# mp755's Lawn Journal



## mp755 (Aug 11, 2021)

Hey everyone, my name is Matt and welcome to my lawn journal. I started learning about lawn care in August 2020 and have been hooked ever since. I love reading these journals so figured I should make one, hopefully it will help someone out like the others have helped me!

*The lawn*
Front: 1500sqft
Back: 4000sqft
Soil zone: 6b
Location: northwest PA

Grass is northern mix.
Front is in rough shape, back looks pretty nice.
Bought the house in June 2020, fixed it up as a covid project. First house!

*2020 recap*
I was late to seeding last year because we renovated the house and moved in mid August. I didn't know anything about lawn care but I had a front lawn that clearly needed some help. Reddit, Youtube, and this forum have been great sources of information. Of course, book smarts and street smarts are two completely different things 


9/12/20 - Manually detatched (phew)
9/12/20 - Seeded Scott's Thick'r Lawn (little to no germination)
9/23/20 - Seeded local perennial rye blend because I was sad about the Thick'r Lawn not coming in. This also had little germination. Used peat moss this time!

After two big disappointments, I went back to the drawing board. I learned about soil health and soil tests, proper irrigation, fertilizers, and made a plan for 2021. I also did some digging on the house (not literally): there used to be a large tree in the front yard that was taken out about 5 years ago. My hunch is that the grass was a shade mix with fine fescue and that's why the front looks so rough. The fine fescue goes dormant in spring because the front lawn is now full sun.

*2021 - spring*

Progress pictures from April 2021
Front:









Back:









Notes:
Front lawn started out fairly green (I was happy with anything green at that point) but slowly began to go brown/gray starting mid-May which from what I understand is pretty unusual. We did have a hot spell that had some 80 degree days in May so that might've done it. Initially I thought it was a fungus issue so I put down DIseaseEx & BIoadvanced, but that didn't do anything.

I learned that the front yard has a LOT of poa annua and it can't stand the heat - so that is part of my problem. I also mentioned above that there used to be a tree in the front and the grass is probably still fine fescue, so it checks out very quickly in the season which leaves my lawn looking pretty bad.

Back yard has held up pretty well throughout the summer. It's showing some stress now but that's to be expected.

Log:

Late march/early April - soil test, combined front and back lawns into 1 test using MySoil
pH: 5.79
Every nutrient was low except Sodium & Manganese

April 8 - Prodiamine 1st app @ 3lbs/1000
April 24 - Jonathan Green Mag-I-Cal
May 1 - Scott's GrubEx
May 16 - Milorganite @ 12.5lbs/1000
May 27 - Prodiamine 2nd app @ 2.5lbs/1000
June 2 - Scott's DiseaseEx & Bioadvanced fungus control
June 17 - LCN Stress Blend [7-0-20] @ 3lbs/1000

*2021 - early summer*
Nothing really with the lawn, but I proposed to my girlfriend of 5 years and she said yes! (She also said it was about time  )

*2021 - late summer/fall*
Aaand action! This brings us to the time of writing. I was all set to seed around early September, but you guys convinced me to do it early. I like the idea because I could possibly get 2 shots at overseeding instead of 1.

Since I went with MySoil in the spring, I wanted to try out a traditional lab for the fall before my overseed. I went with PSU (only $9 each!) and this time I sent in separate samples for the front and back. I took the samples about a month and a half after my last fertilizer app so that shouldn't mess with the results. The results were pretty surprising! The back was actually in worse shape nutrient wise than the front. I'm pretty sure I didn't mix up the samples...but the good (bad?) news is that both lawns need a lot of work.

PSU soil test results (Mehlich 3, CEC=summation of cations)

Front
pH: 6.4
P: 22ppm
K: 68ppm
CEC: 14.6
Mg %saturation: 16.4
Ca %saturation: 63.2

Back
pH: 5.3
P: 9ppm
K: 55ppm
CEC: 14.7
Mg %saturation: 10.0
Ca %saturation: 29.8


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## mp755 (Aug 11, 2021)

*8/14/21 Front lawn overseed* [DONE - what a day!]:

Mow low to 1.75"
Use the SunJoe to remove dead debris and also try to remove some of the dormant fine fescue
Use the scarifier attachment prior to seeding to disrupt the top layer of the soil
Seed - Seedsuperstore tall fescue blend @ 5lbs/1000
BioAdvanced fungus @ 2lbs/1000 - we will see some hot, humid days ahead and the lawn will be vulnerable.
Mesotrione @ overseed rate
Peat moss
Water

Progress pics:

Pre-work pic









SunJoe 1: The Thatch Monster









SunJoe 2: Thatch's Revenge









SunJoe 3: The Scarifier Trench









No pic of the finished work, it's nothing exciting and was getting dark. I did get the sprinkler set up and watered very briefly even though it was late.

Here are my next steps:

Follow the overseed guide watering recommendations
Few days after germination: Lesco starter [18-24-12] @ 4.15lbs/1000
30 days after germination: Mesotrione app #2
1 month after Lesco: Milorganite @ 8.5lbs/1000
1 month after Lesco: LCN Stress Blend @ 3lbs/1000
Maybe: Another Mag-I-Cal application in the back


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## Robs92k (May 9, 2021)

Cool project! Looks like you've spent a lot more f time studying…good luck!! Thx for sharing


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## jskierko (Sep 5, 2020)

Looks like you've done your research and know where to start which is great. I'm impressed you manually dethatched 5.5k last year, that had to be punishment on your hands/body! Only thing I would add to your plan is putting down a pre-emergent sometime in mid-October. It certainly won't stop all poa from germinating at that point, but if you have had problems in the past it may help you out come next spring. And congrats on the engagement!


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

Good luck and good plan. Stick with it in 6 weeks your going to have a nice front lawn. I would hold off on the Lesco starter until you have full germination and a couple of cuts. Drop fertilizer to early you feed the existing grass that outcompetes the new grass you're trying to grow. Stay patient


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

M32075 said:


> Good luck and good plan. Stick with it in 6 weeks your going to have a nice front lawn. I would hold off on the Lesco starter until you have full germination and a couple of cuts. Drop fertilizer to early you feed the existing grass that outcompetes the new grass you're trying to grow. Stay patient


^+1 :thumbup:


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## mp755 (Aug 11, 2021)

Day 11 update:

I meant to update this sooner but I started to see growth at day 5 which was awesome - the "week of thunderstorms" that was forecasted turned out to be a week of high 70s and mild rain which was really nice for the new grass. Since then it's been low to mid 80s with no rain, so I'm wondering if that's slowed things down a bit. The grass is definitely growing in some areas but I'm still seeing no progress in other areas.

I've been watering at least 3 times a day, 10min each time. On hot days like today I run it 4-5 times a day. When I overseeded, I ran out of peat moss and figured that I must have missed some patches because I noticed some spots looked dry while others were retaining moisture. I bought another bag and put more down this past weekend but it might have been too late... Since then I've been sure to keep the soil wet by hand watering the areas that my sprinklers occasionally miss due to wind/range isn't big enough. I think overall the watering has been good, though.

Attaching some pictures of the progress so far - it's definitely sparse, but I'm wondering if that's to be expected at this point seeing that it's day 11. I haven't put any fertilizer down yet and am planning to wait until after the 2nd mow.

What do you guys think? Maybe I didn't put down enough seed or is it still too early to tell? The existing grass is starting to get messy. I'm thinking maybe I could use my trimmer and walk along the sidewalk/driveways to cut the mature grass? I don't think using the lawn mower is a great idea yet.









^ Overview of the front lawn


















^ Close-ups of the new grass. It's hard to tell which grass is new vs. which survived the dethatcher. You can see a healthy area of the new grass in the top right of the top picture but the majority of the patch is bare.









^ This area has the largest and most consistent growth. It's in the center of the front lawn.


















^ Little to no growth in these areas near the sidewalk


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## mp755 (Aug 11, 2021)

Thanks for commenting everyone, I really appreciate the advice :mrgreen:



> I'm impressed you manually dethatched 5.5k last year, that had to be punishment on your hands/body!


Ha! I only did the front lawn manually - and after that I will absolutely not be doing the back yard manually :lol:



> Only thing I would add to your plan is putting down a pre-emergent sometime in mid-October.


Thanks for this, I forgot to add a pre-emergent to my plan!



> I would hold off on the Lesco starter until you have full germination and a couple of cuts.


Noted! I will wait to put down my starter fertilizer until the 2nd mow.


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