Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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wis99ski
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by wis99ski » October 2nd, 2014, 8:28 pm

Really enjoy seeing your progress. Great stuff.


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ken-n-nancy
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Joined: July 17th, 2014, 3:58 pm
Location: Bedford, NH
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Reno / Side Yard Overseed

Post by ken-n-nancy » October 15th, 2014, 6:29 pm

Day 50 (15 Oct 2014)
Our prior photo update was over two weeks ago, but growth in the back yard has slowed way down, probably due to the fact that with the shorter days and the sun being lower in the sky, much less sunlight is reaching the new grass in the back. It has, however, continued to be warmer than usual here in Southern NH - today's high temperature was 81F, which fell just a couple degrees short of the record high for this date (83F in 1956). The grass is continuing to look better, but progress and growth are slow, as would be expected in a shady area. We're trying not to be discouraged!

I think that if we do a future shady renovation, we need an earlier seed-down date in order to give the grass more sunlight during the first two months of growth. I've since learned that jglongisland did that in his shady areas with good results.

I've now reduced watering to every other day and the grass seems to be appreciating the opportunity to dry out. Day 50 pics below:

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(Same view as before photo, dead grass photo, Day 24, and Day 32.)

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(Same view as Day 24 and Day 32.)

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(Above photo shows the new grass / old grass border. Same view as dead grass photo, Day 24, and Day 32.)

The picture below shows about the worst section. I'm still disappointed about this section, but will have all winter to figure out what to do. I don't think the fine fescue will spread to fill this in, so I'll probably have to sow additional seed. I'm very curious if we could get Bewitched KBG to grow back here so that some natural spreading would take place.
Image
(Same view as Day 24 and Day 32.)

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ken-n-nancy
Posts: 2571
Joined: July 17th, 2014, 3:58 pm
Location: Bedford, NH
Grass Type: Front: KBG (Bewitched+Prosperity); Side: Bewitched KBG; Back: Fine Fescue Blend + Prosperity
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Lessons Learned from Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Reno / Overseed

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 22nd, 2015, 6:36 pm

Day 300 (22 June 2015)
We've been reflecting upon the successes and failures we encountered with our 2014 renovation while considering a renovation on our side yard, and figured we should update this thread with our "final results" and lessons learned, both good and bad.

The quick summary:

Back Yard Renovation: We're pleased with how this went; it is a massive improvement over the prior moss and weed area. We learned a lot of things in this renovation: spreading top soil is a lot of work but if done carefully can give nice results, shady areas need an earlier start, new grass is hungry for fertilization, don't give up on a sparse area until after spring, hand-pulling is an effective way to get rid of many weeds, and broadleaf weeds are easy to deal with later. My primary complaints are that the fine fescue is very intolerant of wear, doesn't seem to tolerate hot days, and that bare spots really have no effective way to get filled in. To address these issues, I wish we had planted Bewitched KBG instead of 90% fine fescue.

Side Yard Overseed: The overseeding was pretty much a failure. Two sections of the side yard turned out well - both of these sections were renovated from bare soil, rather than overseeded into existing grass. The only real change in the overseeded area is that two large sections of poa trivialis overran the old grass. I'm not entirely sure why our overseeding attempts turned out so poorly - the old grass took a hit from the low mowing we did to give the new grass a chance, and the new grass didn't seem to germinate as much as we wanted -- the only real winner seems to have been the weedy grasses, primarily poa trivialis, but also a fair bit of poa annua in places.

Recent pics of back yard renovation are below:

(click to enlarge)Image
(Same view as before photo, dead grass photo, Day 24, and Day 32, and Day 50.)

The color of old and new grass are very similar, but the texture of the KBG (foreground) and the fine fescue (background) is markedly different. (This is particularly evident in the "enlarged" picture if you click.)
(click to enlarge)Image
(Same view as Day 24 and Day 32, and Day 50.)

(click to enlarge)Image
(Above photo shows the new grass / old grass border. Same view as dead grass photo, Day 24, and Day 32, and Day 50.)

The picture below shows what was the worst section in the fall. (You really need to click on the "Day 50" picture to appreciate the difference between fall and spring!) We overseeded Bewitched KBG into this area in the spring, but I think what really made it take off in the spring was fertilization! I don't see a lot of evidence that the spring overseeding actually germinated much as all I can see in here is fine fescue.
(click to enlarge)Image
(Same view as Day 24 and Day 32, and Day 50.)

Thanks so much to all of you who helped us with advice and suggestions throughout last year's renovation -- there's no way this would have turned out as well as it did without the knowledge and experience from all of you!

LoneRanger
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Over

Post by LoneRanger » July 19th, 2015, 10:50 am

Great looking finish.

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ken-n-nancy
Posts: 2571
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Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 30th, 2019, 9:31 pm

Well, it's now the fifth summer since seeding our back yard with the Fine Fescue / Kentucky Bluegrass shady mix back in the fall of 2014. Some recent questions by others here on ATY prompted us to take some new pics and share a few observations.

The entire back yard gets quite a bit of shade. The sunniest portions in the middle may get almost a half day of sun. The shadiest portions closest to the house see direct sun for no more than a half hour or so each day, depending upon the seasonal length of day and height of sun in the sky.

In the half-sun areas, the grass has done very well, with reasonable density and good color. In the shadiest areas, the grass has thinned out a lot, but has great color and doesn't look too bad from a distance. Interestingly enough, in the shadiest areas, it seems that the fine fescue has died out and only sparse Prosperity KBG has remained (although the KBG is quite thin in those areas; by no means is it dense and thriving.)

We're quite happy with how this has all turned out and don't have any plans to renovate this area again. However, some of the shadiest areas are probably a little too shady to sustain even a shade-tolerant grass. We may consider replacing some of those areas with something even more shade-tolerant, like possibly a hosta or crushed rock. ;)

If we were to be able to go back in time and do this all over again, we probably would have just used shade-tolerant KBG varieties, as they seem to have done just as well as the fine fescues in this mix.

Pictures are below.

Well Area as of 2019-06-29:
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Close Up of Shady Spot at Corner of House in Well Area as of 2019-06-29:
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North of Garage as of 2019-06-29:
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Close Up of Shadiest Spot at North of Garage as of 2019-06-29: (thinnest areas near garage wall at left of photo above)
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ken-n-nancy
Posts: 2571
Joined: July 17th, 2014, 3:58 pm
Location: Bedford, NH
Grass Type: Front: KBG (Bewitched+Prosperity); Side: Bewitched KBG; Back: Fine Fescue Blend + Prosperity
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Experienced

Re: Ken-n-Nancy's 2014 Back Yard Renovation / Side Yard Overseed

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 30th, 2019, 9:34 pm

One more current photo. This one shows the edge between the 2014 renovated area (lower left corner) and the prior Northern mix (upper right corner) -- the edge, which was plain in the 2014 photos, is basically gone.

Back to Front Edge as of 2019-06-29:
Image

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