Lawn Seeding Update After 5 Weeks

Just a refresher, I seeded my lawn on September 14th of 2018. This is how it has progressed after seeding. We did get a heavy rainstorm a week after seeding that dropped 4 inches of rain. Much of the grass had sprouted already but I believe it caused a couple of bare patches that still persist after 5 weeks. I did add some more seed to those spots a couple weeks ago so hopefully that will fill in. Unfortunately, temperatures have dropped so the speed of germination has greatly dropped since the initial seeding.

Day of seeding (9/14/2018)

End of 1 week. New growth barely visible up close. (Actually on Sunday, 9/23/2018, as I forgot to take photo on Friday)

End of 2nd week. New growth is starting to be visible from a distance. (9/28/2018)

End of 3rd week. (10/5/2018)

End of 4th week. (10/12/2018)

End of 5th week (10/20/2018). Prior to mowing.

End of 5th week (10/20/2018) after mowing.

Fall overseed

Today I finished my overseed project. Half of the front lawn was pretty much decimated by the heat and fungus over the summer. I decided to start over with tall fescue. The prior seeding was done with a hybrid kentucky/texas bluegrass that didn't really seem to handle the heat as well as they advertised. I sprayed the half that died off (the sunny area, mostly) with glyphosate once a week over a three week period to make sure all the invading weeds and the bermudagrass that had invaded from next door was completely killed off. You must be careful when doing this to use only glyphosphate. Some of the blended brands last longer and will not give you a window where you can successfully seed. The label on my bottle says I could put seed down in 1-3 days. I gave it a full week just to be safe.

Yesterday was a full week from the last spraying so I began the renovation in the back yard and worked toward the front. First, mowed it very short, then I aerated the front and back in the areas that still had viable grass growing. This basically left holes all over the lawn that would not only allow air/water/nutrients easy access to the roots of the existing grass but also is a good place for a grass seed to germinate. I used a basic garden weasel aeration tool. You can rent powered ones from equipment rental places for $60-$100 per day but I didn't have a good way to load and unload one from my van. The manual tool is about $25 or so and has 2 plug pullers spaced about 4 inches apart. These pull out little plugs of soil and leaves a hole.

Lawn with plugs removed

Aerator tool

I got an early start today and I went ahead and applied some seed. I went with tall fescue, but this type claims to be rhizomatous. This means that it will spread out on its own to fill in patchy areas over time. I don't expect it to be nearly as prolific as bermuda or bluegrass, but it is cool that there's a tall fescue that is capable of it. The brand is named Barenbrug Water Saver with RTF.  I used a 25 pound bag and another 10 pound bag for this job, since I wanted to go heavy in the dead zone in my front lawn. For an overseed, the 25 pound bag would have covered 5,000 square feet, but only 2,500 for a new lawn. I had half of a new lawn in front (1,500 square feet) and overseed in the remaining 3,300 square feet of my lawn. I have a little bit left over (2-3 pounds) in case I need to do some patching afterwards.

Label from seed bag

I used a manual cultivator to break up the surface where I had killed off the grass. I got it from Lowes and it worked great for this job. It was a lot of work but it drove the seeds just below the soil surface and made the dirt loose. This should help it grow in nicely and the only thing I would have done differently would have been to rake up the dead grass first. It kept tangling up in the tines and I'd have to pull it out. On the plus side, it is providing a light covering for the seed to keep it from being visible to birds and providing some shade from the sun.

I am using a 4 outlet timer to keep the watering going. It is set to water each zone 20 mins 3 times a day. Once it starts to fill in, I will cut back to once a day, then eventually work back to once a week. Everybody says you can do everything right but the watering is the most important part. I think the timers are a fantastic way to ensure that it goes smoothly. This is how it currently looks. I will update in about a month to show the final results and provide some pictures of the progress from week-to-week.

Day 1 overseed, I killed the grass starting at the sidewalk bend all the way to the neighbor's driveway.

Challenges!

It's been a tough couple of weeks for my lawn care regimen. These challenges have not been the end of the world, but it really seemed they all came at once.

First, my mower began having difficulties and was dying despite the gas tank being full. I pulled off the carburetor and cleaned it out but that didn't fix it. I tried a new spark plug and still no better. I finally decided to drain the gas and that's when I discovered there was a vacuum problem. Basically, while draining the tank, it stopped draining while it was still halfway filled. This led me to find that the problem all along was the gas cap vent was clogged. This was preventing the gas from flowing to the carburetor. I sprayed some carb cleaner through the vent in the cap.  While I had the tank off, I also adjusted the governor to give it a boost to the RPMs. The mower is running great, now.

Next, I noticed that there was some fungus attacking the lawn. I believe it is brown patch and I don't want it to run rampant so I grabbed some Bayer fungicide and applied it to the lawn but that led to the next challenge.

I had finished spreading over the back yard and was halfway through the front when my spreader's impeller broke. It was a plastic shaft style one and the plastic had snapped off. I was able to finish the front lawn by putting it in place by hand but if I hit a bump or jostled it too much, the impeller would fall again. It made for a frustrating and slow application, but I was able to finish.

I got a replacement one off of craigslist yesterday. It's an older craftsman model but at least is has the metal shaft so I shouldn't have the same problem again. It does have a bigger hopper and is more rugged overall.  I got it for $15 so I made out pretty well price-wise and scored an overall upgrade.

April Update

I haven't posted in a bit but here's the most current photos of the lawn.

Front Lawn 04.23.2018

Back Lawn 04.23.2018

We've had quite a bit of rain over the past couple days, 1.63 inches, to be exact. It wasn't quite dry today but I just couldn't stand it anymore and had to give it a cut, though I didn't edge or use the weed eater. My back lawn is very thick and isn't getting a lot of weed competition, so I'm pretty happy with it. I do have some Poa Annua and dandelions, but nothing too severe. The Poa is really difficult to kill and will die out in a month anyhow, so I'm not really worried about it. The best way to keep it from appearing is to apply pre-emergent in the fall so that it will not germinate and grow over winter. Dandelions are easily killed with a broadleaf weed killer, such as 2-4D or a Weed-B-Gone spray you can get at any hardware store for very cheap. I've not really bothered with the back yard because of my dogs. You have to keep them off the grass until the spray has dried up and I really hate cooping them up in the house when it's so nice outside. If the weeds start to get bad, I may change my mind, but the lawn is so thick that it hasn't been that big of an issue.

On to the front lawn. It is very disappointing, to be frank. I had to kill and overseed about a third of the yard because Bermuda and grassy weeds had invaded from the neighbor's lawn. They have a concrete driveway and about a 5 foot section that is shared with my lawn on the south side of my front yard. It looked like a salad bar last year so I got their permission to kill it and reseed. This prevented me from doing the winter pre-emergent and now it has a ton of Poa growing in the middle of the tall fescue and bluegrass I seeded with. I'll go over that process in a future post but the lawn is quite a bit thinner than my back lawn and the Poa is a much lighter color, which makes it look worse. To add to the problems, there was some herbicide drift that affected my garden area and a couple of my hedges, which is causing them to look wilted. It's possible it was me applying the Tenacity herbicide a few weeks ago, but I doubt that is the case.  I do try to be careful about spraying in the wind and avoiding drift into my shrubs and flowers. I've never had this problem before.

I believe it may have been my neighbor's lawn care company. I've noticed that they are not doing a great job with their lawn. For one, they have been cutting the cool season grasses too short.  For Bermuda grasses, it is fine to cut short. It actually helps it to spread faster. It's actually the opposite with cool season grasses, such as tall fescue, rye, or bluegrass.  The general rule is to keep them between 3 and 4 inches and never to cut more than a third of the blade off at a time. The more leaf blade present will allow the grass to devote energy to the roots and help it grow them deeper and stronger.  Another thing they are doing incorrect is mowing the fescue with a dull blade. Cutting grass with a dull blade will tear it and make it look brown on the tips. Spread across an entire lawn will make it look like it's not getting enough water or even like there's a fungus present. Since they've got these basics wrong, I'm not surprised they cannot apply herbicide correctly. Unfortunately, I have no proof of it and I just hope they have finished applying for the season.

Pre-Emergents

The weather has been turning warmer, we've been getting some rain and I have daffodils blooming.  Best of all, my grass is starting to grow and is greening up.  I was even able to mow today and despite having my mower set to 2.75 inches, it was able to cut grass that exceeded that height.

In early February, I put down some pre-emergent already to minimize weed growth. I probably could have waited until early March to apply, but last year was unseasonably warm and I had weeds coming up before February ended.  A pre-emergent's purpose is to prevent seeds from sprouting. Once weeds have emerged, they can be difficult to control. Much like cars, it is far easier to prevent problems with maintenance than to fix after they have occurred.  One thing to be aware of when using pre-emergents is that you cannot put down grass seed after you've made an application, since they tend to attack grass seeds in the same manner as weed seeds. Always be sure to check the label when you use one, as most will recommend 3+ months before you would be able to seed (there is an exception I will cover later in this post). With the application rate I applied, I'm looking at around 7 months starting on February 4th. This works out great for me, since it takes me through summer and allows me to overseed in September or October. This is the perfect time to overseed cool season grass. I've not found lasting success trying to overseed in the spring, anyways. It gets too hot in the summer for young grass to survive in my region without a ton of water and attention.

I used some Prodiamine-based pre-emergent. It is also known as Barricade. I prefer this because it is long-lasting and only begins losing efficacy in warmer temperatures. This means you can apply it early when it's still cold and not have to risk waiting and missing the application window due to an unexpected temperature swing. Dithiopyr/Dimension is another common one that isn't as long-lasting but does have the benefit of being able to attack some weeds after the seed has sprouted. If you're concerned you may have missed the window for application, this may be a better one to use.  A final note for seeding with pre-emergents. There is one available to homeowners that will allow you to put down grass seed. It is called Tenacity or Mesotrione.  This one is usually only good for up to 6 weeks but it will allow most species of grass seed to sprout but will still attack most weeds, and can even attack ones that have already sprouted. It's biggest drawback is that it is extremely short-lived, but is fantastic to use when seeding so that your grass seed is not forced to compete with weeds.

So how does one know when to apply the pre-emergent? You can tell in a couple of manners. One, look for things growing. My Daffodils start growing before almost anything else in the yard as spring approaches. I've heard from multiple sources that the Forsythia is a great indicator, as well. I have a neighbor with one and it is indeed blooming with beautiful yellow flowers. You could also go by soil temperature. You can just stick a food thermometer in your soil a few inches(where the seeds will be sitting) or go by online trackers. In my home state of Oklahoma, I use the Mesonet site to show the temperatures in the top 2 inches of the soil. If it gets above 55 degrees F for a few days in a row, you can expect Crabgrass to be germinating. I try to target it once it approaches 45-50 degrees F. Again, with the type of pre-emergent I favor, it is better to apply early since it doesn't really help with anything that's already sprouted.

Introduction and zones

In 2015, my wife and I became first time homeowners. We still love our home today but the lawn was pretty bad when we moved in. There are mature trees in front and back. A very large Shumard Oak in the front and a Maple and Pecan in the back.

We live in central Oklahoma in what is considered the "transition zone".  The U.S. is divided into zones that describe the local climate and it determines types of lawn you can expect to grow.  In zones 3-5, it is considered "cool season" and 8+ is "warm season".  For those of us in the "transition zone", you can grow either type, but the cool season will require more maintenance and water to succeed.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

Most of our neighbors are growing bermuda grass, a warm season type, and have nice looking lawns but ours was patchy, at best. The bermuda just cannot thrive under the trees but we enjoy the shade and the trees are a huge part of our attraction to this home.  I did a lot of research and attempted to renovate and thought I'd share the process and how I proceeded. It's not perfect but it is miles ahead of where it was. The photos below are from the house listing before we bought in summer 2015 versus late July of 2016. I think it looks even better now but will update once spring arrives and allows me to do a mow. In fact, my new neighbor across the street told me shortly after moving in that my lawn is what he wants his to look like. He has similar challenges with a very large tree.

In the future I'll post the process that led me to this and things I learned. I'll cover zones, measuring the lawn, overseeding, soil testing, mowing practices, nuking the lawn, preemergent, weed control and other things involved with establishing and maintaining a lawn.

Early 2015

July 31, 2016