Starting up a new journal for this year. Up til last weekend things had mainly been cleanup work - dethatching, mowing/bagging up leftover leaves, more dethatching, etc...
Now that growth is starting up I decided to do a spring overseed to thicken things back up. Sliced 60lb of seed into the front on Sunday and added starter fert. Did a pass with Tenacity and some D-Thatch today.
I started seeding out back on Sunday, too, but the drive belt on my seeder got wrecked after 3/4 of the perimeter pass... (I had a 36" belt on when it really needs 36.5"... whoops). Back didn't take as much of a beating as the front, though.
36.5" belt *hopefully* arriving tomorrow and I can get the back done before we get a bunch of rain Thur/Fri.
As a final note I added Rowdy to my blend of seed from last year - so now it's five fescues instead of four. More shade tolerance should be a big plus for my yard.
I mowes at 2.25" again today - it keeps looking better. The bleached grass is almost fully grown out. The spot behind the veggie garden is indistinguishable from the rest of the lawn now.
I was going to spray some N, too, but everything is growing well. I'm more afraid of feeding the pythium blight and bringing that back than I am of the grass needing food. I would love the blast of dark green though!
How much grass are you taking off with three days between mows? I'm trying to follow the 1/3 rule (mowing at 3" to get to 2") and it took about a week to grow the 1". Wondering if I should mow more frequently or do something to get the grass growing faster.
How much grass are you taking off with three days between mows? I'm trying to follow the 1/3 rule (mowing at 3" to get to 2") and it took about a week to grow the 1". Wondering if I should mow more frequently or do something to get the grass growing faster.
Probably .25-.5" tops. The 1/3 rule is more of a maximum than a target - cutting off less is OK. I'm mowing frequently to spur tillering & filling in. More mowing = more lateral growth.
Do you find optimal cutting height @ 2.75" while still maintaining a thick dense feel to it? My Honda only allows 2.5" or 3". With my varieties, it doesn't look as dense cut at 3".
Do you find optimal cutting height @ 2.75" while still maintaining a thick dense feel to it? My Honda only allows 2.5" or 3". With my varieties, it doesn't look as dense cut at 3".
My timemaster also has half-inch intervals - it just starts at 1.25" and goes up from there. My lawn tends to look pretty thick for the most part regardless of height - I just prefer the 2.75" cut.
At 2.5" it's dense. I think it's where the Chantilly Red Fescue likes to be cut at. Anything higher and its trimming the TTTF only. I would like to have it grow taller in the summer months while maintaining the dense look. I'll just add TTTF from now on.
First post-N mow today. Filling in is looking really good and the color is getting pretty close to consistent between the old & new grass. Next dose of N should do it.
I definitely have one or more moles out front this fall. It's weird, though - they seem to be tunneling deeper than last year. I'm getting the bumpy pushed up soil areas, but the grass isn't being killed. So while it's nice the grass is being spared, it's a total PITA to figure out where to set up my traps.
I had a 50lb bag of Urea of which I had used 9lb so far. I was planning to do 0.5#N/k (so putting down 18lb) today, but decided to just use half of the remainder of the bag (about 20.5lb). Probably put about 0.55#/k. Will fert once more in a week or two.
Mowed @ 2.75" today. The N is doing it's thing for sure...
Got a little bit of pythium showing out front. Might put down some heritage again tomorrow... but it is supposed to go back to cool weather so not sure yet...
Got a mow in today. The color is really popping off now that its getting cooler out finally.
I haven't been able to put down my last dose of N yet - hoping to do that next weekend.
Last mow cutting any real amount of grass will probably be in the next week or two - but I'll keep going to mulch up leaves until we have snow on the ground. Yesterday I bagged and emptied the bag 8 times for probably 1 bag's-worth of grass clippings and 7-worth of leaves/pine needles. I think I was mowing into early December last year iirc.
We've had one night with frost which certainly resulted in darker green. No below freezing yet, although the remaining nights this week are looking like we'll get there.
Mowed today. First time striping and mulching since the spring, what with all the fungus pressure over the summer.
Laying the stripes was extremely satisfying after months of not doing so.
Now if I can just manage to keep mowing and stay ahead of the onslaught of oak leaves...
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