A river ran through it - TN renovation

[emtravelers]

Thanks gtnike actually the one patch I was positive was dead showed a little green shoot this afternoon so wise words. I'll cut the watering down a bit. Rained hard tonight; looking at a second load of sod Thursday / Friday or two weeks from now to finish plugging.

As an experiment I planted excess scraps and those appear to be taking too.

[emtravelers]

Update:

All the plugs I've seen are thriving, haven't had time to check them all.

Sod is coming in tomorrow. I'm not going to have the same amount of time to get this in so here is the modified plan. We'll find out how the experiment works.

I'm going to cut out 4 2x5 spots and some existing sod out. Mixing 1/4th peat, 2 handfuls of 10-10-10 and the existing dirt and then place the 2x5 sod sheet in place. As time goes by over the next weeks I'm going to cut these prepared plugs out with the plugger and place them where they need to go in the lawn.

The remaining 2x5 sheet is going in as plugs immediately.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Smart move creating the plug bed!

Looks like things are coming along nicely and you're having a blast! Win!

[emtravelers]

Thanks HLG.

Well the plan fell through. The sod company sent 13 square feet aka 5 cut 2.6 square feet sheets instead of my 38 square feet (5) micro rolls. Going to get the rest of my sod next week.

Until then theres plenty of plugs to drop in the lawn but I expect to get all of this in.

I cut the grass, and put in about a hundred plugs tonight.

[gtnike]

Hey EM, who are you getting your sod from? I have a a friend whose dad is the owner of mountain valley sod and they have zoysia.

Also I put some updated pics in my reno thread if you want to have a look at where you will be in a few years! Mine has pretty well looked the same for the past few years, it's a 2-3 year project for sure but after that it's not a whole lot of work!

[emtravelers]

I've been using the same folks you used in Eaglecreek. They're very friendly and i think they just made an honest mistake this last Thursday.

I've been putting in Zeon, and the quality seems good.

I plugged with one of the extra pieces of sod that I just planted last week and after about two days those plugs seem to be holding up as well as the prior weeks did. So if you get a deal on sod maybe the thing to do is plant it until you can chop it up and move it.

I'm almost out of the side yard and into the back.

[emtravelers]

One quick update. I missed watering for about four days and was beginning to think a larg amount of plugs might have gotten fried and instead good news.

Even my most dead looking plugs are showing some rhizome action. See the below picture a little growth to the bottom left. I'm wondering if the sprig to the right is Zoysia. I planted a couple of plugs off the planted sheets of sod and that looks just lie the Zeon.

[emtravelers]

One additional update I filled the rivulet in with excess dirt cores watered them in and sodded over it with chunks of unwanted grass from the back and this seems to have finally stopped the erosion. 2 hard days of rain and no lost dirt. There was also a little reshaping of the furrows which were channeling water that way at the top of the hill. I also stock two Zoysia plugs in a 2 foot x 1 foot bare spot at the bottom. No idea if this section of the lawn is mine. But it will all be Zoysia given time. My neighbor seems to be content to let me deal with the issue.

36 square feet of grass coming n Friday. Time to setup the plug beds. We're gonna get 'er dun.

[Marinegrunt]

Nice work. Sounds like it's really coming along. Might be nice having extra zoysia at the bottom of the rivulet in case you ever need some plugs in the future.

I can't remember if you sent out a soil sample to Logan Labs but you should. You want to make sure you're fertilizing correctly when the time comes.

I'm anxious to see some pictures once it's finished!

[emtravelers]

So the sod shipment got rained out. Tropical storm...

On the other hand about two weeks ago I pulled plugs from the sod I had seated in sheets when this project started and used them to patch a couple of dead plugs. Kind of like my proposed plug banks. Wouldn't you know they're thriving?

110 plugs down from two of these sod sheets. So now I've got about 450 additional plugs I can spread out, until I can get another shipment. 7/3.

It's looking like I'll finish plugging the entire 5600 square feet this year. I'm in the back yard...

[emtravelers]

Picked up my sod today. They had me down for 38 square feet. 16 sheets. They gave me 5 extra sheets. Bonus! I went ahead and took care of this...

[emtravelers]

Status update: we had a real bad dry spell and the sheets I put in the back were looking rough. After a thourough watering yesterday everything perked up.

The plugs I put in two weeks ago though mostly dried up and blew away. I'm thinking about saving more planting for this next Spring.

Here's what we're working for though a nice 6 inch square from the first batch of plugs. The haters around it have no idea what's coming.

[emtravelers]

I'll let you all know how this turns out. I took plugs straight from five out of ten remaining sod sheets and finished planting plugs at 3 feet each for the back. The grass plugs had developed roots down to the bottom of the two inch plugs so here's hoping that this extra root growth will help them winter. Gtnike's August plugs had a 20% success rate so we'll see.

The remaining sheets are slated to be replacements foe plugs that died off in the front.

I actually was checking for dead plugs in the front strip... tore out some Bermuda and discovered a nice swath of hidden Zoysia. That part is looking good. Most of my die off has been in the scrubby part of the lawn where the sandy soil bakes and the grass is slowly coming in.

So I have a theory about planting plugs from sod sheets. The technique of planting the sheets for a month and then cutting plugs with newly developed roots works better than just cutting the sheets up. I think the grass gets a chance to recover from the transplant shock. I'll keep tracking the plugs that were just put in... but to this point all those plugs I have pulled from established sod sheets have lived. The ones that were cut from sheets and put straight in the ground have had mixed results.

[emtravelers]

So here's my final update this year. I prefer the plant for month and then plug technique. Almost none of my back yard plugs died off. I'll be replanting some in the front this next spring in the thin spots.

You can definitely see the Zeon Zoysia hidden in this dormant grass. See the beautiful emerald green spots?



It really stand out in the back where my excess plug sheets are:

[emtravelers]

Prodiamine is down. I finished spraying right as a rainstorm hit today.

[emtravelers]

Sweet talking the missus to let me take care of things finally paid off. Finally sprayed the abundant clover/oxalis with some ortho clover/oxalis/chickweed. I can already see the barricade is working. All the annoying grassy annuals have yet to come back.

The zoysia is starting to green up.

Any suggestions on how long to wait for the ortho to set in before spraying in some BLSC/Kelp Help? Just made a batch... and I expect to have to spray the clover again in about 12 days or so.