In 2016, we had been pretty happy with the front lawn. Even though it was a northern mix, our front lawn had excellent color, was thick, and earned us the reputation on the street as "the people with 'the lawn.'" Just mowing, fertilizing, and controlling weeds was a sufficient hobby.

Below: front lawn on 2016-09-07:

However, what we hadn't anticipated would be the devastation caused by the truck that delivered our new septic tank getting stuck in the soft soil of our front lawn on 2016-10-05:

Due to the late date in the fall of the septic tank installation (October 5th) combined with our comparatively early autumn in New Hampshire (our average first frost is September 26th), we weren't able to get much new seed established before the winter of 2016-17.

Our seed-down date was October 11th:

And we had the first of many autumn hard frosts just four days later on October 15th:

 

What we didn't realize at the time was that somewhen during the next six months, maybe due to our very late fall "germination watering," or maybe our spring sowing of more seed in that area along with early spring watering and no pre-emergent on those areas of the front lawn, that poa trivialis found its way into our front lawn.

It didn't look so bad from the street, but there were some pretty significant poa trivialis patches. They're not easy to see in the photo below, but if you look carefully, you can see the light green patches in quite a few places near the large tree in the middle of the lawn.

Knowing that the only way to get rid of the poa trivialis permanently was spraying with glyphosate, that's exactly what we did:

Interestingly enough, about a week after spraying glyphosate on the poa trivialis patches and an area about 8 inches further around the patch, the "good grass" looks quite dead, but the poa trivialis takes a fair bit longer to succumb to the glyphosate:

 

Looking forward to this! Best of luck!

 

At this point, you're probably wondering what in the world we were going to do about all those dead patches?

Well, another project we'd had in mind was to remedy recurring challenges with maintaining the grass immediately against the roadside. We have pretty harsh winters here in NH, at least compared to most of the USA. (But quite similar to those those in Minnesota, Michigan, and the Adirondacks in New York.) The last couple feet of lawn nearest the road suffers from snowplow and salt damage every spring. We had tried maintaining turf all the way to the edge of the asphalt, but it was a losing battle.

Below: Roadside edge next to driveway on 2017-10-04.

Below: Far roadside edge on 2017-10-04.

Quite a few years earlier, on the short roadside edge on the other side of our driveway, we had laid a border of cobblestones (more accurately, Belgian block) to separate the lawn from the road, with a sacrificial dirt/gravel "nitpack" area between the cobblestones and the road which would just remain a "shoulder" that is free of vegetation.

We liked the way this looked and found that it wasn't too difficult to keep the grass growing right up to the cobblestone edge. Each winter, road salt/sand would end up in the sacrificial area which would make it a pretty inhospitable environment for weeds. A little bit of hand weeding or glyphosate kept that "sand & gravel" area looking desolately bleak.

Below: Laying the cobblestone road border on the other side of the driveway in 2014.

Below: The short cobblestone road border in 2017.

 

Our plan was to use the sod from the roadside edge to fill all the now-killed poa trivialis patches in the lawn.

To do that, we rented a sod cutter to cut out the long strip of sod along the road for the length of our road frontage, and to cut the dead sod out of all the poa trivialis patches.

However, while we were at it, we also wanted to fix a "too-high" area along the road that wasn't graded properly when the front lawn was renovated in 2013. The plan for this area was to lower that section of lawn by cutting the sod off the top, then excavating a couple inches of soil, and finally putting the sod back again. One would think that isn't too difficult of a task with a sod cutter, but it turned out to be a lot more work than we envisioned!

 

However, what we had not anticipated was that we had too many poa trivialis patches! The sod we cut out from the roadside border wasn't enough to fill in all the dead spots.

In hindsight, this turned out to be a good thing, as we ended up having two different approaches for battling the poa trivialis:

1 - spray glyphosate on dead patch, replace with transplanted sod, or

2 - spray glyphosate on dead patch, allow to "fallow" until next year.​

We ended up learning that either approach worked, except that "option 1" resulted in a repaired poa trivialis patch by the end of the following spring which was practically indistinguishable from the rest of the lawn. We've since decided that this will be our technique for dealing with future poa trivialis patches, but more on that later...

 

We then spent a lot of the remaining time before winter laying cobblestones. We knew we would love the way this would turn out as we had done the other side of the driveway a few years prior. However, this was a huge investment of time.

Ken is quite detail-oriented, so getting each cobblestone properly straight, level, and set on a firm-packed base so that it won't shift excessively during a New Hampshire winter took about 10 minutes each.

 

There ended up being 164 cobblestones in that line of blocks.

Ken didn't get the last one set in place until the 2nd of December.

 

If you did that around here the snow plow would have them all rolled up in the yard lol.

 

These photos record the condition of the lawn on the last day before spraying glyphosate.

The lawn shows a lot of summer stress as we'd neglected the lawn a fair bit in the month or so leading up to this time because we knew we'd be killing it all off...

We are planning to regularly capture these three views during the course of the renovation.

Mailbox View as of 2018-07-27:

Lamp Post View as of 2018-07-27:

Far End as of 2018-07-27:

 

This is the "day of no return." The evening before, I had cut the lawn to a 3.25" height - one notch (a half-inch) lower than the height at which I had been maintaining the lawn during July.

Killing off the lawn is a bittersweet occasion.

 

If you did that around here the snow plow would have them all rolled up in the yard lol.

Yup!

That is a real concern. After the ground is frozen hard, they're not going anywhere, even if the plow blade hits them -- the blade will just ride up on top of them.

However, before the ground is frozen, any granite blocks that are above grade are vulnerable to being disturbed by the plow. Our solution to that was to put "driveway markers" a few inches outside of the cobblestones. (Between the blocks and the road.) The plow operators in Bedford seem to be very good -- they will plow within an inch or two of the markers but (usually) avoid them.

 

Three days after the glyphosate was sprayed, I did an initial lowering of the height-of-cut from the pre-glyphosate height of 3.25" to a height of 2.25" as there would be a lot of grass to remove and I didn't want to take it all off in one go, as I've had trouble with that in the past.

Notice how the effects of the glyphosate are more pronounced in the sunnier areas. Even though the grass in the shade is just as doomed as that in the sun, the grass browns more quickly in the sunny spots.

Mailbox View as of 2018-07-31:

Lamp Post View as of 2018-07-31:

Far End as of 2018-07-31:

 

Five days after the glyphosate, death's irreversible approach is unmistakeable.

Dying grass sure stripes nice, though!

Mailbox View as of 2018-08-02:

Lamp Post View as of 2018-08-02:

Far End as of 2018-08-02:

 

Following the prior set of photos, our family went on vacation for a couple weeks. When we returned, the dead grass had become matted down too much in order to easily scalp it at our planned 1.25" cut height.

We first "fluffed up" the matted grass using a leaf blower for most of the lawn. In some particularly stubborn areas, we needed to resort to using a rake to fluff up the grass which had been matted down with nearly 5" of thunderstorms in the prior two weeks. After fluffing the grass up, we scalped it all down to a 1.25" height in preparation for seeding.

Over the course of the next couple days, we shaved the topsoil off some high areas and used it to fill in some low spots to make the lawn surface a little more level.

 

At long last -- about 10 months after spraying glyphosate on the poa trivialis patches, it's finally seed-down day!

Today we started out by making an additional pass of glyphosate on any areas which seemed like they may have had some just-germinating weeds. Spread a 50/50 Bewitched/Prosperity seed blend across the entire front lawn, rolled in the seed, sprayed Tenacity at a 4oz/acre rate (0.55tsp/ksqft), spread peat moss on the bare soil areas, and started "germination watering" to just wet the top surface of the soil six times a day (at 7:30am, 10am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, and 6:30pm.)

Now the waiting begins with prayers that any summer thunderstorms and accompanying downpours stay away from us for at least 7 days and hopefully 10-14 days!

Mailbox View as of 2018-08-26:

Lamp Post View as of 2018-08-26:

Far End as of 2018-08-26:

Airplane Rock as of 2018-08-26:

 

Nice. Nothing like killing off the best lawn in the neighbourhood. Looking forward to updates on how it goes for you. Love the pavers that you installed too. Great idea to deal with the problem with the snow plow.

 

I can already tell this thread is going to be epic. Best of luck Ken-n-Nancy, I'm definitely following this one.

 

This is going to be good. Following!

 

We now have baby grass!

Baby Grass on 2018-08-31:

Germination is really only visible in a few of the areas that had the most peat moss - presumably those areas retained moisture better than areas without the peat moss coverage. The bulk of the lawn did not have peat moss applied, but is instead relying upon the dead, scalped grass to provide some moisture retention. We've had success with that approach in the past, but it's always a bit nerve-wracking to be sowing seed into dead grass, never being quite sure if the seed is getting the right conditions to germinate.

I can't see any significant germination in the areas of old, dead grass, but am hoping there is some germination going on there that just can't be seen under the old grass.

With seasonably cool temperatures in the forecast for the coming Labor Day weekend (daytime highs in the 70s and overnight lows in the 50s) hopefully we'll get more germination and maybe enough growth from the baby grass that we'll be able to see those tender, young blades peeking up above the old, brown grass!

Below are the standard photos from this morning...

Mailbox View as of 2018-08-31:

Lamp Post View as of 2018-08-31:

Far End as of 2018-08-31:

 

Nice. Nothing like killing off the best lawn in the neighbourhood. Looking forward to updates on how it goes for you. Love the pavers that you installed too. Great idea to deal with the problem with the snow plow.

Thanks for the encouragement for the thread and the appreciation of the granite blocks. They were a lot of work but we like the way they look and they've held up well where we've installed them previously.

I can already tell this thread is going to be epic. Best of luck Ken-n-Nancy, I'm definitely following this one.

This is going to be good. Following!

Oh boy, now the pressure's on to keep regular updates coming and hopefully have this renovation turn out to be a success!

In our prior renovations, washout from thunderstorms has been the bane of our efforts. Today is now the 7th day since seed-down, and, thankfully, still no rain. Yay!

If we can have 7 more days with no rain, we'll have no excuses!

 

Wow you guys have been busy! Looking forward to how this turns out. I know you've had challenges in the past - disease, damage etc. I'm hoping for a smooth sailing reno for you guys this time.

 

We were away for a 4-day Labor Day weekend, during which we trusted upon the automatic sprinkler system to take care of the baby grass and continuing seed germination. One of the first things Ken wanted to do, even with our 9pm return, was to rush outside with a flashlight and check to see how germination coverage is doing on the lawn! Seems hopeful!

Even more importantly, when we returned from our mini-vacation, we found that the rain gauge was still bone dry! No washouts so far this year! (Our past renovations have all endured significant washouts to complicate matters.) We've been very blessed by no rain in the 10 days since seed-down. Definitely a longer-than-average dry spell for late August in NH which has come at the perfect time for our front lawn renovation.

Coverage is looking pretty good. We clearly have good coverage in the previously bare areas. We seem to have pretty good germination in the thinner dead grass areas. It's hard to tell if we have good germination coverage in the thicker dead grass areas -- can't really tell if there's baby grass growing in there that just hasn't grown tall enough to get above the old dead grass, or if there's poor germination there. In any case, we'll just have to keep waiting and praying!

Wow you guys have been busy! Looking forward to how this turns out. I know you've had challenges in the past - disease, damage etc. I'm hoping for a smooth sailing reno for you guys this time.

Thanks for the encouragement -- if our reno produces half the results that your spring renovation has this year, we'll be in great shape!

Now, the photos. First, a close-up of one of the bare spots, and then the standard three photos. It's easier to see the grass in the previously-bare areas, as the light green baby grass doesn't show up as well against the tan background of the old dead grass.

Closeup of Previously Bare Patch on 2018-09-04:

Mailbox View as of 2018-09-04:

Lamp Post View as of 2018-09-04:

Far End as of 2018-09-04:

 

Oh yeah, it's happening now! :banana:

 

We're now just one day shy of 2 weeks. The "no rain" weather conditions have continued, although the last three days have been hot and humid for September in New Hampshire -- three days of highs in the low 90s, with overnight temps around 70F with a dew point around 70F, too! We did receive about 0.05 inches of natural rain last night, but that's really not enough to even count. So thankful that we've not had to deal with any washout issues this time around!

It's nice taking the photos every few days, as it helps us be encouraged with progress, and also lets us compare our status to that of prior awesome KBG renovations. (Yes @Pete1313, we're thinking of you!) Being able to compare what our lawn looks like now compared to what Pete's looked like at about the same time (Day 15 at https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=436&start=220#p18020) is helpful to provide a reference point. In sum, it seems like we're on a similar pace, which is VERY encouraging to us!

It's still hard to tell if we have good germination coverage in the thicker dead grass areas -- we're going to presume that the new baby grass is there, nestled down in the old grass, partly because we don't know what we could do about it at this time anyway -- if the dead grass is too thick in those areas and has impeded germination, then just broadcasting more seed now over the top won't really help without clearing out more of the old dead grass, and there's no way we could clear out the old grass without killing any new baby grass that has germinated in those places! So, we're just going to stay the course that we're on, because the other options are all so unpalatable.

In any case, on to the photos...

Mailbox View as of 2018-09-07 (Day 13):

Lamp Post View as of 2018-09-07 (Day 13):

Far End as of 2018-09-07 (Day 13):