DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
DevilDawg81
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Location: Columbus, OH
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 10

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 10th, 2020, 9:22 am

I’m seeing more germination and the lawn is getting more green patches forming. I repositioned one sprinkler last night. Should be dry the next two days and rain potentially Saturday afternoon. I’ve noticed white (bleached) weeds about 20-30’ away from the edge of the Reno which Shows me how far things got washed out from the Labor Day storms.


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MorpheusPA
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Post by MorpheusPA » September 12th, 2020, 8:39 pm

So far, it's looking really good!

DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 13

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 13th, 2020, 11:35 am

Thanks Morph, I appreciate it.

Yesterday had me on edge all day weather wise. We were getting predictions of 2” of rainfall Saturday afternoon thru this morning. I ran to the big box store and bought some erosion mats. I was watching the weather forecasts (multiple stations) all day. I shut the water off after the morning cycle, and waited. Nothing came. We went to bed around 11, and we had no rain. I woke up this morning and the gauge showed about .3” overnight. I was pretty pleased. I went out just about an hour ago and seeded some completely bare areas and put peat moss down. Then the rain came! We got a downpour, and I have some standing water but I feel I’m so far into the reno now that the germination I have are standing their ground.

Last night my daughter asked to check out the ‘baby grass.’ So we went around the back and I was showing her different items of the reno. It was very enjoyable, and I think she got a kick out of it. I think the only disappointment came when she asked if she could walk on it and I said “NO!” The sun is peaking out now, and I’ll grab some pics this afternoon.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 13

Post by ken-n-nancy » September 13th, 2020, 2:30 pm

DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 13th, 2020, 11:35 am
... I went out just about an hour ago and seeded some completely bare areas and put peat moss down. Then the rain came!
Yeah, nothing seems to attract rain quite as well as freshly spread peat moss and grass seed! ;)

DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 13

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 13th, 2020, 5:36 pm

ken-n-nancy wrote:
September 13th, 2020, 2:30 pm
DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 13th, 2020, 11:35 am
... I went out just about an hour ago and seeded some completely bare areas and put peat moss down. Then the rain came!
Yeah, nothing seems to attract rain quite as well as freshly spread peat moss and grass seed! ;)
Hahaha I swear that’s the truth. If renovations were easy everyone would be doing it. 😎


DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 13 Pictures

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 13th, 2020, 7:37 pm

Here are some pictures from this evening...


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DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 13 Pics

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 13th, 2020, 7:50 pm

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DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 16

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 16th, 2020, 10:53 am

Right now the majority of my germination is in sprout & pout. Yesterday I threw out seed in some of the very barest of spots, but I have drawn the line in the sand for trying to sow seed. I just went out and did a quick walk around checking on things. It's filled in to the point from afar it looks like I have a lawn and not just some bare spot of straw thrown down.

When I had top soil delivered while prepping the driver asked "What happened here?" It was all bare from my RoundUp applications, and I replied "I killed it off" and he sat there dumbfounded and asked "Well, why?" :rotfl:

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Post by ken-n-nancy » September 16th, 2020, 1:24 pm

Glad to hear that it is filling in to the point that it looks good from a distance. Now it's just a matter of time to fill in! w00t!

I know exactly what you mean about the reaction when folks learn you killed it off. My next door neighbor said he wished he knew I was going to kill it -- he would have rather I transplanted it all to his lawn! ;)

DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 16th, 2020, 2:32 pm

ken-n-nancy wrote:
September 16th, 2020, 1:24 pm
Glad to hear that it is filling in to the point that it looks good from a distance. Now it's just a matter of time to fill in! w00t!

I know exactly what you mean about the reaction when folks learn you killed it off. My next door neighbor said he wished he knew I was going to kill it -- he would have rather I transplanted it all to his lawn! ;)
Thanks!! Haha yes, I've had people question why I would kill off a good lawn but they just don't have the passion for this.

I should have added I'll be away this weekend...don't know if that's a good thing or bad. For starters, it's good because I don't have to sweat out sprout & pout. The weather is predicted to be really good, so I don't have any concerns about storms. The bad thing is it is nice to be able to go out daily (multiple times) and keeping a finger on the pulse. I have dialed back the water in each zone, and have turned off two zones in particular that provides an overlap on some parts.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Post by ken-n-nancy » September 17th, 2020, 10:50 pm

DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 16th, 2020, 2:32 pm
I should have added I'll be away this weekend...don't know if that's a good thing or bad. For starters, it's good because I don't have to sweat out sprout & pout. The weather is predicted to be really good, so I don't have any concerns about storms. The bad thing is it is nice to be able to go out daily (multiple times) and keeping a finger on the pulse. I have dialed back the water in each zone, and have turned off two zones in particular that provides an overlap on some parts.
Being away sure is a good way to be sure one isn't tempted to do make ill-advised applications of fertilizer during sprout & pout! We've often been away on vacation for a week or more during the initial month of our prior renovations. It has some benefits and some downsides. Not being able to tweak watering based upon conditions is one of the downsides, though.

DevilDawg81
Posts: 579
Joined: April 11th, 2017, 7:09 pm
Location: Columbus, OH
Grass Type: KBG, PRG, Fescue mix
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 19th, 2020, 1:07 pm

ken-n-nancy wrote:
September 17th, 2020, 10:50 pm
DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 16th, 2020, 2:32 pm
I should have added I'll be away this weekend...don't know if that's a good thing or bad. For starters, it's good because I don't have to sweat out sprout & pout. The weather is predicted to be really good, so I don't have any concerns about storms. The bad thing is it is nice to be able to go out daily (multiple times) and keeping a finger on the pulse. I have dialed back the water in each zone, and have turned off two zones in particular that provides an overlap on some parts.
Being away sure is a good way to be sure one isn't tempted to do make ill-advised applications of fertilizer during sprout & pout! We've often been away on vacation for a week or more during the initial month of our prior renovations. It has some benefits and some downsides. Not being able to tweak watering based upon conditions is one of the downsides, though.

Absolutely, it’s a catch 22. The weather will be pleasant this weekend, highs in the 60s. I dialed the water back a little bit

DevilDawg81
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Joined: April 11th, 2017, 7:09 pm
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 18

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 19th, 2020, 1:21 pm

Here are some pictures from yesterday morning...

This is looking northwest at the Reno from the front side:
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Here is looking from the front towards the back:

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Here is the back looking towards the front, really happy with how this is filling in:

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jskierko
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - 2020 Version

Post by jskierko » September 19th, 2020, 10:02 pm

That's a lot of filling in and greening up just within the last 5 days, looks great! :clapping:

DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 22 Overall Inspection

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 22nd, 2020, 9:38 am

Thanks jskierko!

I have some portions still in Sprout & Pout, and some that have exited S&P and showing good vertical growth. I walked around two separate times this morning inspecting. I changed out a fan sprinkler to one of my homemade Orbit/PVC stand versions to get more direct irrigation on one spot. Yesterday I bought 50 lbs of Urea. I've been doing the aggressive fall nitrogen plan on my already established area. I will spoonfeed Nitrogen on this reno once I'm out of Sprout & Pout. Some of my last ditch efforts at sowing seed are germinating as well.

In the swale area, some of the straw got dammed up and I thought it may have be choking some grass out. So I spent last night gingerly pulling out what straw I could. I did pull some babes out along with the straw, but nothing detrimental. Towards the back I saw deer hooves in the ground so I had a deer in there at some point. :club:

I'll get some pictures posted but it looks like I have a lawn now-which is a great feeling. Temps have been cooler the past weekend and today I needed a jacket on walking around. Highs this week will just hit 80 and it looks like after this weekend we go back down to the 60s. I believe Fall is officially (calendar & temp wise) here.

I'm pumped for October just for the sheer fact I'll be able to appreciate the reno more...get to mow it, see it grow, potentially step on it without acting like I'm walking on egg shells. :yahoo:

DevilDawg81
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Joined: April 11th, 2017, 7:09 pm
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 26 Pictures

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 26th, 2020, 9:41 am

I spotted some germination throughout my walk-thru this morning. I'm guessing this is from my 'last ditch' effort. I'll take any blade of grass I can get

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I do have sparse areas, but I'll allow the KBG to spread/seed next spring (potentially)

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From afar and overall things are looking really good. I am pleased where this is at. I could give some areas a haircut and I may do that this weekend. I want to clean up my mower and get the blade as sharp as I can prior


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ken-n-nancy
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Day 26 Pictures

Post by ken-n-nancy » September 26th, 2020, 7:40 pm

DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 26th, 2020, 9:41 am
From afar and overall things are looking really good. I am pleased where this is at. I could give some areas a haircut and I may do that this weekend.
Image

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That's looking good! Keep up the excellent work!

DevilDawg81
Posts: 579
Joined: April 11th, 2017, 7:09 pm
Location: Columbus, OH
Grass Type: KBG, PRG, Fescue mix
Lawn Size: 2 acre-5 acre
Level: Some Experience

Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Marking off 1k Sections

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 26th, 2020, 8:09 pm

Thank you Ken-n-Nancy!

This evening I was out with my two little helpers (daughters) marking off my 1,000 sq ft sections. Soon I’ll begin spoon feeding urea, and it was a nice time to get out there and get this done. It gave them the chance to feel like they actually contributed. They did too, it was nice having them help measure off and run to place flags where needed.

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DevilDawg81
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Baby’s First Haircut

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 27th, 2020, 8:59 pm

Day 27 - This morning as I walked around I noticed the majority of the reno was getting taller and in some spots shabby. I decided I would mow it if time permitted. In prep of this, last night I scraped all the junk out from under the deck of my Honda push mower. I pulled out the power washer and cleaned it out as well, and sharpened the blades. I basically wanted the mower to be as ‘clean’ as possible as to not introduce anything to the new grass.

So this afternoon I mowed around 2”...

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This was a great sight and what we do this for...

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In the middle of mowing my wife had come out and as I was running bags of new clippings to the field she commented that “this is really looking nice.” The boss can be a tough critic, so getting the stamp of approval was good.

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It was nice to get to go over it and see every square foot up close. Tomorrow we’re supposed to get rain which is really good as we’ve had 14 straight days of no rain. I’ll shut the sprinklers off tomorrow and let Mother Nature take over.

Here you can see the height difference as I was clipping it down:

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: DevilDawg81’s New Lawn - Baby’s First Haircut

Post by ken-n-nancy » September 28th, 2020, 7:18 am

DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 27th, 2020, 8:59 pm
So this afternoon I mowed around 2”... This was a great sight and what we do this for...
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Is that in the reno? Wow!

What grasses are in there? Is that the SS5000 "Sunny Mixture" with KBG, FF, and PRG?

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