# Steven Clark's Centipede Lawn Journal



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

*Hey TLF!*​Long time lurker here, I felt that my first topic ought to be a lawn journal. First and foremost a major thank you to anyone and everyone who has contributed to these forums. The amount of knowledge in within this community is bewildering. I hope to someday be able to give out advice like the rest of you, but for now I will just have to continue absorbing as much as I can! A little bit of background on the yard. The house was built in Bluffton, SC in 2015 and my wife and I purchased the house in 2017. It was sodded with centipede and the previous owners did *absolutely nothing* for the yard in its first two years. First year I was an excited new home owner, ran out and bought my Toro mower, Stihl edger/trimmer, and some Scotts weed and feed. For the first year and a half other than ample amounts of water, that was about all that I gave it. Last summer my wife and I welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world and with that, an invasion of lespedeza that took half of my back yard with it. After getting that killed off in the latter half of the summer and letting my centipede try to recover, it never made it. Here we are in 2020 and I, like many of you, am not fond of my Centipede. Having nearly bare dirt in my side yard my thought process is to capitalize on the blank slate and seed Bermuda this spring/early summer while getting the remaining centipede in the other half of my back yard and front yard filled in and healthy to have it renovated in the coming years.

*April 5, 2020*​Here is where my yard currently stands. So far this year I have only spot sprayed with 2-4d. Today I threw down Carbon X in the front while leaving the entire back yard untouched. I have a soil test coming from Clemson and am testing the ~1,000 sqft I want to seed with bermuda to make any soil amendments before seeding.

*Front Yard*​



*"Renovation" Side*​



*"The Other Side"*​


Other projects coming up are fresh pine straw in the back beds (desperately need it) and planting the vegetable garden. I also want to get the renovation side of the yard as smooth as possible before seeding. There's a bit of a natural slope in my back yard, I hope it won't be an issue with seed run off once I put them down. Cheers and welcome to the 2020 season!


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

Spent some time in the yard this past weekend. Hit the renovation side of my lawn on the lowest setting on my toro and then hit it with its first round of glyphosate. I intend on doing 3 more applications to make sure all of the centipede and weeds are smoked before putting down seed, which I got in the mail today.







My soil test from Clemson had a couple things that surprised me and a couple that didn't.



Obviously my ph of 5.5 is not ideal for bermuda and I plan to correct that before seeding. The test recommends 75lb/1,000 of dolomitic limestone. Does this amount seem normal? Is there a maximum amount that should be put down at any given time? Is there a preferred brand of this product that is utilized on this forum?

Secondly, I noticed that my phosphorous levels are off of the charts. Knowing that starter ferts are higher in phosphorous should I still use one when seeding? Or acknowledge that my soil is already high in phosphorous and go with a balanced fertilizer at seeding instead?

Pine straw for the back beds is coming this weekend. The Carbon X I threw in the front lawn is really popping and I will get a picture after my next cut. I plan on putting down some iron but was wondering how to incorporate it into my fertilizer schedule. Having just put down CX I'm guessing I should give it at least a month post granular? I appreciate any input and if there is anything I am missing please do let me know!


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

I took the plunge yesterday. Left my house with no reel mowers and came back with not one, but two :lol: Picked up a John Deere 180b and a Jacobsen Eclipse 126. Took the centipede down to .75" with intentions of keeping it at 1". I now understand why reel mowers are among the most recommended pieces of equipment! Definitely have some learning to do, so pardon the not-straight uneven lines lol!


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

Finally starting to get a feeling of pride when I look at my front lawn. Although I still hate the texture and slow growth of Centipede, reel mowing it at 1" has completely transformed the appearance of my lawn. I went out and purchased a Chapin 20v sprayer and applied the first round ever of bio stims: Humic, RGS, and Microgreene. Saw a big color improvement in 24 hours and I plan on following up with some 15-0-15 next weekend. As far as the renovation side of my back yard I'm abandoning the Arden 15 seeding and instead going to lay Celebration Bermuda sod, which is what I'll eventually have all over, front and back. Really excited about the progress so far this year and we're barely into growing temps!


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

Attempted my first round of back lapping tonight. I got it cutting paper about 80% of the reel. I'm noticing on my 180b that when I go to engage the reel, the mower "lags" and "squeals". If anyone with some experience with John Deere mowers can provide some insight it would be greatly appreciated! I can't say I'm the most mechanically inclined but I'm excited to learn. 
*Before*

*After*


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

Brought the yard down from 1" to 7/8" to see how it handles it. Would love to bring it down to 3/4" over the course of the year but I'm starting to pull up some stolons whilst mowing. The progress from the beginning of the year to now is awesome! I do however plan on putting down some sand in the back yard, mole damage from last year is making reel mowing troublesome. Spot leveling to come over the next few weeks.


----------



## modo brew (May 5, 2020)

Keep posting. I have centipede and curious to see how it all unfolds. My contractor put down centipede seed when he built our house (mainly due to budget constraints at the time). If I can get mine to look like your front yard, I'd be thrilled. I'll be applying Cecius and Sedgehammer either this coming week or next weekend. I'm hoping this kills off these damn weeds. After that, I'll be applying some humic/fulvic acid and 15-0-15. Right now I'm just trying to get it spread throughout the yard. hopefully next year I can begin with some minor leveling.


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

First post of the 2021 season! Soil temps are raising quickly down here in Bluffton, SC and at this point I'd say my centipede is about 75% awake. I scalped her down a few weeks ago and put out a round of pre-em as well as RGS and Humic 12. After bringing the centipede down to 7/8" last year and seeing how clean it looked, I'm going to try to maintain at 3/4" for the first few months to see how it handles it before the weather gets too hot. Pictured below is yesterday's first 3/4" maintenance cut. Lost a couple of spots late last year from some sort of disease so I will be routinely be applying fungicide throughout the year. Very excited to see how centipede reacts to being cut >1" these next couple of months!


----------



## GrassAndWater12 (Jan 5, 2019)

The yard looks great reel mowed. Post an updated pic. Also, how are you enjoying the two mowers, do you favor one over the other?


----------



## stevenjmclark (Sep 25, 2019)

Wow, long time no update! Last year threw me some curveballs as far as work life goes, which is part (most) of the reason why there weren't any updates. Last year I let my lawn sort of get away from me. I had a fungus issue that got out of control and took a chunk of my front yard with it. I also wasn't mowing regularly enough. This year I plan to be more consistent with applications to stay preventative and not curative for both insects and fungus. Another learning curve for me last year is the fact that centipede really doesn't like a lot of nitrogen. I think over applying fertilizer in the spring really exacerbated the disease problem and in the end made my yard look worse.



Here is the most recent picture I have, taken a few weeks back. Maintaining a 1.25" HOC with my John Deere 180b. I favor this mower as it matches up better with the small lawn I have. The Jacobsen was nice however geared more towards a lower HOC and larger yards, so I sold it and have been using the JD ever since. Hardest thing currently is waiting for the centipedes slow growth characteristics to fill in its thin spots. I have been utilizing MicroGreene to bring a darker color and I have been very impressed with how much it likes the iron. My last application saw a drastic darkening within 48 hours. This year will be more of a test of my patience than anything and just letting the grass be the low maintenance variety it is!


----------

