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Hi Guys,

Last year I renovated some sections in back. It wasn’t my best work so now I’m renovating the entire back and side yardS while I still can.


I’m going with a blend of Mazama, Bewitched and Zinfandel. I could use more Bewitched if anyone has a reasonable source.

Greg

Here’s the area I’m renovating.

Gryd! Glad to hear that you're doing a renovation! I've always enjoyed reading about your renovations!

How much Bewitched do you need? I have some left from our front yard renovation in 2018 and haven't yet pulled the trigger on renovating the last 1500sqft of our lawn that would benefit from renovation -- and since I'd be going 50/50 with Prosperity, I really only need about 3 pounds of Bewitched seed.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG !!!!

andy10917 wrote: ↑

August 10th, 2020, 8:35 pm

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG !!!!

Hey Andy! Thanks for the warm response!

ken-n-nancy wrote: ↑

August 10th, 2020, 8:09 pm

Gryd! Glad to hear that you're doing a renovation! I've always enjoyed reading about your renovations!

How much Bewitched do you need? I have some left from our front yard renovation in 2018 and haven't yet pulled the trigger on renovating the last 1500sqft of our lawn that would benefit from renovation -- and since I'd be going 50/50 with Prosperity, I really only need about 3 pounds of Bewitched seed.

Hi Ken-n-Nancy.

Thanks. I only need 3-5 lbs Bewiched. Your offer is very kind but I don’t mind buying 5 lbs online. It won’t break the bank.

Greg

My apologies for not posting sooner. Seed went down last week of August. Had one washout but it will be fine. I used 40% Mazama and 20% each of Bewitched, Arcadia and Zinfandel. Arcadia and Zinfandel are aggressive. I wanted that. The back gets trashed by the dogs every winter.

Also, the area gets shade so I used shade tolerant varieties.

On a side note: my arthritis improved doing this renovation. I’m planning on doing the front side yard again. It’s been ten years and some unwanted grasses have crept in.

Here’s a couple images from this year’s renovation.

Previously washed out area looks good now. I’ve been able to control the watering during this dry spell.

Looks swee-ee-eet! If one has irrigation, a dry spell is the best thing for a renovation -- no washouts to deal with, and watering can be nicely controlled.

Love the stepping stones in the grass!

ken-n-nancy wrote: ↑

September 29th, 2020, 3:55 pm

Looks swee-ee-eet! If one has irrigation, a dry spell is the best thing for a renovation -- no washouts to deal with, and watering can be nicely controlled.

Love the stepping stones in the grass!

Thanks!

Some updated pictures. I wish I seeded 2 weeks earlier. I really think in New England you can seed the first week of August. My seed went down the last week of August. Grass is having a harder time establishing but it’s coming along.

I wish I seeded 2 weeks earlier

Do you have any idea how often we hear that in October? Nobody ever said "I wish I seeded later".

Hi Guys/Gals,

I’ll get some photos up soon. Renovation weathered the winter fine. I must have frogged something up because I was hit with a boatload of Poa Annua. I took a page out Morph’s 2007? playbook and used glyphosate to kill most of it. Now I’m feeding it heavily with organics and keeping a pre-emergent barrier down. I know it will fill in eventually. If only the one year old puppy would stop digging in the yard.

I also have a lot of powdery mildew. More in shaded areas but even some in the sun. I used a lot of Mazama which is supposed to be more shade tolerant. I don’t remember getting any powdery mildew when I went with a lot of Bewitched. Will powdery mildew lessen as the grass matures?

Greg

PM's not an issue and usually does reduce as grass matures. If not, I cannot recommend the normal dose of Daconil in water because the normal dose of Daconil in water is not approved for use on lawns, and you cannot put the normal dose of Daconil in a sprayer and spray it lightly (again, that's the normal dose of Daconil in a gallon sprayer) on the grass to remove PM. Even though the normal dose of Daconil in water would certainly get rid of PM on grass, it's just not approved for bluegrass, even though it's harmless and absolutely abolishes PM with no risk of resistance or damage to the grass.

So again, don't do that.

1 Tbsp sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in your gallon sprayer with 1 Tbsp Dawn or other liquid soap, sprayed lightly, will also take care of it, but also kills any other fungus on the grass. Including the helpful ones, and all the ones on the surface when it washes down. It's otherwise harmless and then dissipates almost instantly.

MorpheusPA wrote: ↑

June 2nd, 2021, 9:10 pm

PM's not an issue and usually does reduce as grass matures. If not, I cannot recommend the normal dose of Daconil in water because the normal dose of Daconil in water is not approved for use on lawns, and you cannot put the normal dose of Daconil in a sprayer and spray it lightly (again, that's the normal dose of Daconil in a gallon sprayer) on the grass to remove PM. Even though the normal dose of Daconil in water would certainly get rid of PM on grass, it's just not approved for bluegrass, even though it's harmless and absolutely abolishes PM with no risk of resistance or damage to the grass.

So again, don't do that.

1 Tbsp sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in your gallon sprayer with 1 Tbsp Dawn or other liquid soap, sprayed lightly, will also take care of it, but also kills any other fungus on the grass. Including the helpful ones, and all the ones on the surface when it washes down. It's otherwise harmless and then dissipates almost instantly.

Thanks Morph!

No problem. Just remember you can't do that with Daconil when you're spraying the PM on your zinnias, marigolds, and other plants.

Some photos from last year’s renovation. Color is excellent. Mazama, Bewitched, Zinfandel and Arcadia.

This was one area that had lots of Poa. I dug some out but for the most part I used glyphosate to kill it. Will switch to Tenacity now and set it up for summer kill. Any advice on getting the KGB to spread would be appreciated. The fact that both Arcadia and Zinfandel are aggressive cultivars and make up a total of 40% of my blend should help fill in the dead spots faster.

My KBG reno 4 years ago and was a very mixed bag. I had a ton of poa-a, and still do. Its a constant battle. I always feel like I lost it, until I step back and look at someone else's yard. its only then that i realize my lawn has made progress.

I did a lot of the things you did. The best thing i learned was to just grab a bucket and just pull it by hand.

Sometimes I would use tenacity to attempt to mark it out, but one app has never magically whitened the poa-a in my yard, and multiple apps never seemed to kill it all. But after a 4oz/ac app it has always triggered seed head growth, and that helps with pulling it by hand.

Now the bad news on spreading. KBG does spread like crazy, but it seems to taker a fews summer. I didn't realize notice a lot of rhizomes sticking out until my 2nd summer. This is a link to an article about KBG that will hurt your head, but explain why it take a few years for those little KBG rhizomes to break off and form their own plants.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/pla ... grass.html

If its your first summer, I would focus on a preventive disease program and making sure you get it through its first summer. You can;t use the same tricks someone with a 3-4 year long can do yet. KBG takes a few seasons to transform from clumpy and bumpy to a single sheet of sod. Im still waiting for mine too get there :-(

Also please don't make the mistake of stretching the watering to once a week to kill all the poa-a this summer. I had mature poa-a that would make it through summer. It would yellow and look dead, and then come next spring come back to life. I tried drying out my poa-a the 2nd summer and all it did was hurt my kbg and I needed the whole next sept-oct for it to recover. Sad fact was it really took a lot of the following spring to recover.

Hand pulling is the way to go if you can.

northeastlawn wrote: ↑

June 6th, 2021, 9:07 am

Hand pulling is the way to go if you can.

Thanks Northeastlawn. I hand pulled Poa in previous renovations. This time, however, there’s a whole lot and I’m older and not in great health. I have been pulling some.

I agree that Poa typically survives the summers here in New England. I watched it die on its own 15 years ago during a brutal heat wave. The next time I watched it die was last summer. It was hot and dry and I used Tenacity and it killed it.