Lawn and Landscape

R Q said:
Yep that's Bermuda. The only thing to do about it now would be to dig it up, and remove all underground roots. It looks like this is a hard spot for anything to live. If you want fescue you're gonna have to till, add some compost and keep it watered all summer. Round up will do nothing now because its not green and growing. Late in the summer you can spray it a few times but even at that you still have to dig up the roots and replant.
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After more thought, I will probably just cover this area with pine needles and then spray it when it comes back to life.
 
jbkelly0211 said:
I know this is a weird question but do you live in Coulwood? Your house looks strangely familiar, I think i brought you some pallets a few months ago.


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Haha yes you did bring some pallets for the wife. Glad to see I have a neighbor here on NC4x4
 
Ok just finished putting new water line in. I've gone back with baseball rake to clean up any rocks sticks etc. I was planning on putting down pre em this weekend so I'm assuming do the rest of the yard on pre ems, overseed and tamper this area and water the shit out of it?

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This was this morning after using trencher til 830
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''Ok just finished putting new water line in. I've gone back with baseball rake to clean up any rocks sticks etc. I was planning on putting down pre em this weekend so I'm assuming do the rest of the yard on pre ems, overseed and tamper this area and water the shit out of it?"
Yes, stay about 4-5' away from it with pre em.
 
Holy crap, that trench is a mess. Back in the college days, my summer job was landscaping, I spent some time with the irrigation crews installing sprinkler systems. Instead of a trencher, we used a pipe pulling machine would just leave a slit in the ground (until you hit a rock or root, you'll have a little mess to deal with). This was up in New England with nice brown soil. Is that not common here? I guess I could see the clay getting way too hard most of the time.
 
RenegadeT said:
Holy crap, that trench is a mess. Back in the college days, my summer job was landscaping, I spent some time with the irrigation crews installing sprinkler systems. Instead of a trencher, we used a pipe pulling machine would just leave a slit in the ground (until you hit a rock or root, you'll have a little mess to deal with). This was up in New England with nice brown soil. Is that not common here? I guess I could see the clay getting way too hard most of the time.
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Pipe pulling was used here but just doesn't work very well. This was a deep trench and you have to compact it every few inches with a Wacker Packer if you want to get all the dirt back in.
 
We had to be 18" deep cause of frost line and the number of roots we hit I couldn't imagine using anything less than this. Not to mention the hard packed clay alone would stop the trencher from moving. To be honest for what we had to do I was very impressed with how it worked and how relatively easy it was.
 
I'm still trying to get all the Bermuda out of my lawn.... I've been doing the old kill and till method in late summer. Raking out everything down to bare dirt, then adding some compost and manure to loosen the soil. It's worked great so far.
 
99JeepXJ said:
We had to be 18" deep cause of frost line and the number of roots we hit I couldn't imagine using anything less than this. Not to mention the hard packed clay alone would stop the trencher from moving. To be honest for what we had to do I was very impressed with how it worked and how relatively easy it was.
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That's actually a pretty good result for a trench.... I've seen some messes left behind by "professional " crews.
 
RenegadeT said:
Holy crap, that trench is a mess. Back in the college days, my summer job was landscaping, I spent some time with the irrigation crews installing sprinkler systems. Instead of a trencher, we used a pipe pulling machine would just leave a slit in the ground (until you hit a rock or root, you'll have a little mess to deal with). This was up in New England with nice brown soil. Is that not common here? I guess I could see the clay getting way too hard most of the time.
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Pull plowing is the technical term for that.

You don't see it here, mostly because of the size tractor you need to pull the blade it clay. You can use a much smaller machine to cut a trench.
 
Ive got 6 or so decent sized oaks in my front yard. It hasnt been fed or cared for in a number of yrs i believe. The fescue that's there is holding on, but there's a number of bare spots under the trees.

We moved in late last fall, and a quick overseeding effort netted some new growth in a few places.

Trying to figure out what's best at this point? I likely need a soil test, but id guess that the trees are robbing the soil, along with the shade they bring during the warm months.

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R Q said:
Several products can be applied in May-June for control of grubs. Merit, Mach 5,...sorry names are escaping me now but you have to do it when they are emerging or just starting to borough down into soil. When product names come to me I'll post back. Again, SiteOne is your friend when you need AG supplies.
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Milky spore is a product I've used for grubs in the past.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
Ive got 6 or so decent sized oaks in my front yard. It hasnt been fed or cared for in a number of yrs i believe. The fescue that's there is holding on, but there's a number of bare spots under the trees.

We moved in late last fall, and a quick overseeding effort netted some new growth in a few places.

Trying to figure out what's best at this point? I likely need a soil test, but id guess that the trees are robbing the soil, along with the shade they bring during the warm months.

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I'd put about a 10ft pine needle bed around each tree
 
RenegadeT said:
I'd put about a 10ft pine needle bed around each tree
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Haha, i think that would convert most of the yard.

Its hard to see in the picture, but its not so much bare dirt as just thin grass, doesnt grow much.

Maybe i should try overseeding with something other than fescue?

Here is what i found in an NCSU paper:
A mixture of 80 percent tall fescue, 10 percent Kentucky bluegrass, and 10 percent hard fescue by weight seeded at 6 pounds per thousand square feet is recommended.
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paradisePWoffrd said:
Ive got 6 or so decent sized oaks in my front yard. It hasnt been fed or cared for in a number of yrs i believe. The fescue that's there is holding on, but there's a number of bare spots under the trees.

We moved in late last fall, and a quick overseeding effort netted some new growth in a few places.

Trying to figure out what's best at this point? I likely need a soil test, but id guess that the trees are robbing the soil, along with the shade they bring during the warm months.

d753c08c6b2a8da25550428b86b6f39d.jpg
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You have great grass there! It's just thin this time of year so a good fertilizer app will do you well. Try using the 19-3-7 analysis with pre-em for more nitrogen. A soil test is always good and that seed mixture you mentioned will be fine. Cut any of the lower limbs possible to allow more sunlight. and keep leaves from accumulating in Fall and Winter. They put off a toxic bacteria when allowed to decompose on the grass
 
So how's everybody's stuff looking after this cold blast? I got screwed by it on a seeding job. I did it about a week before the cold hit so it had time to germinate and then freeze. 20k sq ft so I'll probably be doing a lot of repairs on it. The yards that were just fertilized and pre emed will all be fine. Even some of my broadleaf apps are suffering.
 
We haven't seen any seedlings from the work we did mid-February.

We've been watering, had a couple of good steady rains, but nothing seems to have germinated.
 
Front yard is ok, still thin but it's only about a year old so it's to be expected. The area I did the water line has been a bitch. Every time it rains I wait a day and have to compact the line again cause it settles and when you step I'll sink down. Thinking this last time should be good but the cold has hindered the seeds for sure. My backyard is weird. I have a thick, dark green areas and thin fescue area so I can only assume the blend they used is the reason. When I moved in they had spread fescue with Kentucky blue but it's frustrating. Looking forward to seeing where the grass goes from here with proper treatments.
 
I put down my pre-emergent and fertilizer a couple of weeks ago. Everything turned green and started growing. I could probably stand to mow this weekend.
 
Scratch that. We now have seedlings.
 
Now that we have fescue seedlings, how long before I can spray broadleaf herbicide? I had it on my calendar, tentatively, for this week...
 
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