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Dubya's Lawn Journal (Zoysia, St. Augustine)

48K views 192 replies 19 participants last post by  dubyadubya87 
#1 ·
Howdy all! New forum member after creeping and reading posts for quite some time.

Starting this thread to document and detail my front lawn renovation so I can get any pointers, advice and also review my progress. Hopefully I can get the experts out there to weigh in with their experience.

A little background: The front lawn in question 'came with' the house and is the original centipede lawn which I assume the original owner (25 years) installed. Centipede would probably rank lowest on my desirable turf grasses because I enjoy frequent mowing, fertilizing, spraying, tinkering etc. It's my 'therapy'! But given the expense of moving and settling in, I decided to make do as much as possible.

The first two years (this will be my third spring in the home) have been a broad strokes approach to getting the lawn in passable condition. With the significantly smaller lawn I was able to ditch the riding tractor for a basic Scotts reel mower. That, plus post-emergent weed control (Trimec) and light fertilization yielded good enough results that I started a pre-emergent (Balan, Treflan) program, applying in August (2019) and this February. Now what I'm left with is a few patches of centipede and many bare spots where the crabgrass was.

My initial thought was to overseed with centipede, but since I'd be doing the heavy lifting of seeding, why not switch entirely? So I've decided to kill the existing centipede (as much as possible) and seed with Zenith Zoysia once soil temps are ideal (northeast Texas).

Until it's warm enough to seed, my plan is to start killing the existing lawn with glyphosate. I'm told that with the stolon spreading action of centipede, this could take time? During this, I also plan to begin leveling and prepping the soil by bringing in screened compost. I have no illusions that this will be weed seed free, but my thought is that I can kill most of the weeds in the compost during my destruction of the centipede. Once the soil temps get to and stay around 70, I'll seed, fertilize and cover with top soil.

I'll be posting progress pictures and welcome any feedback or pointers. Thank you.
 
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#109 ·
DFWdude said:
Was it direct burial fiber, or did you have them put it in conduit?

My fiber line somehow got cut somewhere along the run, and they buried the new line so shallow that I would be scared to aerate! Luckily I had some conduit and made them use it in the grass areas.
I'm not sure. Hopefully the better of the two, given the wait for the product to come in. I was on the road when they came by or else I'd have gone to watch the 'procedure'.
 
#111 ·
Update on my 'trenched' internet fiber cable. Of course within a week, the St. Augustine laid over the top had died, so as I picked it up, imagine my surprise...




Their 'trenching' was basically just tearing up the sod, laying the cable on top of the dirt and putting the ripped up sod back. Pitiful. If it was an area I thought I'd ever need to aerate, I'd make them come back, but it's not worth the hassle. I'll recover with top soil after the spring rains and let the S.A. grow back in.

Applied my second round of prodiamine, 0.3oz per M sq.ft. along with an application of Metsulfuron Methyl - 60% to kill some random broadleaf weeds. That's about it for 2021 for my yard. I'm down to mowing just once a week and that's barely needed.
 
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