[Seeking_Turf]

Hello!!
Great community here... Long time lurking, first time poster.

Been a closet grass nutt for some time now and wanted to take my lawn to the next level. Picking up a JD 220 reel mower in hopes of achieving that golf course/ ball park turf in a section of my lawn ~(30'x25') to start. Installed a irrigation system last year. This was my lawn in the middle of summer 2017:




Here is where I need some advice.

April 1st I applied Crabgrass Control Plus 0-0-7 with 0.37% Prodiamine and starter fert. This was before I decided to take my lawn to the next level and pick up a JD reel mower Long story short I decided to regrade and lower that section of my lawn about 1.5" so it sat flush with my driveway and walkways.




Put all the pieces back and top dressed with 1/4" of buiders sand and a bag of milogranite. Here is how she sits now:


Is it possible to overseed with perennial rye even thou i applied that prodiamine on 4/1? Thinking to topdress 1/4" of topsoil then overseed entire area with perennial rye. I have read some people have had some success with growing perennial rye even thou an application of prodiamine was put down. Hoping to fill in those cutt lines along with any thin areas i may have damaged during my regrading process...

Cheers!

Thoughts?

 

[probasestealer]

It's possible to have some PRG germination with Prodiamine down, but I question how well it will germinate with out lightly loosening the soil ("breaking the barrier") prior to seeding. You could likely do this in a controlled manner in small areas with success.

But, it looks like you have KBG and PRG right? If so, why not just let the KBG fill in the areas (other than quicker gratification)?

 

[probasestealer]

By the way, the yard looks great. Looks like you rented a sod machine, how did it work?

 

[g-man]

Welcome.

I'm with probasestealer, seeds after prem will yield low to no germination.

I also think you don't need to do anything else than fertilize. The kbg will fill the spots. It looks great and the reel does make a difference. What hoc are you planning?

Also, in imgbb, you could get the bbcode and paste it into the thread. It makes the pictures show up in the thread. Click about, then select the full image bbcode.

Like this:

 

[Seeking_Turf]

By the way, the yard looks great. Looks like you rented a sod machine, how did it work?

Thanks for the quick response... Yep I rented the claussen sod cutter from home depot. It worked great! It was very easy to use. It allowed me to set the depth of cut from about 1"- 2 1/2" if i had to guess. I set the cut to go as deep as possible hoping not to cut off to much of the roots. My neighbors thought I had purchased new sod to lay down. When I told them it was my existing lawn and that I just wanted to lower it a bit they thought I was crazy.

 

[Seeking_Turf]

Welcome.

I'm with probasestealer, seeds after prem will yield low to no germination.

I also think you don't need to do anything else than fertilize. The kbg will fill the spots. It looks great and the reel does make a difference. What hoc are you planning?

Also, in imgbb, you could get the bbcode and paste it into the thread. It makes the pictures show up in the thread. Click about, then select the full image bbcode.

Like this:

Thanks for the tip :thumbup: I fixed my earlier post... Thats what I figured about the germination... I may just pick up a bag of perennial rye throw it down and hope for the best. Will see if anything happens and report back. Otherwise I will just wait for the KBG to fill in.

I am planning on a 3/4" HOC with this new to me JD220


My plan is to drop it down to 1/2" to scalp it on its first cut and raise it back to 3/4" going fwd. I am just worried how the lawn will react since i did just stress her out quite a bit with sod cutter. Going to wait 1 week from this sat before I give her a try.

 

[g-man]

I would not scalp our cool season lawns. More so after the sod cutter stress. I've been lowering mine to 1in in slow steps. I dropped mine 1/4in, let is recover and get all nice and green again and then drop it another 1/4in.

 

[Pete1313]

Subscribing. Can't wait to see the results! What part of Chicago are you from? I used to live in the NW burbs and had KBG that was reel mowed at 9/16"-3/4". It is going to look beautiful!

 

[probasestealer]

I would not scalp our cool season lawns. More so after the sod cutter stress. I've been lowering mine to 1in in slow steps. I dropped mine 1/4in, let is recover and get all nice and green again and then drop it another 1/4in.

This. Drop the HOC slowly, it's not bermuda.

I'd hit the yard hard with organics also (Milorganite, cracked corn, alfalfa, etc).

 

[Seeking_Turf]

I live in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago right near Ohare...

Before I used to the sod cutter I lowered my honda rotary as low as it would go... Looks to be about (HOC 1 1/2"). It Scalped in few areas but was not as bad as I thought it would be.

After putting back my lawn I hit that 750 sq ft area with 1 full bag (36lbs )of milogranite 5-4-0 and 1 yard of sand to top dress.

I'll raise the hoc as high as it will go with this JD 220 and go from there for my first cut next sat 5/12.

From this point on I will be watering a total of 1 hour (3 - 20 mins sessions) a day for the next 2 weeks.

Fingers crossed

 

[Pete1313]

I live in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago right near Ohare...

Before I used to the sod cutter I lowered my honda rotary as low as it would go... Looks to be about (HOC 1 1/2"). It Scalped in few areas but was not as bad as I thought it would be.

After putting back my lawn I hit that 750 sq ft area with 1 full bag (36lbs )of milogranite 5-4-0 and 1 yard of sand to top dress.

I'll raise the hoc as high as it will go with this JD 220 and go from there for my first cut next sat 5/12.

From this point on I will be watering a total of 1 hour (3 - 20 mins sessions) a day for the next 2 weeks.

Fingers crossed

My previous home was in Mt. Prospect, not to far from Ohare..

I agree with others, take it down slowly. Slowly bring it down below your intended HOC and then raise it up alittle. At my last place I started out with a rotary at 2" and then slowly brought it down. You can see some of the progress Here.

 

[Seeking_Turf]

I live in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago right near Ohare...

Before I used to the sod cutter I lowered my honda rotary as low as it would go... Looks to be about (HOC 1 1/2"). It Scalped in few areas but was not as bad as I thought it would be.

After putting back my lawn I hit that 750 sq ft area with 1 full bag (36lbs )of milogranite 5-4-0 and 1 yard of sand to top dress.

I'll raise the hoc as high as it will go with this JD 220 and go from there for my first cut next sat 5/12.

From this point on I will be watering a total of 1 hour (3 - 20 mins sessions) a day for the next 2 weeks.

Fingers crossed

My previous home was in Mt. Prospect, not to far from Ohare..

I agree with others, take it down slowly. Slowly bring it down below your intended HOC and then raise it up alittle. At my last place I started out with a rotary at 2" and then slowly brought it down. You can see some of the progress Here.

Sweet! Im right next to Mt. Prospect in Des Plaines... Your lawn in Mt Prospect looked great :thumbup: Nice to see a lawn in my neck of the woods being able to achieve such perfection. The JD 220 will be my first attempt with a reel. I am picking it up this sat. Will see how hard it is to maintain ect before i stepup to a newer JD toy like the one you have

 

[Seeking_Turf]

Well gave the the old gal a shot and cut a section of my lawn to 1 1/8" today... Here is how it turned out:



Not to bad knowing my mower needs to be sharpened... Will drop her down to 3/4" tomorrow and see how she hold up. No scalping and no yellowing yet. :thumbup:

 

[Seeking_Turf]

Brought her down to 3/4"... Still waiting on my Pinhigh sharpening compound (120 grit) to arrive so i can back lap my reel. Not to bad for a reel that doesn't even cut paper yet :lol:

 

[Pete1313]

Not bad at all! Nice work! :thumbsup:

 

[Seeking_Turf]

Not bad at all! Nice work! :thumbsup:

Thanks Pete! Next on the to do list is to top dress a full 1/2" of builders sand in the next 2 weeks along with a shot of starter fertilizer. I was surprised how 1/4" of top dressing improved that small section in my front yard last week. All the sand has already worked its way to the bottom.

 

[probasestealer]

Looks good

 

[Seeking_Turf]

Looks good

Thanks! :thumbup:

 

[Togo]

Welcome to TLF and was the lawn is looking good. I'm interested to see how this progresses.

 

[Seeking_Turf]

Welcome to TLF and was the lawn is looking good. I'm interested to see how this progresses.

Thanks!
My original plan was to just do that small square section in front of the house but now I am getting the itch to do the entire lawn including the back :lol: Debating about leveling off the other sections with sand now.