Awesome! Excited to see this come together!

 

Weather was great this weekend. Between the neighbor's yard and mine, cut down a bunch of saplings and pulled wild raspberries. An area about 45 ft by 15 ft.

Planted some perennials, (boxwood, mugo pine, holly etc.) in the area.

The area was all leaves in various states of decomposition, so now I have a pile about 12' x 10' x 5' ready to compost, but lacking green materials (50 brown / 50 black / 0% green). Any suggestions on accelerating my compost pile.

 

Any suggestions on accelerating my compost pile.

Ringer used to make a compost accelerator. There may be other brands, too. I would add some and aerate it with a manure fork (or turn it). Cover it with a plastic dropcloth; open it before a rain event; and recover afterwards. Maintaining moisture is important. Periodic turning is important and I tend to get busy and neglect doing it myself.

 

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the pointers, appreciate especially the point to keep the moisture in, I knew my brother keeps his covered, but incorrectly assumed to keep things from blowing away. Even at Thanksgiving (when we last got together), his pile was 150 deg F and air temps about 45.

 

So let's see if I can provide a bit of background information. Spring hasn't quite sprung here yet. So let us rewind a bit to June 2018. Here you can see we had this wonderful oak die in the back yard.



I had called around looking for some tree service and got a few quotes. In addition to the oak, there were a number of addtional trees to be removed, including some huge eastern white pines.

I picked the medium quote (not the highest and not the lowball), expected to be on-site in 6 weeks, they said wouldn't be a problem getting to all the trees. Expect them on site in about six weeks.

So let us fast forward to November of 2018 - two months late the crew finally show us. It had rained for days and days before so the ground was super wet. Here is the 130,000 lbs crane set on the drive, to start a "road" to the backyard.



Once the roadside trees were removed, the machine moved to toward the back, where it eventually bogged down. With insufficient reach to get to all the trees, the only path forward was to cut the trees down and drag them out with a tractor. It was ugly and I didn't capture pictures of each day. It completely tore up and compacted the entire backyard.

By the way, if you are living in NH and looking for a tree service, I have one NOT to recommend (they sent a different crew each day, showed up with broken equipment...forgot to collect a nice Stihl saw left in the leaves...)

I will have to say that the crew on the third day of the job was efficient and professional.

 

Tree removal is great, but let's keep to this pitch and putt! love to hear about these ups and downs. Would also love to "build" one myself some day.

 

Ok Ok, let's continue a bit. Advancing to January 2019, we had only little snow at this point a January thaw. We can see what the crane and tractors did to the back-yard. Twenty plus trees removed. Counting the rings, the largest Mother of All Pines dated back to ~ 1860.

Here you can see some ponding in the back.


Here is another view of the ponding - acutally two ponds when you get to the next picture.


Here is the road looking toward the streetside, the crane sank at least 15 inches into the soil.


Here you can see the old shed and swingset that need to be removed.


Next step will be stump removal - and of course we are now well into 2019 and need to wait till spring.

 

Ok, so with all the chaos around the tree removal, as well as severe compaction of the soil due to heavy equipment, the approximate planning of the putting green could commence. So here we have a image of the yard prior to tree removal with the approximate locations for the green and the bunkers. Additionally location for new garden shed, need a place to store my greens mower after all.

 

So I can hear you'all saying, stop with all the sass, how are you gonna cut this here putting green?

Enter my two new best friends! $50 each, but I have to get them running.


I'm thinking one for the green and the second for either the fringe or fairway! Great score, plus I got them both to fit in the back of my small station wagon- one trip.

 

So let's advance to 2019.

First round out, I carded an 84, not a bad round for my level of play, obviously a bunch of bogies, but a couple of birdies too. I was feeling good.

And then, in the game of life, my drive ended in a penalty area - cancer, and that was just bad luck. Surgery followed and in the game of life, my ball was lost - stroke and distance penalty. I lost mobility in my legs, to a large extent, but I still had a sleeve of balls in my bag, so wasn't disqualified in the game of life, just missed the cut.

Here is what the yard looked like after my surgery.



Observed the dogs created a bunch of racetracks around the old shed chasing chippies. That's an ongoing thing.

And here is what it was looking like in mid August. I wasn't planning a lawn journal so apologize, just a candid of Nick the Pointer.



With the aforementioned rain and washing out, the newly seeded area were a bit thin and weeds problematic, particularly on the putting surface.

Things were on the upswing, and at least I was back on the tee box for my next round in the game of life.

 

So let us see if we can go low on the scorecard and the grass this year. A bit of snow today, about four inches of heavy wet stuff. Let's take a look at the grass before the snow. Been raking and cleaning up the yard.

Here you can see I have a couple grasses growing. The old "lawn" has a lot of wide bladed grass leaves, in the spring it lays flat on the ground and needs to be raked to get thatch out and get it started. The new grass planted last year is already starting to green up a bit. Compare left side of photo to right side.


Here is a closer view of the thatch, I am guessing this is ryegrass, but help me here please.


Here in the way back back yard and newly recovered areas, I have these large round patches. I'm guessing some type of mold.

 

Might be a frost delay! The governor will be shutting down non essential services here through early May. In the meanwhile we had some early spring snow. As you can see, the town plows did a good job on missing the mark and turned up some grass street side.


On the plus side, the plows only hit the mailbox once this year!

 

I feel for you. Maybe you could install some of those thin orange fiberglass snow markers next year to help them improve their aim.

 

This is a really cool project!

 

I feel for you. Maybe you could install some of those thin orange fiberglass snow markers next year to help them improve their aim.

I think for the local driver, it's a game, I put those out one year about 18" from the edge of the road, they have to cut back the tops of the banks when the next big storm comes. The driver hit the all😄

 

Ok the weather is getting better and things are starting to green up.

Daffodils are in bloom, tulips are popping out and the grass is starting to freshen up.

Today, spread some seeds in the area recently cleared out. I'm not at level three just want it to look nice. Used a blend of Scott's sun and shade.



Over at the putting green, spread a few Penncross creeping bentgrass seeds on the bare areas, recall I had crabgrass difficulties last year.

Here is the putting green from afar.


And here is the ugliness!



I have a backup plan to sprig the putting green, here is a tray of grass I started about two months ago. I've cut it twice already.



Edged the patio, I was amazed how far the grass had encroached on the pavers, in some areas up to five inches. Also got out my plant containers and patio furniture. I have about sixteen containers for flowers and veggies.

 

I feel for you. Maybe you could install some of those thin orange fiberglass snow markers next year to help them improve their aim.

I think for the local driver, it's a game, I put those out one year about 18" from the edge of the road, they have to cut back the tops of the banks when the next big storm comes. The driver hit the all😄

It sounds like you need to upgrade to 1/2" rebar with concrete footing poured into a removable sleeve for summer(of course, painted safety orange with reflective tape). That would ring his bell, if he mowed a few of them down.

 

Looking at a number of other lawn journals, seems a good idea to set some goals:

#1. Get the putting green turf well established and weed free.
#2. Get Jacobsen #2 running, has a seized bearing in the cutting end, and fuel delivery issue. Set it up to cut collar around the green.
#3. Better define the flower beds between our house and the neighbors.
#4 Get the Craftsman reel mower running to cut the "fairway"
#5. Relocate an over abundance of sand from the bunkers to the putting surface and fairways for better playing conditions.

 

Some nice weather today, cool but the grass is greening up.got the trusty garden tractor out to "hoover" up the winter oak leaves that are now dropping.





The side hill is getting going nicely. This can bake out in the summer.


Did some edging around the front lily beds, need to get some mulch going here.

 

Well, the weather was nice today. Got out my sprayer and some weed-b-gone to spot treat a bunch of funk.

I'm level 2, so have a service apply product. The first treatment will be Dimension. It's not rated for bent grass putting greens, but is rated for bent grass fairways and approaches. University on TN seems to opine that it is OK for putting greens, and references "user use care" to avoid liability in a commercial setting.

Any thoughts?

I'd be looking for siduran but seems to be unavailable. I over seeded in late winter and am concerned that Dimesion might not be compatible with my bentgrass.

 

Ordered some Tupersan today for Pre emergent on the bentgrass putting surface. Because of the crab grass, I did a late winter overseed leaving not many options open.

Dimension will get applied to the rest of the yard - I use a local service who have the appropriate equipment to do it quickly and at reasonable price.

I have sort of a test plot of Penncross cut to the same length of the putting surface that I will let them apply Dimension as a test.

I don't know if they are open to ship, hope everybody stays safe, my grass can wait.

 

Tee times will be pushed back a bit today due to weather conditions.

 

Just wanted to jump in to follow this, I love the idea! I'm just across the river from you and starting in a somewhat similar spot. I have a much smaller yard but I have a tree company coming out next week to clear out some trees, and I will be removing dozens of large rocks so I can start to reclaim my back yard. Out of curiosity what tree company did you use?

 

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Just wanted to jump in to follow this, I love the idea! I'm just across the river from you and starting in a somewhat similar spot. I have a much smaller yard but I have a tree company coming out next week to clear out some trees, and I will be removing dozens of large rocks so I can start to reclaim my back yard. Out of curiosity what tree company did you use?

Welcome to the forum!

I have used several. When I first started on getting some clearing I used Atomic Tree Service. I would use them again. He outsourced the crane work, which worked out fine.

Accurate Tree Service did the final major tree work in 2018, two months late getting to the project, showed up with broken equipment. They got the crane stuck, the chipper stuck (albeit it was very wet). Three days, three different crews. They lost a chain saw in the woods, took weeks and a number of phone calls to get them out to pick up the lumber. Friend at work had similar experience. The Reeds Ferry crew chief that installed the shed also had poor results with Accurate...stay away.

JP and Sons have done tree work about four years ago in my second expansion. They are my neighbors did good work and did all the final fill grading and materials this past year. The final tree work was too big for them, but they pulled all the stumps. They also installed the irrigation system and did the hydro seed. Very reasonable on rates.

 

On the defense of Accurate the crew chief on the crane was pretty good and the crew chief on the third day was good. The crane is amazing six axels all articulated. The scheduling sucked and sending three different crews sucked. Showing up with broken chain saws was inaccusable. A month to get around to collecting the timber was ridiculous.