[FlyMike]

Hi everyone,
I'm located just a little north of Atlanta and bought a house recently with a lawn that is a mess. It's probably 75% Crabgrass, 5% Zoysia, 10% some type of fescue, and 10% who knows what. I'm planning on killing it all soon and attempting to start a TTTF lawn, and would like a little guidance/help/suggestions.

My overall plan is:
Glyphosate
Water
Glyphosate where needed
Scalp
?
Seed
Peat moss
Starter fert/tenacity
Water water water

My soil is typical for the area with a lot of clay. It seems very compact since I'm not able to get a screwdriver very far down, maybe an inch or so. Is there anything I should do before seeding to help with this, or will it not be much of an issue?

I'm planning on using Super Turf 1 LS from unitedseedonline because it seems to be quality seed at a good price. Any issues or recommendations here?

Anything else I'm missing/should do?
Thanks for the help,
Mike

 

[Vols_fan08]

Just curious why you're choosing fescue? Do you have a lot of shade? I'm not sure it could survive the dry hot Summers of Georgia. I would go with seeding Bermuda in Late May next year. I love Fescue as much as anyone but southern Tennessee is about as far as it could survive in the south. And it really struggles there honestly.

 

[FlyMike]

I do have a decent amount of shade. The reason I picked fescue is because I was hoping to have something that is green year round. There are a few houses around the neighborhood that have fescue lawns that look great, so I figured I would give it a shot.

I also forgot to add my soil test from a few months to my original post, so here it is

 

[Vols_fan08]

If you're dead set on Fescue then I'd go with a 3 way blend of Cochise IV, falcon V, and Monet. Those scored higher in the Griffin, GA trials. I hope you have irrigation 😎. Gawga be hawt down there! Looks like all you need is a starter fertilizer. Rent a slice seeder IMO.

 

[FlyMike]

I'm ready to give it the water it hopefully need. I want to give it a shot before I have to go to Bermuda or something like that.
The mix I'm looking at has Monet, Firecracker LS, Spyder LS, and Titanium 2 LS. They all seem to do fairly well in the NTEP site.

 

[FlyMike]

I'm all in now, I sprayed glyphosate a week ago and my lawn is looking nice and crispy now. I do have a few small patches of some sort of grass, Monkey grass maybe, that seems to be laughing in my face. The glyphosate didn't seem to phase it.




Any idea how to kill this stuff, or should I just try and dig it out by hand?

Another question I have is about a section on my side yard. It's a nice rectangle and a oscillating sprinkler works great here. What kind of issues will I run into when I'm watering the seed here? I'm think if I leave it there for day's on end while the grass is germinating it will be bare under where the sprinkler and hose have laid. Any ideas for a work around on this? I'm gone for 3-4 days a week with my job so my plan is to hook that section up to a hose timer and let that do the work while I'm gone.

 

[GrassDaddy]

I would try a heavy app of glyphosate for the grass still remaining. As for the sprinkler... it might leave a spot. You could grow a tray of seed to transplant to it after.

 

[FlyMike]

I sprayed it pretty good today, so hopefully that does the trick. Thanks for the idea of growing some grass in pots/trays to transplant. That's probably what I'll end up doing.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

If that's Mondo grass aka monkey grass, you're going to have to dig it up. No way around that my friend.

For transplanting, get the 5-in-1 Pro Plugger. It works great for transplanting grass when you have some established. Grass Daddy has shown how effective it is in his videos, and I've have great luck with transplanting grass in my yard.

You stated that you're having difficulty getting a screwdriver down below 2 inches into your soil. I'd strongly recommend that you aerate the mess out of the yard, and then use the slit seeder to get really good coverage. I don't think you'd even have to bother with the peat moss at that point, since all you need is seed to soil contact, set up the timers for watering 3x daily until germination, and then adjust after that.

 

[Virginiagal]

If you use starter fertilizer instead of 10-10-10, you will be lacking potassium. You probably aren't tilling, but you could use 10 lb/k of 10-10-10 without incorporating it into 4-6 inches as U Georgia recommends. That would get you 1 lb/k of phosphorus and potassium and nitrogen. You could do another application next month to get the rest.

If you go with the starter fertilizer instead (maybe to get the mesotrione in the Scott's starter?), I would try to find sulfate of potassium 0-0-50 so you could get some potassium. Their recommendation is for 1.5 lb/k of potassium. Two applications of SOP at 1.5 lb/k (maybe one now, one in February) will supply you with 1.5 lb/k of potassium. Using starter at bag rate will probably get you 1 lb/k of phosphorus, which is short of their 1.5 lb/k recommendation. You could do a follow-up application of starter at half rate to get the rest of the phosphorus.

Go by Georgia's recommendations on when to apply fertilizer. They know their climate best.

 

[FlyMike]

The lawn needed a little bit of water, and it seems to be pretty loose now, I can get a 12" screwdriver down no problem now. I was excited to get started on the project, jumped the gun and just went out poking around without realizing it had been a while since everything had got some water.

I was afraid I was going to have to dig it out, but luckily it's not a huge area.

I was planning on using the Scott's + weed prevent starter fertilizer for the mesotrione. Thank's for the recommendation on how to incorporate the potassium into the project, I like that idea.

 

[Roosterchest]

FlyMike I can only share what I did...

2 rounds of Glypho about a week apart. Scalped the lawn down along the way. Slice seeded and covered with grass. The grass covering was not needed. Used Scott's Starter w/Mesotrione---weeds turned white. About 17 days after seed down (KBG/PRG mix) I put some Milorganite and starter fert down. Grass is coming along nicely.

I was very good about watering and kept the ground moist.

Your #1 mission needs to be seed germination with good watering. You can focus on the weeds later. Tenacity or Scott's w Mesotrione will help.

 

[FlyMike]

Yesterday was the day. My wife unexpectedly had the day off, so I took full advantage of her being able to watch our 4mo old daughter while I was home.

I started the day by raking out the clippings that my mower struggled to suck up while scalping the lawn. I then ran my sprinklers a little bit the get the soil wet before throwing down the seed, and I figured it would sort of help plant the seed when I went over it with a roller.

Threw down about 35ish lbs of seed, rolled it in, then put down Scott's started +weed preventer. I gave it a light water while I returned the lawn roller and picked up some more peat moss.



While running out of daylight I got the peat moss down, and of course was about 1 bundle short. Luckily I got all the major spots that would dry out the quickest covered, and I'll get the other areas covered a little later.



I made a little sprinkler stand for the oscillating sprinkler in the side yard. I thought this might help prevent a bare spot there from the sprinkler sitting in the same spot for such a long time. I going to keep the hose off the ground too. These all might be dumb ideas, but I figure it can't hurt and I enjoy making weird contraptions





I have my timer set up to keep everything nice and wet. Now it's time to sit back and impatiently wait for some grass to start growing.

Edit for a question...
What's the thought on using the bagged clippings from scalping as a cover for the seed? I was cleaning them up from along the street today that were mixed in with some of the dirt dust that I kicked up from raking, and I was surprised at how well they held in moisture

 

[FlyMike]

I was gone with work for 4 days and came back to a nice surprise. GREEN FUZZ!!
The grass has started to sprout in about 5 days.

 

[FlyMike]

I know I just posted a few days ago, but here is an update at 7 days. I'm pleased with how everything is coming in and so far how fast everything is growing. I might have a few bare spots I'll need to reseed later, but overall I think it's looking good.




I ran out of peat moss and you can really see what a difference it makes in helping the grass seed. I'm also battling a little bit of a leaf issue. When I'm home I will lightly blow them off with a leaf blower every day.

 

[OutdoorEnvy]

It's progress! That's surprising the difference the peat moss made. I won't leave that out if I do a reseed project.

 

[ThickAndGreen]

I noticed a huge difference in using peat moss vs not using it during my recent overseed. I'm a big believer.

 

[FlyMike]

Went outside this morning to blow some of the leaves off the lawn, and I'm starting to see the first signs of the mesotrione in the Scott's kicking in. It's pretty cool to see it in action.

 

[FlyMike]

14 days in and it's starting to look like a real lawn. Some of the smaller bare spots/lightly seeded areas are starting to fill in. It's up to about 2.5"-3" right now, so I think it might be ready for it's first mow next week.





I have 2 small bunches of something that have shot up much taller and a lighter green than the rest of the grass. I'm not quite sure what it is since I haven't been able to walk up and get close to it. Any ideas what it might be from this grainy zoomed in picture?

 

[FlyMike]

It's been 21 days since seed down, and things are looking great. 2 days ago I gave the lawn it's first mow. It was getting close to 4.5" in some spots.









I put down some Milorganite today, and I'm thinking I'll reseed the bare spots in the side yard sometime next week.



I was able to figure out what the tall bunch of green stuff growing was from my last post. It was wild garlic.

I've been pulling weeds by hand as I see them, but it would be a heck of a lot easier to be able to spray them with something. It's mostly just Crabgrass. Would I be able to spot spray it with some weed b gone from.a hose end sprayer in a week or 2 (makes the lawn 4-5 weeks old)?