, but it's another great low-cost MTD mower.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> ken-n-nancy said:
> 
> 
> > Yesterday, when observing that I was getting a fair bit of erosion from spray hitting the soil in the 8 inches right around one of the I-20 rotors in the renovation area....
> ...


I have now received the order I placed last week, but haven't yet tried to install any of the 6-inch I-20 SS rotors. I'll probably wait until spring before trying any, but it's good to have them on hand for when the mood arises. 



Green said:


> By the way, when did you get the Cub Cadet SC100H? It never seems to be available or in stock, but it's another great low-cost MTD mower.


I purchased that back just before the 4th of July and created a Cub Cadet SC100H Long Term Review thread for it but haven't posted to the thread in a while. Your question inspired me to add a new posting just now. I'm real happy with the mower so far, except for two minor issues (suction and leaf push-away). The next test for the mower will be leaf mulching coming up soon in October...


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

Based on your previous reno pictures that you are kindly sharing along with me on my journal I will add that this Reno update you just posted is absolutely going to be thick and lush in the Spring.

You have a ton of experience in this arena and I look forward to seeing the last picture before Winter on this recent reno and the 200+ day one!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Green said:
> 
> 
> > By the way, when did you get the Cub Cadet SC100H? It never seems to be available or in stock, but it's another great low-cost MTD mower.
> ...


@Green, I just realized that I didn't actually answer your question about where I got the Cub Cadet SC100H... Sorry about that!

I purchased it online from MowersDirect.com. It was actually on sale, marked down to a price of $269.99, I think from a normal price of $299.99.

However, I just checked their web page for the SC100H a moment ago and see that it is now marked as discontinued!

I guess there isn't much point in my "long term review" thread if nobody else can buy it anymore! Oh well...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Haven't had any bears in our lawn today, but today is the 2-year anniversary of when we did have 4 young bears harvesting acorns out of our oak trees, particularly including the one that I was just about to start mowing underneath...

I wish the bears would come back and maybe get rid of some of the chipmunks we've had this year -- the number of chipmunks this year has been absolutely incredible!


(click to view video)



ken-n-nancy said:


> Today, when I pushed the mower over to the side lawn, I was dismayed to see a whole bunch of small fallen branches, bark pieces, and twigs with healthy leaves under the huge white oak tree at the edge of our lawn, particularly as I had just picked up a whole bunch of fallen oak tree parts this morning! Indeed, this has been the case practically every day for the past week. I've been worried that the tree had some sort of disease or something, although a lot of the twigs have appeared as if they've been broken off, rather than died.
> 
> Then, just as I was standing there, trying to find the encouragement to pick up another batch of fallen oak tree parts, a small branch comes fluttering down next to me from out of the tree, so I look up into the tree, and there's a black bear in the tree! Wait, there's not just one black bear, there's two!
> 
> ...


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## Zcape35 (Sep 17, 2019)

Could a bear catch a chipmunk? That would be impressive.


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## dwaugh (Aug 25, 2020)

@ken-n-nancy any idea of what they are after?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Zcape35 said:


> Could a bear catch a chipmunk? That would be impressive.


That would be awesome! Well, as long as it happened without making a huge hole in the lawn from the bear digging up the whole den!



dwaugh said:


> @ken-n-nancy any idea of what they are after?


I wondered that two years ago, also. Turns out that acorns are quite the delicacy for bears!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

In other news, upon getting up this morning and looking outside, was enthused to find we'd received some of the forecasted natural rainfall overnight. Nothing seems quite as good for a new renovation as gentle natural showers!

However, the rain gauge only showed 1/10" so it isn't much to get excited about yet.

We are supposed to get 2" in the next 48 hours, though, so hopefully that will come gently, rather than all at once!

Turned off the irrigation system for the time being due to the combination of light rain last night and the forecast for more today. Usually I don't turn off the irrigation for forecasted rainfall, but this seems pretty likely for today...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

The evidence suggests that "sprout and pout" is now OVER for Ken-n-Nancy's renovation this year! Decided today that the baby grass is showing significant growth, so we're looking forward to mowing before long!

Today was a gorgeous day to be outside! Ken mowed the established portions of the lawn, Nancy blew the leaves off the renovation and then felt inspired to hand-pull the most significant weeds. It looked so nice Ken just had to take some pictures! (Oh, and today's forecasted rain didn't end up happening -- hopefully starting Tuesday night...)

Pouting No More! 2020-09-28 - Day 33









Nancy Hand-Weeding the Renovation on 2020-09-28


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

It's an awesome feeling when the "pout" finally ends. My reno is still pouting but it should stop that nonsense shortly. That photo of the black bear up your oak looking for acorns really made me smile! I can only imagine the ruckus that would ensue if that were to happen on Long Island! Glad to hear they didn't dig up your lawn. It wouldn't take long for an animal that size to do some real damage. I'll trade you 50 Canada Geese for 1 black bear and a raccoon to be named later. &#128521;


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

@ken-n-nancy, I really enjoyed reading your journal. What a great feeling though after all of that hard to start to see it coming in like that, it looks great. The rock and pavers turned out really nicely, looks like you made the best of a real lousy situation there.

Reading your journal highlights the joys of home ownership! You go into the season thinking about minor changes you want to make, then a guy from the city shows up either taking pictures of your lawn, or putting flag markers out...Then your plans change! It looks great though, congrats


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

@ken-n-nancy, couple quick questions:
1. When you got your nozzles recently, did they include the elusive "blank" nozzle by any chance? Most people don't even know they exist, as they're essentially impossible to get and are special manufacture and undocumented (at least for this model). Trying to keep the searches from figuring out what I'm talking about, so I'm not listing all the details in this post. 

2. For the Honda GCV-160, you know that red thing inside where you fill the gas? It's so annoying when trying to fill, as it reduces the size of the opening a little. I want to remove it. Do you think there's any harm in taking it out? Does it help seal the gas cap?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> @ken-n-nancy, couple quick questions:
> 1. When you got your nozzles recently, did they include the elusive "blank" nozzle by any chance? Most people don't even know they exist, as they're essentially impossible to get and are special manufacture and undocumented (at least for this model). Trying to keep the searches from figuring out what I'm talking about, so I'm not listing all the details in this post.


Yes, I noticed that the new "dark blue" nozzle trees I ordered did include an elusive "blank" (plug) nozzle. I was initially surprised to see it, as I didn't see the point of having a "blank" nozzle for an I-20 (which has a shutoff switch), but then I remembered that the new nozzle trees also fit the PGP Ultra, which would benefit from the "blank" nozzle.

For my older PGP-ADJ rotors (which use a different nozzle than the PGP Ultra and I-20), I have used the appropriate "blank" nozzle in order to turn off heads selectively during renovations.



Green said:


> @ken-n-nancy, couple quick questions:
> 2. For the Honda GCV-160, you know that red thing inside where you fill the gas? It's so annoying when trying to fill, as it reduces the size of the opening a little. I want to remove it. Do you think there's any harm in taking it out? Does it help seal the gas cap?


I also find that red thing inside the fuel tank fill tube to be very annoying. It is intended to be a "fuel level gauge" to indicate the maximum level to which the fuel tank should be filled. (I only know what it is because I noticed a reference to it in the Honda GCV-160 Engine Manual.) Personally, I don't find it effective at all, as one can't see the "fuel level gauge" when filling the fuel tank anyway!

I don't really know if there would be any harm in removing it. As long as removing it doesn't interfere with the sealing of the fuel tank cap on the top of the fuel tank neck or break anything with the fuel tank, I can't see how removing it would hurt anything. I haven't tried taking ours out yet.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Gaddis said:


> It's an awesome feeling when the "pout" finally ends. My reno is still pouting but it should stop that nonsense shortly. That photo of the black bear up your oak looking for acorns really made me smile! I can only imagine the ruckus that would ensue if that were to happen on Long Island!


Thanks @Gaddis, it does feel awesome to have "pout" in the rear view mirror!



ken-n-nancy said:


> (click to view video)


By the way, the photo of the black bear is a still from the video. If you click on the image, you'll get to watch the video of the bears in the tree.



MNLawnGuy1980 said:


> @ken-n-nancy, I really enjoyed reading your journal. What a great feeling though after all of that hard to start to see it coming in like that, it looks great. The rock and pavers turned out really nicely, looks like you made the best of a real lousy situation there.
> 
> Reading your journal highlights the joys of home ownership! You go into the season thinking about minor changes you want to make, then a guy from the city shows up either taking pictures of your lawn, or putting flag markers out...Then your plans change! It looks great though, congrats.


Thanks, @MNLawnGuy1980. I don't know it will ever look as great as yours does though! However, we're starting to wonder about turning a portion of the area under renovation into a croquet court at a low height-of-cut, so maybe we'll try to "up our game" a bit...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Today is Day 36 from seed-down and the time for the next weekly installment of photos.

We are so thankful that * "sprout and pout"* is over! The grass grew enough in recent days that we did our first mowing today and also applied additional fertilizer.

The renovation has clearly passed the point of looking like a "bare lot with some grass coming up" to a "new lawn with a few slow spots" -- now it is just a matter of taking care of it via mowing, watering, and fertilizing to let the KBG do its thing and fill in everywhere. We know that density and color are now just a matter of being patient. The renovation is far from done, but the worst is behind us, as long as we remain free of disease.

We took photos of the main area before and after mowing.

"Lliac Area" Before Mowing as of 1 October 2020 (Day 36)









"Lliac Area" After Mowing as of 1 October 2020 (Day 36)









"Far End" Repair Area as of 1 October 2020 (Day 36):









Closer View of a "Sparse Valley" in the "Lilac Area" as of 1 October 2020 (Day 36):


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Oops! I had meant to provide to mention more about the first mowing and the fertilizer application done yesterday, but didn't remember to do that...

The "first mow" was with a new-to-me Fiskars StaySharp Max manual push reel mower that I purchased on CraigsList explicitly for the purpose of mowing the new renovation. I purchased it for $50 which seems to be a common rate for used ones. I could have bought one cheaper if I had waited a bit more. The one I got is in pretty good shape and hasn't had a lot of use, but seems to have been stored outside, as it has a lot more rust on bolt heads than I would expect to see in a 2-year old mower.

The "bench" height of cut was 1.5" which is lower than I've ever mowed my lawn with a rotary mower, due to issues with scalping. I started out with the manual reel doing a few passes at 2.0" and decided I could go lower without danger. At the 1.5" height, most of the grass blades were getting cut. It's fun to be able to see the grass blades getting cut and flying out instead of having them magically disappear under the mulching mower.

I don't normally maintain the KBG at such a low height (this year, I maintained the front lawn at 3.25" for the summer, but dropped that to 2.75" at the beginning of September.) However, I have read and heard others report that lateral spread of "baby grass" is encouraged by low mowing for the initial mowings, so I've mowed the renovation shorter than I likely will in the long term. (Although I'm thinking of maintaining a portion of the renovation area as a croquet court, so we'll see...)

I also applied fertilizer. On the renovation, I applied 2.5# of Scotts TurfBuilder 32-0-4 on 2.25ksqft, giving a rate of 0.25#N/ksqft. I intend to continue weekly feedings at that level for a couple more weeks.

On the main lawn, I applied urea (46-0-0) at 10.75# on 10.2ksqft, for a rate of 0.48#N/ksqft.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Wow, it looking great.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

g-man said:


> Wow, it looking great.


Thanks, g-man!

This has been a crazy-busy week for work for Ken, so we're a couple days late with this week's photos, but that ends up having the pics be on Day 45, which seems like more of a milestone than Day 43 or Day 44, so we'll take it as providential that today is the next weekly installment of photos.

We've progressed to the point of mowing every three days at 1.5" with the Fiskars push reel mower and taking a bit over a half-inch off with each mowing. We've also been fertilizing weekly, too, with an average of about 0.5#N/ksqft with each application. (A little bit more the first week, a little bit less the second week, and in yesterday's application for the third week, right at 0.5#N/ksqft.)

The most developed sections of grass are getting to be mostly mature-looking KBG blades, with flat blades and boat-shaped tips, rather than the immature grass blades that are instead roundish and spindly.

The thin areas are still, well, thin, and some spots along the edges of the woods have very thin grass, we think due to having not been watered sufficiently due to poor sprinkler coverage in those spots, but it's coming along. Various neighbors on the street mention that they "don't know how we do it with our lawn renovations -- the grass always looks so nice and even!"

Just the basic photos today. The color is also starting to darken with the transition to more mature grass blades.

"Lliac Area" as of 10 October 2020 (Day 45):









"Far End" Repair Area as of 10 October 2020 (Day 45):









Closer View of a "Sparse Valley" in the "Lilac Area" as of 10 October 2020 (Day 45):


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## SumBeach35 (Jul 11, 2019)

@ken-n-nancy as other have said, your attention to detail and thorough posting style has made this an enjoyable read with my morning coffee of this Saturday.

A few questions for you;

1. Have you had issues with snow mold in the past and do you apply any preventative fungicides?

2. Do you plan on covering the renovation area to prevent dessication over winter?

Overall, your renovation is going great and I look forward to more updates before winter arrives.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

SumBeach35 said:


> @ken-n-nancy as other have said, your attention to detail and thorough posting style has made this an enjoyable read with my morning coffee of this Saturday. ...
> 
> Overall, your renovation is going great and I look forward to more updates before winter arrives.


Thanks! Glad you've enjoyed reading along. I've learned so much about lawn care from others from online forums, it's fun to try to help others, too.



SumBeach35 said:


> A few questions for you;
> 1. Have you had issues with snow mold in the past and do you apply any preventative fungicides?


I have had issues with snow mold previously. It's actually one of the reasons I like having all KBG -- I've been letting the damage fill in on its own each year afterwards.

It's really hard to compare the effects of the things I've done to try to minimize snow mold from year to year, as there is so much variation in the type of winter that we have. I think most of the variation I've seen in the amount of snow mold damage I get in the spring has more to do with the weather and snow conditions over the winter, and the way the snow melt happens in the spring, than it does with the way I've prepared the lawn for winter, so it's hard to gauge how much of the difference is due to what I've done differently and how much is due to the different weather. To really know, I'd need to treat different areas differently, which I haven't done yet...

Last year, I went further to try to avoid snow mold by cutting the grass even shorter in the fall. I think that would be a big help. My normal maintenance height in the summer has been 3.75" for the front lawn (although I was at 3.25" for most of this summer, which I think may be better for disease avoidance.) Last fall, I cut down to 2.25" for winter, which seemed to be a big help in reducing matted grass blades. However, our winter was so mild and the snow melt was so early and rapid, that I didn't see any snow mold anywhere.

I haven't actually done it yet, but am likely to use up whatever I have left in my chlorothalonil sprayer (for spraying my ornamentals, particularly our lilac, which has trouble with powdery mildew) on our two worst snow mold areas, which are at the corners of the road/driveway, where the biggest snow piles form, and at the corner of our driveway and front walk.

Another thing I do is try to get the snow as spread into the lawn as possible when clearing the driveway, to "spread out" the pile as much as possible. In the spring, I also try to hasten the melt of the snow piles by shoveling parts of them back _*onto the driveway*_ on warm spring days to melt quickly on the black asphalt.

By the way, a prior post I made on the topic of preventing snow mold over the winter.



SumBeach35 said:


> 2. Do you plan on covering the renovation area to prevent desiccation over winter?


We've never done that before and don't think we've had any "winterkill" problems with our KBG. Maybe some of the PRG that had been in our northern mix, but I wouldn't have been sad to see that go. We get enough natural snow cover that we haven't had to worry about desiccation much  I would think in Rochester you probably get pretty reliable snow cover in January and February, too?


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## SumBeach35 (Jul 11, 2019)

@ken-n-nancy Last year we did have a very mild winter as well, so i had very little persistent snow pack for snow mold to form even though we had 91.8" of snow. I am not counting on that for this season with the La Nina forming.

I also drop HOC in fall to prevent matting of the grass. My last few mows of the season will be at 1.5" to mulch the leaves and set HOC low enough to prevent any matting and reduce grass blade damage from the dog over the winter. I did this last year as well and it also offered a nice spring green up.

I will be doing a late fungicide application to aid in snow mold prevention.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

This afternoon, we both had an opportunity to work on the lawn together, so Nancy donned the backpack blower and Ken pushed the mower. It was an awesome autumn afternoon for being outdoors and enjoying some fresh air!

The pics look a lot better than usual. I generally wait until late in the day to take the pictures so that there aren't shadows on the lawn, and now that the sun is so low in the sky, that's a lot earlier than a month ago. The combination of the sky being brighter and the colorful leaves makes the grass look a lot darker in the photos than it appears in person. Really, the pictures make it look a lot darker and denser than it is. But that's okay, we'll take it. 

The grass probably also looks a lot better from having received the biggest rainfall yesterday that we've received all year -- steady, gentle to moderate rain for about 16 hours, resulting in 4.1" in the rain gauge! Not anywhere near enough to get us out of drought conditions (we're over 10" down from the average for the year), but enough to have the plants be happy!

We've continued mowing with the Fiskars push reel mower every three days (well the fourth day today, due to yesterday's rain) at a 1.5" HOC. Growth is still continuing at about 0.50" to 0.75" for each mowing. Planning another dose of nitrogen at about 0.5#N/ksqft in a couple more days (in order to be spaced out a week after the prior dose.)

Might leave the irrigation off tomorrow to not water until the 3rd day after all the rain. The roots should be deep enough that there's no problem with that. Winter's coming before long, and the irrigation system gets blown out on Nov 3, so I'd like to have the watering spread out to no more frequently than every 4th day by then.

"Lliac Area" as of 14 October 2020 (Day 49):









"Far End" Repair Area as of 14 October 2020 (Day 49):









Closer View of a "Sparse Valley" in the "Lilac Area" as of 14 October 2020 (Day 49):


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> This afternoon, we both had an opportunity to work on the lawn together, so Nancy donned the backpack blower and Ken pushed the mower. It was an awesome autumn afternoon for being outdoors and enjoying some fresh air!
> 
> The pics look a lot better than usual. I generally wait until late in the day to take the pictures so that there aren't shadows on the lawn, and now that the sun is so low in the sky, that's a lot earlier than a month ago. The combination of the sky being brighter and the colorful leaves makes the grass look a lot darker in the photos than it appears in person. Really, the pictures make it look a lot darker and denser than it is. But that's okay, we'll take it.
> 
> ...


This looks amazing! The color is so rich. The autumn leaves in the background really make the grass pop. I think you found a great blend with Prosperity / Bewitched.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

We just cleared all the leaves and mowed only 24 hours before this pic. Still lots more leaves on the trees, too...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Busy leaf-fall time is definitely in progress! We blew many leaves off the renovation area today in order to be able to mow. Not even a quarter of the leaves have fallen yet, so we'll be continuing to clear leaves for a couple weeks until most of them are off the trees.

Still mowing with the Fiskars manual push reel mower every three days. Made what will be our last dose of nitrogen at 0.28#N/ksqft today. We think that will be our last application of fertilizer until spring.

Leaves Half-Blown Off "Lliac Area" as of 21 October 2020 (Day 56):









"Lliac Area" as of 21 October 2020 (Day 56):









"Far End" Repair Area as of 21 October 2020 (Day 56):









Closer View of a "Sparse Valley" in the "Lilac Area" as of 21 October 2020 (Day 56):


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## jskierko (Sep 5, 2020)

Looks awesome, the color of the grass really pops against the color of the fall leaves! And it looks like your "sparse valley" has filled in nicely.


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

Your reno came out absolutely stunning!!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

jskierko said:


> Looks awesome, the color of the grass really pops against the color of the fall leaves! And it looks like your "sparse valley" has filled in nicely.


Thanks! Yes, the "sparse valley" is filling in well. It's still thinner grass there, which is evident when standing in it, but not apparent from just 15 feet away where the picture is taken. In general, we have taken the approach of not worrying about sparse sections and feeding the KBG to spread and fill in, which has worked out well for us.



JerseyGreens said:


> Your reno came out absolutely stunning!!


Thanks! We're very pleased with it. Now to see if we can dodge the snow mold this winter...


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Great result.

So, do you have anymore FF left anywhere, or is everything KBG?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Green said:


> Great result.
> 
> So, do you have anymore FF left anywhere, or is everything KBG?


This doesn't actually get rid of all of our Fine Fescue (FF) or Perennial RyeGrass (PRG), but does make us predominantly KBG everywhere.

Our backyard is still a FF/KBG mix, from our 2014 back yard renovation. However, the back lawn is gradually becoming more and more KBG, as the KBG spreads a little more quickly into voids that develop (there's enough creeping red fescue in the FF to get some slow spreading), but I think that it's still mostly fine fescue.

This summer I had some sort of disease or insufficient watering which caused a few of the most shady sections to turn brown and apparently die out. I don't know what caused it and haven't had it before. Maybe dollar spot is a possibility -- fertilization was down this year compared to our typical level, partly due to a fertilizer bagging mistake. (I'm pretty sure I had a bag that was labeled 46-0-0 (urea) which was actually 10-10-10 or similar, which led to me under-fertilizing that area for nitrogen this year.)

I also have a section of about 250 square feet over our septic tank that is predominantly PRG due to having been seeded too late in the year for anything else to germinate and survive. (One of our 2016 Mini-Renos.) That area keeps getting patches of _Poa trivialis_ developing in it. I may try a springtime renovation on that area, just for kicks.

I've also toyed with doing a spring renovation on our backyard to make it entirely KBG, but I may wait another year or two to see how the Bewitched/Prosperity blend does in the shady area on the north side of the garage. Any grass really struggles there, so I may switch over to that area being a few hosta, or maybe even crushed rock. (Or maybe both -- a hosta bed in crushed rock?  )


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

We were too busy these last couple of days to take our next weekly photos, having only had sufficient time a couple days ago to blow off the leaves and mow the grass with the manual reel mower.

We were planning to get pictures today... at least the color is comparatively uniform, apart from the fallen leaves...

"Lliac Area" as of 30 October 2020 (Day 65):


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## dwaugh (Aug 25, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> We were too busy these last couple of days to take our next weekly photos, having only had sufficient time a couple days ago to blow off the leaves and mow the grass with the manual reel mower.
> 
> We were planning to get pictures today... at least the color is comparatively uniform, apart from the fallen leaves...
> 
> "Lliac Area" as of 30 October 2020 (Day 65):


Looks like a bad case of fungus! Maybe cut back on the watering?


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Today, I observed a phenomenon I don't recall ever having seen before...

As yesterday's snow started melting in the sun and the 45F temperatures, stripes from the wheel tracks of my recent mowings started to appear in the snow! Honestly, there wasn't any new "striping" on the lawn after the snow -- the "stripes" are due to the snow settling and melting differently in the places where the wheel tracks were during the last couple mowings.

Just had to share...

Front Lawn as of 31 October 2020:


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Today, after a particularly hot stretch of weather, I couldn't resist taking a pic to document the "after" view of our renovation of this area of our lawn. The goal was to take our last section of "northern mix" lawn and replace it with all-KBG (a 50/50 blend of Prosperity and Bewitched.) It is now roughly one year later, and it turned out to be a success.

The first pic was taken *before* the renovation, on 2020-07-16, at the time which is pretty close to our local peak (before summer decline.)

The second pic is another *before* pic, taken on 2020-08-19, our typical "worst of summer" -- in this case two days after glyphosate; color had not yet faded, but height-lowering commenced.

The third pic was taken on 2021-08-11, approximately 1 year later, at about the historical "worst point of summer" for our lawn.

Before: (taken on 2020-07-16, at the time which is pretty close to our local peak (before summer decline).)









Prior Typical "worst of summer": (taken on 2020-08-19, two days after glyphosate; color had not yet faded, but height-lowering commenced)









After: (taken on 2021-08-11, approximately 1 year later, at about the historical "worst point of summer" for our lawn)


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## Liquidstone (Mar 31, 2021)

What a transformation. Always enjoy your posts KNN!


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

Looks great. Please keep the updates coming! I would love to see how this blend looks in the fall in year 2.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Liquidstone said:


> What a transformation. Always enjoy your posts KNN!





bf7 said:


> Looks great. Please keep the updates coming! I would love to see how this blend looks in the fall in year 2.


Thanks for the kudos!

Regarding how the 50/50 Bewitched+Prosperity blend looks in year two, I posted some two-year pics of our front lawn (which we renovated in the fall of 2018) in our older lawn journal. Only the first of the posted pics is from midsummer; the others are from the spring, just because I didn't take pics as frequently during the second year!


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Liquidstone said:
> 
> 
> > What a transformation. Always enjoy your posts KNN!
> ...


Love it! Hope the triv is staying far away!!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

bf7 said:


> ken-n-nancy said:
> 
> 
> > Regarding how the 50/50 Bewitched+Prosperity blend looks in year two, I posted some two-year pics of our front lawn (which we renovated in the fall of 2018) in our older lawn journal. Only the first of the posted pics is from midsummer; the others are from the spring, just because I didn't take pics as frequently during the second year!
> ...


Yes, no signs of any _Poa trivialis_ in the renovated front lawn during this second year since the reno!

The first spring after the renovation, there were a few small areas of _Poa trivialis_ that I found, but they were easy to identify and _*hand-pull*_ in early spring, as in my climate the _Poa trivialis_ and _Poa annua_ both green up about 2-3 weeks before the KBG, making them easy to identify and hand-pull in early spring while the KBG is still dormant.


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## thin_concrete (Sep 11, 2020)

Wow! Looks great and is giving me hope for my overseed! Looking forward to more pics as they get posted!


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