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Part 5 of my ongoing saga getting a new lawn. I got behind this summer and quite honestly had gotten tired of projects. I had a dream to reno our front, and my wife was really wanting me to, but I didn’t and opted for ~8200 sq ft section off to the side which butts up to my Spring 2021 reno.

I had killed it off a couple weeks back. I scalped and bagged, then hit again with glyphosate later. I had 40 yards of top soil brought in yesterday, and late last night sprayed Tenacity.

This morning at 0630 I was out and spreading seed. By 0730 I was done, saw the kids off to school and started spreading straw. I got out early as today was the hottest day of the year here. It didn’t hit me until around 10 AM. I was wore out but got the water sprinklers all setup (8 sprinkler heads on 2 separate Melnor timers). I had to replace a section of my rig and needed to head to the orange store. A rainstorm came through and it wasn’t too hard, and not too light. It was great!

This afternoon I got the water sprinklers all dialed in, and positioned in place. Timers are set to go off tomorrow morning. I’ll post some pics tonight, good luck to everyone this fall!!!

Nice! You can do this - pray for no downpours!

ken-n-nancy wrote: ↑

August 26th, 2021, 10:46 pm

Nice! You can do this - pray for no downpours!

Thanks KNN!

Yesterday afternoon I went down to my parents and stayed overnight. I got home this afternoon around 1:30 only to find a leader hose had burst and part of my reno was in standing water. I would guess it burst sometime early morning and ran and ran and ran

Oh no! Well, at least it is early enough to potentially add seed to uneven coverage there if you think it’s warranted.

It’s always something…

It is always something. I walked out onto the area last night and saw germination so I’m a bit more calm at this point.

We had rain overnight and the sprinklers have been off all day. I have just turned the system back on for the 6PM cycle tonight. We’re supposed to get remnants of Ida tomorrow and Wednesday, and I’m fully expecting heavy rains.

Woke up to some rain this morning. I went outside and shut the water off so the sprinklers wouldn’t be running at the same time. There is a little bit of standing water in the middle, and I’m assuming that will grow as we’re supposed to get more rain this afternoon/tonight/morning from Ida.

I also noticed more widespread germination. Pics below

It looks like you picked a good fall to do this project.

Masbustelo wrote: ↑

September 1st, 2021, 5:46 am

It looks like you picked a good fall to do this project.

I agree 100%

It was really hot one week ago today laying the seed/straw. Really hot, really humid. The heat took its toll on me physically for a day or so. But at this point having a mishap with a hose and the remnants of Ida come through and things are still in tact, I’m happy I tackled this.

We got rain overnight and a misty rain today until around 10 AM. I had the water sprinklers off but walked around the reno area inspecting things. There are sparse areas but I’m leaning on not throwing more seed down and just seeing how well the KBG can spread.

A lot has popped in the last couple days and some I’m sure is in sprout and pout. There’s a definite green haze which is good. Long range forecast looks favorable.




And misery loves company right?? I also killed off an additional 1200 sq ft area directly in the front and seeded/laid straw on it. This was to get the very front squared up leaving a straight line across the length of the property. So these pics below are from tonight which is Day 2 for this area…

You will probably ge a fair amount of weeds from the straw, but the first frost should get a lot of them. Then the ones left in the spring should be easy to pick off.

Masbustelo wrote: ↑

September 7th, 2021, 6:07 pm

You will probably ge a fair amount of weeds from the straw, but the first frost should get a lot of them. Then the ones left in the spring should be easy to pick off.

You’re right and in fact some have already sprouted. By Memorial Day there is usually no trace.

Today is Day 16 and things are looking really well. I haven’t done anything but backed off the watering to 3x a day and 10 minutes per zone.

Each morning coming out and looking is fun as the grass is filling in and getting taller. Extended forecast looks to be more summer like with temps in the mid to high 80’s.

From afar it looks like a lawn. Up close it’s still growing and I have weeds from the straw. That’s expected part of the process with the straw. I have done nothing as far as throwing extra seed, fertilizer, etc. This has been the first reno I’ve done where I’ve done this, mainly because I got favorable weather.

This is a pic looking from my spring reno towards the current reno:


Up close:


Here is the second section I did on a whim. Today is Day 14 for it, and it’s filling in nicely:

Earlier this week I dropped 0.3 lbs urea per 1k sqft ahead of a rain storm. It rained Wednesday and Thursday and temps dropped to the 60s. Today was a nice day and I just came in from using the reel mower to give the area its first full trim.

DevilDawg81 wrote: ↑

September 24th, 2021, 5:10 pm

Earlier this week I dropped 0.3 lbs urea per 1k sqft ahead of a rain storm. It rained Wednesday and Thursday and temps dropped to the 60s. Today was a nice day and I just came in from using the reel mower to give the area its first full trim.

Looks great! Thanks for sharing the updated pics!

It looks good!

Thanks guys. I should have included pics of that other area which is 1400 sqft. Today is day 22 for it and this morning I grabbed these pics:


Things filling in nicely



This small area I actually spread some top soil to get it even around the well cover and seeded last Sunday



I have some germination:

I'm really glad I did my reno last year. This September we got 4 inches on September 4th and a half inch since. Many days have been around 90 as well.

Masbustelo wrote: ↑

September 25th, 2021, 10:20 am

I'm really glad I did my reno last year. This September we got 4 inches on September 4th and a half inch since. Many days have been around 90 as well.

That’s quite a bit of rain. I faced a similar situation this spring. We received 8-10” of rain in a little over a weeks time. You win some, you lose some…but Mother Nature is always dealing the cards.