nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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nclawnguy
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Joined: July 12th, 2011, 8:53 am
Location: Piedmont Region of NC
Grass Type: tttf
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Level: Advanced

nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » June 13th, 2018, 11:36 am

Hey Guys/Gals,
It's that time again, Renovation time! It's been 4 years from my last reno, tttf to kbg, at my previous house. Reno was a success, but I moved a year after. That reno was small, only 2,000 of grass. My new house, which I have lived at for going on 3 years now, sits on a bit over 1 acre and has 32,000 sqft of grass. So, a bit more of a challenge.

The Plan:
My plan is to break up into a 2 year process, front and sides 1 year, then back the following year. This will allow me to stay on top of any issues that may come up. The plan is to start killing mid July and seed down Mid September.

Aerial view by Google:
Image
Front and side - 8,400 sqft
Image
side - 3,400 sqft
Image
back - 20,000 sqft

About the Property:
Full all day sun, no shade relief like last house. Full irrigation coverage installed last fall supplied by a well, free water.

Grass Type:
Not sure yet, would love 100% kbg. This is my hang up right now.

I am open to ideas!

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nclawnguy
Posts: 2808
Joined: July 12th, 2011, 8:53 am
Location: Piedmont Region of NC
Grass Type: tttf
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Advanced

Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » June 13th, 2018, 11:41 am

My 2014 Reno for reference: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=14333&#p193325

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 13th, 2018, 12:38 pm

How is your well with iron content? Mine is horrible. Stains anything.

Didn't you have decent shade on your last place with KBG?

I planted evergreen saplings to (eventually) provide some shade relief throughout the day and screen the back yard.

17K at a time isn't horrible by hand - still a lot of work. I did my > 50K of turf by hand. So much work. I would not recommend that again. The worst part was scalping. Imagine raking up 50K of scalped grass one wheelbarrow at a time. A machine would have made this a quick job.

They have power rakes that do a great job breaking up deep thatch, and huge rollers for bobcat type machines, but I don't know about something that will collect and move the debris itself. That would have been ideal. I didn't want to use a box blade either and create erosion issues by removing the stubble / root systems holding it all together. The previous homeowners left a green mesh out there, which tells me they had a heckuva time the first lawn with erosion.

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nclawnguy
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Location: Piedmont Region of NC
Grass Type: tttf
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » June 13th, 2018, 12:47 pm

HoosierLawnGnome wrote: How is your well with iron content? Mine is horrible. Stains anything.
My well water is fine, in fact use it to fill my pool, no staining.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote: Didn't you have decent shade on your last place with KBG?
I did, not here. Full sun, great for the pool. Cool season turf in the summer is going to struggle a bit.
HoosierLawnGnome wrote: 17K at a time isn't horrible by hand - still a lot of work. I did my > 50K of turf by hand. So much work. I would not recommend that again. The worst part was scalping. Imagine raking up 50K of scalped grass one wheelbarrow at a time. A machine would have made this a quick job.
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of breaking up my reno. Doing it all at once is great if all goes well.

greenrebellion
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » June 13th, 2018, 1:06 pm

Just read through your 2014 thread...looking forward to following this one.

Any reason why you aren't sold yet on 100% KBG this time around? What is causing you pause? Would you consider a single cultivar or would you do a mix again?


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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 13th, 2018, 1:24 pm

I think you'll be disappointed if you don't go KBG, just based on me knowing you. :D If you didn't have irrigation I'd say no way. But a wide open space that can stay drier more easily helps prevent some fungus, with the downside the blazing sun. My wide open space has another issue - rust spores blow in from upwind corn and soybean fields at harvest time - it's like fog. First fall rust was bad, second not that bad. Now I know to act when I see farmer Bob drive by in the combine.

This spring fungus was even less of an issue.

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nclawnguy
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » June 13th, 2018, 4:39 pm

greenrebellion wrote:
June 13th, 2018, 1:06 pm
Just read through your 2014 thread...looking forward to following this one.

Any reason why you aren't sold yet on 100% KBG this time around? What is causing you pause? Would you consider a single cultivar or would you do a mix again?
I really enjoyed my 2014 reno, glad I documented it and had great interaction with folks on this board.

I love kbg, it's the nicest cool season lawn by far. Not sure how it will hold up to my current property set up. All day sun, no shade relief. If I go kbg, I'll probably do the same mix, nuglade and bewitched.

Paul
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by Paul » June 14th, 2018, 2:11 pm

Talk about full sun!! Hope your well is nice and deep and can keep up with the demands of watering all that grass in full sun. I will trade you some of my shade for your sun.

Good luck with the renovation.

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nclawnguy
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Joined: July 12th, 2011, 8:53 am
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » June 15th, 2018, 10:22 am

Paul wrote:
June 14th, 2018, 2:11 pm
Talk about full sun!! Hope your well is nice and deep and can keep up with the demands of watering all that grass in full sun. I will trade you some of my shade for your sun.

Good luck with the renovation.
Yes it is a lot of sun, well is good and deep, only issue is how long it takes to water that much turf correctly. I have also though about warm season turf, the only variety I like is zoysia because it can be mowed higher than bermuda. I'm not into getting a reel mower.

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nclawnguy
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Location: Piedmont Region of NC
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Level: Advanced

Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » August 1st, 2018, 11:20 am

Looks like my reno will be on hold until 2019. Been busy with work/family, then had a very rainy (still raining) July. Every time I was planning on killing it off, the forecast was wet. Just now realized it's Aug 1st, and its not happening this year.

maynardGkeynes
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by maynardGkeynes » August 4th, 2018, 11:20 am

nclawnguy wrote:
August 1st, 2018, 11:20 am
Looks like my reno will be on hold until 2019. Been busy with work/family, then had a very rainy (still raining) July. Every time I was planning on killing it off, the forecast was wet. Just now realized it's Aug 1st, and its not happening this year.
Can't you skip the Roundup and just pull up the turf?

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nclawnguy
Posts: 2808
Joined: July 12th, 2011, 8:53 am
Location: Piedmont Region of NC
Grass Type: tttf
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Advanced

Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by nclawnguy » August 4th, 2018, 1:38 pm

maynardGkeynes wrote:
August 4th, 2018, 11:20 am
nclawnguy wrote:
August 1st, 2018, 11:20 am
Looks like my reno will be on hold until 2019. Been busy with work/family, then had a very rainy (still raining) July. Every time I was planning on killing it off, the forecast was wet. Just now realized it's Aug 1st, and its not happening this year.
Can't you skip the Roundup and just pull up the turf?

On 32,000+ sqft? I have too much bermuda creeping in, Need to start killing end of June to be ready to mid sept seeding.

jadam318
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Re: nclawnguy's 2018 Renovation

Post by jadam318 » June 17th, 2019, 8:56 am

nclawnguy, I was wondering if anything's happening with this reno? I'm brand new to this forum, and someone recommended I look up some of your posts. I'm in the NC piedmont as well.

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