[Gibby]

Read through lots of lawn journals this weekend and figured I would start one, but include most outdoor and DIY stuff too. We bought our house new in July of last year. However, by the time we found the house, everything was already built and installed, therefore I didn't get to choose any options like what kind of turf or how the sprinkler system was laid out and installed and the wife didn't get to choose no carpets upstairs or the color of the cabinets. We then turned our old house into a rental and it too has centipede, which is about 5,000sq/ft of turf total. All I do there is 2 apps of pre-emergent and 2 slow release synthetic fertilizer apps per year. Spring gets 15-0-15 and Fall gets 10-0-14. Now onto the good stuff.


Lawn/outdoor info:

[*] I have a 6 zone sprinkler system being ran by an Open Sprinkler controller.

Zones 1 through 5 are for the turf.
Zone 6 is a drip line that runs completely around the house for the mulched area.
I bought a rain gauge and used that so I knew how long it would take to put down 1" in each zone, except zone 6. Zone 6, I just adjust based on how the ornamentals look.
​

[*] I measured up 4 sections when calculating my square feet.

Side 1: ~600sq/ft
Side 2: ~600sq/ft
Front: ~1,500sq/ft
Back: ~7,600sq/ft​

[*] Out of the 4 sections, I treat them as 2, as they will be divided with a fence sometime in the future and I use 10,000sq/ft as my total.

Area 1 - Front and sides (~2,700sq/ft)
Area 2 - Back (~7,600sq/ft)​

[*] I have 2 hell strips which will be referred to as "hell strip" and "hell strip jr". Hell strip jr has a couple growing issues... More on that later.
​

2017
Summary of what I did in 2017:

1 app of Bifen LP
1 app of slow-release synthetic 15-0-15
2 apps of Milo
1 app of pre-emergent in the Fall​

February '18

Herbicides:

2/25/18 - Spread a 35# bag of Hi-Yield Weed and Grass Stopper with Dimension Herbicide
​

March '18

Celsius is the bomb! Spiked with MSM. Did first app as a spot spray with no tracker dye... Did 2nd app as a blanket app with tracker dye. And now all weeds are DEAD! :twisted: No issues caused to the turf. I would say within 12 hours of the 2nd Celsius app all the weeds turned brown.

Herbicides:

3/14/18 - Celsius spiked w/ MSM (spot spray)
3/28/18 - Celsius spiked w/ MSM (blanket app)
​

Mowing:

3/30/18 - Scalped at 2nd notch on my riding rotary. Only hit dirt 3 times in the backyard.
​

Other projects:

March 2018 - FIL made me a workbench for the garage.
March 2018 - FIL/BIL and I screened in our back porch. Mostly done by FIL, he is retired and my wife keeps putting him to work.
3/6/18 - Ordered a YT25E from Sprayers Plus. Love the battery option, hate the single shoulder strap.
3/24/18 - Removed all pinestraw and put down 10 yards of cypress mulch.
3/28/18 - Tried smoke bombing some moles with The Giant Destroyer, 4 tubes, 2 oz FAILED
​

April '18

Other projects:

4/3/18 - Got a Victor Out O'Sight Mole Trap and have been trying to trap the damn things since then with no luck.
4/5/18 - Picked this up from Lowe's for $566, normally $729. 5' x 8' Utility Trailer with Ramp Gate Going to build some sides for it and put in a wood floor.
4/8/18 - Staked out where the 16' x 16' patio will go. Going to remove the sod and place it in problem/thinning areas. Might rent a sod cutter to do this.
​

2018 Plans


Reno? Maybe... Probably not, but you never know:

Front:​

I really wanted to renovate the front yard this spring with sod, however the wife said probably not in the budget for this spring. :crying: Going to research how many pallets(500sq/ft) I would need if I decided to plug it instead, maybe. The 2 types of bermuda I am looking at are TifTuf and TifGrand. Still would like to find a place near me ~30 minutes where I can check these 2 types out at. The sod quotes I got for 5 pallets(front/sides ~ 2,500sq/ft) and delivery are:

TifTuf - $910
TifGrand - $760​

Back:

Still researching on what I want to do in the backyard. Centipede just doesn't hold up well to the beating that my kids give it. Wife would never OK the cost for sodding it, so I will have to look into options that can be seeded.​

Flattening:

I think I am going to roll the backyard this week(so many damn mole holes and stepping them down is taking FOREVER). Hopefully this is allow me to see the new tunnels easier. Found a place that rents equipment 5 miles away and they have a lawn roller for only $15/day.​

Aeration:

Hopefully this weekend or next, after the flattening is done, I am going to rent an aerator, mainly due to the compaction in the front, but I will do the whole yard. The same place 5 miles away has a pull behind and 2 different types of walk behind aerators.​

Leveling:

Hoping to tackle this the weekend of the 21st, depending on how much green-up I have. Since January, the lawn has greened up twice and then went back dormant due to the stupid weather. I called and got a quote for sand. $22/yard with a minimum of 2 yards. Delivery is $45, or if I order more than 7 yards, delivery is free. Probably will just order 10 yards.​

Fertilizer:

This year I plan on just doing Milorganite and skipping the synthetic fertilizers. Probably just 3 apps, but I will let the turf tell me when it is hungry.​

Herbicides:

Going to try Prodiamine as my pre-emergent, spring and fall apps. Will use Celsius, MSM and Sedgehammer when needed.​

Insecticides:

Already ordered Demand CS and will try blanket apps with it.​

Mower:

Going to keep my eyes open for a good deal on a reel for under $1,000. Also need to take the blades off my riding rotary and have them sharpened, bought them brand new towards the end of last year but have hit dirt and pine cones a handful of times.​

Sprayer:

Going to sell my YT25E, get a 4gal battery chapin backpack sprayer, and build a wand by @dfw_pilot​

Patio with firepit:

Now that it is staked out, just have to remove the sod and get to laying some pavers.​

Deck:

We will be building (FIL and I) a 12' x 16' ground level lower deck.​

Pictures:

Hellstrip:


Hellstrip jr:


Front:


Side 1:


Side 2:


Back:

 

[J_nick]

Nice write up Gibby :thumbup: although the DFW Wands are super bada$$ the wands that come with the Chapin battery sprayers are very good. I would save you're money and just buy some different style/GPM TeeJet tips to use with it.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

I'm guessing the "growing problem" on Hellstrip Jr. is vehicular grassicide?

 

[Gibby]

I'm guessing the "growing problem" on Hellstrip Jr. is vehicular grassicide?

Partially... it had a weed problem there and I overcame that, but then the grass went dormant and I keep telling my mom and wife to stop driving on it....

 

[Gibby]

I have my lawn roller and tow aerator reserved for Saturday, doing a late pickup so I don't have to return it until Monday morning and only have to pay the daily rate, but Sunday they are calling for thunderstorms and 1" of rain.
Tow lawn roller - $17/day (Only doing the backyard)
Tow aerator - $45/day

The neighbors yards have greened up much more than mine has, but I think that is due to my scalping. I have been holding off on fertilizing until I knew we would have any more cold/freeze fronts come through and I think we are clear of that so Milo will probably be going down this weekend. I was thinking of laying the fert down first, then lawn rolling the back and then aerating. The thinking is to push the milo down quicker. Thoughts?

Then next weekend do the leveling. Stopped 2 places this morning to get quotes and check out their sand quality.

Location A:
Washed Sand or Mason Sand- $32/ton both
Delivery is $35 and I would need to loads so they charge 2 delivery fees.
Did find they do free soil sampling and she gave me a handful of bags to use.

Location B:
Mason Sand - $22/yard
Delivery - 2 yard minimum, but for 10 yards it would be free delivery.

 

[Gibby]

So I contacted Super-Sod which is where the builder got the sod and they said a soil test should have been done prior to choosing the type of turf to put on my lot. From my soil test last year, my PH is way to high for centipede. I have contacted my builder and asked if they did a soil test or not. If not, I am going to ask them to amend my soil and replace the sod with something else on their dime.

 

[SGrabs33]

So I contacted Super-Sod which is where the builder got the sod and they said a soil test should have been done prior to choosing the type of turf to put on my lot. From my soil test last year, my PH is way to high for centipede. I have contacted my builder and asked if they did a soil test or not. If not, I am going to ask them to amend my soil and replace the sod with something else on their dime.

Good luck, I hope they help you out. Dealing with builders isn't usually fun. It sounds like you have a good case.

 

[Gibby]

So I contacted Super-Sod which is where the builder got the sod and they said a soil test should have been done prior to choosing the type of turf to put on my lot. From my soil test last year, my PH is way to high for centipede. I have contacted my builder and asked if they did a soil test or not. If not, I am going to ask them to amend my soil and replace the sod with something else on their dime.

Good luck, I hope they help you out. Dealing with builders isn't usually fun. It sounds like you have a good case.

I contacted them about some stumps they left in the yard covered with pine straw so we couldn't see them, and they are coming to take care of it in 2 weeks. I would say right now they are 50/50 on timeliness and correcting issues. We still have issues from closing that still are not fixed...

I think they are definitely going to have to amend the front and side 2 as I haven't found a grass that is supposed to be in a soil with PH's that high.

 

[Gibby]

The builder is giving me the run around, so I sent Super-Sod my soil test report and asked them for advice. They suggested the following:
1) Put down their Starter and Centipede Formulation (5-10-30 + Iron) at the bag rate of 10 lbs of product per 1000 sq/ft.
2) Do another soil test in 4 weeks
3) Work on correcting the high soil PH.

I did number #1 on their list on Friday. I have a handheld spreader that I use on the hell strips but it broke after doing hell strip jr. So I did the big hell strip by hand and might have been a touch heavy handed as I noticed what looked like some burning this morning.

For number 3, I see conflicting information on the effectiveness of trying to do this. The best option would be to remove XX inches of the soil layer and then bring in new soil. Since I already have a leveling project planned, I am going to try the following prior to the soil tests.
1) Get a walk behind aerator and do 2 passes 90 degrees apart.
2) Collect the cores from aerating and discard them.
3) When leveling fill in all the holes from aerating.

The leveling project might be pushed to next month sometime, instead of this coming weekend.

Also this weekend I did the following:
1) Rolled the back to smash down all the mole tunnels and this did an excellent job, I think I had a lot of abandoned tunnels that were still showing.
2) Aerated the back with a tow behind aerator. It did an OK job, but didn't feel comfortable doing the sides or front with it.
3) Tapped into the drip line, that wraps around the whole house for the landscaped areas, so it could water the flowers my wife put on the porch. I noticed the builder used the red drip tips which are 2.0GPH and that is what I used for the flowers. I had been watering for 30 minutes every 5 days which seemed to work well for what is planted already, however I think the flowers my wife planted will require a little more, so I am doing 30 minutes(1 gallon) every other day and will see how they do. I would rather put another dedicated drip line in for the flowers she plants each year but that might be a PIA to run another wire from where the valves are to the controller in the garage as they didn't put the controller on an outside wall. So I might switch out the drip tips that are in the landscaped areas to maybe 1.0GPH or less if I have to water the flowers more frequently.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

I'd suggest looking into the 1/4" drip tubing that I used to set up the micro irrigation for my planters. The tubing has emitters that you can get that are either 6" or 12" apart, and drip 0.8 GPH. Using this, I was able to design irrigation easily for each planter, and able to water everything in a short period. The emitter tubing is the brown lines. You can also get the 0.5 GPH droppers for large flowers, which is what I used on the petunias.

 

[Rackhouse Mayor]

So part of your problem with the grass not coming out of dormancy may be because you nailed it with Celsius+MSM during green up. That usually has me applying my first herbicides mid to late April.

In terms of soil acidity, I would try the easiest thing first: add some sulfur or sulfur-coated urea to your lawn.

 

[Gibby]

So part of your problem with the grass not coming out of dormancy may be because you nailed it with Celsius+MSM during green up. That usually has me applying my first herbicides mid to late April.

In terms of soil acidity, I would try the easiest thing first: add some sulfur or sulfur-coated urea to your lawn.

I was just wondering that today because of the crazy weather, it was mostly greened up when I applied it but then we had a freeze again and it went back to sleep.

 

[Guest]

I agree about applying the Celsius and MSM during greenup. I spot sprayed some areas with just msm and it is a little slower than other areas in my yard. Also if you're going to level your yard, centipede is very very slow growing. Just know going in it won't recover as fast as the lawns you see here with Bermuda.

 

[Gibby]

I agree about applying the Celsius and MSM during greenup. I spot sprayed some areas with just msm and it is a little slower than other areas in my yard. Also if you're going to level your yard, centipede is very very slow growing. Just know going in it won't recover as fast as the lawns you see here with Bermuda.

I was going to hit with heavy Milo to help it grow

 

[Gibby]

Ordered some Elemental Sulfur and Citric Acid here is to hoping to lowering my PH a little bit.

My grass is still hibernating... all the neighbors grass have mostly woken up

 

[Gibby]

So when using Citric Acid to lower PH don't forget to schedule all the zones you sprayed the CA on or 8 hours later this happens.

 

[jayhawk]

The last picture....lot of circles....could that be a fungus?
For 'fun' u could redo the hellstrip if you can find a place that sells sod by the piece.

 

[Gibby]

The last picture....lot of circles....could that be a fungus?
For 'fun' u could redo the hellstrip if you can find a place that sells sod by the piece.

I actually just cut sod and cut put some in there but there is a place about 3 miles away that sells it by the piece or the roll. Trying to convince the wife I killed it all and allow me to redo the front completely.

I don't even know what to look for if it is fungus.

 

[Gibby]

Does/can centipede hibernate for a year? lol

Not the best quality but you can see the difference in green.

 

[Gibby]

I think the front finally started to wake up...