Fall 2021 - Morning Pics

These pics were taken about 1.5 months after my last post. I've hit the lawn hard with fertilizer since the second half of September.


A few small 6in sections in between the sidewalk and the street that died over the summer were reseeded. Could have been a watering issue, dog pee or more buried debris. I also blanket overseeded about a 1ksqft area to fix the dead urine spots in the backyard.


This is the area where the cement debris was dug up. The grass came in well; though, it struggled in September due to higher temps and little precipitation. The edge was reseeded in some areas. It needs to be cut soon.




I killed and reseeded a strip of old grass from when the house was built. Kind of hard to tell but my shadow intersects the strip.


Back slope came out of dormancy just fine but I did miss a square section with fertilizer back in September. That area appeared more dormant until about a week or two ago.


Some slight erosion on the neighbor's side of the hill. This is nothing new. Since it has little grass and mostly weeds, the bare soil spots tend to continually erode up and into my side of the lawn. I will probably buy a couple bags of dirt and throw down some seed and straw today or tomorrow. It's late but better than nothing.


Larger view. My back neighbors don't care about their hill.


An occasional mowing is the only real difference between my back neighbor's part of the hill and the weedy lot.

Erosion, significant weed pressure (6 foot tall weeds in the summer full of who knows what) and now common bermuda are issues that I continually deal with from adjacent lots.

 

Any thoughts to integrating some KBG? I'm in KC and deal with the same issues as you and my KBG seems to survive everything from fungus, grubs, heat, etc. It may look bad from the damage but when the heat breaks and rain comes, the KBG heals crazy fast and looks like nothing ever happened without having to reseed.

 

@badtlc, how much/often do you irrigate?

I had considered seeding a KBG test plot but decided against it since I figured it wouldn't hold up well due to minimal irrigation over the summer (let the grass go dormant but water enough to keep it alive). I closely followed ksturfguy's test plots over the last two years and overall the KBG didn't seem to handle the summers as well as the TTTF under minimal care/irrigation conditions. Now, the KBG in his lawn that receives more TLC and partial shading looks great.

My situation is FULL sun from sunrise to sunset (no fence, no mature trees - it's an open field), transition zone weather and a minimal care/irrigation mindset. I get annoyed just having to move the sprinklers around a handful of times throughout August and September. Even if I had an irrigation system, I wouldn't use it for the purpose of keeping the lawn green. I can't/won't use water for that purpose alone. It's not a money issue.

I don't think my situation would equal a prosperous KBG mixed lawn but I could very well be wrong. Again, I'd go the test plot route. Kill a 10x20 ft section and give it a go. I don't know how successful integrating KBG into an already fully established TTTF lawn would be.

With all of that said, I have recently learned of a grass that does extremely well under my lawn conditions and that is common bermuda. My neighbor has it in his lawn and it keeps trying to infiltrate mine. At first I hated it but I'm beginning to somewhat admire it. I appreciate plants, trees, grasses etc that do well in their environments with minimal care and this grass appears to be king. I'm going to keep battling it for now but I may convert in the future. Going to think about this possibility for a good while before making any major change.

 

If you are thinking Bermuda, consider Tahoma 31 for your area.

 

@badtlc, how much/often do you irrigate?

I had considered seeding a KBG test plot but decided against it since I figured it wouldn't hold up well due to minimal irrigation over the summer (let the grass go dormant but water enough to keep it alive). I closely followed ksturfguy's test plots over the last two years and overall the KBG didn't seem to handle the summers as well as the TTTF under minimal care/irrigation conditions. Now, the KBG in his lawn that receives more TLC and partial shading looks great.

My situation is FULL sun from sunrise to sunset (no fence, no mature trees - it's an open field), transition zone weather and a minimal care/irrigation mindset. I get annoyed just having to move the sprinklers around a handful of times throughout August and September. Even if I had an irrigation system, I wouldn't use it for the purpose of keeping the lawn green. I can't/won't use water for that purpose alone. It's not a money issue.

I don't think my situation would equal a prosperous KBG mixed lawn but I could very well be wrong. Again, I'd go the test plot route. Kill a 10x20 ft section and give it a go. I don't know how successful integrating KBG into an already fully established TTTF lawn would be.

With all of that said, I have recently learned of a grass that does extremely well under my lawn conditions and that is common bermuda. My neighbor has it in his lawn and it keeps trying to infiltrate mine. At first I hated it but I'm beginning to somewhat admire it. I appreciate plants, trees, grasses etc that do well in their environments with minimal care and this grass appears to be king. I'm going to keep battling it for now but I may convert in the future. Going to think about this possibility for a good while before making any major change.

I water every 3-4 days. When it is over 90F, i have to do 3 days. When it is 80-90F i can go about 4-5 days. When it is less than 85F I can water once every 7 days.

I dont think i'd recommend 100% KBG for you but the KBG won't die during the summer. It is more drought tolerant than TTTF when it comes to going dormant. It might go dormant a bit sooner than TTTF but not by much.

I was just wondering if you had considered adding some small amount when you overseed so that during the spring and fall the KBG will fill in the thin spots that come with TTTF. It would possibly reduce the need to overseed every fall but if you are going to overseed every fall anyway then it doesn't matter.

 

@g-man, thanks for the suggestion. I will look into it. A bermuda lawn has been teeter tottering on my mind for some time, but I don't know how truly serious I am about it. Do I really want to renovate to a different season grass? Sometimes I think I'm wearing rose-colored glasses when it comes to my vision of a "low maintenance" bermuda lawn. I'll probably cautiously watch this grass engulf my neighbor's yard over the next summer or two and see what I think about its appearance, growth habit, dormancy, etc.

Regarding cultivars, I thought stick with the common variety since my neighbor and his neighbor on the opposite side both have it uninhibitedly spreading throughout their lawns. That's the main reason. I wouldn't want to choose a cultivar that can't complete with the common variety or has a distinctly different look in appearance. Makes me think of the continual battles I read about with poa annua/trivialis in elite kbg lawns. I'd rather just give in and stick with the lighter green grass. That last sentence could come back to haunt me in the future.

@badtlc, I get what you're saying. Hmm, if my lawn is going to go dormant anyway, and KBG is more drought tolerant than TTTF, then why not incorporate it into the yard? This could work quite well in the small, specific areas where my dog urinates. Could this be done with sod plugs? I'd transplant plugs right onto the nuked urine spots. There is a sod farm 10 miles from here that sells Barenburg HGT. Each 2x5ft roll is $2-3 bucks. I don't see how this would be any different than seeding since it would eventually fill the bare spots regardless. Seems like I'd save a lot of time and effort. Thoughts?

 

Tahoma 31 is more cold tolerant than common and less of a pain. Many football fields use it. I know of a nice one near Columbus, Ohio.

 

@badtlc, I get what you're saying. Hmm, if my lawn is going to go dormant anyway, and KBG is more drought tolerant than TTTF, then why not incorporate it into the yard? This could work quite well in the small, specific areas where my dog urinates. Could this be done with sod plugs? I'd transplant plugs right onto the nuked urine spots. There is a sod farm 10 miles from here that sells Barenburg HGT. Each 2x5ft roll is $2-3 bucks. I don't see how this would be any different than seeding since it would eventually fill the bare spots regardless. Seems like I'd save a lot of time and effort. Thoughts?

With an existing yard, yes, your plan would probably be easiest. KBG seeds are slow to germinate. So trying to plant seeds with existing TTTF grass growing and blocking the sun can make it hard to get good KBG germination. Doing plugs should take rather easy when it isn't hot outside.

Barenburg KBG varieties are supposed to be great for the midwest, too.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/fieldsourceohio/status/1285342773760143360

 

Spring 2022 - Minimal lawncare. Greater emphasis on gardening and landscaping.

This spring has flown by and I haven't had time to update the journal. In late March or early April, I applied Lesco Stonewall 0.68% 0-0-7 as a preemergent and Milorganite at ~0.5lb per 1ksqft. Yesterday, Scott's Weed and Feed was put down at the suggested rate. The lawn gets mowed about once a week at 3 inches. No stripe kit, just regular mowing so far. Pics were taken over the last two days. This year my focus has been more geared toward landscaping and gardening.

This section of the front garden consists of two wine and rose weigelas (large pink flowered bushes); four hostas surrounding a little lime hydrangea in the back center; three clumps of leafy day lilies up front and four small multicolored geraniums in between them.

Wine and rose weigela

Sunny knock out rose bush surrounded by two day lilies. Black eyed susans were recently planted on both ends. Hard to see since they are small.





Hostas




4x8 ft and 17 inches tall. Raised garden bed by Vego. Eye bolts were installed around the top to protect the plants with plastic lattices, which are secured by bamboo sticks, during storms and high winds.

 

Summer 2022 - Severe Drought and Heat Stress

Total precipitation since June 1st for my area is 3.75 inches, based upon nearby Columbia Regional Airport data. 2.61 inches in June and 1.14 inches so far in July.

I have heavily watered the front yard and backyard hill area twice and once almost everywhere else. By now, I probably should have manually irrigated 4-6 times but I've been sidetracked with a kid medical emergency and a couple other time consuming issues so the yard hasn't received much attention.

The forecast calls for rain over the next four days and temperatures to drop into the 80-90s, so I'm curious to see how the grass responds over the next week.

Back

Back

Front

Hellstrip

Left Side

Right Side

On a positive note, the neighbor's invasive common bermuda still looks nice and green. This grass in ridiculous.

 

I hope the little one is OK. If you have time to get back to lawn care...

I'm looking for a silver lining for you:

• with rain predicted, it would be good if you could lightly irrigate most areas to keep the soil from being bone dry, so it accepts the rainfall (unlike a dry sponge in which it would runoff)

• one area that I would not irrigate would be the areas with devil grass. If your TTTF is completely dormant, you might be able to put a hurtin' on it with low dose of glyphosate.
  There's also another herbicide others use that I can't recall the name. If you're interested, there are threads on the subject on TLF

• while you're waiting for the grass to grow,
  sharpen your blades, change the oil on the mower and other maintenance, and get your fall game plan together

 

​

Summer 2022 - Drought Recovery and Front Yard TTTF/KBG Reno Prep

@Chris LI, thank you for the comments.

I let the lawn go dormant every year but this summer has been more worrisome due to not keeping up with the manual watering. Luckily, it has rained a few times over the last three weeks (about two inches total) and the temps have been down so the yard is beginning to recover. This is why I love TTTF in the transition zone: it has amazing resiliency toward heat and drought conditions while receiving minimal care.

Right side facing the front yard

Back Yard

Regarding the bermuda, I've been closely following the "bermuda control options in TTTF" thread. I'm jacked to the tits loaded up with Fusillade, Triclopyr, NIS, and a roundup product with Topramezone in it. My neighbor and I plan on attacking it soon. If we get any improvement by next fall, then I'll keep at it. If not, then a reno along the lot line with the glyphosate tolerant, Tarnation GT TTTF, will be considered or we may simply have to move.

About the front yard, I've decided to kill it for multiple reasons. It's the only section of lawn that hasn't been renovated, so of course it needs to be killed. The sod cultivars are unknown and it tends to go dormant faster than anywhere else despite oftentimes getting more water and care. Also, it's the bumpiest section and needs 2-3 cu yds of topsoil to level it out. Thus, I'm using this opportunity to plant a variety of elite new cultivars from Stover Seeds' New Millennia mix, which contains 34% 4th Millennium SRP, 33% Traverse 2 SRP and 33% Titanium 2LS. 10% Midnight KBG will also be added to the mix. I'm excited since this will be my first time growing KBG. Only the front main section and hellstrip (~1800sq ft) are being renovated. The left side of the yard on the opposite side of the driveway will stay as is for now. This is a test run. I plan to highly maintain it, not reel mow level but keep it at a shorter hoc and try to avoid dormancy throughout summer. The rest of the lawn will be maintained at the usual Tier 1 level.

I'm behind on time but the plan is to have the area leveled with topsoil and seed down by mid next week. Don't know how I want to cover the seed yet. Usually it's a light coat of peat moss covered by straw erosion nets. This has worked so well for me in the past at keeping everything in place during unexpected storms but my concern is they may choke out some sections of baby grass. I'd have to carefully remove them after a certain period of time. The area has a minimal slope and the gutters will be redirected elsewhere to prevent channels of water if a heavy storm where to occur so it may not be a big deal. Will have to think about this more.

Hellstrip is mostly dead.
Hellstrip

Just resprayed with glyphosate and blue turf dye.


Tags
I bought the KBG through Walmart.com. Sold and shipped by OutsidePride Seeds. It was $34.99 with free shipping whereas it's over $40 for me on their website. Their 5 and 10lb bags are a little cheaper via Walmart. New Millenia TTTF blend was purchased through Ryan Knorr's website.

 

Late Summer 2022 - Fall Reno Underway

It took two evenings with a roller, landscape rake and leveling tool to moderately level the area with ~2.5 cubic yards of topsoil. It's being watered to help the soil settle and to germinate any weed seeds. I will smooth out any dips over the next day or two.



Need to carefully respray glyphosate around the tree.




Another ~2.5 yards left over for topdressing and filling in low spots throughout the rest of the lawn.


Test Pots
The red pot is TTTF and the black is KBG. Germination took 5 days for the TTTF and 6 days for the KBG.

 

@moedank My front yard reno is pure 4th Millenium TTTF. I didn't test, just trusted the seed and preparation and had sprouts in 6 days too. A week later and nearly the entire yard is filled with new grass. I think you're really going to like that TTTF blend.

 

@SeanW78, your reno is looking good. May the weather be in your favor. 4th Millennium is a great cultivar. I'm excited to see how it along with the other fescues/KBG mix compares to my Jonathan Green and GCI sections.

Finished everything two days ago so now it's watering and checking the weather forecast several times a day. The 10 day forecast initially showed rain Sunday through Wednesday. That has since changed to only Monday afternoon, which is a relief. Monday will be the test to see how Pennington slopemaster's mulch tackifier holds up.

Not everything went without issue. The KBG seed was hard to spread evenly, even in 4mph wind. I did alright with a Scotts wizz hand spreader. The first 400sqft was sprayed slightly heavy with Tenacity but it should be fine.

Slopemaster and peat moss over the soil and seed.




After this image was taken, I thinned out the mulch tackifier to make it less dense in certain sections. Not too concerned since I've seen grass literally lift up thick straw sections in erosion blankets.


Test pots
9 days for TTTF (red) and 10 days for KBG (black) since being planted.

 

Storms All Around

Reno destroying storms have danced within one mile of the house these last two days. I was certain a storm was going to hit today so a downspout was redirected to pour on the driveway instead of exiting out of an inground drain. I also reluctantly utilized my plan B and threw out/watered in some EZ straw on the slightly sloped sections. This stuff contains a small amount of weeds, mostly annual stuff that is easy to pull up. The storm ended up arcing northwest around me.

Yesterday evening


Earlier today

 

Germination!

There were some sporadic baby grass blades yesterday. This morning counts as the first day of mass visible germination, so 6 days post seed down. Now I need to make sure my watering and any fungicide treatments are on point over the next two weeks. The weather is supposed to warm up (upper 80s to low 90s) over the next several days with little chance for rain. Knock on wood, can't complain.

 

4 days post germination. There is a section near the house that appears to be lagging 1-2 days behind but up close there are a bunch of baby grass blades. I hope it will look like the rest of the yard in a couple of days.




It's mostly weed free except for a few of these:

 

I ended up lightly tossing seed and peat moss over the thinner areas that could be reached by hand without stepping on the grass. Nothing heavy just a light sprinkling. In hindsight, probably wasn't needed.

6 days post germination.








Test pots seeded on 8/18.
8/27


9/05
TTTF 13 days and KBG 12 days post germination.


The KBG pot was slightly damaged from one of my kids overwatering it and throwing a stuffed animal on top. Seems to have recovered well. The fescue looks ready to be mowed but I wouldn't want to walk on the fragile looking KBG just yet.

 

Noticed a few patches of bent over grass in the hellstrip. Humidity has been up with overnight temps in the upper 60s. Don't know if this is fungus related or not but decided to spray propiconazole at the new seedling rate. The grass hasn't reached the 2 to 3 leaf stage yet so taking a risk by applying early. If it handles the treatment well, then the rest of the reno will be sprayed in a couple of days.

 

17 days after seeding.





Had a good rainstorm lastnight. Sprinklers have been turned off for now. I hope to manually reel mow at two inches on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then, 1) fertilize; 2) spray fungicide since it wasn't done earlier in the week due to the ground being too soft; and 3) lightly overseed any areas with KBG that don't appear to have any baby grass emerging.

 

Fungus in the Reno!

Got a heavy rain a couple nights ago and was waiting for the ground to dry up so I could safely walk on it to spray fungicide. The areas that received 2-3 inches of topsoil tend to take the longest to dry up.

I waited too long and noticed several of these spots this evening. Along with the rain came cooler temps, lows in the lower 50s and highs in the 70s, so I was surprised to see these spots since my attention has been focused toward later in the week when it gets warmer.

The hellstrip that was sprayed a few days prior shows zero signs of fungus, so I'm guessing the propiconazole stopped it. I did spray the rest of the reno and also applied Scott's Disease Ex at the curative rate just to be safe. I will water in the azoxystrobin in the morning and not water for the rest of the day. Will closely assess over the next fews days and reseed wherever needed. It will be sunny with highs in the 80s over the next several days.

Cut at 2 inches with a manual reel.

 

Haven't updated the reno for well over a week. The low germination areas are filling in. HOC has been 2 inches. 0.3lb per 1ksqft of Scott's Lawn fertilizer was put down a few days ago. Too scared to spray urea since I'm still new to foliar nitrogen applications. Weeds have been periodically pulled up.

 

The lawn hasn't been mowed in a few weeks. It probably could have gotten one last cut but didn't get around to it. There were a decent amount of broadleaf plantain weeds that were spot sprayed twice with Q4 Plus. Some annual grassy weeds from the EZ straw also popped up but they were easy to spot and pull up. I'll deal with sporadic annual weeds from straw over a washout any day. I've never had ongoing weed issues in areas that had EZ straw or straw erosion blankets.