Lawn Care Advice Thread

[Cobrabit]

I'm one of the first to put bermuda in my yard and it has taken over all my neighbors.

A couple years ago a guy down the street killed all his bermuda, installed sprinklers and planted fescue. His entire yard is bermuda again from either not properly killing it or it spreading back in from other neighbors.

Once one person close to you has bermuda, resistance is futile

No one actually close to me has it, with my immediate neighbors having weeds only. Hard enough keeping weeds out,

 

[Cobrabit]

Mowed to 2"after lunch and dethatched and bagged the front yard. Taking a short break until my wife gets home to wrangle the kids before getting to the back yard this evening.

Plan to aerate, seed, fertilize, and drag out the hoses tomorrow.

 

[Cobrabit]

I'm one of the first to put bermuda in my yard and it has taken over all my neighbors.

A couple years ago a guy down the street killed all his bermuda, installed sprinklers and planted fescue. His entire yard is bermuda again from either not properly killing it or it spreading back in from other neighbors.

Once one person close to you has bermuda, resistance is futile

Looks like I spoke too soon, as the dethatcher pulled up a lot of Bermuda runners in my backyard next to the neighbor, but they don't have a bermuda lawn. Granted, they've got several different grasses and did some hardscape work in the spring, so maybe the construction crew threw down bermuda to cover the damage their bobcat did along the edge of my yard.

Hopefully when I spread seed tomorrow, it'll be in max growth as the bermuda goes dormant and I'll be able to look at some chemical options next year to kill the bermuda and hopefully keep the Black Beauty Ultra. If not, may consider roundup for the backyard section that has it ~1500 sq ft and replant Black Beauty next fall.

 

[RoyMunson]

Looks like I spoke too soon, as the dethatcher pulled up a lot of Bermuda runners in my backyard next to the neighbor, but they don't have a bermuda lawn. Granted, they've got several different grasses and did some hardscape work in the spring, so maybe the construction crew threw down bermuda to cover the damage their bobcat did along the edge of my yard.

Hopefully when I spread seed tomorrow, it'll be in max growth as the bermuda goes dormant and I'll be able to look at some chemical options next year to kill the bermuda and hopefully keep the Black Beauty Ultra. If not, may consider roundup for the backyard section that has it ~1500 sq ft and replant Black Beauty next fall.

and that dethatching only picked up what was above the soil... That shit is impossible to stop once it takes hold. Easiest defense is a shade tree.

 

[BadMotoWeazal]

my issue is weeds around the pool i pull them up constantly

wife won't let me use round up cancer en sech

so looking for a good organic one.

Try salt, water & Dawn dish-washing soap. To 1 gallon of water - 1/2 cup of salt, 3 table spoons of soap. But be careful... It will kill anything

 

[Southie]

Planting Bermuda from seed is not advised.
Planting Bermuda cultivars from sprigs or sod can give you a great yard.
I do not recommend for Virginia.
Since Cobrabit did not say where in VA. I would be unable to suggest Bluegrass, Fescue or a combination.
If it gets very hot and humid I recommend against bluegrass.
If you yankees think its hot and humid in Maryland, you are wrong.
Bluegrass should not be planted south of Richmond, VA. (very generally)

 

[RoyMunson]

Planting Bermuda from seed is not advised.
Planting Bermuda cultivars from sprigs or sod can give you a great yard.
I do not recommend for Virginia.
Since Cobrabit did not say where in VA. I would be unable to suggest Bluegrass, Fescue or a combination.
If it gets very hot and humid I recommend against bluegrass.
If you yankees think its hot and humid in Maryland, you are wrong.
Bluegrass should not be planted south of Richmond, VA. (very generally)

Yeah, I wish I had gone with Bermuda sod, but the price was insane. The only downside of the seed Bermuda that I got is that it produces its own seeds, so if you have allergies it completely fucks with you, but the upside of that is that it spreads to cover the yard faster. But it gets that fuzzy look a couple days after mowing.

 

[Cobrabit]

Plug aerated, seeded, fertilized, and drug out the hoses and impact sprinklers. Hopefully it'll be hands off for several weeks and see how well it comes up.

 

[Southie]

Yeah, I wish I had gone with Bermuda sod, but the price was insane. The only downside of the seed Bermuda that I got is that it produces its own seeds, so if you have allergies it completely fucks with you, but the upside of that is that it spreads to cover the yard faster. But it gets that fuzzy look a couple days after mowing.

My house in North Carolina I used sprigs. Rototilled them in lightly. Full lawn of 419 hybrid in one month. Planted in heat of summer and watered well and fertlized heavy with ammonium sulfate (cheap ass fertilizer)
The fetilizer was so hot it killed the weeds as it came up.
Looked like a golf course. No weeds, No seeds
2nd year I mowed every 2 weeks.
Taught my kids to drive on it.
Never had to patch or anything.
By the 5th year I sprayed it with "primo" and only had to mow once a month.
Sold the house in a drought. I had the only green yard in the county.....
Sold 1st day.....

 

[Cobrabit]

Nothing like going into Labor Day weekend without any yard work to be done for about a month from now (granted, at least 9 hours done prior) and only some grilling to go with many beers consumed.

Cheers!

 

[Cobrabit]

Looks like the perennial rye has already germinated a couple days ago, possibly some tall fescue as well. I know the bluegrass may take another week or so, but at least I don't have to use the sprinklers for a few days with rain coming in from the coast. Had to jump on my kids the other day when they were playing outside in the driveway, only to see them running around the sprinkler once it turned on, lol.

 

[Cobrabit]

Figured I'd provide some pics 14 days after seeding. Had over 3" of rain as the remnants of the hurricane passed through yesterday, so it'll probably be a few days before I'll add any more water through the sprinklers if needed.

The perennial rye should be all up, along with most of the tall fescue. The Kentucky bluegrass will probably be another week until it really should've germinated.

I do have some spots that look a little thin, especially where I had some trees removed or in a difficult spot previously, but hopefully they'll fill in over the coming weeks. If not, I may get a little more seed to drop on them at the beginning of October if they're still sparse.

I knew the yard still had a long way to go from where it started, and this project will improve it, not be a miracle. So we'll see how it goes the next several weeks and how it'll look in the spring to see if Black Beauty Ultra will be the seed for future fall over seeding.

 

[Cobrabit]

As I was sharpening my mulching blade for my walk behind and switching over to mulching blades on my JD e140, I figured I'd point out some advice in case anyone never checked this before.

When I bought my JD last year, it was supposedly fully assembled and ready to go. However, when just looking at the deck at the highest setting of 4" , it looked a little low. I got it on level ground and measured the height to the blade. Sure enough, it was actually a little under 3" . Tire pressure was good, so I knew I had to raise the deck by "tightening" the nut on each rear hanger, trying to keep each side as level as possible.

Likewise, I also checked my walk behind blade height a while back. The highest level (6) it has is 3.5" , then 2.5" , then down a half inch each level down until 0.5" (level 1) . The one inch drop from 6 to 5 may throw people off if they think each level is only a half inch.

The point being, it's very easy to scalp or cut too short if you don't actually get an accurate measurement and adjust accordingly.

 

[Cobrabit]

Little over 6 weeks after seeding and I'm pleased with the Black Beauty Ultra seed so far. Needed to blow leaves out of the front flower beds and decks and figured I'd bring out the John Deere to mow and mulch leaves (been using my walk behind the first few mows). Put down some Jonathan Green Winter Survival fertilizer earlier in the week when I was expecting rain that ultimately didn't come. Plan to put down another feeding around Thanksgiving.

Will need to add some more top soil and till it in where I had a tree cut down at the front, as just adding a couple bags of lawn soil and raking it in with the ground up stump didn't have the grass come in well at all (light green circle).

 

[Cobrabit]

I'm also planning to have a local tree service dead limb and elevate the canopy of at least 9 oaks around the house after our first good frost in 3-4 weeks. This should remove the lower branches to allow more sunlight and air circulation for the grass, lessen the amount of leaves and acorns I have to deal with each year, but mainly for safety with all the dead limbs falling. We do not park our cars under the trees and I don't want these heavy branches falling on kids playing.

 

[Wizardhawk]

I too did a bit of overseeding/reno on the small part of the front yard using black beauty ultra (in the North West). Existing lawn was mostly rye and some KBG. Lot of older established grass that did fine when the weather was mild, but had some disease/drought issues that I wanted to work out. This shot was from about 3 weeks ago and roughly a month after planting.

I took the existing grass and stopped watering it in July and let it get about as yellow as the grass at the top of the picture. Only watered here and there to keep the crowns from dying. I know we have the rep of being rainy all the time, but it is bone dry here for a good 3 full months. If you don't water at all it's hard to keep a lawn healthy.

Dethatched/aerated/topsoil/overseeded before giving any water. Well not entirely true, did a little watering before aerating to make it easier to get through soil. Waited about two weeks after putting soil/seed down before putting starter fert down to further keep the existing lawn from growing back too fast.

Pretty happy with the results, but I won't know how well it really turned out until sometime next summer when I see how well it does in the heavy drought conditions we normally face. The TTTF is fairly easy to spot in the lawn and I will probably go for maybe a 2.5" - 3" height normal, and a bit taller in the heat. If that fescue holds up well I may go just for their fescue next time and not the mix. KGB may be good for filling in thin spots, but it doesn't tend to do well in the summers here. I have a few test spots where I'm testing the TTTF vs KBG/Rye.

This picture was while I was still leaving it tall to allow later germination. It's much taller here than it is right now.

Black beauty ultra is not cheap, but I'm going to pick up another bag and do a bit more overseeding in spring just to fill in some areas. The young grass will have some established neighbors to help it in the heat. It did a solid job along the street there where typically the lawn doesn't hold up well.

 

[Fish]

I saw bermuda mentioned. I brought home an overly large divot I found on the golf course (I didn't make it) and planted it in my yard maybe 13 years ago. One divot. It's now about 20 ft x 20 ft and growing every year.

Years previous to that I had ordered zoysia plugs and plugged the north west portion of my 2 acres. For a few years I took great care of them, also plugged them and moved them outward.
A few years after I bought the first plugs I ordered a similar amount and put them on the west side of my yard.

They are all going crazy. The greenskeeper at the golf course tells me the bermuda will over run the zoysia when they meet and take it over, but I don't really care.

 

[Wizardhawk]

oh, @Cobrabit did you put down tenacity or any other weed barrier before your overseed? I totally spaced putting some down and ended up with quite a few weeds, including some that I had never seen before. Picked quite a few by hand for the first 3 weeks and just went out and spot sprayed in the last few days. Just wondered what your experience was with that product.

I have normally only used Scotts NW blend or a couple of local seed producers on some higher end rye and never have I had that kind of weed growth on an overseed. And this isn't the first time I forgot to lay down tenacity before planting.

I sure won't skip that step in the spring when I hit a few spots.

 

[Cobrabit]

oh, @Cobrabit did you put down tenacity or any other weed barrier before your overseed? I totally spaced putting some down and ended up with quite a few weeds, including some that I had never seen before. Picked quite a few by hand for the first 3 weeks and just went out and spot sprayed in the last few days. Just wondered what your experience was with that product.

I have normally only used Scotts NW blend or a couple of local seed producers on some higher end rye and never have I had that kind of weed growth on an overseed. And this isn't the first time I forgot to lay down tenacity before planting.

I sure won't skip that step in the spring when I hit a few spots.

No, I didn't put down any weed pre/post prior to seeding this year. I do plan to get some tenacity next year and put down a few doses in the weeks leading up to Labor Day/resending to knock down the bentgrass I seem to have in the backyard. Only recently became aware of tenacity and too late to do so before this year 's seeding.

I plan to put down a couple pre-emergent apps in the spring to help prevent crabgrass and use tenacity after July to knock down the bentgrass and anything else that came up in the summer. My backyard may very well turn 50% white during August, but it's a process.

Tenacity is an investment (dye, sufficant, sprayer), so hoping to use it as a post-emergent in August and some other cheaper alternatives (grandular) for pre-emergence in the spring.

 

[Wizardhawk]

No, I didn't put down any weed pre/post prior to seeding this year. I do plan to get some tenacity next year and put down a few doses in the weeks leading up to Labor Day/resending to knock down the bentgrass I seem to have in the backyard. Only recently became aware of tenacity and too late to do so before this year 's seeding.

I plan to put down a couple pre-emergent apps in the spring to help prevent crabgrass and use tenacity after July to knock down the bentgrass and anything else that came up in the summer. My backyard may very well turn 50% white during August, but it's a process.

Tenacity is an investment (dye, sufficant, sprayer), so hoping to use it as a post-emergent in August and some other cheaper alternatives (grandular) for pre-emergence in the spring.

Tenacity does wonders on crabgrass, but there are lots of alternatives that are cheaper. For TTTF and Rye, you can use it both spring and fall and not go over the yearly app rate, even if you do two apps each season two weeks apart (I always do for spot weed treatment). I've used it to help knock down Poa Annua and take on some other stubborn issues while also buying me time if I overseed at the same time.

Sounds like you have a larger yard so I don't know how far it will go for you, but I'm sitting on around 8k sq/ft of yard and a bottle of it has lasted me years with as little as I use. I don't blanket spray it unless it's as a pre emergent and will only put down one blanket app and spot spray any issues in areas not newly seeded two weeks later.

Does take awhile for the white areas on weeds and where good grass goes lighter green with mild damage to come back so I don't use it every season/year.

If you didn't have any issues with that Black Beauty Ultra and didn't have anything down, I either had a batch with issues or the seed came from something else.