# TM Lawn Journal



## trollmunch (Mar 31, 2021)

*2021*

*January*

Purchased my first house. I have taken good care of lawns in rental houses before but have never been committed to the money dump until now. The front yard was in fairly good condition already. It seems like the previous owners have had a lawn service for the front yard before. I make this journal with the intent of tracking both the yard and the outside of the house in general.

I plan on using Fairway Lawns to do treatments on it for the first year because they have done me good in the past at rental houses. I hope to transition into doing it all on my own.

_100% untouched at move in pictures:_
The photo was taken of the house in general and not planned on being used as a before, but it is all I have. This picture and a capture of Google Maps.





1/21 - Fairway Lawns does their first application. They applied pre-emergent that targeted broadleaf weeds, annual bluegrass, and crabgrass. They detected dandelions, fescue clumps, spurge, and clover.

1/22 - Move in day

*February*

Discovered "The Lawn Tools" on Tik Tok. I found out they were local and they gave me inspiration to really go all in on this.

*March*

3/27 - Did service on both mowers and got the JD spit shined up. Purchased a bagger for the scalp and an edger since I had wanted one for a few years now.

Current equipment: Honda rotary push mower, John Deere D105, Ryobi String Trimmer, Ryobi Leaf Blower, Ryobi Edger



3/28-31 - Pressure washed concrete and cleaned up the edges. Driveway and sidewalks were very dirty and the grass had grown over up to 6 inches on the sidewalk. This was quite the chore.









3/31 - Fairway Lawns made second visit. They applied pre-emergent and weed control. They detected grassy weeds and broadleaf weeds. I also got signed up for their Sup-R-Soil at this time for an aeration. They said this is applied in May.

*April*
After scalp I plan on mowing twice a week and edging/trimming once a week.

4/1 - Pictures from security cameras of current lawn status.





4/3 - Scalped and put out sand to level it up. Purchased a gorilla cart, drag mat, and levelling rake.

I lowered the decks as low as they could go. Based on the manual for push mower it was 1.5" and 1" for the JD. Users on the forum stated they think it is actually lower than that. I think the sand was a bad move in some of the spots. There were some ruts that were too deep and haven't grown up as of 4/13 but some spots are getting grass to come through.























4/4 - Trees are starting to bloom up a bit.





4/5 - Discovered these mounds in the back yard. Users on forum stated they are not bad and are actually a good sign showing that I have good soil.





4/7 - Mowed front with push mower at one notch up on both front and back wheels. Mowed back with JD at 1.5".

4/9 - Removed these bushes from the back. Didn't like how they looked and they didn't seem to serve much purpose.





4/10 - Added some flowers to the mailbox.





4/11 - Mowed front with push mower. Lowered the back wheel one notch. Back wheel is at lowest and front is on the next to lowest notch. There are 4 notches on the back wheels and 6 notches on the front. Mowed back with JD at 1.5".





4/12 - Removed the bottom of an old fence post. This and a rebar were discovered and had to be removed. I also did a bit of leveling with 1000lbs Top Soil/1000lbs Masonry Sand mix. I went with a soil sand mix since the sand had me a bit discouraged. It did not go as far as I expected. I made the mistake of not getting screened top soil so I had to build a screener at 1/4". The wagon and drag mat got good work with this. The wagon is paying for itself with all the work it is doing for me. Next time I'll probably just get a dump of the screened soil and then go the sand myself from the normal place.









Updated photos from security cameras.





4/13 - It rained last night. Looks like to knocked down some of the dirt. Maybe this is a sign that gutters need to be put on the side of the house.



4/14 - Finished unloading and laying out the dirt sand mix. It definitely did not go as far as I thought it would. It ended up having a ton of rocks in it that I piled behind my shed. I also headed to a buddy's house to help him get rid of some rocks that were from his flower bed. Just stuffed them behind the shed too.









And here is day three of the first section.



4/15 - Mowed with the same blade settings as previous. Applied 32-0-10 bag meant for 15000sqft across the 7500sqft yard. Supposed to get a lot of rain tomorrow so I am hoping to see some results soon.





4/18 - Sent off a soil test





4/24 - Received my soil test results



4/26 - Mowed on same blade settings as previous.



4/29 - Yard greened up a lot in the last few days.



5/1 - Mowed. Decided to drop down the mower to the lowest setting in the front. It seemed like it was still keeping it too high.



5/7 - Mowed with same settings as previous. Things are getting really green. Significantly darker and richer green than the neighbors. The good spots are good and the rough spots are pretty rough.









5/7 - Updated progression from the security cameras POV.


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