New lawn questions

[ctfjr]

Not so sure about MSMA
too many not so great articles about it and it will be right near my well. . .

otoh you may be 100% right about the weeds. It now 8 days post application of glyphosate. It's killed the grass but not so much on the weeds. If this stinking Henri ever leaves CT and it stops raining I will have to reapply.

 

[PaulR]

Looks to be a glyph resistant weed? You may want to identify before going with another round.
Might be a good time to plug aerate too before you re-spray, loosen the soil pull up and kill some more dormant weed seeds.

 

[ctfjr]

Looks to be a glyph resistant weed? You may want to identify before going with another round.
Might be a good time to plug aerate too before you re-spray, loosen the soil pull up and kill some more dormant weed seeds.

excellent suggestion, ty! I sent the image to my 'new best friend' at the Ct Ag station. He was super helpful when I stopped down there and spoke to him before.

 

[ctfjr]

The beginning - most of the 'lawn' was this:

Ok here we are 3 weeks after seeding:

The 'ruts' are apparently from my tire tracks but even they are growing in.
The long story. . . Upon the recommendations of the CT ag station manager I went with Tall Fescue, KB, rye and some small quantities of other varieties. It was a contractor mix. I did go to the distributor he suggested. I'm in the wholesale business. You don't have to know a lot about grass to know I got no 'deals'. We do the same for retail customers. I'm good with it as I'm comfortable knowing I got a good product.
The second application of glyphosate finally did the trick on those scalloped leafed weeds.
I put the most time in with the box blade. The lawn hadn't been touched since it was put in 30+ years ago, by a contractor. I harvested tons (literally) of rocks.

It seemed they were endless. filled that bucket more times than I care to remember.

Then I used the box blade again to mix in 1600lbs of limestone and 200lbs of fertilizer. The tiller was next with passes north / south then east / west. It did an awesome job - still found an occasional rock.

I spread the seed with a 4' drop seeder towed by the tractor. It wasn't my plan but my push, walk behind seeder had a wheel fall off (axle broke) . . .
The tractor weight didn't help anything.

I finally took a drag harrow over the area to get the seed just below the surface.

With all that tire weight I compacted the soil more than I wanted and delayed sprouting of several areas of the lawn. Like I said its still filling in those areas. I was going to reseed this weekend but decided to wait till spring.

I already posted this pic in another thread. I dropped some seed on the gravel driveway when loading the seeder.

apparently gravel has a lot of nutrients

So my question to all the lawn gurus is should I cut it this year or just let it go till the spring? It's about 3" tall now.

 

[BruceP]

So my question to all the lawn gurus is should I cut it this year or just let it go till the spring? It's about 3" tall now.

You said this is mostly "Tall Fescue". This type of grass has DEEP roots and is drought tolerant. This also means it prefers to be mowed higher than many other grasses. That 3" is a little higher than it likes to be mowed. That said, you may find it gets even taller before winter.

If it were me, I would use FRESHLY SHARPENED blades and cut down to 2.5". Within the next 2 weeks... this gives the lawn time to recover from first cutting before it gets too cold.

On established lawn, I prefer to cut lawn short for the winter because the fallen leaves do not get 'stuck' amongst the blades of grass. It is easier for my blower to remove the leaves.

Since cool weather grasses will grow even underneath snow.... you may wish to concentrate on keeping the leaves off of the new grass. (everywhere a leaf lies may kill the grass underneath it)

With that many trees near your lawn, a backpack blower is a GREAT invenstment which can save you hours of labor over the years.

 

[lynnmor]

If you want the grass roots to run deep, you will need the leaves to get tall. I would wait till it gets real ugly before cutting the first time. My thought is that one mowing about the end of the month is all you need.

 

[B737]

The new lawn looks awesome CT! very inspiring.

 

[ctfjr]

You said this is mostly "Tall Fescue". This type of grass has DEEP roots and is drought tolerant. This also means it prefers to be mowed higher than many other grasses. That 3" is a little higher than it likes to be mowed. That said, you may find it gets even taller before winter.

If it were me, I would use FRESHLY SHARPENED blades and cut down to 2.5". Within the next 2 weeks... this gives the lawn time to recover from first cutting before it gets too cold.

On established lawn, I prefer to cut lawn short for the winter because the fallen leaves do not get 'stuck' amongst the blades of grass. It is easier for my blower to remove the leaves.

Since cool weather grasses will grow even underneath snow.... you may wish to concentrate on keeping the leaves off of the new grass. (everywhere a leaf lies may kill the grass underneath it)

With that many trees near your lawn, a backpack blower is a GREAT invenstment which can save you hours of labor over the years.

Thanks BruceP
I don't know if the majority of the seed is Tall Fescue. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. There certainty is some in there, its easy to see the difference in grasses now that they are up. Most are 2-3" tall. Some (TF?) are 4" already.
I do have a blower to use on the leaves and you are correct we get a load of leaves from the woods surrounding us.
I have been using a landscaping company just to cut the lawn for me but now I think I'm going to do it for the short term anyway. His zero turns ripped up the lawn weeds every time he mowed. At this point I'm too protective of my work to let him continue

I do plan on cutting it before the end of October. By November it gets pretty cold here.

Thanks for the suggestions and one question. . . Why the triode?

 

[ctfjr]

The new lawn looks awesome CT! very inspiring.

TY B737
It actually was a lot of work but I expected it to be. Working at home now I'm able to take a break for an hour or two at a time and go out and play tractor. The box blading probably took me 5-6 days. That was the hardest part for me.
Best part I learned and am still learning a lot about grass (of course I do have some substantial experience with some grass having grown up in the 60's)

 

[ctfjr]

If you care to moonlight on us, might I also suggest this forum, very nice people, learned a lot hanging out here over the years:

You are being redirected...

Lawn geeks for sure. It can and really is a science.

I signed up PaulR. Thanks for the tip. Looks like a forum I can learn from!

 

[aaluck]

Has anyone had good luck with pre emergent weed killers?

I use a combination of prodiamine and dimension. Works week. Just did my fall application this weekend.

I see a big difference.

 

[aaluck]

Anything else I should know before pushing forward?

Not sure about your set up.. but if you have a 'yard' around the house and fields as well its a process. I have about 12 acres and of that about 1 acre of 'yard' around the house. To keep it a 'yard' I use a combination of pre emergents to keep the weeds from taking back over. Otherwise it just goes back to a weed/grass combination.

 

[BruceP]

Thanks for the suggestions and one question. . . Why the triode?

You asked.....

In grade school, when all the other kids would get 'story books' from the school library.... I would get electronics books and build crude circuits. By the time I got to college, vacuum-tubes were replaced by transistors. I worked in the computer chip manufacturing field for 40 years.

My electronics skills cover many generations of technology.... but tubes (thermionic valves) still fascinate me.

 

[ctfjr]

Not sure about your set up.. but if you have a 'yard' around the house and fields as well its a process. I have about 12 acres and of that about 1 acre of 'yard' around the house. To keep it a 'yard' I use a combination of pre emergents to keep the weeds from taking back over. Otherwise it just goes back to a weed/grass combination.

Thanks aaluck!
Well we sure don't have fields but I am surrounded by woods. There are 2 sides of the front lawn that just run into the woods. I'm not sure how to delineate the border. In the past I planted Azaleas and Rhododendrons as kind of a border and put a red stone mulch strip about 6' wide. The deer ate and killed all the plants (one scraggly Rhody hanging on). The stone is now covered in whatever and is barely visible.
I'm sure I will be hyper vigilant, at least at first, of any weed growth but I know long term I'm not going to obsess over the lawn.

 

[Drcollie]

My yard in Virginia went from looking like Afghanistan to Showplace in 3 weeks. Tall Fescue Blend, Aerate, Power Seed, and the real magic was 15 cubic yards of Bloom Soil Amendment (which is treated sewage mixed into a woody blend). Yes, your yard will stink for 4 days after the load arrives, but spread it with the tractor and this is the result. There was no need to kill off the yard ahead of time.

 

[L35]

Powerseed?

 

[Drcollie]

Powerseed?

Probably more accurate to say Power Slit Seeder.

 

[DDCD]

Bunch of northerners in here. I spray my own Bermuda. It is the king of grasses as far as coming back after death. I think it's a weed in the north.

Grasses look great though. Wish we had that soft carpet grass.

 

[JimmyJazz]

My yard in Virginia went from looking like Afghanistan to Showplace in 3 weeks. Tall Fescue Blend, Aerate, Power Seed, and the real magic was 15 cubic yards of Bloom Soil Amendment (which is treated sewage mixed into a woody blend). Yes, your yard will stink for 4 days after the load arrives, but spread it with the tractor and this is the result. There was no need to kill off the yard ahead of time.

View attachment 67544

View attachment 67543

Amazing. What was the cost and how big is the yard?

 

[Drcollie]

Amazing. What was the cost and how big is the yard?

I have 5 acres, about 1 acre mowable yard. 15 Cubic Yards of Bloom is a large dump truck load, that was $ 650 including delivery. https://bloomsoil.com/

Seed was $ 200. The Power Slice Seeder Rental was $ 90 for one day, and I used a Kubota BX w/loader-bucket and section of drag fencing behind it for spreading.

That was actually Sept 2020 in those photos. The yard did so well I did get another truckload of Bloom again three weeks ago and spread it after aerating, the grass does so well with it here in Northern Virginia. My wife complains about the odor for a few days, but the results are well worth it. Pre-emergents in early Spring keep the Crabgrass and Annual Bluegrass at bay - important to do that as well.