# Fall Lawn Restoration Pictures and Lessons Learned



## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

Yesterday I did my fall lawn restoration including low mow, core aerating, double-pass power raking, overseed with nice custom blend TTTF at 4 pounds/1000 square feet and hand filled two 1,000 square foot low areas with 6 yards of topsoil each and about 12 pounds/ square foot. Actually one is more like 1200 sq/ft and the other 800.

Afterward I applied bag rate of Scotts Starter fert with Weed Preventer (mesotrione), bag rate of Milo, and topdressed by hand the entire lawn with a dusting of peat moss.

Here are some lessons learned (things I should have done):

1. Always buy more seed than you think you need. I already ordered another 25lbs. What a waste of time if you end up going super-light on seed because you don't have enough!

2. Make sure you know about any cable TV/Internet wires buried in the lawn - they could be only a few inches under and get hit by the aerator.

3. Whatever topsoil you think you need - double it.

4. Pre-game with ibuprofen

5. Don't get lazy. During a project like this, the lawn is opened up and you won't have this kind of chance again for a long time. Do the double-pass aeration or power rake if you think you need it. An extra hour of work here, though a pain when you're tired, will be worth it.

6. Start as early in the day as possible! I started a bit after 8 and ended up needing to work until 8pm to get everything done. I should have started at 6am (doing non power-tool work like moving topsoil).

Here are some pictures:


This is the main part of the front lawn at about 7:30am the day of the project.


This is a different angle of the same area.


This is the front corner of the lawn. It's a problem area that I reseeded a coupe times but still had no success. It's also a low area, so I put down 6 yards of soil over this entire area.


This is another problem area that should come out nice. It was ugly when I bought the house last winter, so I knew it would have to be renovated this year. Put down 6 yards of topsoil over this entire area as well.


Here's the back with my long shadow in the shot. Towards the woods it's in pretty bad shape, but most of the woods are being cleared next month so I avoided wasting product near there.


This is the side of the house on the other side of the driveway. Mostly fine fescue, so for this area I'm really looking just to get it fuller and slowly move away from fine fescues and toward TTTF. There are a few bare spots you can't see in this pic.


This is that same side but facing the house.


Ok now the good part. Here's a shot of the front near the beds. The lawn has been mowed extremely short, but not totally scalped. This is core aeration underway.


Plugs all over the yard. I really enjoyed picking them up and examining the soil in the different parts of the yard.


Power raked *after* aerating in order to break up some of the plugs. This is the side yard prior to running the mower over it to suck up the material that was pulled up.


Here you can see a shot of the yard after cores were pulled, after double-pass power raking, and after running the beast of a mower over everything to suck up the junk. It actually looks pretty clean. When you look close, though, you can see plenty of dirt and tell that the lawn is cut super short.


This is the side near the shed with the topsoil down. It was rolled once or twice at this point - I'm not sure. I raked it gently again before putting down seed and then rolled it once last time after that.


Here you can get a good sense of what it looked like just before putting down seed.


Beautiful blend of 50% TTTF 4th Millenium, 40% Traverse, and also 10% Kentucky Blue Bewitched.


I used a normal Scott's rotary spreader to drop the seed and apply the starter fert and milo. That was the easiest part of the day.


I really like to topdress very lightly with peat, so I walked the lawn dragging the bag and literally just dusted all 20,000 square feet with my two hands. It came out the way I wanted, though. Bare spots were covered, and even a light dusting on good grass is a healthy thing.


My hands were sore.


I wish I had inground sprinklers, but alas, I have to move my two rotary sprinklers around myself a total of about 12 zones every day for the next month.


I have high hopes. Other than a lot of time, I spent a ton of money on this project. Hopefully by mid-October this will all look amazing, and next Spring I'll be starting the season with an amazing lawn.


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## vnephologist (Aug 4, 2017)

Great start, I'll be following! Hoping to get down my fescue mix of 4th Millennium, Traverse, Titanium, and Firecracker this coming weekend, so yours will hopefully be up before mine goes down.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Awesome work and it will pay off! A twelve hour day is no joke. I feel your pain with the watering although you're covering way more square footage than me. It's gonna look great!!!


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## lawntips (Sep 7, 2017)

Here is my fall renovation from last fall. I live in Australia, so it was 6 months ago. 
Rtf tall fescue.
I put roundup on the whole lawn and started fresh. Pretty happy with the results! 
Photos are 12 weeks apart


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## lawntips (Sep 7, 2017)

Also keen to see your result mate! I love doing lawn reno's! Always exciting to see results


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

That's beautiful! How many pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet did you put down?

I didn't do a total reno except for about 2,000 square feet where I brought in topsoil. The rest of the lawn was overseed, but I'd be thrilled to get results even somewhat close to yours! I will still have a blend even after the need grass type comes in soon, so it won't be a while until I can work in enough TTTF to see a dramatic difference. As long as I can get a fuller, thicker, greener, and more shade tolerant lawn out of this, I'll be happy for next season.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Nice post, phil. That is generous of you to provide a 'lessons learned' list.

My strategy for peat moss is similar to yours. I often read where thicker applications are better, but with 20k, thick applications become an insane amount of work and a wallet-injuring amount of money.


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

Sure was expensive (to me at least). With the seed, fert + weed preventer, milo, peat, rental equipment, and 12 yards of topsoil delivered I spent almost $2,000.

The landscaping company I bought the soil from sent two guys to shovel it into wheelbarrows and dump it where I wanted - this was actually the most expensive part of the whole project, and I hope to never have to do that again at that scale.


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## Sinclair (Jul 25, 2017)

Great work, Phil!

How are you feeling this morning? Two days later is always the worst.


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

I was out early today setting up the sprinklers and timers and couldn't resist spreading a little more peat on some spots.

My wife is mad about all the filthy work clothes and the filthy shower in the master bath 

The landscaper guys who moved all the the soil into place probably feel way more sore than me! But yesterday I was totally wiped. I did the leveling, spreading all the material, and topdressing.

And in a coupe hours I'm running home during lunch to move the sprinklers into the next two zones....

Honestly the manual irrigation almost feels like the hardest part!


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

phil said:


> Honestly the manual irrigation almost feels like the hardest part!


Amen to that.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

social port said:


> Nice post, phil. That is generous of you to provide a 'lessons learned' list.
> 
> My strategy for peat moss is similar to yours. I often read where thicker applications are better, but with 20k, thick applications become an insane amount of work and a wallet-injuring amount of money.


There is too thick as well.  I had a couple areas where no grass was coming up so I raked lightly at the peat and realized it was an inch thick!


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

phil said:


> Honestly the manual irrigation almost feels like the hardest part!


Have you thought about getting a 4-hose end timer?

Nice work! :thumbup:


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

pennstater2005 said:


> social port said:
> 
> 
> > Nice post, phil. That is generous of you to provide a 'lessons learned' list.
> ...


  Yup. That's another reason why I'm going with a lite layer. I can't be bothered with all that measurement. I find measuring, especially minute differences, incredibly boring.


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

I literally dust the lawn with it. I apply just enough so that I see a light brown dusting prohibiting me from seeing the seed anymore. My guess is that it's 1/4 inch thick or possibly even less in some areas. I have raked it in, but this time I walked the lawn and grabbed handfuls of peat from the bad I was dragging and either dusted it by rubbing both hands together or tossed handfuls on an angle for a similar effect. Even the thickest parts are really thin.


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

ericgautier said:


> phil said:
> 
> 
> > Honestly the manual irrigation almost feels like the hardest part!
> ...


Thanks!

Yes, I looked at the 4-hose attachment, but I tried using two sprinklers in series and found that the water pressure was so low for each head that it took hours to get down any significant amount of water. I have a hose in the front and one in the back so I split it up that way and see only a slight decrease in overall pressure. I use timers, though, and that helps a little bit.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

You need to try a rotor sprinkler head on a spike base.

See - http://www.organiclawndiy.com/2012/07/how-to-mount-rotor-sprinkler-on-spike.html I was able to daisy chain 3 into 1 zone x4 and you get 12 of these (but could be my water pressure).


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## HomerGuy (Jun 5, 2017)

How many bales of peat moss did you use to topdress 20k?


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

8 bales at 3 cubit feet each. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I really did put down only a dusting except for the totally bare spots.


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## kds (Apr 28, 2017)

ericgautier said:


> You need to try a rotor sprinkler head on a spike base.
> 
> See - http://www.organiclawndiy.com/2012/07/how-to-mount-rotor-sprinkler-on-spike.html I was able to daisy chain 3 into 1 zone x4 and you get 12 of these (but could be my water pressure).


 :thumbup:

I use Hunter MP rotator heads on spikes, and it works great. Earlier this spring, I used a bunch of MP-3000 heads (longer throw). This fall I'm using mostly MP-1000 heads and not only do those do a better job of getting the water where I want it without overspray, I can connect 4-5 in a series without losing pressure, whereas if I put three MP-3000 heads in series, I was pushing the limit.


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## vnephologist (Aug 4, 2017)

kds said:


> I use Hunter MP rotator heads on spikes, and it works great. Earlier this spring, I used a bunch of MP-3000 heads (longer throw). This fall I'm using mostly MP-1000 heads and not only do those do a better job of getting the water where I want it without overspray, I can connect 4-5 in a series without losing pressure, whereas if I put three MP-3000 heads in series, I was pushing the limit.


I was gonna recommend exactly this! I fed all of my zones, including one with 14x MP Rotator SRs via hose bibb and a Melnor Wifi Aqua Timer until I got my valve manifold and Rachio installed. Worked like a champ.

Actually, now that I think about it, I'd be happy to donate my timer to a happy home. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

phil said:


> 3. Whatever topsoil you think you need - double it.


I went in thinking I would get a load of topsoil in the bed of my truck (1500 lbs) and be fine.

I ended up making 4 trips and using over 5500 lbs of topsoil :lol:


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## phil (Jul 24, 2017)

I hear that! I initially got 8 yards of topsoil but then ended up needing 12


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## b0nk3rs (Aug 21, 2017)

phil said:


> I hear that! I initially got 8 yards of topsoil but then ended up needing 12


Part of my problem was adding topsoil to a planned area and looking a few feet to the side and saying, well I may as well hit this too while i'm at it...


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## lawntips (Sep 7, 2017)

phil said:


> That's beautiful! How many pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet did you put down?
> 
> I didn't do a total reno except for about 2,000 square feet where I brought in topsoil. The rest of the lawn was overseed, but I'd be thrilled to get results even somewhat close to yours! I will still have a blend even after the need grass type comes in soon, so it won't be a while until I can work in enough TTTF to see a dramatic difference. As long as I can get a fuller, thicker, greener, and more shade tolerant lawn out of this, I'll be happy for next season.


I'm from Australia so I don't work in pounds but did a quick conversion and it would have been about 10 pounds per 1000square feet.
Got awesome results and held up through the winter really well!


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## LawnSolo (Jul 17, 2018)

Hi Phil, how it's your lawn doing? 
I would like to see some new pictures of your lawn. I also bought the same blend as you did and I'm ready to overseed this fall.

-Thanks in Advance!


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