I hate tall fescue

Nah, I don't really hate it. I just don't want it in our yard at all. I'm not even sure if it is tall fescue, but it appears to be. It has course, thick bladed leaves that aren't soft and smooth like Kentucky bluegrass and it just doesn't look very good, at least not in a mix with Kentucky bluegrass. To me it  looks very similar to crabgrass.

Here's the deal. The new grass in the front is starting to grow quite well in some places and is looking much better. However, there is a contrast in colors between the old and new parts of the lawn and it's really bugging me and making me wonder what to do about it. Here's a shot that shows it:

Contrasting colors. Note the darker green of the new grass
toward  the front vs. the brighter green old grass behind it.

 I was afraid of this happening. However, I think I might know the main cause of this: tall fescue. The old grass is "infested" with tall fescue. This grass has always bugged me. It's a lighter color than the other grass and grows must faster. This is part of the reason I went so crazy last year tearing up the lawn - about all that was left in some of the areas was tall fescue and I wanted it gone. Here's a closer shot of the edge of the new and old grass showing the tall fescue:

Note the thicker blades are brighter green color of the tall fescue.

If it weren't there, I don't think the color contrast would be nearly as evident, if evident at all.

Something must be done about this, of course. I can't stand by and let the tall fescue ruin my dream. So today, I decided to pull some of the more obvious ones, like this patch:

An ugly tall fescue orchardgrass patch.

One thing led to another and soon enough I was at it for about 4 hours pulling as much up as I could. It looks so much better once removed, even with a vacant spot in its wake. I much prefer those spots to the tall fescue.

The problem is that in those 4 hours, I barely made a dent and there are some areas that have so much that I might as well just kill it all with roundup and reseed. I definitely don't want to be doing that, at least not a large area like last year, so I'm thinking that if I keep with it all throughout the season, little by little I might be able to pull it all up by hand. And perhaps the thicker areas I can just kill and reseed this fall, if the areas is not too big. I'm certainly not lacking in motivation to go this route.

However, I was doing some searching on the problem and it appears that there might be a product that selectively kills tall fescue without harming Kentucky bluegrass! This got me very excited. The product is called Certainty Turf Herbicide or Riverdale Corsair and there are probably others. The active ingredient appears to be Sulfosulfuron and I found a publication of a study using a it on tall fescue and some other grasses. This sounds very promising and sounds much better to me than countless hours of manual pulling. Now I just need to find where I can purchase it.

Oh, and one more little side note. There's also tall fescue throughout the backyard as well. That's another reason I believe it's in fact tall fescue because it is also a shade tolerant grass and would need to be to thrive back there.

This is how much I pulled in the end:

To the "compost" pile!

A good 50-75 lbs worth, I'd say.

Backyard grass progress

Well, I figure it's time for an update on the backyard grass project. It seems to be going very slow... and I'm starting to wonder if it's going to succeed. I've been trying to keep the existing grass mowed to about 1.5", mowing every few of days. Here's a shot of what things looks like now:

Close up view. New grass in the middle.

Yard view. Still thin, but new grass is becoming more evident.

I won't be too upset if this project fails. Come fall, I'll just try again, probably killing the existing grass first, but that's getting ahead of things. We'll see how this turns out. What I have found is that it seems to be difficult to grow grass in areas with existing grass. The same thing occurred in the front yard grass project. The seed planted near other grass didn't grow as well or at all. I have also noticed that the grass seems to prefer growing near the straw. My guess is that it's helps keep the area shielded from the sun and more moist.

Earlier this week I got out the hose to water since it was starting to dry up and rain was a few days away. So much work... needless to say, I was quick in calling the irrigation company to come out and turn it back on. They're coming Tuesday, so the new grass'll soon be getting much more frequent waterings, without me having to even think about it! Yay!

Starter fertilizer application

I decided to apply some starter fertilizer in the backyard. I'm fairly certain that the soil is fine on Nitrogen, but wasn't sure on Phosphorus, and that is an important ingredient for new grass. Without doing a soil test, I'm in the dark, but I decided to take the risk, but only applied about .84 lbs of P. The recommended rate is 1.5 lbs per 1000 sq ft. The backyard is somewhere between 1000 and 1400 sq ft, so it's roughly half of what is recommended.

I ended up using some Pennington Lawn Starter Fertilizer that I had purchased earlier this year.

Pennington Lawn Starter Fertilizer

18% Nitrogen (3.8% slow release)
24% Phosphate
6% Potash

Some rain that's expected tonight should hopefully help work it into the soil. Hopefully it makes the grass happy!

Crabgrass preventer application

I went to multiple stores trying to find a good preemergent crabgrass herbicide that didn't have quick release Nitrogen in it, but I couldn't find one. Ultimately, I ended up purchasing a bag of Endure Crabgrass Preventer Plus:

Endure Crabgrass Preventer Plus

The active ingredient is dithiophyr. It claims to be "extended release fertilizer", but when looking at the Fertilizer Analysis on the back, it listed 19% Urea Nitrogen, only 5.7% of that slow release.

19% Urea Nitrogen (5.7% stabilized/slow release)
3% Potash

It was better than my other options and I needed to apply it as soon as possible, so I went for it.

I only applied it to the front yard since crabgrass hasn't been a problem in the backyard, but also because it would prevent the new grass from germinating along with any crabgrass. The general rule is to never use preemergent herbicides along with seeding. This wasn't a problem for the front yard. I calculated the square footage of the front yard to be roughly 1600 sq ft., and the recommended rate is 3.5lbs/1000 sq ft, so I applied roughly 5lbs of it using a handheld spreader. I'll save the rest for next year, assuming it doesn't expire.

Pachysandra in bloom

I noticed the pachysandra were blooming and took a few photographs of them.

Grass is germinating

The grass seed that I planted in the backyard on March 20th is finally beginning to germinate - after about 18 days. I was thinking that it might happen later due to the cooler weather we experienced until about the end of March, but apparently that didn't make much difference.

Baby grass.

I never did get around to fertilizing it. I considered doing it today, but decided against it since I was afraid that it might be too much. I fertilized it in the fall and that should be enough Nitrogen for the whole year, but there was no Phosphorus in it. Perhaps I'll do it, but in a smaller dose than the recommended 1.5 lbs per 1000 sq ft. I'm just not sure what to do.

I also mowed today for the first time this year. In the backyard I mowed low at approximately 1.5" to allow the newly planted grass to get more sunlight. I mowed the front yard at about 3". The new grass in the front yard is still looking thin, but I think there has been some improvement. I've been wondering if it might be a good idea to fertilize it with some starter fertilizer since it didn't get much phosphorus last year.

Today, I sprayed Ortho Weed B Gon all over the weeds that have been competing with the new grass in the front yard. The weeds have grown quite happily since I last posted about it. This is my first attempt at addressing them; I think I shouldn't have waited, but we'll see if this works.

Additionally, it is getting to be time to apply a preemergent herbicide for crabgrass; in fact, it is time. According to the Control of Crabgrass in Homelawns Purdue Turfgrass Program publication, the average crabgrass germination date is April 21st in central Indiana and preemergent herbicide should be applied at least 2 weeks before this date. This will be going on my "to do" list for tomorrow. A note to remember for next year from the publication:

Purdue research has shown that these herbicides can be applied as early as March 1 and still be effective all season.

Hopefully I haven't missed the opportunity!

Moles!

The last few days I have been fighting with a mole.

Mole tunnel. Kinda hard to see, but it goes from the stake in the
upper left to the lower right (then further on into the yard - grr!)

This has been the battle sequence:

1. Mole digs tunnels in the yard
2. Later on Peter sees the tunnels in the yard, gets very angry, and stomps them down

The next day it begins back at #1. This has been going on for the last several days; I'm sure we're both getting tired of it. In years past, we've had moles and I've witnessed the damage they can do to a yard. So far, it's not too big of a deal because there is hardly any grass back there, but once the new seeds start growing it's going to get personal. I'll be researching battle techniques and formulating my plan of attack.

In other news, it looks like the Cooper's hawks are here to stay (there are two). They have been working  on their nest and it's getting bigger.