# 0318 | Lawn Journal | 2021



## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hi everyone,

My name is Paul if live in Renswoude which is located in the centre of the The Netherlands.
So upfront my apologies for some incorrect spelling or grammer, hopefully you will be able to follow! 
I'm 30 years old and living together with my wife for 6 years & married for 3 we already been together for 14 years+.

I work for a food processing manufacturer as an engineering supervisor with a funny side note that HQ is located into the US (Walla Walla, Washinton state).

Our house has a small lawn compared to the US size lawns with only little over 1k sqft. But in Dutch terms that relative large for a location in the middle of town.
Anyway i love my lawn and taking care of it. Never did much more then:
mowing (read ignoring 1/3 rule often)
+ fert (read 3.5 lbs N in spring in 1 go)
+ watering (its been hot, lets put some water on it)
+ detaching in spring (you cant mess this up right?)
+ overseed with whatever seed was available.
Still loved it and screemed to everyone who was walking on my lawn! But now I know atleast a little more.

Then corona hit and I got really bored last chrismas and decided 2021 was my year for lawn care. I've started watching youtube and researching all kind of things
Now I'm obssesed, and since last week I found this addictive forum and signed up now and therefore the start of my journal!

Since the season is over i want to give a summary over the comming weeks.
Please feel free to ask or comment me on anything.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Good day everyone!
My first entry, over time i will share all the details, to much writing in 1 go.

This is my lawn on the 17th of September of 2020.





Nothing has been added since the lawn untill the 20th of February, by then it looks like this:









Thess significant worsening, can this be because ghe lack of the fall N that I did not apply?
Also in the Netherlands the fall times are very humid, often rain and cool (65F). The lawns stay wet probably whole days so mowing has to happen on wet lawns often.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

Hey bud, you may not get a lot of feedback on here now that many have packed it in for the winter. Bad timing.

Do you know what grass type(s) you have?

The pics you posted - the most recent is from Feb 2021? Anything more current?

If it's looking worse now, lack of food or breaking 1/3 rule frequently could definitely be major factors. It sounds like drought isn't a problem for you, but too much moisture / fungus could be.

I'm assuming your climate is more mild temperature wise than mine but fairly similar. Does the grass go completely dormant in the winter?

You don't want to skip N in the fall. Also 3.5 lbs is A LOT to put down at once, if I'm reading that correctly. Ideally you spread that out into multiple lighter apps.

I am liking the stripes in the first pic!


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hai all! Yea i know most of them packed for the winter, but i estimate some will still sit behind there laptop to scratch the itch and dreaming about better days!

Grass seed type is a difficult one, layed sod 6 years ago without any research on grass type. I ovedseeded all those years with quick repair grass seed and It's not even mentioned on the package but i think it had contained 100% PRG.

Only last year i researched a little and chose for festuca rubra, I think this is FF or TTTF? This bag of barenbrug is the seed im looking at for upcomming season which is equivalent to my last years seed.

https://www.barenbrug.biz/barfescue

Some more updates from last season.

Detached + manual aerated.
24th of April


Topdressed with lawn compost
25th of April










After one week




After 4 weeks:




Then i start using my Atco/Allett 14" reel mower
27th of june








On the first picture you can already see im on a very sandy soil, when it becomes dry its closer then dust than soil. So holding moisture is really difficult.
Especialy in the summer it dry out very quickly as you can see near the plats already a dormant area is showing up.

Also with detaching i quickly or bare dirt. Can this be a sign of shallow roots?


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

On the note of the N i should rectify myself, it was 1,75 lbs/K. This is the recommended bag rate, i does not say anything about multiple apps.
And if nobody tells, you have the learn by mistake. Thanks to youtube and all yalls journal i picking up knowledge fast!

Therefore I did my fall fertilizer in by-weekly apps of 0.3 lbs/k


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Paul,

Creeping Red Fescue is indeed a type of fine fescue. It's moderately shade tolerant, but not as heat tolerant as KBG or TTTF. Also not quite as wispy-fine as other FF. There are two main types: strong (more heat tolerant, darker green, less dense, and popular in the US), and Slender (lighter green, a little denser, and more shade tolerant but less heat tolerant; popular in the UK/England/Europe).

Overall, FF needs less Nitrogen (maybe 2 lbs a year).


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hi @Green welcome to my journal!
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
And off course all the other followers.
Thanks for the explanation the Netherlands is not that hot in summer. Absolute Max 10 days are above 90, mostly round the 80. I dont know what is considered hot?
FF was only seeded as an overseed, i dont expect the FF in the lawn much, on bare spots it only germinated after 14 days. By that time existing PRG had already taken the most i suppose.

Does anyone know why my scarify/detaching is able to destroy my lawn to almost bare ground but with others only removing debries leaving an almost intact lawn?

Continue on the pictures, this is 19th of July.
You already notice some problem areas.
How can you diagnose what this is? Fungal/lack of water etc?
Of course nothing can be checked now, but for future reference.







This is the 4th of August.
The lime green on the bottom left. Is this poa?



If it helps, this is from the 7th of August.
If this is poa, tenacity will help on this correct? I already bought it for next season. Altough not available in Europe, i ordered it, $35 on shipping and $30 on added tax. Hopefully worth it! But i see alot of use in the other journals so i have some faith.



Enjoy the day!


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

And then on the 1st of September, i detached again and topdressed with soil. 
Again my detaching removed 50% of my grass plants and was on the same level as spring. Showing alot of bare soil.
I was very dissapointed my lawn not being 'stronger' and did not take any photos during that time wondering why i spend al that time on it.
I pushed with 0,3N per weeks to get it growing and spreading again estimating same recovery speed as spring.
It al did not work out. My lawn was showing tired from summer and on top i put extra stress on it with detaching, topdressing and overseeding i assume now.
I think the dutch climate in spring is similar to US fall. 
Because this is what i end up with on the 4th of November.









Compared to my spring detaching/topdressing/overseedinng it recovered much faster and better.
So next year different approach!


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

Hello all!

I did a soil test back in the fall and after reading some other journals I have some doubts on my approach.

My soil is lacking P, were 95-145 is recommended I have only 2.7.
When I google I see applying P in the fall/winter is not recommended because the roots will not absorb it and therefore poa will thrive in spring.
But here i also read P will be very slow and therefore Im doubting putting it down in spring will not be too late?


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## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

All the grass that came out from dethatch is undersirable grass or weeds. Plus your lawn looks really thin. Throw some mazama or bewitched kbg in there to get it to thicken up. Outside of a complete kill, you will not get rid of those undesirable grasses. Before you do anything drastic like a complete kill, read and watch as many videos as you can to educate yourself.


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## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

Btw, if your lawn is constantly wet you will have fungus issues. Left untreated can kill your lawn as well.


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## 0318 (Dec 7, 2021)

From October forward it remains wet for 95% of the time and therefore I'm catching up with other journals on fungicides usage.
Propi and azoxy are the most common, but not available in The Netherlands. So started looking for alternatives with the same active ingredient, but due to regulations did not find any that do not require are spraying license.
Anyway keeps me busy this off season.


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