[Nerd]

Hey all, first time poster here and lawn noob. Glad to be here

Me and my wife bought this house (our first home), a year ago. The front and back yard were not very well maintained by the previous owners. Me, being the OCD nerd with an addictive personality, wanted the yard to look picture perfect. Ever since, I have slowly been researching and learning how to effectively take care of a yard. Previously, my knowledge was limited to just a good mow and hire a lawncare service such as trugreen. Found a ton of information and it's been hard sorting through all the information on the internet. Basically spent all last spring, summer and early fall using my backyard as an experimentation zone, trying out some of the things I learned on the internet. I managed to eliminate majority of the weeds in the front and back and mowed at about a 2.5" - 3" HOC.

I started this season off in the front and back by cutting and bagging the entire lawn the lowest I could with the rotary. The rotary only goes down to about 1.5". Been trying to maintain the front at 1" - 1.5" with a push reel mower, but we had about 1.5 weeks about a month ago that was just all rain. During this period of time the yard got up to about 3.5" - 4". Just got it back down to 1.5" with my push reel mower over a 3 week period.

The lawn now has large patches of brown. Hoping someone can give me some tips to green it back up. Should I go back to mowing higher, which goes against Bermuda's preferred HOC?

 

[kur1j]

You are cutting the new growth off the crown. You need to scalp lower than you want to maintain. If you can only cut down go 1" you need to maintain at 1.25-1.5" (1-2 notches above your scalp). This will reset your growth point and the new parts that grow above the 1" scalp will be green resulting in a green lawn.

If i'm misunderstanding what you did please feel free to correct.

 

[Sam23]

Hello, and Welcome to the Forum!

 

[Ware]

Welcome to TLF! Glad you're here! 👍🏼

 

[Nerd]

You are cutting the new growth off the crown. You need to scalp lower than you want to maintain. If you can only cut down go 1" you need to maintain at 1.25-1.5" (1-2 notches above your scalp). This will reset your growth point and the new parts that grow above the 1" scalp will be green resulting in a green lawn.

If i'm misunderstanding what you did please feel free to correct.

Makes sense. Thanks for the info! :thumbup:

 

[Darrell]

What push reel mower are you using? Is it hard to push?

 

[Nerd]

What push reel mower are you using? Is it hard to push?

It's a Fiskars 18", which is suppose to be easier to push than your standard push reel mower. I'd say it's manageable on a thick lawn, but definitely a work out.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

With such a thick stand of turf, if it's in the budget, check out getting a powered reel, like a Swardman, California Trimmer, McLane or a Tru-Cut. The last two can be found on Craigslist for not a lot of cash, and if you're feeling ambitious, stepping up to a greens mower like a JD or Toro is another option. There's a plethora of those that are available on the secondary market, i.e. used. They're not as user friendly as the first and take some getting used to, but the cut quality is fantastic.

Either option would give you a much more satisfying cut on your lawn, and not as much of a workout in the hot GA sun. Welcome to TLF, glad you found your way here. :thumbup:

 

[Bunnysarefat]

Welcome. Yeah as @Colonel K0rn said, you can find these mowers on Craigslist. Set up an email alert and you'll get an email as soon as it's posted. Have to move quick on the good deals.

 

[Nerd]

:thumbup: ... a powered reel mower is definitely on my purchase list. Will be getting one when the budget allows or I see a good one for the right price. For now, just gonna keep sweating my butt off in that GA heat for the reel cut.

 

[SCGrassMan]

First, welcome.
Second, your lawn looks great, you just don't know it yet because its hiding inside of those growth stems (the brown stuff).

Here are my recommendations, and there are MANY people smarter than me here, so I defer to them:

1.) Cut your grass on the second lowest setting. Some will say the lowest, but if your yard isn't perfectly level, it will destroy some spots.
2.) If its in the budget to rent a machine for a day, get a core aerator and run a few passes of it over there. Rake off all the plugs, put down milorganite, and spread some masonry sand on it. Maybe a half a yard per 1,000 square feet. Your neighbors are going to be convinced you're insane, and tell you that your grass is going to die. (It isn't, I promise). Get a leveling rake and smooth it out - @Ware has some great videos on his youtube channel.
3.) Water the crap out of it
4.) Continue watering the crap out of it
5.) Mow it and enjoy!

You could also skip the aerating and just do the low cut, fertilize (but if not pulling cores and aerating just get normal fast release fertilizer like scotts GreenMax), water, and then raise a notch and maintain it at that height.

Bermuda LOVES to be scalped, assuming you are giving it enough water.