Nick's 2017 Renovation

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
edenl01
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Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » June 19th, 2017, 1:14 pm

Finishing up the other half of the back yard and doing the east side yard this year. I decided that I was going to break these up into manageable chunks factoring in the amount of spare time available.

It's going to be around 3k if plus or minus some. Anticipated kill date is July 1.

Last year I used Award, Blue Velvet and bewitched. I am pretty happy with the color and how it handled a long dry spell with almost no water. Northern Mix lawns in the neighborhood are toast. This year I am not using Award as I think having 2 compact midnights is redundant. The blend will be heavier in Bewitched.

I will be dropping June's soil amendments in the next day or two to get the grass worked up a little bit and hopefully get a solid kill.

There is a natural waterway in the Reno area to contend with so I do have plenty of seed anticipating at least 1 wash out.

A couple lessons learned from last year that should help are doing a better job watering in the fallow period. Also, putting a lot more effort into a good low scalp. Last go round my scalp only got to around 1.75 and it matted. Still having trouble with last years Reno in some of those areas. This year I will have head to head sprinkler coverage as well.

I have everything I need except soil moist and top dressing.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 25th, 2017, 9:56 pm

Sounds like you've adopted some good lessons learned from last year's renovation -- you're likely to have even more success this time around -- hopefully the weather will cooperate!

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » June 27th, 2017, 1:22 pm

A couple things I didn't mention as lessons learned were about rust and seeding rate. Last year I got really heavy rust and took advice that it would clear up with urea and water. It did not. It basically stopped any growth and going into winter the grass was not ready and I had a lot of winter kill. This go round I won't be so hesitant to spray for it. Also, the urea apps are to be watered in about a quarter of an inch. I tested how much water I put down during the apps and it was well short.

I will adjust my seeding rate based on what last year showed. In the back 3rd of the yard it took great and looks like a good job. The other 2/3 of the yard did not take very well and they are where the most compaction is. I will most likely seed the compacted areas around 2.75 pounds per k.

Both of my neighbors have their homes for sale so in probably going to piss them off killing half the yard but the show must go on.

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ezael
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by ezael » June 27th, 2017, 1:50 pm

edenl01 wrote:
June 27th, 2017, 1:22 pm
Both of my neighbors have their homes for sale so in probably going to piss them off killing half the yard but the show must go on.
Atta boy, just think of the lovely view your new neighbors are going to have.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by ken-n-nancy » June 27th, 2017, 6:07 pm

edenl01 wrote:
June 27th, 2017, 1:22 pm
Both of my neighbors have their homes for sale so in probably going to piss them off killing half the yard but the show must go on.
Nah, it'll just make their lawns look better compared to yours! :-)


edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » June 30th, 2017, 7:27 pm

Slyly mentioned I was going to kill the front yard as well as the back just to go fish and she didn't freak out! Looks like I'll get to try a Bewitched monostand in the front and sides!

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » June 30th, 2017, 9:26 pm

Adding the before pictures. Over the last 2 years the northern mix has declined a good bit. Right now it is very yellow but I think a good bit of that is the iron tie up.
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g-man
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by g-man » July 1st, 2017, 10:48 am

How steep is the hill (hard to tell from image)? Slopes give a reno an extra challenge. Do you have a plan for it?

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 1st, 2017, 3:16 pm

G-man I don't think the hill is an issue it's pretty small.

Sprayed Reno area with glyphosate today. In a few days I'll know where I missed. For some reason adding the front yard to the project has moved this from kinda nuts to really nuts.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 3rd, 2017, 10:00 am

Took a look at the Bewitched seed tag this morning and thought I misread it. It said .01 other crop. I was damn sure we discussed sod quality seed. I read up and in Washington and Oregon.01 other crop is permissible even in sod quality. That's kind of a bummer. If you get the calculator out that could be 15,000 weed seeds per pound. I wish preferred seed would show their tags. I wouldn't have bought from them if I'd known that.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 4th, 2017, 7:21 pm

Scalped front and side yards today approx 2k. Still have to finish the back yard approx 2k as well. Had to take a break to go be dad and husband.

The yard is dead but not all the way brown. You can tell it is lifeless. Wanted to butch it before any heavy rains.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 11th, 2017, 10:51 pm

Did some raking today in the back yard. Even at lowest mower setting the dead turf does mat over some. I just took it easy today with dew points around 80.

The Chapin 20v backpack sprayer produced a much better kill than with a pump up. If you're new and studying up, buy a backpack sprayer.

I will probably begin watering it this weekend.


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edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 23rd, 2017, 9:32 pm

Almost like clock work we got pounded with rain during reno prep. 10 inches in nine days. In those nine days it rained twice.

The dead turf is caked and matted pretty bad. I was out looking at it and thought I'm going to have to hand rake every damn inch of this. That's when I got out an old dethatching blade I had. I set the deck to 1 notch higher than I scalped. After one pass on the front yard I picked up about a bagger worth of dead turf. I'm pretty pleased with how it worked. I think when I tried it last year it failed me for 2 reasons. One was the dead turf was too long and also that it wasn't dead and broken down enough.

I've added some soil for grading and I'm glad I did it early. It did settle a good bit, there are a lot of pebbles to pick, and there's a lot of green stuff popping up in it that will get smoked soon.

Overall I'm still on track and excited to turn this brown to green.

smast16
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by smast16 » July 24th, 2017, 8:34 am

I know you hear this every year, but that really is a beautiful view you in the back.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 24th, 2017, 10:03 am

During a typical year it is a beautiful view. This year it has been the source of a few sleepless nights and elevated blood pressure. About a week and a half ago we had 5.5 inches of rain in an hour and a half. Friday night we got another 4.5 in about an hour and a half. That whole field runs off through our back yard. We were about 48" away from flooding. Wonder why I'm doing grading work? An hour north of us they got 10 inches in one shot. Northeast Iowa finally broke out of the most miserable weather pattern I've ever experienced.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » July 27th, 2017, 8:02 pm

Raked out some more dead turf. I have about 2k that needs cleaned up better yet. The dirt I used for grading looks like a salad plate. I'm glad I put it down when I did. I'm kinda snoopy about others' lawns. I've observed that my and the guy down the street with showcase sod's lawns have gotten better, much better over summer. The northern mix ones have gone the other direction.


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edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » August 5th, 2017, 6:21 pm

Came back from vacation and found my weeds are 8-10" tall in the Reno. Also there is a ton of nutsedge.

Looks like it will need to be sprayed again with glyphosate and mowed once more.

When I do my tenacity spray at seed down I will leave it alone overnight before watering so it has time to work on the nutsedge.
Image

smast16
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by smast16 » August 5th, 2017, 8:27 pm

Are you planning on watering the night before? If not I'd say do tenacity the night before, then seed and top dress on seed day.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » August 5th, 2017, 9:12 pm

smast16 wrote:
August 5th, 2017, 8:27 pm
Are you planning on watering the night before? If not I'd say do tenacity the night before, then seed and top dress on seed day.
I like that idea. I think it should work just fine.

edenl01
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Re: Nick's 2017 Renovation

Post by edenl01 » August 7th, 2017, 7:34 pm

Seed down in front and side yards. Back yard will have to wait till Sunday.

2.75 pounds/k of Bewitched
4oz/acre rate of Tenacity
4oz/k of SumaGreen Turf
12-14 cu. ft of peat moss (unintentionally used quite a bit more this year)

Watering in peat moss now

Took about 2.5 hours
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