STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
Post Reply
STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » May 25th, 2017, 10:11 pm

Figured today is as good any to start my renovation thread for this year. I'm outside if St. Louis and will be renovating 1,500 square feet of my side yard.

Today I had some free time, so I nuked the area I'm going to be renovating this August. I'm starting early since there's a lot of quack and annua. It's still relatively cool, so I'm hoping for a good kill before the heats sets in. Plus, the weeds grow so fast and I'm sick of looking at them.

I also received some of my seed in the mail today. Super excited to get some test pots going!

Image

Going to continue prepping the area, keeping up with soil amendments, and BLSC/KH. I still have to redo the downspout drainage, some minor leveling, dig up two small stumps, and edge out the flower beds. I'm getting a fence installed in a fee weeks too.

I was very rushed with last year's front yard reno after buying the house in late August. It feels great to actually have some time with this one!

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 1st, 2017, 7:20 am

Scalped the area I applied glyphosate before it flopped. Took it down in stages to the timemaster's lowest setting of 1/2 inch. It scalped like a champ. Much better than my old mower. The bag can hold a lot more too.

Next up is seeding my test pots. Fixing the gutter drainage and removing stumps after that.

User avatar
fusebox7
Posts: 410
Joined: August 10th, 2015, 12:03 pm
Location: Mid-Michigan - Zone 5b
Grass Type: Front: Northern Mix - KBG, PRG, FF | Back: 100% PRG
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by fusebox7 » June 5th, 2017, 2:22 pm

Are you planting 100% Mazama? Let me know if you ever come across the parental lines of it. I'm curious as to why this Compact America behaves very similarly to Midnights (dark color, slow greenup, etc.). Since it's a C.A. type, that's the only reason I added it to my Award/Bewitched blend - I'm almost certain I won't be able to tell the difference between the 3.

Good luck with everything down there in the transition zone!

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 5th, 2017, 7:36 pm

Thanks fuse! I'm going with equal parts Mazama, blue velvet, and bewitched. Very similar to yours. I looked for the line too bit didn't find anything. I bet midnight was a parent at some point, probably similar to how moon beam was a midnight cross.

We'll see how it does down here. Reading a lot of reno threads, the btep, summer patch survival, and finally finding a source for Mazama (thanks again btw!) put me over the top to give it a go. Blue velvet did very well in Missouri ntep trials years ago, so I'm hoping I can pull it off.

Anxiously waiting for my pots to start germinating. I have a few more days to go.

Good luck to you too!

User avatar
fusebox7
Posts: 410
Joined: August 10th, 2015, 12:03 pm
Location: Mid-Michigan - Zone 5b
Grass Type: Front: Northern Mix - KBG, PRG, FF | Back: 100% PRG
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by fusebox7 » June 5th, 2017, 7:57 pm

Cool cool! Yeah not sure - It'd be interesting to find out how/why they classify it as an America type and not a Midnight type. Just like Midnight (the actual variety), they must've found some random plant that was exceptionally dark and pollinated/crossed that guy. Anyways... haha.

If you can water without restriction you'll be in a good spot I'm sure. I'm lucky to live somewhere where the water is relatively cheap so that's my semi-justification for doing a spring reno ;)

Thanks for the well wishes. It will be more fun when we can share pics!


STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 5th, 2017, 10:14 pm

Same here. I live basically down the highway from the Missouri river, so water is plentiful and fairly cheap. I'm definitely going to need it in the summer.

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 9th, 2017, 8:08 am

The first tiny green guys are starting to poke up in my bewitched and blue velvet pots on day 6! Nothing that I can see on the Mazama pots yet.

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 16th, 2017, 7:43 am

Pots are doing well. Mazama has really come along and has the most sprouts so far after about two weeks. Bottom watering the pots isn't working like I expected. The water just sits there in the tray. I'm hoping as the pots mature the bottom watering works out.

timingchainslipped
Posts: 207
Joined: June 25th, 2016, 8:48 pm
Location: long island
Grass Type: kbg
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by timingchainslipped » June 16th, 2017, 8:45 pm

judging by your plan of action, i'm guessing you already know this, but make sure you fallow the living hell out of the lawn. quack grass is just plain awful. the bigger the dent you can put in it by fallowing from now until august, the better off you'll be.

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 17th, 2017, 7:14 am

timingchainslipped wrote:
June 16th, 2017, 8:45 pm
judging by your plan of action, i'm guessing you already know this, but make sure you fallow the living hell out of the lawn. quack grass is just plain awful. the bigger the dent you can put in it by fallowing from now until august, the better off you'll be.
Yessir. Already have more green poking through, waiting to be nuked

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » June 26th, 2017, 8:02 am

About three weeks three days on the pots. I've been trimming them for about a week now. A lot of vertical growth and double leaves but no noticeable tillering yet.

I got a crab grass infestation in the reno area. Man that stuff grows fast. Nuked it again.

I noticed that there's several large patches of nimbleweed in the backyard 2018 reno area. The heat and apps of 12-12-12 per soil test are helping it out big time I'm guessing. I'm thinking of hitting it with tenacity this summer to knock it back and minimize spreading before next year.

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » August 1st, 2017, 9:25 am

Pots are going well despite the recent week plus of 100* weather. The bewitched pots got some slight fungus on a few blades that cleared up with a light shot of fungicide. The Mazama and Blue Velvet have been pretty much clean. I think the afternoon shade has helped. Bewitched has had the most vertical growth of the three so far, which is interesting since it's one of the slower growing cultivars compared to a few others. I'm hoping that trend continues.

STL
Posts: 385
Joined: August 30th, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, Mo
Grass Type: TTTF
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by STL » October 16th, 2017, 8:35 pm

Jeez, I need to get an update going. Here we are at day ~45 post seeding. Got a later start than I wanted to but everything is coming along OK.

I have thin and bare spots but I'm not too worried about them and I decided to forgo reseeding. There's at least some grass in most and it should thicken up and spread, plus I have some pots going too.

I put a 4oz rate app of tenacity down at 28 days post seeding due to weed pressure and another 2oz rate at 35 days. Bleaching is pretty widespread but the weeds are nearly dead or hurting. I'm skipping a week and then will probably do another 2oz rate.

I'm spoon feeding urea and it's responding nicely. I've mowed three times so far with the reel mower and will probably bring out the timemaster for the next one.

KBG is definitely slower out the gate than TTTF. Looking forward to the bleaching mellowing out a bit and it thickening up and filling in.


Image

Image

Image

User avatar
andy10917
Posts: 29739
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 10:48 pm
Location: NY (Lower Hudson Valley)
Grass Type: Emblem KBG (Front); Blueberry KBG Monostand (Back)
Lawn Size: 1 acre-2 acre
Level: Advanced

Re: STL 2017 Side Yard Renovation

Post by andy10917 » October 16th, 2017, 9:01 pm

That's going to be just fine for the Memorial Day Renovation Class pictures.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests