[Dono1183]

Yes that looks great and will keep getting better and better!

Thanks @WillyT !

 

[Dono1183]

We got .75” yesterday. I was happy for the rain, but we got half of that in about 10 minutes. Needless to say it washed out a good bit of the soil. I had a good amount of germination, and that held in, but the areas that had t come in yet are a big question mark. Most of the front is done, and they just need to finish lining the driveway, and covering the road base. That’s scheduled for Saturday.

A couple weeks ago I put down a preventative fungicide treatment in the back yard. Then I noticed that the areas I thought had checked out improved. It seems I had a good amount of fungus damage and completely missed it. It’s been warm here, but that’s about to end. I’m hopeful that the improvements made are going to help the lawn come spring.

 

[Dono1183]

Got what may be the last mow of the season in yesterday. We have a strong front coming in, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting back out do the 60’s for 2+ weeks. I put down another fungicide treatment, and the grass continues to recover. I’m glad that it was able to repair before the winter arrived.

We also got some more rain on Tuesday afternoon right before I put down some more seed. We got a ton of seed washout and it’s a bit of a bummer, but nothing that can’t be fixed. I’ll take the rain any day. I dropped the seed on Tuesday afternoon, and hopefully it will be coming in by this weekend. The other grass is getting tall already. In the pics you can see how bad the spots are after the rain lol.

 

[Dono1183]

Been a little while since my last update. We went out of town for two weeks, so coming home was a bit of a crap shoot. Turns out that it rained nearly the whole time we were gone. We got more than 2.5” which is great. The temps also got pretty low sending portions of the lawn into dormancy. But the backyard still looks pretty good overall, but has definitely lost some color. I got a mow in after it had dried a little, because much to my dismay, the mower was leaving ruts. I hadn’t had this happen before, so something new to consider going forward.

The front yard project is nearly complete. I still need to fill in the areas next to the masonry work with soil. I mowed it yesterday and the deer have made holes all over the yard. The rain combined w my boneheaded move of not rolling the new soil really caused a lot of clumps from where they would take off running. Needless to say, I’m over the deer in our neighborhood between this and them eating everything. The mower helped to get things smoother. I’m borrowing a roller to put some more weight on the soil and try to improve it. The big issue is the mounds and holes. I’ll work on those and get some additional seed down too.

I also dug a hole for the new fish pond liner. That was a real treat. At least I have a jack hammer which made the job manageable. I’ll move the fish over this week. once everything is settled I’ll reseed the area. All of this will be sodded in the spring anyway. This is about 20% of the way through when I thought I was 75% of the way through 🤣🤣.

 

[Dono1183]

On Friday morning I put down another round of seed. I have a lot of bare spots, so I’m working on getting those to fill in. I hope to see some germination by Tuesday. I’m still fighting w the deer. They keep eating the rye, and pulling it up by the roots. 🤬 the front yard is a total Monet. Looks good from far away, but up close it’s a real mess. 🤣🤣

I also bought some soil, as well as harvested some from the property to fill in the edges next to the masonry work. That’s filled now, and I made sure that was well seeded.

 

[Dono1183]

I sheared off a grease fitting the other day which led to getting some good advice on here that helped me get up and running for under $15. It’s times like that these I am so grateful to have all of this advice.
It’s been unseasonably warm here, so my backyard decided to come out of dormancy. AI was finally able to mow it today. It actually looks pretty good lol.

The front yard is starting to germinate a lot better. I was under-watering it so the seed wasn’t going. Once I increased the irrigation it really shot up. I’m hopeful to be able to mow it this coming weekend as the first round of seed has tilloried quite well and needs to be cut.
The area around the new fish pond is also seeing good germination, and I’m hopeful it will look good some time next week. I’m hopeful in two weeks I won’t have any bare spots to speak of.

 

[Dono1183]

Last night we got a light frost. However, since my lawn was in full growth mode, I noticed that areas got dinged pretty hard. It’s faint in the picture below, but the darker grass is what’s damaged. We are supposed to be dropping into the 20’s next weekend, and I’m worried that the grass will still be growing. I’m hopeful that the next week with highs in the 50’s really slow it down aggressively.

Today I went ahead and mowed the front lawn. I had been pushing it off to give the new germination some time to establish, but I couldn’t take it any longer 😂😂. I mowed with the rotary and bagged that. Then I did another cut with the reel. I’m pretty happy with it, despite the areas that are still to fill in.

 

[Dono1183]

The lawn has gone completely dormant, and I trimmed it up today. The freeze last weekend definitely shut it down. The front yard got some damage as well. I’m going to reseed up there to help it out.
December 15:

December 28:

 

[Dono1183]

After letting the front rest and recover from the freeze it was ready for a cut. The color has really come back. Last week I put down roughly .4 pbs of N on it to help it along. I used Pennington ultra green starter fertilizer since the lawn is less than 1.5 months old. I’ve got half left, so I’ll use that in a few more weeks. But the extra iron has helped darken it quite a bit.

 

[Dono1183]

I watered on Friday. The front yard was pretty dry. We haven’t had any rain this month. I’ll be fertilizing this coming week. Yesterday I mowed. The prg is fun, but the deer really made a lot of uneven spots in the lawn when it first got going. I’m going to have to do a lot of work grading it again in the spring before I lay down the sod.

 

[Dono1183]

Mowed yesterday on my lunch break. We’re getting some much needed rain today, which will hopefully help everything look better.

I’ve also been working on bringing down the Bermuda in back. It’s been a chore. I need to rent a verticutter because I’m getting to a point where my progress is stalling. The amount of growth that happens over a season is pretty wild. Anyhow, it’s getting cold again, so it’s not as green as it was a couple weeks ago. I’ve got it down too .75” and want to keep going below .5”.