# Connor Ward's One Day Renovation



## tommydearest (9 mo ago)

My lawn seems to have a mix of different grasses. Over the years, I know I've reseeded with all kinds of different varieties of crappy seeds.

I'd like to renovate to get a more uniform look. I'd like to have just a KBG, or possibly KBG/PRG, blend. Was thinking of dividing the renovation into two projects, front yard this year, back yard next year.

I saw someone mention Connor Ward doing a one day, or two day, renovation where he used glyphosate on the grass and then scalped it and seeded it the next day. I can't seem to find it on his channel. Does anyone have a link?

First, is this a viable plan? Second, what's the major drawback? I'm guessing it's the possibility of not killing everything, including weeds, in the old lawn. I don't think I have any big areas of either of the poas. I do have a patch of what I believe is creeping bentgrass.

Anyway, I'd love a more detailed explanation of this procedure. The worst sounding part of a full-blown reno, to me, is removing all the dead stuff. This seems to avoid that.

Thanks!


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## jha4aamu (Oct 16, 2017)

tommydearest said:


> My lawn seems to have a mix of different grasses. Over the years, I know I've reseeded with all kinds of different varieties of crappy seeds.
> 
> I'd like to renovate to get a more uniform look. I'd like to have just a KBG, or possibly KBG/PRG, blend. Was thinking of dividing the renovation into two projects, front yard this year, back yard next year.
> 
> ...


Removing all of the living grass isnt going to be any easier.

Ive done multiple renos this way and its a good option, esp if you dont have a bunch of grassy weeds and just trying to switch varieties.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

I believe these are the videos:

https://youtu.be/HhRTwgv_ZHc

https://youtu.be/oWLmii8Jjso

https://youtu.be/TmAOaUP2RnI

Probably my favorite video on his channel:

https://youtu.be/s3XJByXIzOg


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## BBLOCK (Jun 8, 2020)

To note, he has said prob wasn't the best play. As he's dealing w triv in his lawn now and he keeps questioning whether or not he should nuke it all again.


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

I think if your spending the time/money on a renovation, skipping the fallowing is a mistake. Better to do it right once the first time.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

Agree with above - watch some of his more recent content.


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## Grizzly Adam (May 5, 2017)

Yep, this plan sounds so Connor Ward. I don't watch him for his brilliance...


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## tommydearest (9 mo ago)

Ok, guess I'll hold off on doing it this way. I still haven't even gone through the year of best practices for my yard. Yes, I'm trying to run a sprint instead of a marathon. It's just now that I've grown to want a great yard, mine just bothers me more every day. My wife says it's looking great and all I see are different heights and colors everywhere.

Thanks for the video links, @bf7


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## MassHole (Jun 27, 2018)

Grizzly Adam said:


> Yep, this plan sounds so Connor Ward. I don't watch him for his brilliance...


Absolutely uncool and rude.

Connor has an incredibly short growing season compared to others, and shares his story unfiltered for others to enjoy and learn from.

Your comment isn't what TLF is about.


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

BBLOCK said:


> To note, he has said prob wasn't the best play. As he's dealing w triv in his lawn now and he keeps questioning whether or not he should nuke it all again.


you have to keep in mind youtube people constantly need something to film, if the lawn was perfect and just needed fertilizer 4x a year there would be much to film...so they have to keep renovating it


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## Sfurunner13 (Feb 26, 2019)

One day Reno's can work great of you aren't trying to get rid of poa or triv.


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## Grizzly Adam (May 5, 2017)

MassHole said:


> Grizzly Adam said:
> 
> 
> > Yep, this plan sounds so Connor Ward. I don't watch him for his brilliance...
> ...


Sorry if this came out rude. I enjoy Connor's channel primarily because of his spontaneity. I think he flies by the seat of his pants and that makes his channel exciting. That is why I watch him.


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## wardconnor (Mar 25, 2017)

john5246 said:


> BBLOCK said:
> 
> 
> > To note, he has said prob wasn't the best play. As he's dealing w triv in his lawn now and he keeps questioning whether or not he should nuke it all again.
> ...


This is incorrect. I don't always need something to film. I have so much that I could film and don't. I don't make vids for fame or money. I make vids for fun.

There is too much seriousness in the world of lawns. Hobbies are meant to be fun. Stressing about the exact amount of fert that needs to go down doesn't work for me.

I want to show that it's not that difficult and that it's just grass. There are more important things than just grass. Have fun with it


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## MuttGrunt (8 mo ago)

wardconnor said:


> There is too much seriousness in the world of lawns. Hobbies are meant to be fun. Stressing about the exact amount of fert that needs to go down doesn't work for me.
> 
> I want to show that it's not that difficult and that it's just grass. There are more important things than just grass. Have fun with it


The day it's no longer fun is the day it's a chore that you'll hate. Please keep it fun or this entire thing becomes pointless.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

@tommydearest you don't need to remove the dead stuff with a full blown reno.


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## NJ-lawn (Jun 25, 2018)

@wardconnor i really enjoy your videos. Just the right amount of info and comic relief. Not to mention the beautiful backdrop. Keep it up!


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## WiscoLawn (Aug 30, 2019)

I was going to do a heavy overseed and at the last minute decided to do the 1 day Reno. I figured if I'm going to do 90% of the process I may just add the extra step and nuke it. I had not planned on doing a proper Reno originally because I was going to have a large maple removed from the front yard the following year (2022) due to disease as well as completely renovate the front landscaping. From the damage of the stump grinding I would have to reseed a significant portion of the lawn anyway. Also I planned on bringing in topsoil to level some big dips so I didn't want to go through with a complete Reno and have to redo most of it a year later.

I sprayed on a Friday and then on Sunday I did the following:
1. Scalped and bagged
2. Slit seeded new seed 2 directions
3. Broadcasted some extra seed just because
4. Starter Fert
5. Covered with peat moss
6. Rolled the lawn

This is 4 days after spraying


Close up of grass babies at day 7


Lawn 54 DAG 




Overall I would say it was a success. Would it be better to do it properly? Absolutely. Fallowing definitely would have been better if I had the time. At day 5 when the existing grass really started to fry there were a couple spots that I missed that could be seen. I used GCI Cool Blue seed. Some of the pros of doing the 1 day Reno were the lawn only looked terrible for about 3 weeks and the existing dead grass and slit seeding helped with a heavy downpour to hold things in place.


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## tommydearest (9 mo ago)

Sfurunner13 said:


> One day Reno's can work great of you aren't trying to get rid of poa or triv.


Another reason I think I'll try to work in a full reno, hopefully fall of 2023. With the different varieties of grass I have, including what appear to be some creeping bentgrass patches, I may just have some poa.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

tommydearest said:


> Ok, guess I'll hold off on doing it this way. I still haven't even gone through the year of best practices for my yard. Yes, I'm trying to run a sprint instead of a marathon. It's just now that I've grown to want a great yard, mine just bothers me more every day. My wife says it's looking great and all I see are different heights and colors everywhere.
> 
> Thanks for the video links, @bf7


@tommydearest

Sure thing. As others are saying, there is no right or wrong answer here as long as you have fun with it. That's the point of all this.

Absolutely do NOT let the lack of year experience hold you back from doing a reno. Is that a best practice? Sure. I wasn't doing things correctly for a year prior to my reno. Not even close. Almost all of the equipment and products I use religiously now came after seed down. I learned everything on the fly. I will never regret the reno. And if you aren't happy with the current lawn, go for it 100%.

A lot of people (including me) will suggest fallowing, but an overnight reno is better than nothing if you want to transform your lawn. Enjoy!


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

wardconnor said:


> john5246 said:
> 
> 
> > BBLOCK said:
> ...


Well I guess take that as a general comment about youtube people then, I know you haven't been uploading much because your vids don't pop up in my suggested at all. 100% about having fun with it, I don't take it as seriously as before and I actually put less time into it now that my lawn is established.


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

bf7 said:


> tommydearest said:
> 
> 
> > Ok, guess I'll hold off on doing it this way. I still haven't even gone through the year of best practices for my yard. Yes, I'm trying to run a sprint instead of a marathon. It's just now that I've grown to want a great yard, mine just bothers me more every day. My wife says it's looking great and all I see are different heights and colors everywhere.
> ...


 when I first saw that video I thought he could pull it off because of his fancy sprayer, in theory it should work. After getting into lawn care and doing reno's with KBG (midnight and bewitched) I realized this grass is resistant to NOTHING, it needs constant attention with fungicide to look good.


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## tommydearest (9 mo ago)

Harts said:


> @tommydearest you don't need to remove the dead stuff with a full blown reno.


I'm interested in this. Here is what I'm thinking of trying in my front yard. It's currently at 2.75". I bought a reel mower to keep a small 8x8 area of new grass cut short so that the KBG in my KBG/PRG mix wouldn't be shaded by the PRG while establishing.

I decided to just do my whole front yard with it in order to help with some lateral growth during nitrogen blitz. It had been about 3.5". So, I'm thinking come spring I will gradually take it down to around 2". Come mid-July, I'd start fallowing while taking the grass down to around 1" by mid-August. Then, I'm hoping to get a SunJoe and rough up the surface to expose some dirt and start the seeding process.

I'm hoping to avoid having to bag any dead stuff. Does this sound like it will be successful? Any ideas on how to do it better?

Thanks.


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## jha4aamu (Oct 16, 2017)

tommydearest said:


> I'm interested in this. Here is what I'm thinking of trying in my front yard. It's currently at 2.75". I bought a reel mower to keep a small 8x8 area of new grass cut short so that the KBG in my KBG/PRG mix wouldn't be shaded by the PRG while establishing.
> 
> I decided to just do my whole front yard with it in order to help with some lateral growth during nitrogen blitz. It had been about 3.5". So, I'm thinking come spring I will gradually take it down to around 2". Come mid-July, I'd start fallowing while taking the grass down to around 1" by mid-August. Then, I'm hoping to get a SunJoe and rough up the surface to expose some dirt and start the seeding process.
> 
> ...


It may not be necessary to remove all dead material prior to seeding, but it's unlikely you will be able to skip bagging altogether


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## tommydearest (9 mo ago)

jha4aamu said:


> It may not be necessary to remove all dead material prior to seeding, but it's unlikely you will be able to skip bagging altogether


What if I got it shorter before the summer heat? 

Here's a related question that might clear it up better for me, how short does a lawn need to be cut for a reno to be successful?


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## LawnOCDfanatic (5 mo ago)

If you’re not even willing to bag clippings, a reno is not for you lol. There is a lot more work than that to get it right, and if clippings is too much work for you…


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## jha4aamu (Oct 16, 2017)

tommydearest said:


> What if I got it shorter before the summer heat?
> 
> Here's a related question that might clear it up better for me, how short does a lawn need to be cut for a reno to be successful?


Idk the answer to your second question, but the lower the better. And the more material you remove the better. No matter how low you maintain your lawn, i dont think it would be wise to completely skip bagging your clippings


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## tommydearest (9 mo ago)

LawnOCDfanatic said:


> If you’re not even willing to bag clippings, a reno is not for you lol. There is a lot more work than that to get it right, and if clippings is too much work for you…


I just currently don't have a bag attachment to anything I own. I could blow the clippings into a pile. Just trying to find what are the drawbacks of not bagging clippings. Or, more specifically, what the drawback would be if I already maintained the grass at a short height.

Never said anything was "too much work." It's only about 2,000 sqft.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Depending on how much dead material the Sun Joe brings up, you might have to get rid of it. You don't want excess material otherwise the seed won't get to the soil - which is the whole point of using a Sun Joe or something similar. 

To answer your other question: cut your grass as low as your mower can go before seeding.


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## Grover (9 mo ago)

MassHole said:


> Absolutely uncool and rude.
> 
> Connor has an incredibly short growing season compared to others, and shares his story unfiltered for others to enjoy and learn from.
> 
> Your comment isn't what TLF is about.


I’m disappointed that someone who calls them self “MassHole” would get so butthurt.
You’ve let me down.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

I layer of thatch or a thick layer of old leaves will prevent the seeds from making contact with the soil and you will have minimal to no germination. A single day/weekend renovation is doable, but hard to pull off. I have tried it a few times with very mixed results. The worst failure was in a lawn with a lot of thatch. That area had 0% germination. If you can't remove dead material before dropping seed, you are going to have problems.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Connor Ward posted up his recent YouTube reno video, where he glypho’ed his existing turf 3+ times spaced out over time. He took all the proper steps and yet he still had triv come up. I’m convinced that there’s no way of getting rid of it completely, unless POACURE or some other selective herbicide hits the market. It’s deflating seeing folks go through all that work with the objective of getting rid of that crap and then have it turn around and throw an egg at your face.


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## Vman12 (4 mo ago)

tommydearest said:


> I'm interested in this. Here is what I'm thinking of trying in my front yard. It's currently at 2.75". I bought a reel mower to keep a small 8x8 area of new grass cut short so that the KBG in my KBG/PRG mix wouldn't be shaded by the PRG while establishing.
> 
> I decided to just do my whole front yard with it in order to help with some lateral growth during nitrogen blitz. It had been about 3.5". So, I'm thinking come spring I will gradually take it down to around 2". Come mid-July, I'd start fallowing while taking the grass down to around 1" by mid-August. Then, I'm hoping to get a SunJoe and rough up the surface to expose some dirt and start the seeding process.
> 
> ...


The condition of the soil is far more important than the height of the lawn when overseeding to fill it in.

Grass seed will germinate and start rooting in 1/8th inch of soil sitting on concrete, so as long as it has a place for it's root to start going it'll take hold.

Check the areas you want germination and see if you can drive a screwdriver into it easily to a depth of about 6 inches. If you can, and it's not covered with debris/thatch on top of the soil, you'll be in good shape. Soil that's too hard to get a screwdriver in is going to mean the seedlings aren't going to be able to establish roots.

One thing for sure: when you use a Sun Joe and start power raking you're going to produce a ridiculous amount of debris....much more than you thought possible. If your lawn feels a little spongy when you walk on it.....a whole lot more than that even. When I got my new place it was really bad. I had more than a couple dozen 55 gallon trash cans worth before I realized I was going to have to get even more extreme in my thatch removal methods.

Some things that have helped me create a good soil bed are liquid aeration products (I don't know how they work, but they really do loosen hard soil), and a peat moss spreader to put down a thin, loose layer of soil as a bed to help the seed get started. A garden weasel or similar to rough up bare spots also helps a lot to create a nice environment for germination.


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## Vman12 (4 mo ago)

Scagfreedom48z+ said:


> Connor Ward posted up his recent YouTube reno video, where he glypho’ed his existing turf 3+ times spaced out over time. He took all the proper steps and yet he still had triv come up. I’m convinced that there’s no way of getting rid of it completely, unless POACURE or some other selective herbicide hits the market. It’s deflating seeing folks go through all that work with the objective of getting rid of that crap and then have it turn around and throw an egg at your face.


LoL he even burned the hell out of it. Poor guy's just trying to have a nice lawn. Poa is the devil.


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## Vman12 (4 mo ago)

My apologies, one more thing to add to my long-windedness: get a good soil probe.

That thing has a lot of uses: it can tell you how hard your soil is, help you visibly check water penetration depth, the root depth of your grass, the thatch condition of your lawn, the overall composition of your lawn soil, doing soil tests.....and with great precision in all areas of your lawn to help identify problems.


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