# Jay20nj Lawn Journal 2020 and Mazama mono reno



## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

I bought this home in Oct 2019 so there wasn't much time to do much although I wish I had immediately done my soil test and not waited until April 2020 to do it as I would have dumped lime on the lawn before winter. Here is my starting point. Front is decent but has a ton of hairy bittercress. Back is a mess. So far i have dethatched to get all the junk and dead crabgrass out. Applied half rate prodiamine and blanket sprayed crossbow to attack the hairy bittercress. This weekend I will put 50lbs of lime per 1k as well as spoon feed a bit of N and spray RGS. I'm cutting at about 1.75" with my honda rotary while im in the process of swapping my gm1000 to an 8 blade reel. Waiting on a few parts from toro which will take about 2 more weeks to arrive. Once I can reel mow I will only reel cut the front at about .75" and leave the back around 2" with the rotary. I have a steep hill going down to the back and its not close to ready to go short. Once reel is replaced ill be ready to give a full N app and PGR app. Let me know if my plan is sound or if you have any recommendations. Pic 1 and 2 are the front and pic 3 is the back.


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## drob14 (Oct 16, 2019)

Excited to follow! I live in NJ too!


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Here is some progress. I had a ton of poa and elected to nuke it with roundup. Those spots are filling in and the parts for my gm1000 took much longer than expected to get from the toro dealer so i havent mowed with it yet. Current hoc is 1.75. Hoping to reel mow within the next week.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Finally finished the swap to an 8 blade reel on the gm1000 and today she got her first reel mow. Not bad for first time using the mower. Little disease im showing in a spot where the gutter water runs down the driveway so gonna throw down some disease ex..


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Good first run with the GM1000. The stripes give me a . What HOC did you set it up with?


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Went with 1". There is a root by that tree and my driveway and sidewalk are a hair lower so i want to be careful of the reel. Im thinking i will reno this so i can level and go with mazama


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

:thumbup: Sounds like a good plan. The color looks nice and dark at 1" in the meantime. :mrgreen:


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Lawn seems to be fine cutting at an inch. 90% sure i will reno though. It will just never look great unless i get to a monostrand and level up so it is a smooth transition onto the concrete.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

I dont give my back the same attention as the front and i dont cut the back with the reel but i did spray the entire yard with tnex and FAS and it did wonders.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

I used the greenskeeper app to track the gdd to see when the lawn would start growing again. It started at about 135% or 20 days. The app was .2 oz per k so it was a light app. Pleased with the timing and accuracy. Sprayed tnex and fas at same rate again today. About 4 more weeks till the kill. Almost feel like this is a waste of time with the upkeep but its good practice with the gm1000 so i guess its time well spent. Looking forward to sept when the mazama is coming in. Thinking about seed blankets and where to find good ones like what ryan knorr used... heres is todays mow. Diamonds but you cant tell at 1 inch. After reno ill go lower.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

I did not spray a second application of prodiamine as i knew i would be murdering the lawn for the reno anyway. Amazing how the crabgrass invaded in a matter of 2 weeks. Today was kill day. Gave her one last mow and sprayed the glypho. No turning back now.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Shes dead


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## jrubb42 (Jun 20, 2019)

Crispy. Haha. Did you decide on going Mazama mono for sure then?


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

I did. Bought the seed already. Dirt arrives tomorrow. Little later than wanted but should be enough time to fallow i think. Cant wait till the project is complete and i can mow again.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

This is my wifes thoughts of the reno project


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

Jay20nj said:


> This is my wifes thoughts of the reno project


Also mid reno here. These are the thoughts of everyone in my life right now.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Used the sunjoes to rough it up, seed, rolled, starter fert with the tenacity (didnt feel like spraying), peat, and put blankets on the hills on the sides (walkout basement) and also the one spot in the back i get erosion. Peat in the front although too heavy so nervous as water isn't initially penetrating some spots. No peat in the back as it stays pretty damp. Now we wait and water. Nervous about the revenants of the tropical storm coming thru sat. I have irrigation in the front but set up a 2 sprinkler system in back and hand water the sides. Immediately wishing had irrigation on whole yard.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Well at least i know ill have some grass when this whole thing is over


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Pretty pleased with the coverage. The front where i overdosed with peat is coming in much better than the back where I didn't use peat and have washouts


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## badtlc (Aug 22, 2019)

Looks great! Congrats on all the progress so far.


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## MJR12284 (Jun 21, 2020)

This is looking great Jay! Nice even coverage.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

The reno is growing in nicely. Poor germination on the edges where it meets my neighbors lawn due to his crab grass preventer. Also a sprinkler head is jacked up in the middle of the yard (see pic) so i am growing a 2x2 patch in a tray that i can use for plugs. Concerned with the sides of the house where i used erosion blankets. Not sure how the mower will handle all that and some areas the grass is not growing because it is either laying flat under the blanket or the blanket is too thick. Tempted to remove them carefully although everyone says not to.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

You have great germination in that image. Kbg will spread.


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## UMStevo (Aug 25, 2020)

This is looking awesome so far! How many days for germination? I notice a checker-boarding in the images where the seed is a little lighter. How did you spread the seed?


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Seed down aug 25. Germination was sept 1ish. Yes there is some checkboarding as i used a drop spreader to keep it out of the beds. I did overlap but clearly not enough. Not worried about it though because there is grass there just not as much and its *** so it will spread.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

I gave her the first snip today. A little early maybe but parts were getting a little long and this lawn will never see 3 inches. Went with 1.75 with a scotts manual reel. Worked well. Will go 1.5 next time. Ground was soft so was super careful but no issues. 
Some weeds here and there so i will spray tenacity at the end of the month when it has been 30 days since germination along with rgs and a light N app. Cant wait to start feeding her...


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## Chris1 (Apr 22, 2020)

very nice , excellent results


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Great coverage and it is thickening up! I think you will be very happy by Halloween.


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

In a little bit of a weird spot now. I threw more seed down 2 weeks ago but it took about 10 days to germinate due to the abnormal cool temps in nj. The original seed needs some n so i gave it .25 lbs and 3oz k rgs today. Also had spots the i seeded like 4 days ago so basically 3 different seed dates. Have to stick with the main plan i guess. Mowed 3 times in 8 days with the manual reel and will spray tenacity next weekend with more rgs. Prob another .25 lbs urea and a bag of ocean gro. Which is about .6lbs per k


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Mowed with the rotary for the first time today. Then threw down some ocean gro and sprayed rgs and tenacity as im 30 dag. Will go with a light app of urea before watering in a few days. The ocean gro is like milo so will be slow releasing. Will mow with the rotary for another week or so to try to lift up some of the peat and then ill break out the greensmaster. Keeping the caution tape up for the amazon drivers for now


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

After what seemed like a lifetime I finally cut with the greensmaster and oh how I've missed her. Hopefully this will encourage it to thicken although i think most of that will happen in the spring. I do have quite a bit of poa in the back and would like to start hand pulling but my backyard stays super wet so i cant even really mow it. It was bleached by my tenacity application a week ago so maybe it will die but doubt it. Anyhow gave her double cut diamonds.


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## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

Looks great. Really interested on how this looks after spring and the mazama deepens in color. Where did you source your seed from?


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Superseed store


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## Gaddis (Oct 18, 2018)

This is looking absolutely great. Should be stupendous by late spring. Congrats on a great job!


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

In honor of @wardconnor, because without his videos I would never have believed I could reel mow a residential lawn and make it this awesome. Favorite pattern...


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Lowered HOC to 3/4 inch today. Liking the look of it. Picked some poa but i see this is going to be a springtime problem thats going to really be annoying


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

It looks amazing! If you just looked at the last couple of photos, you would never guess that it was a fresh reno.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

Nice job! +1 looks really good.


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## ricartho (Nov 13, 2020)

How many pounds of seed did you spread?
Looks great!


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## Jay20nj (Jul 25, 2018)

Initially I did about 2lbs per k so 7 lbs but since then i had some areas in the back and on the sides where i didnt use peat and had to reseed due to washouts. I used erosion blankets on the sides which helped as i have a hill


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## MJR12284 (Jun 21, 2020)

Awesome work Jay. Looks great!


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