# theguybrarian's lawn journal



## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Figured I'd make a journal...

I seeded Arden 15 on May 23rd. Despite my best planning and a trial run in the fall with some cheap annual rye, my seeding was pretty impromptu. I did my multiple rounds of gly, but I had planned to seed shortly after having a vasectomy. I realized that despite a relatively quick recovery, too much manual labor wasn't encouraged too quickly after the procedure. With that in mind, I seeded and spread 4 lbs/M of 13-13-13.

I don't have irrigation, but I have a sprinkler setup and timer that I figured out with the annual rye seeding last fall. Everything was going fine, but on day 5 after seeding (and the day after my vasectomy), we had 2+ inches of downpouring rain. I was sure everything had washed out -- there were puddles and running water towards the drainage ditch by the road. I was walking around in the rain, post-vasectomy, trying to figure out what I was going to do next.

Turns out everything was fine. I mow every other day; every day if I can. It's growing fast. My front yard is 4800 sq ft, I have a small area between the sidewalk and garden bed that's 400 sq ft, and a section in the back that's 1200 sq ft. I also have a fenced in area in the back that's 3200 sq ft that the dogs use, but that's a project for another year.

I have a 20 in McLane from Craigslist, a Flowzone Typhoon, and a Scott's spreader (  ). Right now, I'm battling goosegrass (pulling by hand/tool) and spurge. I sprayed Celsius at the high rate today, but I was nervous about hurting young turf, so I walked a little fast (despite using the sprayer a number of times on my lawn). Tomorrow I plan to spread 3 lbs/M of 13-13-13 before some rain.

Here's a terrible picture of the 4800 sq ft section. I'll have more pictures of the smaller sections in another post (I tested some quinclorac on those a while back -- it didn't go well, but things are coming back).


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Put down 13-13-13 at 3 lbs/M. The rain, which all forecasts said was almost a certainty today, is now less of a certainty. Oh well. It if rains, great. If not, I'll run the sprinklers in the morning. Here's some pictures of my 3 reno sections:

Front: 4800 sq ft. This area is doing the best. It's received nothing but fertilizer until yesterday's Celsius. Lots of progress still to be made, but I'm happy with it overall.



Small area in the front: 400 sq ft. This area germinated first, but it was also the only one that was seeded mostly onto new topsoil. It was doing well until I hit it with quinclorac a few weeks back. It took a noticeable hit but it's coming back.



Back area: 1200 sq ft. This area is struggling the most. It gets the least amount of sun, has the most compacted dirt, had the most amount of washout 5 DAS, and also got hit with quinclorac when the 400 sq ft section did. It'll be fine. It's just now starting to show some signs of life in some areas. I could add some more seed, but I'm honestly not that worried about it. It'll be interesting to see how it does. Lots of goosegrass and spurge up by the driveway.



Edit: the rain came


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

I've got some family in town, so not a ton of time to be out in the yard. Gotta mow, though -- especially during this grow in. I'm pretty happy with the progress.

Quick cut today.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Experiencing some yellowing from the Celsius app a week ago, but I can tell that it's already growing out of it. You can see the color difference in this picture from the sprayed vs non-sprayed sections.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

The bad news: my McLane is on the shelf. I could have kept working on it, but I would have run out of time to actually mow. So, for now, I'm cutting the front yard with a rotary set to 1.5". I'm using a manual reel on the smaller sections. I hate it, but it is what it is.

The good news: the front is about 80% recovered from the yellowing from the Celsius treatment a week ago. There is dying spurge, crabgrass, and some other random weeds. The back section is filling in -- it's still got a ways to go, but it's coming along.

I hate using the rotary and the manual reel, but I don't have a choice for now. It's an obvious decline in cut quality from the McLane. I"m trying to take a step back and realize that things are looking pretty good, especially for being less than two months out from seeding.

Front


Small back section


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## DFWdude (Aug 28, 2020)

Yes, for two months out from seeding I'd say its looking nice. Keep up the hard work!


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Thanks. I was/am pretty bummed today to have to put the reel in the shed, so I appreciate it!


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Put down bifenthrin at 1 fl oz/M on the lawn and around the perimeter of the house. I also worked on the McLane for a few minutes and made a little progress. I have family getting into town tonight so I probably won't have time to work on it for a few days. Rotary and manual reel mows until then.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Had 1.25" of rain yesterday evening into the overnight. I had a chance this morning to work on my McLane. I'm thinking (see: hoping) that I can have it back in action next weekend. I hate using the rotary on the front yard, so I hope I can use it again next weekend. If so, a major HOC reset will be needed.

Front: had to double cut with the rotary, once with the side discharge and again with the bagger. It's terrible. It scalps in spots, the cut quality sucks, etc.... If I'm able to, I'm going to try and cut it again tomorrow to see if that helps any.


Small front area: used the manual reel, and I think I'll continue to use the manual reel even if/when I get the McLane going again. It's such a small area and is hard to maneuver, so the manual actually works out. It washboards pretty bad, but it's easy to go over multiple times to make it better.


Back area: used the manual reel. It is still pretty thin back here, so the manual reel is no problem. It is filling in, though. It's fun to watch.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

Looks great! Mine had that same yellowing after the celsius but turned out okay. I too have been pulling the goosegrass when I see it. Looks like you have excellent coverage.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Today is officially 2 months since seeding.

Still manual reel mowing. I think I should have some time to work on the McLane tomorrow. The front is a lot higher than I'd like, but it is what it is. I'm getting good exercise at least.

Front


Small front area


Back - terrible sun angle, but it's filling in nicely


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

I haven't posted in a couple of months...just been busy. I've been keeping up with monthly bifen apps and I put down 0.25 lbs of N about 3 weeks ago. After pushing the inputs pretty hard during the grow in, I've really pulled back. I'm dealing with a little weed pressure here and there, but I'm not worried about it. I'll ride it out to dormancy and spray anything out when I do my second fall pre-m app.

After having to shelf the McLane as a winter project, I turned to a rotary for the front. For a number of reasons, I hated it. I was cutting at around 1.75" and the cut quality was just terrible. Recently, I used a gift card to get the 7 blade Earthwise manual reel to see if I could get a little lower with an acceptable cut. I scalped last weekend with the rotary and mowed yesterday with the Earthwise. It's not fully recovered from the scalp, and it doesn't look as good and isn't as low as it was before, but I can live with this until next season. The extra 2 blades on the manual reel make a noticeable difference when compared to a 5 blade. Perfect? Hardly, but it's doable.

Front


Small area in the front -- was also scalped


Back - the color looks better in person -- it was pretty cloudy out, and twilight. Decent fill in back here when compared to earlier in the season. I'll trim the canopy back next year along the wood line and plug.


I've got some fescue seed for this shady area. I need to do some more ground prep, but this will keep me occupied for a few weeks.


This season isn't ending how I'd hoped, but all-in-all I had a successful reno this year and I'm looking forward to next season!


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Got out today with monthly bifen, 1/4 rate of prodiamine, and one last shot of iron (front section only).

I also worked on the little area where I'll be attempting to grow some fescue. I removed a ton of moss and added some top soil to a few areas. I'll be putting seed down in the next day or two (hopefully). I'm curious to see what happens -- this area is especially shady this time of year.


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

Front yard looks really good. The seed really took! You'll be in a good spot for next season.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Thanks @rjw0283 !


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Put down 1/4 rate of prodiamine today. It's a little early, but rain is coming and today is when I had the time. I also ordered some simazine that I'll put down in a few months before summer. I'll probably do a pre-scalp here in a few weeks so that the actual scalp is a little less work.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Scalped today with what I have available. The plan is to have some sort of powered reel this season, but for now I was left to do what I could with my rotary and Earthwise 7-blade manual reel. I took it down as much as I could with the rotary, then went again with the manual reel as low as it goes, then back over with the rotary to collect as much of those clippings as I could. Cleaned up the edges and whatnot with the power rotary scissors. Short of using those on the whole lawn, this is the best I can do for now.

I've got some ruts to fix later in the season when things take off. We had a new roof put on in November and they are left over from the truck.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Got down the first bifen app of the season this morning, along with 0.75 fl oz/M of simazine. I still have 3/4 rate of prodamine left for the season, so I'll likely put out a 1/4 rate in about a month. I was going to spray yesterday, but I was too wiped from the scalp. There's a surprising amount of green poking through that I noticed after scalping yesterday.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Put together my DFW wand today. Shout out to @JayGo and @kwoody51 for some tips on making it work with the FlowZone. Still waiting for my quick connects to come in, but I'm thankful for the ability to use the pressure washer gun still -- I like to use it for spraying bifen around the house exterior.


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## JayGo (Jun 13, 2019)

@theguybrarian, hey it's cool to see that the info helped. Happy spraying, man.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

My wife bought me a cal trimmer so I re-scalped the front yesterday, going lower than I could with my other equipment. Before this scalp I was probably at about 65-70% green up. Decent amount of poa a along the road; the pre-m just never seems to work as well right there.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Got out with some grub-ex today. It's a bit late, but I just haven't had the time to coordinate with the rain.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Filled in the tire ruts from the roofing trucks and a super, super low spot with a mix of a bunch of stuff that I had around: all-purpose sand, play sand, potting soil, top soil, compost...

It'll settle some, but at least it'll be better than it was.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Mowed yesterday.

Today I backlapped and sprayed the monthly bifen. We're starting to get some warmer weather so the lawn is starting to wake up.


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## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

Did you blanket spray the Bifen on the turf, or...?

Edit: nvm, I went back to the first page.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

I blanket spray the lawn and also hit the house perimeter monthly


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Things have been busy and I haven't had time to update. We've been super dry but we finally got some significant rain over the weekend and should be getting more this week.

I put out 3 lbs/M of a 13-13-13 for the first feeding of the year and also 1/4 rate of prodimaine. I would have liked to do both of those a few weeks ago, but oh well. I need to do a round of celsius/outrider and also a fungicide -- probably towards the end of the week.

Front main: things are filling in, finally. The tire tracks are filling in and a low spot that I filled (or at least started to) is filling in. Another week with some 90s like we just had and things should be good. Seed heads are starting to pop, but they don't bother me a ton. The area at the bottom of the pic should fill in pretty quickly now that it's getting more sun. In the early spring, it gets shaded out pretty hard. Honestly, the lawn looks worse in the picture than in real life.


Front small: this area is struggling, but it struggled at the end of last season, too. I'm not super stressed about it; worst case I'll just plug it in about a month or so. It is starting to wake up a bit though.


Back small: I beat this area up pretty good last season during the grow in, and it's giving it back to me right now. It'll be fine, though. It's just going to be another month or so before it accepts my apology.


Back main: I've never showed this area, mostly because I didn't seed it like the other areas. 2 years ago, the whole area around the fire pit and some other places were just dirt. Before I did the front reno, there was a small patch of bermuda that I used to plug the bare areas in the back. I didn't really do much beyond that except whatever nature wanted to do. Mostly, the rest of the yard was/is nimblewill. This year, I'm mowing it at sub 1" to see how the nimlbewill likes it. As of now, it doesn't. Much of the brown areas that are in the pic are struggling nimblewill and most of the green is bermuda. It has spread quite a bit in the last 2 years without me doing anything, so I'm hoping that doing something will help it takeover in a few years. I'm in no rush back here.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

6/17 update. We got back from vacation two nights ago, so yesterday was when I had a chance to clean up the lawn. Before we left I applied T-Nex at 0.2 oz/M along with some iron. I've bumped up the HOC a notch on the CT. I had planned to do that anyway because my yard is just too bumpy for where I was trying to cut it at. There were tons of seed heads, so it still looks a little messy. Now that vacation is over, I can hit it a little harder with some fert.

Front: coming along well. Still a few spots to fill in, but it's close.


Front small: struggling. Gonna let it go for another week or so and then I might move some plugs.


Back small: getting there. Compared to the last time I took a picture, it's doing okay.


Back: like I said last time, I know this doesn't look great, but considering I plugged less than half of the bermuda that's there two years ago and have done next to nothing to it until now, I'm pleased. It's spreading just fine on it's own.


Up next: this small ~300 sq ft area on the other side of the driveway that's been weeds until I killed it about a month ago. Sometime next week I plan to plug it with plugs from the front.


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## theguybrarian (Apr 11, 2020)

Mowed today. The front is probably a few weeks away from looking pretty good, but it's not too bad right now. The seedheads have been nuts, though. You can still kind of see the remnants of the ones I just mowed down. Got some spurge and a couple of grassy weeds here and there, so a celsius/outrider combo is probably happening soon.

Like many others, we've had absolutely no rain. I finally pulled the hoses out Saturday night to run early Sunday morning. The front is the only area I do this for. Everything else will just have to wait for rain. With this, I put down about 0.75 lbs of N, P, and K via a 13-13-13. That only puts me at about 1.3 lbs of N for the year, so there will be more apps to come. I'll probably set everything up again tomorrow night because there is no rain in the foreseeable future.

Second PGR app went down yesterday at 0.25 oz.


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