# asagers Lawn Journal



## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/6/2018

Alright, I guess I'll get a journal started to document my upcoming renovation. I just received my JD 180 SL from the last Weeks auction on Thursday and gave it a little "test run" tonight. The mower is in fantastic condition and started on the first pull. The reel and bed knife still have plenty of life on them and cut paper without having to make any adjustments.

Currently, I have about 1600 sf of tall fescue that just got its first round of glyphosate tonight. I plan to seed PRG for the fall and winter. Then in the spring, I'm going to try seeding Princess 77 bermuda. This last week was the first week that we've gotten out of the 90's for daytime highs so the temps look ideal for seeding as soon as the fescue is gone and I get some new topsoil leveled across the yard.

Should be fun!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

My son working on the lawn a few weeks ago with the electric mower and trimmer we've had since sodding 3 years ago.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

The new toy!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

And some "angry" fescue! I couldn't resist making a few passes before spraying it. Lol! It'll be interesting to see how the glyphosate reacts on the short grass vs. the long grass.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/10/2018

Using a laser level to lower the elevation of the border pavers to the height of the patio pavers. This will give me reference points to level the lawn in between the patio and the border and also allow for the JD to hover over the border instead of rub against the side of the mower.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

I'm planning on moving this border to the inside of the sprinkler heads so that I don't have to mow around them. Renting a trencher tomorrow to dig the trench, not about to dig that by hand!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/11/2018
The trencher made quick work of digging through all sorts of roots and large rocks for the new placement of the border pavers in front of the sprinkler heads. Would have been a nightmare digging that by hand.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/12/2018

Cut all of the grass with a sod cutter and had 6 yards of topsoil delivered. Now the fun part of hauling all that off and spreading the new dirt. #Advil


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## tcorbitt20 (Aug 31, 2018)

That's a lot of work. Keep us updated!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/18/2018

Finally got all of the sod removed and started putting down the topsoil. I used a 2 x 4 to spread the soil evenly in the small side section. I'll use string lines across the wider part to gauge for levelness. It's been a slow process. Work, 4 kids, and wrapping up a MBA program in December, doesn't leave much time to work on it each day. I'll get er done though!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/19/2018

Rented a tiller. Got a bunch of tree/shrub roots out and knocked down some of the high spots. Leveling and getting down the rest of the topsoil this weekend.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/20/2018
Finally finished today! My next-door neighbor is a landscape contractor and hired a couple of his guys to help me finish. We leveled the existing soil and put down the top soil, milorganite, starter fertilizer, and the grass seed. I used Barenbrug fairway blend PRG and put it down at 10 lbs/1000sf. This has been a ton of work, but hopefully it will pay off!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/24/2018
Impatiently waiting lol...
Beautiful sunrise this morning!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/25/2018

My bird deterrent


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/27/2018 - Day 7

First signs of life! These all popped up overnight, I didn't see any last night.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

10/29/2018 
Starting to fill in. I've been watering 4 x per day for 4 min. on each station since putting the seed down. Any longer than that and puddles would start to form. It looked like the side of the yard where it slopes towards the concrete has been too wet, so I backed off to 3 times per day. We'll see if some of the bare spots start to fill in. I have plenty of seed to fill in if needed. How long should I wait before putting seed out in any bare spots?


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## Zoysiaguy (Apr 26, 2018)

:thumbup: Happy lawn birthday! Gatta love the neon glow of new born baby grass.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

11/3/2018 - Day 14

Coming in pretty well. I decided to roll the lawn with the rear roller of the JD, hence the stripes. The south end of the lawn was getting too much water and had to rake it all up to let it dry out, and then re-seeded. I backed off the watering frequency in those zones. Hopefully I haven't run out of time for it grow. The 10-day forecast has us in the mid to upper 60s for highs and upper 40's for lows.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

11/10/2018 - Day 21

Still trying to get some bare spots to fill in, but most is looking pretty good. The south end of the lawn that I had to reseed is struggling, can't seem to get it to germinate.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

11/22/2018 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Change of plans... I found out that our nearest sod farm offers tifway 419 that's been overseeded with PRG and just started harvesting it last week. Sooo, I went with that! Wish I would have known that before I started the renovation and glad I won't have to mess with growing Bermuda from seed in the spring.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

12/15/2018

It's been a while since I've updated. I just graduated from my MBA program at UNLV yesterday, so the last few weeks have been pretty crazy. I've kinda got a "fifty shades of green" thing going on with the overseeded bermuda sod that's been down for almost 4 weeks now. Not sure if the rye grass will completely fill in the dormant bermuda areas or not since I didn't really have any control over the seed job. I've mowed it twice with the JD now, current HOC is at .80" and am loving the reel cut look over the tall fescue I had previously. On the Christmas list are a battery powered sprayer and the NEXT liquid products starter pack. Then in January, I plan on getting a bag of the Carbon X when it becomes available.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

12/22/2018

First back lap and a quick mow today.


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## Grass Clippins (Apr 30, 2018)

Looking good. I don't see a lot of comments, you must have broken some hearts when you swapped in the sod.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

asagers said:


> ...I just graduated from my MBA program at UNLV yesterday, so the last few weeks have been pretty crazy...


Congrats! :thumbup:


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

Thank you! Glad I did it, glad it's over!


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

asagers said:


> Thank you! Glad I did it, glad it's over!


That was pretty much how I felt.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

What's up with this crap lol! Hell (Vegas) hath frozen over!


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## mowww (Jan 16, 2018)

Great journal! Congrats on the MBA. Looking good, can't wait to see how the rye progresses.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

mowww said:


> Great journal! Congrats on the MBA. Looking good, can't wait to see how the rye progresses.


Thank you!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

Ridiculous.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

2/25/2019

Bye Bye Rye!
MSM Turf applied to the PRG at 1 oz/acre rate. Came out to 1 gram for my 1,500 sf mixed into 1.5 gal. of water.
Also applied my first application of RGS at 3 oz/M and Air-8 at 6 oz/M

Looking forward to the upcoming temps in the 70s!


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## dtillman5 (Jul 20, 2017)

Lookin great man!


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

Took off a damaged bed knife tonight. Would have been impossible without that manual impact wrench! I had to bang on half of the screws for a long time. Once it cracked them loose I could back them out with the DEWALT. What a pain in the 🤬 that was! I also chopped the transport axels with the angle grinder. The new bed knife should be in to my John Deere dealer in a few days.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

3/26/2018
I got my new bedknife installed and am back to cutting with the JD. I also got the HOC speed link bar fixed after having to cut through one of the studs ($20 part) that holds it in place. It was completely rusted on and would not budge. Once I got it off I was able to get it into a vice and tap out one end with a screwdriver and the pound out the other end with a long metal rod. Then I filed out the rust and got a bunch of ceramic grease in there to hopefully keep the spring and bar from rusting again. Being able to adjust the HOC on both sides at the same time is very nice!

It's been a month since spraying the PRG with MSM Turf. I cut it down to .5" a couple of days ago, and then again down to 3/8" last night. I'll get it down to .25" for my final scalp and then verticut and dethatch it. I'm not sure if I should spray it again with MSM. The bermuda ballfields around me are starting to green up so I don't want to damage any bermuda starting to grow.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

3/30/2019
Scalped down to 1/4". I bought the Sun Joe Verticutter/Dethatcher that should be arriving on Tues. so I'll be doing both this week.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)




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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

4/4/2019
My Sun Joe verticutter/de thatcher arrived today so I made a couple of passes with the verticutter at the deepest setting (-10 mm). That is an awesome little machine that produced a full garbage can worth of thatch! This was the first time it's been dethatched since the sod went down back in November. I'm really happy with the purchase and can tell it will be an important tool in maintaining reel low bermuda.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

Verticut results


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

Carbon X showed up today! First app will go down this weekend.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

This rye to bermuda transition is definitely testing my (and the wife's) patience. I obviously didn't do a very good job spraying out the rye, and is mostly what is still dark green. The bermuda is coming in slowly and I can see the runners starting to spread, but temps have been ideal for a few weeks now and well, I was hoping just hoping for more by now.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

First soils report... holy phosphorus! This and what has been the coolest spring in Las Vegas that I can remember I think is what is leading to the bermuda still looking like crap.


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

A few steady weeks in the 90's has done the yard some good! Still a few bare spots filling in, but we're headed in the right direction. I sent my soils report to John Perry at Green County Fertilizer and he recommend 6 weeks of rotating 1 app/week of RGS, Humic 12, and Microgreene at a 6oz./1000sf rate before feeding again. I'll start weekly spoon feeding it at .25lb. /1000sf with my Carbon X in July. Currently cutting at .5".


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## asagers (Feb 15, 2018)

Making good progress, its getting nice and thick. Still mowing at .5" about every 3 days, cycling the biostim pack at 6oz./1000 (1 product per week), and spoon feeding Carbon X at .25lb. N/1000 per week.


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