Ken-n-Nancy's 2015 Side Yard Reno - Bewitched KBG

[LoneRanger]

.. and he's still striping. That's a lawn nut.

[ken-n-nancy]

Believe it or not, I don't even have a striper for our mower. What striping effect is there is just from the little rubber piece hanging on the back of the mower. Apparently, mostly dead grass stripes really well!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Paul]

I would cut shorter, 1.875 is too long. I'm doing some test areas with Bewitched this year. I sprayed Round Up last week, I scalped yesterday at 0.75 inches with my Honda mower and all I have is mostly dirt with a little grass still left.

[ken-n-nancy]

Day -18 (2 August 2015)
6 days after Glyphosate

Walked the renovation area today and decided that the 1.875" height I had mowed previously really isn't short enough to seed into. (Thanks, Paul, for the recommendation that I go still lower -- I agree that there was just too much dead grass there still.) So, I switched the mower back to the stock 8-inch wheels, set the mower to a 1.25" cut height, and mowed the renovation area again. My mower could go about 3/8 of an inch lower, but as it is, mowing at this height pulled up clumps of dead turf in places, so I daren't go any shorter.

The lawn now looks pretty thoroughly dead, including the poa trivialis patches. There are a few hints of green in places, but I think those are just areas that haven't finished browning yet, rather than areas that are likely to recover.

For fallowing, I'll be starting "germination watering" today, running the irrigation system as if we had just put down grass seed. Planning to continue the "germination watering" for the next two weeks to try to get some weed seeds to sprout (so that we can then whack them with glyphosate) as well as to see if any of the old grass tries to recover, particularly the poa trivialis, so that we can whack that with glyphosate, too!

Still aiming for seed down in eighteen more days (August 20), presuming that the septic tank replacement takes place on August 19th as scheduled!

Not much to do on the renovation area between now and then other than wait for weeds to sprout!

Below are the latest photos.

Left Area, Day -18 (see also Day -19, Day -20 and Day -24)
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Right Area, Day -18 (see also Day -19, Day -20 and Day -24)
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View From Above, Day -18 (see also Day -19, Day -20 and Day -24)
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[greenbum]

Looking good Ken. That's a confirmed kill. Mine is stone dead too. I did a second glpho app yesterday.

[greenbum]

Earth to Ken! What's going on buddy? Any updates?

[ken-n-nancy]

Earth to Ken! What's going on buddy? Any updates?

Greenbum, thanks for asking!

Short answer - still no grass, and no seed down yet!

Long answer follows...
The day after my last post (Aug 3), the three of us (me, my wife, and our daughter) all left to go on a 2+ week business trip I needed to take for work. The good news is that we were on the island of Kauai for 2 weeks! The bad news is that no progress happened on the renovation. However, when one's in Hawaii, it's really easy not to worry about that!

Oh, as an aside, two items to share from our trip on Kauai...

1 - Grass can grow really tall in a tropical jungle environment!

Definitely TALL Fescue
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2 - Happened to stop for a quick pic while driving by the Syngenta research lab. In the surrounding area there are significant "test fields" for crops and various herbicides, pesticides, etc., both for Syngenta and Dow.



Anyway, we got back home on August 18th, hoping to have our septic tank replaced on August 19th, and seed-down the day after.

However, our septic tank installer had other urgent matters come up and couldn't do the installation in the three-day window before we went on vacation to Maine for August 22 through August 30. I had hoped the septic tank installation could happen that week, but for reasons out of our control it still hasn't taken place yet!

I had been planning to delay seed-down until the tank was in, but I'm now thinking seed-down needs to happen this weekend (Sept 5-7) and we'll just have to cope with the septic tank installation happening afterwards...

[Green]

I did seed down on October 1st with Tall Fescue/KBG, and it required significant overseeding several times the following Spring, as well as everyday watering. In the end, it worked. It was just a lot of work.

I suppose you could also consider sod if everything else fails, and if you can find one you like for a price you like.

[ken-n-nancy]

Learned today that the septic tank replacement isn't happening until at least 10 days from now!

As a result, forced into simply putting the seed down ASAP and we'll have to tolerate the septic tank replacement disturbing some of the newly seeded areas. May end up needing to do more supplemental seeding of those sections in the spring, but that's the way it is...

So, with the intent of seeding ASAP, today we applied the second treatment of generic 41% glyphosate at label rate with a non-ionic surfactant and a blue tracker dye. Today was 42 days (six weeks) after the prior glyphosate treatment.

While applying glyphosate, noticed that the prior sections of poa trivialis that looked completely dead about three weeks after the first round of glyphosate currently have a fair number of new grass seedlings! Guess either the poa trivialis roots weren't completely dead and have sent up new shoots, or there were seeds in that area which have germinated! Glad we decided to hit it all again -- hopefully this will be the end of the poa trivialis, but I worry it may be back again still due to other new shoots that are on their way up but haven't emerged yet...

Below are the remaining steps to get seed down tomorrow night or Wednesday morning:

* rake moss up from mossy areas that have thrived during the six weeks of fallowing
* final leveling where needed (trying to keep soil disturbance to a minimum, but can't level uneven areas without disturbing things...)
* starter fertilizer at bag rate
* tenacity
* seed with Bewitched KBG
* roll in seed
* start "germination watering"

[ken-n-nancy]

Day -2 (7 September 2015)
Final Glyphosate after Fallowing (day before seed down?)

Well, as mentioned above, we fallowed much longer than we planned due to contractor delays on the septic tank replacement. Spent labor day applying the final glyphosate to the renovation area. Below are the regular pictures.

The big surprise was how much the moss "exploded" during the six weeks of fallowing. Really don't think I can seed into it, so we'll be scraping the moss off the soil in those areas before seeding. Maybe six weeks of fallowing in a shady area isn't the optimal strategy?

In any case, hoping to get seed down on Tuesday night (8 Sept) or Wednesday morning (9 Sept).

Left Area, Day -2: all those green patches are significant, spongy, moss!
(see also Day -18, Day -19, Day -20 and Day -24)
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Right Area, Day -2: not quite as much moss, here, thankfully!
(see also Day -18, Day -19, Day -20 and Day -24)
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View From Above, Day -2: worst moss area is at the extreme left. See also all the green weeds throughout?
(see also Day -18, Day -19, Day -20 and Day -24)
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[greenbum]

Welcome back. Keep us posted! I need to put up an updated pic of my lawn. So far so good.

[ken-n-nancy]

Pulled up lots of moss today, which is taking far longer than expected. Not sure how we're going to complete all the seed-down tasks tomorrow...

Moss closeups below. Started new thread to find out if others have had this problem and what they did about it.


Mossy Closeup #1.
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Mossy Closeup #2.
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Mossy Closeup #3.
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[andy10917]

Answered in the other thread.

[ken-n-nancy]

Day 0 (9 September 2015)
SEED DOWN DAY!

It's done! Seed is now down, and the waiting begins!

The moss removal required a lot more effort (and took a lot longer) than we expected, but it's finished!

We seeded about 3000 square feet of the 3300 square feet in the side lawn -- didn't seed the area that will definitely be affected by the septic tank replacement, which will hopefully be completed about 10-14 days from now.

Today's tasks completed:

* Raked up the rest of the moss. Kept the "OM" to maybe mix in with the topsoil over the septic tank when that is replaced.
* Final leveling where needed (scraped a bit of soil off high areas and filled in low spots.)
* Scott's TurfBuilder Starter (24-25-4) applied at 11 pounds to 3000 square feet (0.88#N/Ksqft).
* Bewitched KBG sown at 8 pounds to 3000 square feet (2.67#/Ksqft). (Reserved 2.5 pounds of seed for repairs and to cover the 300 square feet over the septic tank.)
* Rolled in seed with water-filled lawn roller.
* Applied 2 teaspoons of Tenacity to 3000 square feet. (Rate of 4.84oz/acre)
* Set irrigation system to water 5 times a day for 15-20 minutes each time, depending on zone. (Our irrigation system delivers water very slowly, as total capacity from the well is only 5gpm.)

Worried that the predicted heavy rain (1-2 inches in 24 hours) in a couple days will cause washout of some areas, but what can one do? Didn't feel like we could wait any longer to get the seed down...

Left Area, Day 0:
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Right Area, Day 0:
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View From Above, Day 0:
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[JustAGuy]

Congratulations, time for a glass of wine or a tall beer.

[ken-n-nancy]

Day 7 (16 September 2015)
GERMINATION CONFIRMED!

This past week has been nerve-wracking!

You see, as soon as we finished getting the seed down last Wednesday afternoon, we immediately left town for the next four days! We set up the irrigation system for "germination watering" (turning on 5 times a day for short periods to keep the soil moist, but not to the point of puddling) and set it to also use the rain sensor, as we were expecting heavy rains on Thursday and Friday. (I'm always skeptical of using the "rain sensor" at seeding, as it typically delays watering for about 24 hours after a significant rainfall, which is fine if one is watering established grass every day (not that a BL/ATY member would ever want to do that), but lets the soil dry out on the surface until about 24 hours after a significant rainfall, which isn't good for getting grass to germinate!)

I feared the potential of washout, but figured we'd hope for the best -- we know from past experience that there is no worse enemy to getting a landscaping project finished than waiting for conditions to be perfect! When we learned of the heavy rains in the forecast, we opted to put the seed down anyway, knowing that delaying until after we returned for the long weekend would result in a seed-down date of around Sept 14th, which is just too late for KBG in NH without a very unseasonably warm fall.

However, while we were away, I regularly checked the weather conditions at home to see what had happened with regard to precipitation. We didn't get the 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain that was warned as potentially occurring, but we did get a total of over 1.5 inches during the weekend -- 0.53 inches of rain on Thursday, 0.40 more on Friday, and then another 0.58 inches on Sunday, all presumably in heavy bands of thundershowers!

When we returned home late on Sunday afternoon, my fears were confirmed -- mulch had been washed out of the flowerbeds at the downspouts; there were large areas where any loose material had been washed away and I couldn't see seeds or fertilizer at the surface, and I could see piles of washed-out material in low areas at the edges of the would-be lawn! Plus, the surface of the soil was clearly dry, as the rain sensor thought it had rained too recently to need watering -- the soil surface dries out fast in the sun when it's just bare ground!

I felt that our efforts were in vain, but I still hoped that maybe enough seed got rolled into the soil that if even 25% of the seed held on and germinated, maybe we'd be okay?

What more, I didn't see any point in spreading more seed. We only have 2.5 pounds of Bewitched left, and we'll need much of that to repair expected damage next week when the septic tank gets replaced and we have to re-seed who knows how much area?

However, we've continued watering, hoping that maybe at least the more level areas might still be retaining seed.

Yesterday (Day 6), I looked eagerly for signs of germination but really didn't see anything that I could be sure was a new grass blade.

Late this afternoon (Day 7), I mowed the existing areas of the lawn and closely examined the bare areas of the side lawn. I thought I may be able to see a little bit of new grass here and there, but wasn't sure that it wasn't just fragments of clippings from having just mowed.

However, remembering that others have reported that it's easier to see the newly-germinated grass at night with a flashlight, I figured I'd give that a go -- WOW, THERE'S BABY GRASS THERE!

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It's not even a little bit here and there. No, rather, when I get down close to the ground and shine the flashlight out across the renovation area, there are clearly little sprouts of grass coming up just about everywhere! Even some of the areas that I feared would be completely washed out have grass coming up -- not as much as in the level areas, but definitely enough sprouts that if they all survive the winter, those spots should fill in during the spring.

Plus, it's only Day 7 for Bewitched KBG! Hopefully there are more seeds in the process of germinating that just haven't emerged yet!

Maybe we won't be having to re-seed the entire lawn in the spring after all!

However, we're far from done -- average first frost is Sep 26 -- just 10 days away, and the grass is only barely visible! "Sprout and pout" is still pretty far in the future! It better grow fast!

At least the weather seems perfect for the next three days -- sunny with highs in the low 80s and overnight lows in the 50s or upper 40s. Grow, grass, grow!

[ligrass]

Look at them babies! I find that hand watering late afternoon with the sun at your back is a good way to see them. I wouldn't worry too much about washout. After a few days those tiny bewitched seeds really burrow themselves into the soil. Just provide the urea as soon as it's ready and let it do the work. Most of the germination will happen in the next week for you (at least that was my experience with BW, day 7-15 is the bulk of it). As long as you get even coverage and don't have huge bare areas, it will fill in like magic next spring.

[greenbum]

Ken just look at my pics and timeline. Looks like your BW is following the exact same path as we have similar weather here in the NE. My lawn looked amazing this AM. I will take a pic tomorrow and show you, day ~32 (need to double check). In 4 weeks your lawn will be kick [banned word]. It grows relatively quickly.

[ken-n-nancy]

Day 8 (17 September 2015)
Widespread Germination (but hard to see unless up close)

Well, the "nighttime look" at germinating seed was encouraging, however, there is good and bad in the germination so far. Definitely have some areas that are looking pretty hopeful. Others are pretty badly washed out.

Not quite sure how to proceed yet. Will probably wait until the septic tank is replaced (hopefully the week of 9/21 - 9/25) before doing anything other than just staying the current course...

Standard pictures below.

Left Area, Day 8:
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Right Area, Day 8:
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View From Above, Day 8:
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[ken-n-nancy]

... As long as you get even coverage and don't have huge bare areas, it will fill in like magic next spring.

I'm definitely going to have bare areas. What's not clear to me yet is how large they can be without being "huge"...