2017 S.E. Mass. Small all KBG Reno...

[northeastlawn]

After a long time trying to make what I have better, I am finally ready go all KBG.

I learned a lot from this forum and the two over-seeds I did worked well enough, but by over watering the new lawn I probably helped the existing POA survive the summer. The new lawn never outperformed the old lawn full of POA.

I didn't over-seed last summer so I could get a pre-m down, but the pre-m I put down last August and November did seem to effect the POA, it seemed to get worse. The granular Pre-M I used might have been old and it never seemed to do its job. I am hoping a full KBG lawn will give me more tools to battle the POA in the lawn. At the very least I will have a lawn that will gradually fill in on its own if I have to just kill the POA with round-up.

Existing lawn...

The Northern Mix Lawn (PR, FF, KBG) is about 1,500sf and is located in S.E. Mass., the yard gets a lot of sun right now, but there is a tree that puts out more and more shade as it gets bigger. I figured I need to plan on at least some shade in the seed mix.

Cultivars.....

With the POA in my law, its probably crazy to go dark green in my cultivars, but I decided on...

25% Bewitched (for the shade)
25% Blueberry (because many people seem to think it is easy to grow for beginners)
25% Midnight (because it is said to spread well)
25% Prosperity (????, because I needed something in its class, and many people swear by it)

I sourced the seed from SSS; all are SOD quality, but the prosperity. I screwed up and didn't look at the tag on the website. The prosperity may screw up my reno, but I just didn't have time to source it from somewhere else. With all the POA I have, it might be irrelevant, but it does bug me.

So far this is what I have done....

Saturday, July 29th Water the Lawn
Sunday, July 30th....Nuked it with 2.5oz Glyspohate/Gal with 2TBSP BTT/Gal (Used ~3gal/1,000sf)
Tuesday, Aug. 1st...Water Lawn
Wednesday, Aug. 2nd...Scalp lawn
Thursday, Aug. 3rd...Water
Friday, Aug. 4th...maybe some fertlizer
Saturday, Aug. 5th...Water
Sunday, Aug. 6th...2nd Nuke
Monday, Aug. 7th...water

Proposed Seeding Plan....

I was planning on putting seed down, maybe Monday Aug. 14th. Depending if I need any leveling, my plan for seeding was....

1.) One final scalp and rake
2.) Water/soak the lawn the night before
3.) Spread the KBG Seed
4.) Roll the seed in
5.) Spray Tenacity
6.) Cover with Peat Moss using Compost Roller (My favorite new toy!)

Here are some before pics, the lawn looks good, but I I have way to much unknown grass from previous renos over the years. Im at the point I can't tell what is good lawn and what is POA that survived last summer.







Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated...

[northeastlawn]

So here are some pis of Day 4, post kill. Its starting to yellow and go limp I think this might be the time too scalp. I am planning on changing my lawn mower blade and scalping it later today.

[northeastlawn]

Here are some pics of the first scalp. The lawn was getting floppy and was at 3 1/2" before I nuked it. On day 4 post kill it was getting pretty brown. I did a first pass at about 2", and was probably had to empty the bag every other row. I was leaving a lot of grass on the lawn at that point.

I made a second pass at 1 1/2" then another one again at 1". I probably did 4-5 passes all together and kept changing the direction. At the end I was just trying to suck up the grass with the mower.

I was running into worm castings and some high points, but my old lawn was surprisingly thinker than it seemed to look when it was growing at 3".

Here are some pics, the grass is a lot shorter than that picture makes it seem. This getting scary now, I guess there is no turning back.





Here are the barrels of grass that came from the yard. I'm glad I didn't have to rake that all up....



I'll water it tomorrow morning before work, and try and find some old fertilizer lying around and put a little bit down Friday. Then water Saturday and nuke again Sunday.

Any suggestions on what kind of fertilizer to put down, will some old starter fertilizer work?

[ken-n-nancy]

Any suggestions on what kind of fertilizer to put down, will some old starter fertilizer work?

If you have some "old starter fertilizer" around that needs to be used, yes, it should work. Conventional chemical fertilizers don't "go bad" or lose their potency, as long as they're still spreadable. (Sometimes, they'll get very clumpy or cemented in a solid mass, particularly if they were stored in a very damp location.)

Apply at a rate to not exceed 1#N/ksqft or 1#P/ksqft. For example, if you have 24-25-4 fertilizer, you would spread that at 4 pounds of fertilizer per 1000sqft.

I'd highly suggest another round of glyphosate the day before seed-down to kill any weeds that have germinated in the brief time since your first round of glyphosate, as well as any grass (particularly poa trivialis) that wasn't completely killed by the first round and is trying to come back again.

Ideally, for fallowing, the watering schedule should be the same as what you plan to use after seed-down -- lightly and frequently enough to keep the soil always moist at the surface, but never so much water as to start to cause soil runoff, and not to have it all be waterlogged. The amount of watering required depends a lot upon temperatures, humidity, sunlight, and soil type. In our renovations, we've typically done 4 or 5 times a day for just long enough to completely moisten the soil surface (about 8-15 minutes depending upon our sprinkler zone).

[northeastlawn]

Ideally, for fallowing, the watering schedule should be the same as what you plan to use after seed-down -- lightly and frequently enough to keep the soil always moist at the surface, but never so much water as to start to cause soil runoff, and not to have it all be waterlogged. The amount of watering required depends a lot upon temperatures, humidity, sunlight, and soil type. In our renovations, we've typically done 4 or 5 times a day for just long enough to completely moisten the soil surface (about 8-15 minutes depending upon our sprinkler zone).

Wow, thanks for that tip, I hadn't even thought about soil erosion.

I had the timer set for my normal 1/2", Ill change my timer to about 15 minutes. I can see how a lot of water in the next few weeks could cause soil erosion, I hadn't thought of that.

[ken-n-nancy]

Wow, thanks for that tip, I hadn't even thought about soil erosion.

I had the timer set for my normal 1/2", Ill change my timer to about 15 minutes. I can see how a lot of water in the next few weeks could cause soil erosion, I hadn't thought of that.

Actually, given that you've killed off a pretty good lawn, there's already pretty good root structure from the (now dead) grass which will hold the soil together quite well for a reasonable length of time, definitely a couple months.

However, if there are any low spots that you're filling in, or areas of former lawn that were very sparse that you've raked significantly, they'll be susceptible to soil erosion. (Been there, done that...)

[northeastlawn]

The plan is only to wait another week before before I put seed down. I am going to nuke it again Sunday then seed again next Monday. I guess I could nuke it a day or two before, but hadn't planned to.

It might be good insurance.

[ken-n-nancy]

I would recommend a final glyphosate application the day before seed-down. The reason for this is that, without it, weedy grasses get a chance to get a "head start" on your good grass.

Let's say that the final glyphosate was 10 days before seed-down. With the old grass having been killed off and scalped, the soil is an improved seedbed for the new grass seed you'll be putting down. (That's the whole point, right!) Well, it's also a good seedbed for weedy grasses. I'm not so worried about broadleaf weeds; those are easy to deal with afterwards. Your real enemy is a weedy grass like poa trivialis, which will be initially difficult to distinguish from your new grass, and by the time you can tell it apart, it'll be too late to avoid an infestation, and you'll need to glyphosate portions of your new renovation next spring if you want to get rid of it!

So, in that 10-day period after the glyphosate application and before seed-down of your new seed, any weedy grass that germinates from weed seeds in the soil or from unkilled stolons (in the case of poa trivialis), will be starting to grow. It may even be barely discernible, with little white stems just a quarter inch emerged from the soil. However, it will have a "head start" of at least a week on your desirable grass. The day-before-seed-down application of glyphosate is to kill these just-germinated weedy grasses.

You don't want to give the weedy grasses a head start -- they're difficult enough to deal with even without it!

[northeastlawn]

I still have a few green spots left, I am nuking the lawn again Sunday; waiting a week, then doing one last nuke the day before, then put down my seed.

Should I rake Sunday when I do the second Glyphosate app or wait until the day I seed?

or not rake at all so as not to disturb the POA?

[northeastlawn]

So got out off work this morning and did my second Glyphosate application. I have been watering a few times a day as I would during seeding to encourage any weeds to come up now.

I wasn't sure if I should get all the scalping and disturbing the soil out of the way before I put down seed or wait until the day before seeding. I figured I would scalp it again today, anything that gets dug up and germinates will hopefully get killed when I nuke the lawn the day before I put seed down.

For the most part its very dead, just a few stripes here and there. The scalping at 1" today smeared a few more hight spots from worm castings, but everything is looking like a nice big blank slate.

[northeastlawn]

Today I was setting up and testing the sprinklers I will be using.

I have a big rectangle, I usually can get away with a two (2) port hose end timer and oscillating sprinklers. I hide the hose in the mulch and the system sets up quickly and is semi-hidden. But because I need to have this water lightly and often, I figured an impact sprinkler would be less effected by the wind and cover everything better.

The plan was to have three (3) impact sprinklers on the corners, and a mini oscillating sprinkler on the odd cut out shape. I tried connecting multiple sprinklers together in line on the same hose, but their wasn't enough pressure and the sprinklers didn't seem like they were working correctly.

I broke down and grabbed a new Orbit four (4) port timer and the impact sprinklers throw water much farther and now overlap each other. The gardena sprinklers seem to work well enough. I will do the tuna can test tomorrow and see how the system really works. Here are some pics...

[northeastlawn]

Here is one last pic of the actually timer.



Its a bit hard to program, but it will allow 3 separate events, and or will water at an hourly interval. The control panel disconnects to make it easier to program.

1.) So I can have the 4 zones water one at a time at say 9am, 12pm, and 4pm.
2.) I could also have it water every 3hrs starting at 9am, but the only problem with that last scenario is I would have to shut it off so it wouldn't water at night.
3.) You can also just hit manual and it will run through all the zones for 5min each, or you can select the zones and how long.
4.) Lastly its has a rain delay feature, hit rain delay and how long and it won't turn on.

Overall its quirky to program and not perfect, but should get the job done as long as I realize its not meant to be a real sprinkler system.

[northeastlawn]

I noticed that the impulse sprinklers I was using all throw the water about 25' so I grabbed some graph paper and drew a little plan and tested it with the tuna can test. I have always had one area where the grass never grew well.

The screw driver test always went through easy, and the section isn't in the shade. From the tuna test and the plan I think the area never got enough water in my over-seeds. I had an oscillating sprinkler I haven't been using anymore, so I just connected it to one of the other sprinklers so I can get a little water in the dead spot.

The other two areas are in the shade and always seem moist. So I should be able to get between and 1/8" and 1/4" in most of the yard in about 30minutes. It will easier to get an idea when the peat-moss is on top, but this is a good starting point.

I know. This is so overkill, but at this point this reno has to work, and watering evenly is one thing I can control.

[northeastlawn]

So it's been about 12 days since the first Glyphosate app; and about 4 since the second. The streaks of green grass are just about gone and I have been watering about what I will at seed dow, but haven't been as religious about it yet.

I have noticed things are bit muddier and bumpier than when I first scalped the lawn. I don't know if thats because the 1" grass is wilting or if the worm castings are more more noticeable. It will make for good "seed to soil contact", but it seems like I may have to scalp the yard again Wednesday.

Then again, when I start watering it, it will get all bumpy again. Its hard to figure out if getting the grades level is worth it.

[northeastlawn]

Picked up what I need for Wednesday, the last over-seed gave me a good idea of how much peat-moss I actually need to cover the whole yard and I always find I need to recover spots ere there later one, so you need more as time goes on. I use a compost spreader to put it down, best toy ever for that job.





I'm planning on doing a little bit of leveling, although I am starting to get the feeling that it will all get bumpy from worm castings and the like sooner or later anyway. I'm not sure fine tuning it makes that much of a difference.

I saw a suggestion on here to make soil for leveling by mixing one (1) bag of sand to three (3) to four (4) bags of top soil along with a little compost. I have plenty of home made compost.



Ill start sifting compost and mixing stuff up today to be ready for next week.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I don't know if thats because the 1" grass is wilting or if the worm castings are more more noticeable. It will make for good "seed to soil contact", but it seems like I may have to scalp the yard again Wednesday.

Seed to soil contact is #1 priority. If in doubt, rescalp and rake again - especially if you are doing a heavy top dressing.

Then again, when I start watering it, it will get all bumpy again. Its hard to figure out if getting the grades level is worth it.

I would recommend rolling it after seeding not only to press that seed into the dirt, but also to level it out a bit.

[northeastlawn]

Thanks, Monday Ill mix up the soil for leveling. I have to check the weather, seed down is Tuesday or Wednesday.

Then my plan is to....

1.) Ill nuke it the day before, water it heavy the night before.
2.) Then scalp and rake the day of seed down.
3.) Spread the seed.
4.) Roll it with the roller.
5.) Spray it with Tenacity; 4oz rate, no sticking agent.
6.) Dress it with the peat moss spreader.
7.) Water the peat moss down good and hope for the best.

[northeastlawn]

So seed down is tomorrow. Today I....

1.) Scalped it again
3.) Edged along the sidewalk and weed walked the edge.
2.) Nuked it one last time
3.) Set the water timer to water it about 1/2" over night

To be honest for all the Fallowing, I couldn't see anything coming up and the the worms really made a mess of everything its very bumpy and muddy. Worm castings every where, but I should have good soil/seed contact. I have the seed weighed out, some compost sifted for the leveling mix, and the tank sprayer all calibrated for the 4oz Tenacity app.

Here are the final before photos, very muddy...

[ken-n-nancy]

I know. This is so overkill, but at this point this reno has to work, and watering evenly is one thing I can control.

I don't think it's overkill. I think you're being wise -- there are so many aspects of the weather, etc., that you can't control, that doing everything you can in the areas that you are able to affect the outcome will definitely increase the likelihood of success!

Keep up the great work!

[ken-n-nancy]

So seed down is tomorrow. Today I....
...
Here are the final before photos, very muddy...

Looking good! Weather looks like it should be co-operate for seed-down tomorrow!