Fall Renew Plans

[likeasponge]

I read and did the soil managemant part 1 article, all very good info and I have a plan for getting the soil back in shape for the fall renew! This includes raising the P and K, feeding with soil conditioner, UCG and maybe some milogranite. But.....

What do I do in the mean time? The yard is have wild bermuda, some fescue 31 and plenty of weeds.

1.My yard is currently mostly weeds; Should I save the money and not kill them this spring?
2.Should I try to plant grass seed in the bare spots to encourage ??? something
3.Can you recommend a site for DIY irragation system? the hose thing is really annoying but I'm not yet sold on the irrigation system due to the cost?
4. If I mulch leaves over the bare spots, does that help add OM tp the soil or does something have to be growing there to work?
5. Should I still try and water "deep and frequently"?
6. I kind of like the "radishes for aeration" idea, but I'm not sure my wife is sold on the idea.

Thanks


Did I see or read once a "soil mangament part 2"?

[Mightyquinn]

I will try to answer most of your questions until the more experienced come along! First you should probably consider getting a soil test done before you start making amendments to the soil. Also what kind of grass do you want to have in your yard? Do you have any shady areas? If you are talking about a Fall renew are you considering Cool Season grasses and if so they may not do well where you live so you may want to consider Warm Season grasses which would require you to seed some time in June or July when the soil temps are in the 70 degree range.

1. Depends on the kind of yard you want to have. If you plan on reseeding then you probably want to Round Up the whole yard.
2. Just wait until you reseed the whole lawn, If that is not your plan then depending on what you want to grow depends on when you can lay some seed.
3. Depending on how handy you are and time you want to invest you can do it yourself because the parts for a sprinkler system are not that expensive it is the labor that usually kills you. You should be able to google it or find a book on it at Lowes or Home Depot.
4. If you don't have a desirable lawn I don't think there would be a reason to water deep and infrequently. The reason behind that theory is to grow deep roots and discourage weed growth.
5. I believe growing radishes for a cover crop gives you something green to look at while you are waiting for your fall reno plus it adds nitrogen to the soil.

I do believe there is a Soil Management Part 2 in the FAQ section

[andy10917]

I do believe there is a Soil Management Part 2 in the FAQ section

No, there is no "Part 2" article. That is on-the-table for this year, although Gary will kill me if I don't write the "No, You Don't Have Clay" article first. They'll get written this year. The "Part 2" article actually is a rewrite of the longer postings I've written on CEC, Base Saturations and a few other things.

[Mightyquinn]

Oh ok, that is what I get for "assuming" and we all know what happens when you do that You figure if there is a Part 1 there would be at least a Part 2???

[andy10917]

The "original idea" in 2009 was that "Part 1" would be an introduction to basic soil science and testing, Part 2 would be for intermediate people that want to understand the more complex items on a soil test, and there would eventually be a Part 3 for people that want to understand the underlying chemistry.

I wrote Part 1 thinking that it would maybe be read by 500 or so people. Wrong! It's been read over 5,300 times. I had no idea.

You've got me thinking about writing Part 2 again...

[Mightyquinn]

I really do enjoy reading all those articles and edumacating myself

[likeasponge]

First you should probably consider getting a soil test done before you start making amendments to the soil.

Yes sir, morph has set me straight!! I was very low in P and K!

Also what kind of grass do you want to have in your yard?
Do you have any shady areas? If you are talking about a Fall renew are you considering Cool Season grasses

I have lots of shade and I'm thinking TTTF is going to work here. As I keep reading, I'm hopeing to be convinced on which type of TTTF to put down this fall.

4. If you don't have a desirable lawn I don't think there would be a reason to water deep and infrequently. The reason behind that theory is to grow deep roots and discourage weed growth.

I wasn't sure if using the BL lawn conditioner needed to include lots of watering, hmmm

5. I believe growing radishes for a cover crop gives you something green to look at while you are waiting for your fall reno plus it adds nitrogen to the soil.

Has anyone else done this for preeration to there yard?

[MorpheusPA]

I wasn't sure if using the BL lawn conditioner needed to include lots of watering, hmmm

It doesn't. Normal rainfall plus your normal deep, infrequent irrigation is entirely enough for that. Heck, I watered three times last July and August--but wasn't putting anything down in THAT weather.

Has anyone else done this for preeration to there yard?

I believe clay&crabgrass has. If he doesn't chime in, PM him and ask. Others have used different green manures. Something like radishes are probably best as they have a low chance of reproducing on you, however, and the radishes rot away nicely.

Theoretically speaking, a field of sunflowers would be perfect. Hugely deep taproots, barely require water once established, draw massive resources up. The downside is that you would have to chop them up to reclaim those resources, which is why they aren't used.

[Mightyquinn]

For the BL Conditioner it just needs to be watered in within two weeks of application I think, so if you don't get it from Mother Nature then you may want to water it in or plan on spraying it before some rain is forecasted. After a quick search, Clay&Crabgrass did it to his lawn so you may want to PM him and ask about it. There are some TTTF guys around here, so you may want to wait to see if they comment here or you can search them and PM them any questions you have or start a new thread on it. (Morph beat me to the punch on some of these answers!)

[andy10917]

For DIY irrigation, I used Sprinkler Warehouse last year. I did a 5-zone system (that can be expanded to 8 zones) for around $700, including an "Irrigation Caddy" control that can be controlled by any computer in the house. I love it!

Advice: don't put in an irrigation system on a series of 100-degree days in August. Manual labor (digging) is not a match for 100-degree days.

Sprinkler Warehouse sells the professional sprinkler heads and valves used by the pro's. The big-box equipment is lower quality and actually can be more expensive. I guarantee you that if you start your reading now, you'll be comfortable with using the good stuff by Summer.

[MorpheusPA]

+1 Andy. I used Sprinkler Warehouse myself, three years ago. My system is seven zones (five grass, two gardens), expandable to eight easily and more with a touch more effort.

I chose a simpler manual controller as I'm comparatively low-tech where possible.

Durability has been excellent--I had to replace 1 of the sprinklers two winters ago, but nothing else.

[clay&crabgrass]

hehehehehe, how much fun can your neighbors stand? code enforcement officer have a sence of humor? how about the local "grass police", problem? if your on your own and don't mind having a "crop yard" for 50-60 days, all sorts of things to plant.
the daikon radish does a good job of biodrilling on soil that laughs at a rental aerator. for green manure and more OM into the soil, there's cover crops like, http://vimeo.com/3368931 that's Sorgum-Sudangrass. S-S and millet seem to accept being mowed. when the radish season was coming to an end I pushed the 18" tall plants over with the mower deck and going very slow, with the deck all the way up, got thru round one of mulching it. maybe never let any cover crop get much more that knee high?
be interesting to take a low OM, residential lot and do some of this farm stuff to it for a season or so. (when I say "farm stuff" I'm only talking about low or no tillage. although in some cases it might be interesting to grow a crop of soybeans, then disk them in.) maybe just start out with a summer millet crop and a fall winter rye crop? your common yard weeds would certainly wonder what's going on.

[John_in_SC]

My advice..... From a fellow "Deep South-er".....

You said you have lots of "Wild" bermuda..... Make Lemons into Lemonade and grow that bermuda in the sunny areas out into a pretty Bermuda lawn this summer..... It's *Real* easy to do.... All you gotta do is fertilize like mad and mow really low all summer long.... Why? You won't be able to kill it.... Sure, you will try... but you won't succeed....

Unfortunately, it won't do anything remarkable in the shade....

TTTF will do better in the shade.... If you want a TTTF that will look reasonably good with the Bermuda - you need to look closely at the new "Elite" varieties in the NTEP studies... They tend to be darker green and much shorter - only 2" - 3" tall.... They also aren't as stemmy and ugly as the newer varieties..... Don't fool with this until Fall is here.... meaning Sept 15th....

Your other option would be to put down Zoysia sod in the shady areas..... The new fine bladed Zoysias look a lot like Bermuda.... so you won't have a lawn that is half green and half brown all winter long... like mine....

In the mean time - areas that you are going to overseed into Fescue this fall.... If you have large bare dirt areas that you need to keep covered this summer.... Seed them out into Millet when June comes. It's a "Warm Season" Annual Crop that looks remarkably grassy.... It also thrives in HOT summertime and grows like mad... ..... Check out my Reno for pix of the Millet all summer long..... Advantage - The seed is *Really* cheap.... like $0.50/lb.... It's an annual - so it isn't persistent (If you keep it cut and don't let it go to seed...) AND... It dies almost instantly with Roundup... so you spray Round Up on Sept 1st and it will be stone dead in a week or 2....

Thanks

[clay&crabgrass]

"6. I kind of like the "radishes for aeration" idea, but I'm not sure my wife is sold on the idea."

my wife would get about half hysterical(in a good way) everytime she went out the door.

take your wife over here and look at the pictures--
http://aroundtheyard.com/soil/not-reno-yet-t3181.html

ps. slice up some for salads or stirfry.