# BvilleGrass Lawn Journal



## BvilleGrass (Jul 31, 2019)

Hi All! I've been working on my lawn for quite some time but just recently found TLM. I live in NE Oklahoma and would like to use this thread to document my lawn progression.

We purchased our home in October 2016 in an older neighborhood that is heavily treed. The home hadn't been touched since it was built in the early 70's. That includes management of the trees. As such we had quite a bit of tree issues to deal with. The lawn was predominately fescue, dirt, and common Bermuda.

When we purchased the home, we had 12 trees. 1 elm, 2 Pecan, and 9 Hackberry. Because these trees hadn't been managed over the years, many had quite a bit of rot and needed to be taken out for safety reasons. This is a picture of my front and back yard when we purchased the home.

FRONT - October 2016
















BACK - October 2016

























First order of business was to remove the mature hardwood trees that had significant rot and to cut down the more than 30 large cedar bushes along my back fence. I cut down all of the cedar bushes myself and ground their stumps and I paid a tree service to remove the hardwoods due to their size and proximity to the house. Here is a pick of what that looked like in progress after removing the cedar trees.

BACK - October 2016









Next the back yard was multi tiered as you can see by the railroad tie retention wall and it had a tiny back patio that was sitting below ground level so it was constantly a muddy mess. I tore out the patio and had a larger concrete patio poured at a higher elevation and I replaced the railroad tie retention wall with a concrete block wall.

BACK PATIO - October 2016









Finally I cut as much of the Bermuda out as I could manually (it was too late in the year for glyphosate as the Bermuda was starting to go dormant), aerated the lawn 3-times with a rental aerator from Home Depot, Laid Tall Fescue sod in bare areas and heavily over-seeded the entire lawn with a Tall Fescue Blend called Heartland Supreme. We are a little far south for Fescue, but we had way too much shade for Bermuda. After a fall/winter/spring of growing, this is what the yard looked like next May.

FRONT - MAY 2017
















BACK - MAY 2017









At this point the lawn looked beautiful to me. I had a Honda HRX rotary mower and was mowing between 3-4 inches. The back yard had zero landscaping, so I dug out a bed along backside of the house and planted shade tolerant plants for my spring project.

Back Bed - May 2017

















I didn't take on any new projects in the summer of 2017 and was very happy with the Fescue. Being from Oklahoma I had never had a cool season grass and I loved its dark green color and the fact I could stripe it. In the fall I decided to build a firepit on the back patio so my boys and I could build fires and roast hot dogs. It was a pretty easy little project but very satisfying nonetheless

Fire Pit - October 2017

























In the pictures above you can see the stone retaining wall much better that replaced the railroad ties and can see just how much extra patio space we created with the new expanded patio. At this point I still loved the fescue. It was pretty and I constantly had people stopping by my house commenting on the grass.

However, I have 3 dogs and 3 young boys. They are extremely hard on the grass. That, plus the Oklahoma heat, really makes Fescue a weak grass here that doesn't stand up well to the abuse. Not only that, in order to keep the fescue thriving in our heat I have to cut it very tall and really pour the water on it. My boys (and wife) were always complaining about how tall the grass was and how it was always wet. The boys like to play sports and they were killing entire spots of the yard that I had to constantly keep repairing and tending. And while I liked the way the Fescue looked, I have to admit that I didn't really like living with it either.

Over the course of 2017-2019 we also had a couple major storms and lost 2 more trees. Now, more than half of the yard was full sun and Fescue really was the wrong choice. That led me to making the decision in summer of 2019 to kill the fescue and lay Bermuda. It's going to be a big project but I'm pretty excited.

My plan was to kill the entire yard with Glyphosate, remove any remaining trees I thought would be problematic, cut the dead sod off the lawn, do some minor finish leveling, and then lay Latitude Bermuda.

Common Bermuda had started to creep into some of the full sun areas, so I sprayed those areas first so that I could get 3 separate sprays on them a minimum of 2-weeks apart.

Initial Common Bermuda Spray - July 2019









Once I had all the grass dead I had a tree service come in to remove the trees in the back that would cause problems. And I cut all the grass off. I also had some sandy loam topsoil brought in for some final grading prior to laying sod. I had a few trouble areas I wanted to address. In order to make this process easier, I rented a small skid steer from Home Depot for $190.

BACK - August 2019








FRONT - August 2019









So that brings me to current. I've finished grading and placed the sod order. Latitude will be delivered next Monday. I have a lot to lay so I'm paying a local lawn service for 3 of his guys time to help me get it down. He is letting them do it as a side project so I'm getting a days work from 3 of them for $350. Since I don't have any other help I'm happy to pay for the extra hands.

It is late in the season so I'm not sure if I'll even get a cut in. I should have a good 4 weeks for the grass to get rooted. My plan is to then scalp in the spring and top dress with sand. I have a very busy work schedule and sports schedule with the boys. So I know I will have weeks that its hard for me to mow more than twice. Will probably even occasionally miss that, so I don't have any illusions of being able to maintain sub 0.5". I hope to be able to maintain sub 1".

Well that's it! Its a very big project for me and I'm very excited to see how it turns out. Growing up in Oklahoma I have certainly mowed a LOT of Bermuda grass. And so I have the general "head" knowledge of what to do. But maintaining it appropriately at low HOC with a reel mower is a whole other ball game. I really look forward to learning the subtleties of fertilizing and maintaining Bermuda sub 1". I also look forward to learning more about reel mowers as I have never mowed with one.

I'm sure I'll have lots of questions along the way and plan on using this thread to keep track of my progress. I'm glad to be a new member here and thanks to everyone in advance for their knowledge and help!


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

BvilleGrass said:


> ...I'm glad to be a new member here and thanks to everyone in advance for their knowledge and help!


Impressive transformation! I'm anxious to follow your progress with the Lat 36!

Oh and I love those O.W. Lee chairs! :thumbup:


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## graemegb (Apr 4, 2018)

House looks great after you painted it! Let me know if you need anything or want to do a chem swap. I'm probably a 5 min drive away.

On a side note: where did you get your mower from and have you been able to find someone to sharpen it locally?


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## BvilleGrass (Jul 31, 2019)

Thanks! We like it painted too.

I haven't found anyone locally that sharpens reels. Hillcrest Country Club can only sharpen Flex's (not GreensMasters) and Adams Golf Course doesn't service their own mowers.

I bought my GM 1600 at Prarie Turf Equipment. They always seem to have good stuff on hand. I'm very happy with my purchase. Although it isn't the cheapest route, I knew what I was getting and was pleased with the service.


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## BvilleGrass (Jul 31, 2019)

Been a hard spring in NE Oklahoma with low temps and way too much rain. But lawn is finally starting to take shape.

Current HOC - 0.4".


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## BvilleGrass (Jul 31, 2019)

Been a long time since my last post, but summer 2022 is finally here!

Latitude is loving this heat and coming out of dormancy quite well. Have a few small spots of winter kill but they are recovery nicely.

Just cut (0.4") and about to spray second application of PGR this year. Having only put down 0.5 lb of N so far this season as I'm trying to go much lighter on the N this year.


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

Looks great! I have always liked the looks of Lat 36


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## BvilleGrass (Jul 31, 2019)

Thanks @rjw0283!

Latitude is very pretty. I have about 10k sq ft of latitude and 1k sq ft of 419 on a side yard. When they are both looking their best, I honestly think the 419 is just as pretty. But it does look slightly different.

Transitioning from TTTF to Latitude has been a fun process. The family loves the grass at 3/16" though, and I don't ask them to hold back! My boys are all into sports so they are super rough on the grass and it takes it all in stride!


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## DR_GREENTHUMB (May 24, 2018)

Love the transformation, looks beautiful!


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## BvilleGrass (Jul 31, 2019)

Thanks @DR_GREENTHUMB.


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