# 2021 Zeon Zoysia Front Yard and WIP Backyard Renovation



## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

2021 Journal to track the progress of recovering my Zeon Zoysia on a heavily sloped front yard and a work-in-progress backyard renovation to get some more lawn space.

*Quick historical context:* 

Front yard Zeon Zoysia sod was installed in summer of 2019. 2020 was it's first full season, 2021 will be it's second season. Lawn looked really good in October of 2020, but between then and April 2021, it appears I experienced a mixture of bug & disease issues that have put me in rough start for 2021's season.
Back yard area was covered in pine trees, English ivy, and pine straw when we bought the house a few years back. Each summer we've worked clear it out to get back to mostly bare dirt. We're finally at a place now that with a little bit of grading, imported top soil, and sod we can make it a usable place.

*October 2020 *- Front yard Zoysia was looking good, this is about the time that I stopped regular maintenance with fert/amendment applications and only infrequent mowing. I left it fairly long at this point in the season (2.75-3") waiting for winter dormancy - this is probably what lead to a lot of my issues. 2020 Lawn Journal


*May 2021* - Throughout the month of April it really set in that the lawn had a lot of damage over the winter. I think most of it was due to disease, but based on the patterns I'm sure bugs/grubs were involved too. It's also been a really mild spring in Georgia so far and that's slowed the wake-up process too. Hard to see all the damage from this angle, but when you're looking from above the grass there are a lot of large thinned out spots.


Best spots look like this:

Worst spots look like this (and they were completely filled in at the end of last season):


Backyard with trees recently removed; stumps have been removed since this picture. We've come to find out that we actually have half of a drainage easement along the fence line, so we're currently working on how to best clear out our portion of the easement and turn it into a dry creek bed to manage storm water issues that we've dealt with in the past. 


Big Rock items that we're still in planning/estimation stages are:

Rough grading of existing soil
Bringing in and distributing roughly 20-30 cubic yards of top soil
Tilling in the top soil and native soil
Final grading
Sod installation


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Throughout the month of April 2021, here's what I've been doing to help get the lawn to recover:


Bought a SunJoe Scarifier/Dethatcher to clear out as much of the dead debris, sticks, seedlings, etc.. in the canopy.
For insects, applied both Scott's GrubEx and some BigBox store bifenthrin dilution
For fungus, applied both Scott's DiseaseEx and Propiconazole. I also bought some Cleary 3336F so I can have 3 modes of action to combat disease. My plan is to use each for two applications every 3-4 weeks and rotate through them throughout the growing season and into winter.
In terms of Fert, I haven't pushed it hard yet until we see more consistent warm weather and to not encourage a lot of fungus. Mostly used up the rest of the Greene County Fert bio-stimulant pack that I had and some remaining Kelf4Less mix to give a little bit of N and color. (Humic12, Air8, K4L Green Lawn & Turf mix, MicroGreen)
Soil Amendments, threw down the rest of the Sulfate of Potash I bought last year based on my soil analysis. I put half the bag down last fall and the other half this spring based on the recommendation.
Aeration, I manually aerated some of the thin spots to help get some more oxygen and water down in to the root zoon.
Prodiamine, I put down the split app rate.


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## Atlanta_Zeon (Sep 15, 2019)

Is the bottom corner that is struggling getting the same amount of sun as the rest of the yard?

Does water pool there at all?


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Atlanta_Zeon said:


> Is the bottom corner that is struggling getting the same amount of sun as the rest of the yard?
> 
> Does water pool there at all?


Good questions.

re: sun. It actually gets about the most amount of sun of that entire front area, both morning and a decent chunk of afternoon. The right half of the lawn is what gets some sprinkled afternoon shade because of the pines in the back.

re: water pooling. I don't consider pooling to be an issue, because of the slope. If we get a decent rain it saturates pretty quickly and goes straight to the corner and runs-off to the driveway. It's usually not too squishy after a good rain vs another area closer to the house where I do get a bit more sogginess and ended up cutting out to make more room for a bed area.

That being said - I do have the concern at time that if I don't water in certain applications well enough and a rain storm comes through shortly after that this corner will get a much higher rate. In the case of fert applications it usually is a benefit, but with something like a pre-em (prodiamine) it could be a problem.

In general, that triangle area has usually been one of the better looking areas of the lawn - which is why I'm perplexed as to why it's having such a rough start there.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Started and finished adding one of three zones with 1/2" Blu-Lock poly, Rainbird RD1800's, and Rainbird R-Vans. It's a DIY setup running off Orbit B-Hyve smart hose connectors.

Took much longer than expected to trench it all out with a half-moon edger, but got it done and it works. We'll see how long I can keep up the motivation to finish the last two zones in upcoming weekends.

Also mixed up some mushroom compost and mason sand to level out the trenching area and some of the other bare spots from the winter damage. Sprinkled some starter fert over those areas and did a light watering in.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Got zone 2 of 3 completed of the blu-lock irrigation installation.

Put down T-Nex PGR at .25oz/1Ksqft. and 7-0-0 GreeneEffect at 6oz/1000sqft. Letting both sit on the foliage tonight and then will apply fert tomorrow morning that needs to be watered in.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

*Front Yard:*
First major nitrogen application of the season along with other apps:


Greene Punch 18-0-1 @ 16oz/1Ksqft
Prodiamine WDG (2nd spring split app) .183oz/1Ksqft
Cleary's 3336 @ 2oz/1Ksqft for dollar spot prevention
Hydratain @8oz/1Ksqft to retain more moisture in the soil - had good results with it last year

YTD N Total =.33lbs 
YTD P Total = 0
YTD K Total = 5.785 (had a big K deficiency from soil test last year)

*Backyard:*
Had a grading company come out to estimate grading work - will probably go that route after evaluating the work to do it myself.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Couple of days after application. Definitely darker green throughout and starting to fill in more. Warmer average daily temps also helps. Still looks like crap compared to most lawns on this forum, but at least looks like it's starting to turn a corner.


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## glenns5 (Jul 28, 2019)

Brown_town- what part of atl are you in?


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

glenns5 said:


> Brown_town- what part of atl are you in?


NE Marietta / Roswell area


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## glenns5 (Jul 28, 2019)

ahhh. I'm by Lassiter HS


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Updates from the weekend. Finished getting the 3rd zone trenched in. Took the time to pull up another nearby section that had a severe dip in it and always caused me to scalp areas. Threw some starter fert down on the trenched areas to help encourage growth. Glad to have the irrigation in while temps are rising and rain fall seems out of the picture.



Mowed too, but the PGR regulation is in effect. I barely got any clippings, mostly leaf and debris. A few angles of the current state of the lawn.







Yard still looks pretty bad now, but I'm hopeful when it heals it will be at least 80% of my best spot.



Got some landscaping plants and my baby citrus trees finally arrived in the mail. Sad thing is when I was at the local nursery they had Meyer Lemon trees freshly in stock and they already had lemons growing on them. Mail order is on the right and nursery is on the left.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

glenns5 said:


> ahhh. I'm by Lassiter HS


Yep, that's my neck of the woods too.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Weed and fungus pressure were growing so I applied another application of propiconazole 14.3 and Spectricide Lawn Weed spray. Spiked it with 1 oz of Kelp4Less Lawn Mix.

Lawns definitely starting to fill in and look fuller and recover from the irrigation projects. This is where I envy the folks with full sun and Bermuda for its recovery speed.





Left side of the front yard where we finished getting in a bunch of plantings. Hydrangeas, ground cover junipers, emerald greens. Also created spaces for the fruit tree planters.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Quick charity mow in to pick up leaves. Weed killer seems to be working as expected. 


Moving forward with backyard reno, got the rough grading done and top soil in place and then fine graded with a landscape rake. Looking at ordering sod now to lay it down, probably planning to go with Geo Zoysia. Still need to cut in the drainage pipe, but that shouldn't be too bad. Also had him make a cut in for a seating area.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Finally installed 3 pallets of Zeon Zoysia after re-finish grading the area post a couple of weeks of rain. Going to let it establish for 14 days or so and then clean up the edges with an edger. Excited to have it finally down and gain some much flatter yard space than the front yard hill. Before laying the sod I put down some left over granular starter fert and lime and then sprayed with a mix of Humic12, MicroGreene, and Hydretain. After laying the sod I didn't apply any fertilizer, but did put down a preventative rate of Scott's Disease Ex to hopefully hold back disease with all the watering in the first couple of weeks. Fingers crossed it takes well to it's new home.

Seating area / fire pit will be next. Plan is to do a Boulder wall and then Slate chips. Still thinking through the details of how to do it right. 


Dry creek is coming along too. With all the rain we had the past few weeks we took advantage of the softer ground and worked dig in to build a swell. Also was able to get my hand on 3 pallets of mixed river rocks which is like winning the lottery with as scarce as they have been around here. We have landscape fabric coming this week and once that's down we can start to lay out the rocks. Still have a bit more swell digging to do, but we made a lot more progress than I expected. 


Front lawn is still coming along, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and think it will fill in fully by mid-late summer. Lots of disease pressure and I recently sprayed another round of propiconizal and Disease Ex hoping to keep it at bay. Also re-applied PGR and 7-0-0 GreeneEffect at 6oz/k


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Backyard Renovation:
Sod seems to be setting in well almost 2 weeks after installation. Watered 3x day in the first week and 2x day during this 2nd week. Probably cutting back to 1x day this week and then will see from there. I can see little white roots growing from the bottom of the sod, but not enough that they are rooted and the pieces won't come up when lightly tugged. I applied a bit of granular starter fertilizer to help encourage it along.

Also moving further along with the dry creek bed. Got in some woven landscape fabric and started to lay out the first pallet of mixed size river rocks in the first of three sections. I have smaller river rocks to fill in the gaps, but wanted to get at least one of the pallets unloaded.

Finished picking out the 2nd section with a mattock, but need to clean it out with a shovel. We've had a few heavy rains the past couple of weeks and it's been reassuring to see that the shape of the dry creek is diverting water the way it's expected to.

Applications:

Lesco Starter Fertilizer 18-24-12 @ .35lb/k of N









Front Lawn:
Front lawn continues to fill-in. I mowed it at my lowest setting to even out the height of cut a bit between the denser areas and the ones still growing in. Looking forward to seeing how it looks by the end of July.

Went a bit heaving on the apps in prep for the 4th of July weekend. I'm realizing in these pictures that I need to clean up my edges soon too.

Applications:

GreenPunch 18-0-1 @ 16oz/k
GreenEffect 7-0-0 @ 6oz/k
MicroGreene 0-0-2 @ 4oz/k


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Continuing to trust the process. Recently mowed to clean things up.

70-80% filled in at this point and doing much better in this warmer weather with supplemental irrigation.


Top of the hill looks really good and filled in, given that it gets the most sun throughout the day - even got a little bit of striping going on in the right light. Hoping the rest of it will be there by the end of the season.


Backyard sod is still holding up well. Tried to take the lawnmower down a HOC setting and scalped some high spots. Now would be the time to level it to help fill in the ruts, but I just don't think I have the time or energy to tackle it this month while focusing on the rest of the tasks that need to be finished for this backyard renovation. It's on the list for next year though.

It's not shown in the picture, but the 2nd section (of 3) for the dry creek bed is nearly complete with trenching, landscape fabric, and a pallet of river rocks. Last section is to the left of the sod area


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## Atlanta_Zeon (Sep 15, 2019)

Backyard reno is looking great!


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Atlanta_Zeon said:


> Backyard reno is looking great!


Thanks, I'm really happy with how well the sod is settling in compared to how my front yard sod experience went 3 years ago.

Just wish I had more time (or $$) to speed up the renovation, but it's making progress one Saturday at a time.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Got a cut in between rains. We've had a ton a rain in the last week or so which has been a pain. Front yard is looking good, most spots filling in at this point. The top of the hill is pretty consistent and the slope and bottom of the hill is getting there.







We finished trenching and laying out landscape fabric on the final leg of the dry creek bed and got some initial rocks down. We still have 1 fresh pallet of river rocks to finish that area, and I need to bring in some smaller 2-4" river stones, but the end is near on the dry creek efforts. The backyard doesn't look great in this picture with the sun directly overhead, but in general it's doing fairly well.


Got in 3 pallets of thick longstack fieldstone for the fire pit wall area. I unloaded half of 1 pallet to start spreading out and grouping the stones for when we're ready to start stacking. In retrospect, after watching a bunch of Youtube videos on the fundamentals of dry-stacking and looking at all the work in front of us I probably should have just gone the normal retaining wall concrete block route, but there's no turning back now.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Front yard is looking solid. I got the Sunjoe Battery Powered Reel Mower and it's really made a difference in the cut quality for as cheap as it is. Also picked up a Ryan Knorr x Landzie leveling rake to spot level some areas with sand before the season ends.

I do need to spend some time cleaning up all the edges and doing some weeding.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Long time without posting, but front yard is looking it's best all season and I'm surviving the army worm onslaught that's plaguing GA. Finally got around to cleaning up most of my edges to.

Backyard reno still in progress, but no new pictures yet. Getting string light planters up, got in some Adirondack chairs, and just have to get working on the firepit dry-stack retaining wall. New Sod is still looking okay in the backyard, I had some issues with Powdery Mildew that I knocked out with Azoxy and Prop.


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