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Raymond's Lawn Journal

31K views 88 replies 18 participants last post by  raymond 
#1 ·
Hey! Kicking off my 2019 lawn journal with a spring clean up.

I live in Atlanta and have a Zeon Zoysia yard, around 9k square feet total, in the front and side of the house. I also have around 1k Bermuda grass in the back yard (this hasn't been made a priority and I hope to replace with Zeon in the future).

In years past I've maintained at 2.5-3 inches. I don't currently have a in ground sprinkler system, which has been it difficult in years past during any summer droughts, but I am installing a sprinkler system myself this spring.

Today i started scalping with my Rotary. Took it down to around .75 inches. With how thick the Zoysia is taking it down is a process...! The color is a lot cleaner for the grass that has been long established vs sod that I layed last year which looks discolored.

More to come as I finish the scalping. And more to come as I look to big a new mower this spring.





 
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#5 ·
@hefegrass and @TonyC - green up is slow. As of today id say it was around ~20% green.

I've just bought a new mower (Honda HRX) so I'm thinking once I finalize my scalp the little green up that existed will bounce back quick.



Pollen is absolutely in full swing as you can tell on the mower deck.

Given our rising temps I'll be paying more attention to manually watering up the sprinkler is installed.

Spring scalping is like nothing I've ever felt with in the yard. I'm already at 35 bags of prior season grass - friggin' brutal!!!
 
#14 ·
raymond said:
Fresh green growth around the patio.

Staghorn Fern


English Ivy


Chrysanthemums


Here's a look at our garden. Slow start from seeds since the indoor early plantings did not survive the transplants. I think our new garden boxes turned out nice though.

I'm a complete idiot. I saw the picture of your garden boxes and thought "I wonder why he didn't flip them over and use the 4x4s as legs?"
 
#15 ·
@TN Hawkeye - ha, fair enough thought. Since we cut an 8 foot timber in fourths we had enough wood to where it hung on top and under the box (like a footing or anchor since it's on a slight slope). I didn't want to put it all underneath since I thought I might considering drilling into the post to put dowels for a lightweight fence if needed in the future (eg. Squirrel prevention).
 
#17 ·
Day 2 of the sprinkler project.

Trenches where the tap off the supply would go into an on/off valve then into the backflow preventer.



Next we removed an existing coupling. It was a lucky coincidence find on day one. We expect there had been a prior break in the pipe. Given the pitch from where the supply connected on the street with the main and into the basement I'm not surprised there had been a break.



Getting the tee on the pipe was a huge pain and was the hardest part of the day given the pitch of the hill and trying to pipes to line up straight so that the threads screw correctly. In the end we got it with zero leaks.





Finally, we ended the day testing the GPM with the 5 gallon test. We estimated 9 GPM compared to 5 GPM testes previously at the spigot. 45 PSI, tested at spigot only. Good stuff!



 
#18 ·
Day 3 and 'Phase 1' come to a close. I need a weekend from my weekend. Phase 2 will come in the next few weeks where I'll install drip for our garden. Phase 3 will need to wait until later in the summer when I have more time where the zones will be trenched.

We started the day by finishing trenching.





We then measured, cutt, and glued together the rest of the pipe. All went well except for a drip valve which kept leaking even under pressure, which we ended up cutting out. I wish I had put in a coupling around the backflow preventer but I suppose I'll roll the dice for a freeze crack in the future. We did get everything at or under 1 food deep.







And the final product, all the soil and grass back.



Finished up the day by changing out the oil on the HRX.

 
#23 ·
I did some weeknight lawn work after dropping by Ewing this afternoon.

Picked up some goodies to install a drip system for our veggie garden.



Put down some soil amendment which I also picked up from Ewing. What do you think of my homemade edge guard?





Checked up on the front shrugs i shaped recently and they are starting to fill back in nicely.



Finally, I cleaned up my storage closet and installed a door lock and hanging hooks for the edger and weed wacker.

 
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