[ReelWILawn]

Just as everything was filling in nicely, growth and color were good, it was coming to an end. The last two weeks in October were probably the peak for this lawn reno. The photos don't always do it justice, but I was happy with how everything came together. One of the final mows for the year on the 30th and had it looking the best I could for Halloween. Received numerous questions from trick-or-treaters and their parents: Is this real grass? This has to be fake! How did you do it? How do you cut it so low. Some even mentioned my yard sign and said they've been checking in regularly to see my progress.

Day 77- October 30th 2021

 

[Wile]

The yard is really coming along. I'm tired just thinking about all the work you did to get the beds, deck and everything else in. Looks superb!

 

[ReelWILawn]

@Ben4Birdies sorry I did not answer the second part of your question regarding winter damage. It was a strange winter in WI this year. A lot less snow than normal resulting in not having the snow cover we would normally see. The upside is that we had zero snow mold issues this year. The flipside, the grass did not look great coming out of winter. Areas that had little to no snow cover were very thin and have taken the longest to green up and those areas are just starting to fill back in.

 

[ReelWILawn]

Thanks @Wile ! Yes it has been a lot of work :lol: Everything was carefully planned and timed with the lawn renovation. And in the interest of getting this lawn journal caught up I decided to really only focus on the lawn portion. But still working on everything else. We had a few plants and arbs die that we are in the process of replacing.

 

[ReelWILawn]

I mentioned this before, I believe one of the important things to do during your lawn reno is to document everything. Who knows, you might be so busy that you dont get to posting your journal until the follwing spring :? But if you're anything like me you will be watching out your window what seems like every hour to see if anything changed. Having photos taken from roughly the same spot will help you see the progess and hopefully calm your nerves. Growing in KBG takes patience. If your reno doesn't go exactly to plan, hang in there.

Day 1

Day 21

Day 42

Day 63

Day 1

Day 21

Day 42

Day 63

Day 1

Day 21

Day 42

Day 63

Day 1

Day 21

Day 42

Day 63

 

[ReelWILawn]

The days grew shorter and colder. Received the first real frost on November 3rd. To be fair, the grass was starting to shut down for the year around Halloween but this would be it for the season. These would be the last weekly photos I would document for the season. There were challenges and a few areas that did not grow in well or were thin due to the heavy rains I received in August and September. But overall I was happy how everything turned out. Now I would just need to wait about 6 months before I could mow again.

Day 84 - November 6th 2021

 

[ReelWILawn]

November came and went. As we moved into the holiday Christmas season I had accpeted lawn season had long since finished. I was beginning to start researching topics, reading, and looking for new equipment and products for the upcoming year. About a week before Christmas, we received a "present" from the eletric and gas company...... 'extensive digging will take place in your property sometime in early January'

January 3rd 2022

Just when I was starting to forget about all the bad luck and misfortunes, it was decdided I had not yet received enough. How it works in my neighborhood, the gas mains are located on the non sidewalk sides of the street located about 10 feet front the street. The new house across the street needed to be hooked up to the gas mains. First unlucky thing I found out after I called the electric/gas company was that this specific proprety did not have an initial hook up to be accessed to on their side of the street. Second, their house buliding plans or more specifically what side their garage was decided to be built. All the homes in my neighborhood have their gas and electric meters on the non garage side of the house (second unlucky thing for me). So because their home did not have the initial gas line to tee into and what side their garage was on I was told they would need to access the main in my front yard..... If their garage just happened to be on the opposite side, the digging would have taken place in my neighbors' yard

January 13th 2022
Today was the day. Just like the washouts and heavy downpours, I could not do anything about it. Was I upset, mad, angry? Heck yes! But I also accepted what was going to happen. Maybe I did receive some 'luck' if you can even call it that. With the ground being frozen they use a different process during the winter months instead of an excavator and bulldozers. What is used to cut the hole and access the main line is what they called a 'vac truck'. Bascially it uses very high pressure water that pretty much disintegrates all the froze soil, dirt, rock, etc and then sludge is vacuumed back up into the truck. And with all the ground being frozen there would be little damage from people or equipment around the area.

I will say that the crew was pretty good and they were as careful as they could be. I had met with the foreman a few days before and explained what they would be working on and all the hard work I went through. Not sure if it made a difference but they were respectful of our property. The hole was deep... easily 5ft and their initial plan was to fill the whole thing with non USGA spec sand :lol: I said no... so instead I asked if they could take topsoil from the home across the street to fill the hole which they did for me.

 

[Jeff_MI84]

Those are some great aerial pictures.

 

[ReelWILawn]

@Jeff_MI84 thanks!

I had debated purchasing a drone for a while and of course I finally decided on getting one in early November with lawn season coming to an end.

 

[Jeff_MI84]

It is a great investment for sure. When are you posting for what you've done this season?

 

[ReelWILawn]

It is a great investment for sure. When are you posting for what you've done this season?

today, hopefully!

 

[Jeff_MI84]

Okay good. I've been looking forward to seeing the progress since your reno.

 

[ReelWILawn]

Early 2022 Update

I've moved on from the hole by this point. Winter in WI was strage. We only received 20.8" of snow which is about half of what we normally receive each year. While we typically had our cold January and February there was only 17 days with snowfall and a total of 63 days with snow on the ground. As I mentioned previously, there were no issues with snow mold. We did not have the typical snow blanket though to help insulate the turf against the cold winter winds. As such, the grass was very thin and not looking great coming out of winter.

We also received a few winter thaws and had higher amounts of rain totaling 6.68" between December and March. Half of that came in March which is about double what we normally receive this time of the year. Why is this important? Well, it was actually beneficial for the 5ft hole in the middle of my front yard. With the freezing, thawing, raining the dirt settled close to 12"

 

[ReelWILawn]

Spring 2022
It's been a cold and wet spring up until recently. We are definitely behind in terms of growth and temperatures.

GDD 0C base

• Jan 1st-May 1st 2021 483

• Jan 1st-May 1st 2022 261

*as of June 5th 2022 we are still behind GDD vs last year

March 13th 2022

April 1st 2022

April was too cold and wet to really do anything. Big purchase over the winter was the 80# Lesco spreader and the Gregson-Clark spreader mate sprayer. Spent the month practicing with water, nozzles, and rates. Also rearranged the garage to better utilize space for all the lawn equipment (picture taken before garage cleanup)

1st lawn application of 2022 - April 22nd

• applied prodiamine at the 5g/M rate. It was a cold, wet, drizzling day

 

[ReelWILawn]

Since much wasn't going on in the lawn, we spent one of the few nice weekends at the end of April to start bringing out all the deck furniture and redo our cabeling and bistro style lights

 

[ReelWILawn]

May 2022 Update

May 1st 2022

Because April and May have been wet and colder than usual, it was very difficult to obtain topsoil. Not that it mattered because conditions were poor to attempt to fix the hole. Weather did seem to start improving and I was able to get 3yd of screened top soil delivered May 6th.

It didn't really happen unless you manually screen the topsoil further :lol: The end result is topsoil screend to 1/4" and this perfect silty/sandy combination that I like to use. I would then spend the weekend filling the hole: a few lifts of dirt followed by light tamping. Repeat until filled and then final leveling.

I also started to work on the grass around one of our pop up drains. With this one be located on a slight slope, it's been difficult to get grass to grow as the water is always draining. As the hole in the front yard settled through the first part of spring, some of the side started to collapse. As I needed to reseed that whole area anyway, I took the oppertunity to steal some of the good sod and repoose it here and with plugs around the yard. Still a work progress, but it's an improvement.

May 7th & 8th 2022
After the hole and side yard pop up drain were addressed I put my attention back to the rest of the lawn

• grub prevention EC Grow Acelepryn 0-0-7 = .27k/M

• first mow of the year HOC .750"

• ended the weekend with a soil application of AMS .10N/M combined with Plant Food Co FloThru wetting agent at 3oz/M

Not much growth yet, but it had been a long winter and I had been looking forward to the first stripes of the season

 

[ReelWILawn]

Second half of May 2022 Update

• May 11th -Hydretain 3oz/M

• May 13th - AMS granular .42N/M & SOP @ .73K/M

*starting to spoon feed the lawn regularly now around every 10 days or so depending on weather and growth I am seeing

• May 15h - first herbicide app: Tenacity @ 4oz/a, Triclopyr .562 oz/M, NIS, AMS .05N/M

*started to see a few poa plants pop up. Tenacity used to help highlight these and Triclopyr for the clover

• May 18th - RGS 3oz/M ... trying to burn through what I had left

• May 21st- Plant Food Co Wetting agent 3oz/M

• May 22nd - first 'fungicide' app Prime Source potassium phosphite 5oz/M

• May 24th - UFlexx .146N/M, FeAture 2oz/m, and a pinch of citric acid

• May 29th 4lbs Tiger 90cr elemental sulfur

I used the month of May to continue to dial in my spraying process. Some of it worked out by doing soil vs foliar apps but I also seperated things out to gain more practice. Especially on things that would not cause any damage if I over or under applied in an area. By the end of May I have my spray set up and technic pretty dialed and I am constistanty purging the last amount of water in the final few feet of my final section.

May Total N-P-K

• N .712lbs/M

• P 0lbs , not planning on using any this year

• K 1lbs/M

*I had my soil test done in April prior to any product applied. I'll try to post the results in an upcoming post

 

[ReelWILawn]

I like mid May for one reason.... the crabapple produce their blossoms - the start of spring!. As fast as they come they usually only last for about 10 days. Unfortunately, this year happened to be very windy during this time and our blooms only lasted for about 5-6 days. Until next year.

May 15th 2022

May 21st 2022

overall, large improvement over the last 21 days. Coming out of winter for the first time after a fall renovation, the KBG looks awful. Hopefully this shows that it will improve (slowly). I cannot wait to see how it looks at the end of June.

 

[Jeff_MI84]

@ReelWILawn I'm loving those drone pictures.

 

[ReelWILawn]

Thanks @Jeff_MI84 !

It's been a fun tool to use and see the progress over the last 60 days