I could sit and watch the grass grow

I love watching the grass grow. It seems like every day I see more and more of the green fuzz over the lawn. It makes me happy (except in the backyard I'm getting frustrated by some animal that keeps digging up little holes. I'm guessing it is either a robin picking out worms or a squirrel burring nuts, but I haven't caught it in the act yet).

Here's a shot from the front yard that I took this morning:

Dewy Kentucky bluegrass fuzz

There is something about new grass that is so peaceful and pure.

I shutter at the thought of mowing it, mostly because I have to step on it, but the instructions call for mowing once the new blades reach 2 inches. Next step for the overseeded parts of the lawn:

Mow frequently to limit the competition from the established turf. Mow at 1.5 inches until new seedlings have been cut at least two times. After that, raise the mowing height in 1/2 inch intervals over the next three weeks until a normal mowing height of 2.5 to 3.5 inches is reached.

And for the reseeded (renovated) areas:

Mow as soon as the first newly emerging blades reach about 2 inches. Mow Kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye, and fine fescue turf at 1.5 inches and tall fescue turf at 2.0 inches. After the first three to four mowings, adjust your mower to the permanent mowing height which is 3.0 - 3.5 inches for Kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye, and fine fescue and 3.0 - 4.0 inches for tall fescue.

So far I have only mowed the overseeded areas, but I imagine I'll have to mow the other areas soon as well. I had the same feelings last year, but even after walking and mowing over the little grasslings, they seemed to be ok.

Watering and waiting

Well, after a flurry of 12 hours straight of work last Wednesday, plus a little bleed-over into Thursday, I got the job done. I've been breathing since then and frankly, I've been putting this blog post off just because I didn't want to think about it anymore, but I think I'm ready now. However, instead of the typical narrative format, I'm going to give a more outlined approach a try, so here goes.

This is what I did:

1. Mowed the lawn at about 1-1.5 inches or so.
   

   

   Front yard after mowing.

2. Raked up the excess grass.
3. Rented an aerator and began aerating the lawn. Whoops - proceeded to run over 3 sprinkler heads (they survived!).
4. Marked the sprinkler heads.
5. Finished aerating the lawn, making 4 passes in different directions where possible.
   

   

   Front yard after aeration.

   
   

   

   Backyard after aeration.

6. Applied roughly 10 lbs of Scott's starter fertilizer (24-24-4, w/5.7% slow release N) on the front yard, and 3.78 lbs on the back yard (roughly 1-1.25 lbs of phosphate/1000 sq ft.) using a broadcast spreader.
7. Rented a power overseeder and attempted to make 2 passes at half the seeding rate in opposite directions.
   

   

   Front yard after overseeding.

   
   

   

   Front yard after overseeding.

8. Raked up excess grass.
9. Spread straw over bare areas.
   

   

   Partially mulched backyard.

10. Water (present tense since this step is still occurring).
11. Keeping mowed at 1-1.5 inches (did this once already last weekend).

This is what I learned:

1. Don't get too excited to aerate that you forget to mark sprinkler heads.
2. The aerator has a throttle - lower it. Before I discovered this, the machine was literally beating me up and practically dragging me across the lawn. Slowing it down made it much more enjoyable.
3. Was the soil too dry? I'll be honest, I pulverized the backyard. In the end, it was effectively tilled with hardly any existing grass left standing. Here is a shot after aeration showing that the cores didn't penetrate well and instead made more like cone shaped holes in the soil.
   

   

   Soil crumbled after aeration

   After making several passes with the overseeder, there was basically no grass left standing. It was a similar story for the front yard, but only in the areas I killed. I'm not sure, but I think if the soil was a bit more damp, both aeration and overseeding would have gone smoother.
4. Apply fertilizer at the slowest rate and make multiple passes in different directions. When fertilizing the front yard, after looking at how much fertilizer was in the spreader and how slowly it appeared to disperse at the lowest setting, I got lazy and bumped up the rate. I soon found that I was running out of fertilizer and nowhere near done with the whole lawn. I ended up having to apply 2 or 3 more pounds than was recommended, so obviously some areas got more than they were supposed to.
5. Don't rent that particular power overseeder again. Home Depot had two of them: one that was self-propelled and one that wasn't. To save money, I opted for the latter. It was difficult to maneuver and if I ever got stuck or stopped it would continue dropping seed, so I applied way too much seed in some places. The seeding rate was also basically arbitrary since it was dependent on how fast I pushed it, so I found it impossible to disperse seed at half the rate as I intended. In the front yard I was only able to make two passes on about 2/3 of the lawn. Next time I'll try the self propelled one.

Overall, I'd say the whole process went pretty well, despite completely terrorizing the backyard. I now very much hope that my experiment with supina bluegrass is a success. Projects like this make me grateful for winter.

The calm before the storm

A barred owl hoots outside the window as I sit here trying to plan my day for tomorrow... Yes, I'm taking the day off tomorrow to plant some grass seed! I am pretty excited about it actually. I love plants and especially watching them grow - it's a pretty amazing thing when you think about it.

Here's what our lawn looks like today:

The RoundUp sure did it's job well. Bye, bye tall fescue! Now, I need to fix the collateral damage...

This weekend I found out that Home Depot rents both aerators and power overseeders. I went to check them out, mostly to see if I was going to be able to get them in my car. It looked like I would be able to pull it off and the gentleman helping me seemed pretty confident as well. The cost, however, was a little more than I was expecting, which got me thinking that perhaps it might be more cost effective to hire someone to do it. So I made some calls and got two estimates. They were polar opposites on many levels.

The first estimate I got was from a guy I later found out was doing this kind of work as a side job and as I talked with him he actually shared with me that he learned what he knew by hiring 5 companies to work on his lawn and watching what they do... His suggestions were a little out there. First, he said that I shouldn't have killed the existing grass and that with overseeding, it would take over the undesirable grass over time. While I really highly doubt that, I'm open to the possibility. However, it's too late for that since I already killed it all, so that is no longer an option (and I probably wouldn't have gone for it even if it was). Then as we talked he suggested that I wait until mid-September to seed... Obviously, he's not familiar with the Purdue turf grass program publications, but I appreciated his suggestion anyway. When I told him that I'd like to do it now, he suggested I aerate it very aggressively - finally, we're on the same page. And then, this when I about lost it... he suggested I purchase a 50 lb bag of seed to seed it with! I couldn't believe my ears. He was standing right in our front lawn looking out upon the 1600 sq ft. of lawn - 50 lbs?! That comes out to over 31 lbs/1000 sq ft! The recommended rate for Kentucky bluegrass is 1.5 - 2 lbs/1000 sq ft... In the end he offered to aerate it for a very reasonable price, actually very close to the cost of renting it, but I wasn't too impressed with his expertise.

The second estimate I got was the complete opposite. I didn't get the chance to discuss it with them, but along with their estimate they provided a color print of a Purdue turf program publication. That right there was enough to give them much more credibility. Unfortunately, their estimate was extremely high. I may call to see if there is a particular reason for it being so high, just out of curiosity.

Anyway, ultimately, I ended up deciding to do it myself, and since I want to get moving on it ASAP and I wasn't going to be available this weekend, I decided to take a day off of work. I did the same thing last year... however, this year I'm expecting that I'll actually be done and planted in a day instead of working on it every evening until the sun goes down for a week after.

Oh, and if you hadn't noticed, I'm not planning on doing any tilling after all. I'm just going to aerate and then overseed with a power overseeder. Tilling it would cause a setback due to the time it takes for the soil to settle, and I did a little research on compaction (primarily this article) and found that perhaps our soil isn't as compacted as I thought - at least that's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

In any case, I'm going to give it a whirl and see what happens - "experimentation" at it's best! If there is green grass in the dead areas by the end of fall, I'll be a happy man!

The Grass Project III: The rest

I have been known to do some [unscientific] gardening experiments in my day. My approach to the experiments are simple: try it and see what happens. And also: if it fails, try something else. Well, here I am for some more fun. You just can't predict what I'm going to do next.

The Front Yard

My first foray into "lawn improvement" was definitely unconventional and experimental, littered with mistakes and shortcuts, but if you take a look at the lawn today, it's much improved and I'm fairly satisfied. I would call that a success in my book. However, the road to get there was rather long and difficult and I wouldn't prefer to do that over again. The problem I have to deal with now is that that project only replaced a portion of our front lawn leaving the rest in stark contrast. I tried to address the primary problem with the remaining grass (tall fescue) this spring and early summer with Certainty herbicide, but this didn't completely remedy the problem (although it was still a big improvement). And as mentioned, I have pulled quite a bit of the remaining tall fescue by hand. I'd say now that perhaps 1/5 of the lawn remains with a high population of tall fescue. Here is how the front lawn is looking as of yesterday (after a fresh mowing followed by bit of rain):

Other side of the driveway

The kentucky bluegrass is starting to green back up after going dormant during the heat wave (including 23 days in a row of 90+ degrees) since we've finally had some rain and the temps have cooled down.

Here's an image showing the three different "zones":

Green = new grass planted last fall
Orange = old grass w/remaining tall fescue pulled by hand
Red = old grass with remaining tall fescue

Other side of the driveway

And now my plan for each area...

The Green Zone...
This is the area I tore up last year and reseeded. This grass is doing fairly well and should hopefully recover from the heat and drought conditions we've had since the end of June. This area I merely plan to aerate and overseed.

The Orange Zone...
This is the original grass now mostly tall fescue free. There is some remaining undesirable grass, but I should be able to manage it by pulling or perhaps another round of Certainty if it comes to that. This grass is much more thinned out than the green zone and even has some completely grass-less patches. I plan on aerating this zone as well and perhaps tilling the soil a bit of more bare areas.

The Red Zone...
This is the bad zone - the areas that still have a fairly high population of undesirable grass, as well as being thin and patchy. There isn't much kentucky bluegrass to be found here. I plan to essentially reseed these areas with the first step being killing the existing grass, which I started this afternoon by spraying with Roundup. The next step is either aerate the living crap out of those areas or... till it all up. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm starting to think that this is the way to go for these areas. The main reasons are:

1. Since this area will be mostly dead, I don't know if aerating will be enough. The Purdue guide says that aerating is only really an option when the soil isn't compacted and although I don't exactly know how to tell that, I would be surprised if it wasn't.
2. Last year I didn't do the first step of killing the grass, so I had to sift through it all and pull it out which is what took FOREVER; this time I'd just leave the dead grass in.
3. Last year I started out manually tilling by hand before finally renting a power tiller; this time I'd start out with the power tiller.

However, one con with this that after tilling the soil is supposed to be allowed to settle for a week or two with rain or irrigation - this adds time and I'm already getting behind...

So, what to do? I don't know. As usual, I'll play it by ear and keep you guessing. Of course, if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. For now, I'll see how long it takes for the Roundup to kick in.

The Backyard

First of all, why is "front yard" two words, but "backyard" one?? That bugs me a bit. But what also bugs me is our backyard, literally. Earlier this spring, I tried planting some shade tolerant seed, and well, it flopped. It was "experimental" in that I didn't follow the suggested seeding guide very well. I didn't do much soil preparation other than some raking of the very top surface and I think this was the primary culprit. What happened is that early on before germination some very heavy rain occurred and since the soil under the thin layer of raking was more compacted, this allowed the seeds to be washed away or moved due to puddling. In addition, this compaction may have made it difficult for the seeds to grow deeper into the soil (of course, please keep in mind that I just said above that I don't know how to tell if it's compacted, so take all of this with a grain of salt). Furthermore, there are other struggles back there such as competition with the trees, both for light and water. And, the hot and dry weather that we've had likely only exacerbated the other problems.

Here's how it's looking as of yesterday:

Unfortunately, it really doesn't look much different from before I planted the new seed. So... naturally I'll be trying again. I think this time I'll try aerating with perhaps some additional soil preparation in the more bare areas. Also, I'll be trimming back the tress to let as much light in as possible.

Seed for both the front and backyard is in route. I'll have a post on that soon.

Planning

It's time to start planning - no, not for our landscaping project (although, those plans have also yet to be finalized), but for grass planting. The optimal seeding window for central Indiana of August 15 - September 15 is quickly approaching. According to the Establishing Lawn Areas From Seed publication by Purdue University and University of Illinois:

It is critical to seed as early as possible within these windows. Even when seeding within these windows, waiting one week to seed may mean the stand will take 2 to 4 additional weeks to mature.

I put that to the test last year, but not this year (I hope)!

The Lawn Improvement Programs publication (also by Purdue University and University of Illinois) states that August 15 - September 1 is the optimum time to plant cool-season grasses (hm... conflicting information?). In any case, I plan to hit the early side of the window. This publication is the one I will likely be following as the other one focuses more on new seedbeds (don't want to do that again), while this one focuses on existing lawns and includes directions for both overseeding and reseeding.

First off, I've got a little secret to tell. For the past few weeks I've been pulling up undesirable grass by hand... Yes, I'm going crazy again. Just every couple of days for an hour or two at a time - nothing too crazy... no, not crazy at all... nope. Yesterday, one our neighbors walked by as I was out pulling and started talking to me. I told them that I enjoyed working in the yard and that it's kind of a hobby, to which they replied (and I quote) "A hobby?? More like an obsession!" I guess people notice more than I think! They must think I'm crazy... Oh well, I think everyone's crazy, just in different ways. There, I feel better now.

Now, back to business. I think I've made some good progress. Here's a look:

This side is nearly 100% tall fescue free

My new yard work buddy!
I'm slowly making my way this way.

It's looking a lot more uniform as a whole now and aside from the patchiness, I'd say it looks much improved over earlier this year. The Certainty herbicide I applied seems to have greatly weakened the patches of tall fescue, making them much easier to pull (which is the main reason I've even tried), but what I have found is that if I don't get the whole plant root, it grows right back... I'm continually amazed at how resilient it is.

So, as far as seeding goes, I have two options: overseeding or reseeding. Overseeding means planting seeds over the existing grass, and reseeding (as I'll define it) is killing the grass and completely reseeding. I'm really torn between the two. On the one hand, reseeding would result in a nice fresh stand of pure tall fescue-free grass, similar to last years reseeding, with the downsides of 1) the lawn not looking good for the end of summer into early fall, 2) the risk of two different color tones of grass between the new and existing grass, and 3) the grass not growing well due to the soil being too compact because I absolutely will not till it like I did last year. On the other hand, overseeding won't make the lawn look bad and likely won't result in an obvious edge between different areas of the lawn, with the downsides of 1) it may not look great mixed with the existing grass (could look patchy if colors are different), 2) I'll have to continue fighting with the tall fescue, and 3) I haven't had much success overseeding.

My general thinking at this point is that I'll overseed the areas that are free of tall fescue and reseed the areas that are still in large part either mostly dead and patchy or still has high concentration of tall fescue.

For the areas that I'm going to kill first, I'll need to give an extra week or so for the grass to die. In addition, I need to make plans to 1) purchase seed, and 2) look into either renting a aerator or finding a company do it for me. All this to say, this project begins in less than a month!