# LA Basshole03 Bermuda Journal



## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

Thanks for taking the time to read and follow this journal. I moved into the house (San Antonio, TX) in March of 2018. Last year just consisted of mowing and fert. This year I have somewhat of a plan to remove the St. Aug from the Bermuda in the front and maintain HOC at 1.5" until I can come across a reel mower.

So far I have been dealing with a few problem areas left over from last year that gave me hell and one heck of a Rescuegrass problem.

Here are some pics of what the lawn looked like late 2017.



Looks pretty decent but from what the neighbor said the previous owners didn't take care of the lawn at all.



Back yard is a mix of St Aug and Bermuda but it was overrun with rescuegrass when I took over.





Trimmed up the Orange tree and installed the brick edgers on 4/15/18.

At this point I was just concerned with keeping up with the mowing and trying to decide what to do with the front yard which had a decent chunk of St. Aug encroaching into the Bermuda. The side of the house is the North side so it gets very little sun during the spring time but will get full sun during the longer summer months, which is what lead the St. Aug to get a jump on the Bermuda. I was mowing between 3-4" to find out where things looked the best between the two.

After a little research I decided to go low with the Bermuda and come up with a plan to get rid of the St. Aug in the front yard.





These pics where about a week after I scalped the yard down on 8/1/18. Everything came back pretty well, and I realized how badass Bermuda is.

One month later on 10/5/18 being maintained at 2".









That dead spot was from a Glyphosate app that maybe I went a little crazy with. Didn't have anything grow in that spot until some Poa or rescuegrass started to pop up.



Had some grow in on this spot that had some bad crabgrass problems that I hit with Glyphosate.



This is what I have to compete against with my neighbor.



Had a bad problem with Sandbur(you can see some just behind the water meter) in this area. Took care of it with some Image kills Nutsedge that I picked up from Home Depot.



I'm not sure what to do with this area. From the corner of the house it is 95% St. Aug with a little Bermuda mixed in. I would like to convert it over to Bermuda but I'm not sure what way I want to do it.



This is probably the only problem area I would have trying to go to Bermuda. Don't know if it gets enough sun.

Few pics from the back yard.





Threw a little sod down in this area and it has grown in pretty well.















I can't seem to get on top of the chlorosis with the St. Aug. High pH (7.3) and Cal levels are killing me with Fe. Plan on throwing down some Sulfur and possibly some Citric Acid to try and get on top of it this year.

That was pretty much how I finished things up in 2018. I'll try to get everything up to date in my next post


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Looks like your getting it under control...congrats!


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

2019 Season begins here.

Winter weeds are everywhere. Rescuegrass was the biggest one I had to deal with. Most of what is green is rescuegrass with a little Poa blended in. It took me forever to ID because it never put a seed head out until late winter. I kept going back and forth from Fescue to Wild Oats to Rescuegrass. From what I have read it roots very shallow so it can somewhat defeat pre emergents in that way. I applied Dithiopyr around mid September which I probably missed my prime window by a few weeks and by January with the weather we had I probably had not coverage because that is when things seemed to take off.

These pics are from January.



Trimmed the Rose back completely because it had become overgrown.









Trimmed the oak tree up because I hate ducking under limbs and hoping to get some more sunlight to help the Bermuda on that side. The St. Aug has found a home under the tree. I will probably end up putting a flower bed along the house and fence line. Just trying to find some plants that will grow in the varying conditions of the north side of the house and not cast too much shade across the lawn.



Soil test shows a lot of work to be done. My plan is to keep bringing the pH down in order to deal with the high Cal level and possibly free up some P and Fe.

2/3/19 Applied Sunniland 0-0-7 @ 5lbs/1000
2/17/19 Applied Humic12 @ 9oz/1000.
3/2/19 Applied Celsius @ 2.4g/1000
3/8/19 Applied 13-13-13 @ 0.57lbs of N/1000





The Celsius is starting to show some work on the rescuegrass. All the light colored grass was my winter weeds checking out. I got a little impatient because they were giving the lawn a brown haze so I started pulling them out by hand.

3/17/19 Scalped the yard down to 0.50in once I figured out out to adjust the Scott's reel mower. Did a pretty good job for scalping which is the only reason I bought it. Although it did have a little issue with washboarding some of the thicker areas of the lawn.

Also applied RGS @ 6oz/1000











Front flower bed coming in nice.

4/10/19 Maintaining 1.5" HOC.



Have some dog spots I'm assuming. Corner lot so everybody lets their dog use my lawn as a pitstop. Have to come up with a plan for these.



Have some Oxalis still hanging on. Probably about ready to go with another round of herbicide. Not sure what to go with. I kind of want to save the Celsius for later on in the year since I have already applied one blanket app at mid rate.



Still have this same spot. It has some Bermuda starting to fill in.



I've been manually attacking the St. Aug with a rake up until now. I probably will spray some Quinclorac to finish it off soon. Just trying to time it right to catch any crabgrass that may have broken out. Spot on the right was a dry spot that I found had a pretty good thatch buildup. I really need to power rake or aerate to help things out.





Celsius vs no Celsius. Ha.

I'll update this weekend hopefully after I throw down.


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## gijoe4500 (Mar 17, 2017)

Looking good so far! By the end of May, you can probably have all those bare spots filled in with Bermuda. Anything still bare will probably have some form of underlying condition. (Big rock underground, too much shade, etc)


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

4/12/19

Applied 
13-13-13 @ 0.57lbs of N/M 
Ironite @ 3lbs/M
Bayer Complete Insect Killer @ 2lbs/M



I had a branch hanging pretty low on the knockout rose so I decided to trim it in the middle of throwing everything down and watering them in. I didn't realize until later that night that I did a crappy job. Went out today and knocked everything down the the same level.



I need to trim a few of the oak limbs that are getting in my way but I will have to wait until the winter time for that.



Every now and then you catch just the right lighting.



Again with the lighting.



Going to rip everything out eventually but trying to keep it looking good until then.



Cut this knockout rose back from 8' down the the ground almost and it has some nice growth coming back.





Starting to see some runners in the bare spot on the side of the house.

I plan on spraying Quinclorac soon to deal with the St. Aug in the front yard and catch any crabgrass that may have broken loose. Starting to see some of the rescue grass coming back after the Celsius app. Not sure if I will spray them or keep pulling them. I have started to see some broadleaf weeds popping up. Spurge, Pigweed, and Oxalis.

Put down Dithiopyr on 2/3/19 so I'm thinking of getting down some Prodiamine here in the next week.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

4/28/19
Finally took on spraying the St Aug out of the Bermuda. First three are the before pics. There are large chunks along the house and fence line where the north side of the house gets shade most of the day. I plan on installing a flower bed along this side to combat this going forward. I just want the Bermuda to find its level so I can define the edge I need for the bed.

I ran 4oz of Image All in One Weed Killer which is 5% Quinclorac and 1.6% Sulfentrazone along with NIS and a teaspoon of some Miracle Grow all purpose fertilizer to kick things up a little.







This was about 24 hours after app.



There were a few spots were the mix dinged up the Bermuda but it should recover just fine.







Few days later I was able to mow and things are looking good. There are some thicker patches that aren't showing much signs of stress but all the runners have had some color change and are checking out.





I didn't take any pictures of the other side of the house but I did a small test area over there and it is having good affect on the runners. There is plenty of Bermuda under the St Aug on that side so I should be able to convert it easily.

This has given me a little confidence and I may spray the back yard to convert it over to Bermuda. Right now it is probably 60% St Aug 35% Bermuda.

Also noticed a few spots of crabgrass emerged along with some nutsedge in the areas a sprayed. The sulfentrazone was having some affect on it but I will come back and hit it with some Image kills nutsedge in those areas to make sure I knock it out.

5/2/19 Applied S @ 5lbs/M.

Received my CarbonX and will be applying soon.

Thanks for taking the time to read.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

5/6/19
Applied CarbonX @ 3lbs/M











Scroll down for after pic of this bare spot.





These pics were before CarbonX made the grass take off. Went from mowing twice a week to needing to mow almost every other day. The surge growth slowed down pretty quick. I'd say for about a week and a half the growth was really vigorous.

5/15/19
Sprayed the remaining St. Aug in the front yard with another round of the Quinclorac Sulfentrazone mix. Having some mixed results this time. Seeing some die off but not a full kill. Order straight Quinclorac so will hit with a full rate to see if that knocks it out.

5/26/19
Noticed a little bit of yellow areas in the Bermuda so I decided to apply some Fe.

Applied Microgreen, FEAture, Dimension, and Bayer Season Long (2-4D & Isoxaben)



Bare spots are filling in and most of the yellowing has gone away.



This large bare spot has filled in completely. Just needs to thicken up.





This area has really thickened up compared to last year. CarbonX really pushes it good.



Arabian Night Gladiolus



Black Walnut Gladiolus



My Love Gladiolus



Purple Eye Lilly



About to apply round two of CarbonX. Also have Green Effect and D-Thatch to throw down as well. Have some areas of thick thatch so I will try to get some good before and after pics.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

Little late with the updates from last year, but I'm getting ready to roll in 2020.







This was my lawn peak in 2019. I decided to scalp after I picked up a new manual reel mower.







The Earthwise 1715-16EW is a good manual reel for someone that wants to try out reel mowing on a small lot. The 6 blades makes things a lot easier on Bermuda than the 5 blade models.

I tried keeping it cut at 0.5" for a while and some areas looked great and some looked terrible. My lawn needs to be leveled which I'm not sure if I will get to this year or not.

After the summer drought passed that dinged the yard a little I started working on some landscaping. More pictures to follow on that once I finish the yard work this weekend.

Here is a pic from Christmas time.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

1/29/20
First cut of 2020 with my new Honda HRN216VYA. Just cleaning up some weeds and leaves so I can spray this weekend.





Less weeds than last year but still some to deal with.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

2/15/20

Sprayed Glyphosate @ 0.3oz/M and Prodiamine @ 0.4oz/M.



Kind of scary but you can't kill Bermuda.

Plan on scalping next weekend depending on the weather.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

2/22/20

Scalped down to 0.5". The new Honda mower got a lot more crap off the lawn than the Ryobi mower last year. Filled a 64 gallon trash can and two lawn bags and three or four more loads that I had to dump in the corner behind the utility boxes.





Will throw down some biostims next weekend.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

Been a while since the last update. Gly delayed the green up it seemed but it was worth it not to have to deal with the rescue grass again this year.

This is the first year that the weeds haven't been too bad. Had a little nutsedge pop up but Certainty and Dismiss knocked it out quick.


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

Added a few flower beds to help out with some trouble spots that the grass had problems growing well.







Just have to top of off with mulch.


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## tcorbitt20 (Aug 31, 2018)

I need to get some gladiolus somewhere. I really like those. Nice job!


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## LA Basshole03 (Jan 17, 2019)

tcorbitt20 said:


> I need to get some gladiolus somewhere. I really like those. Nice job!


Thanks. I need to relocate mine now that I redid the front bed. They are blocking the plants in the background.


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## dubyadubya87 (Mar 10, 2020)

It's amazing how far that yard has come over the course of your journal! Eager to see future results.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

Way to hang in there, and not give up the fight.


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