TheWolf

If you want to kill crabgrass and everything for a while, I use Ortho Ground Clear... St Augustine eventually reclaims it in about a month or two.

Got two deep good rain showers and the grass has hopped alive. It's now at the cut it every two weeks or you look like a slob level.. once we get into the 90's.. it'll be back to once a week...

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MWH_Photo

Crappy cell pics now.. update later.





I'm taking a nap

MWH_Photo

Took a lot longer to lay down the sod than I had planned for.. had a lot of crazy cuts to do under the overhang in the back yard.

All in all we're super pleased with the results. Our water bill this month is going to go into the tripple digits though I'm sure.

The detail is definitely in the prep. I couldn't get a few places perfectly level and it shows in those areas =\. Still love the look of the back yard, and the much should be coming this weekend for the flowerbeds!







Here's the front yard that I worked on about two weeks ago. Much more green and full now.



Our corgi loves the grass too it seems

1sickS14

Good job! That's a beautiful lawn you have there!

driftthis

Nice work on the sod, looks good. Prep work is crucial when laying sod. But, it's also important to keep up with it. I have a neighbor that laid down fresh sod and about a year later, their lawn was full of dead grass and weeds. Your neighbors must hate you (front lawn split).

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ManoNegra

MWH_Photo - looking good
how many square ft did that end up being?.

If he were my neighbor it'd be the opposite.
I'd love to have neighbors that work to make their house (and the neighborhood) look good.

Went to Lowe's and bought a huge roll of heavy duty black plastic sheet
to throw over the front lawn to keep weeds from taking over again while I
wait for the St. Aggy to be ready.
Of course I had to pick one of the most miserable days in Socal weather wise to do this.

MWH_Photo

Thanks!

Ended up paying for a pallet and a half (725 sq ft) but got a little over that amount and ended up using every last piece.

Somewhere in the range of 800 sq ft I'm guessing.

Agree about the neighbors for sure though.

We live in an HOA so they can't really let everything in the front of their house go too badly.. but if they were to do something to their property that makes mine look like ass in comparison, then it just means I need to kick it back into gear and fix whatever looks like hell.

Good luck with the St. Augustine, my parent's lawn still hasn't come back from being dormant either. Really late this year but I think it's the strange cold weather we've been having.. still feels like winter. (for California at least..)

wangan_cruiser

you definitely need rain. weeds grows quicker when there is rain, they get nutrients to get them grow fast.

everytime it rains i have to trim our lawn every week

WERDdabuilder

went ahead and bought 100' of chicken wire to bury on the edge of the yard to keep the gophers from coming in. the trench is about a foot down. got about 150 more feet to dig on the back end and other side =\.

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Phlip

I am done with the work that pays the bills here for the month of March...
(my fiance thinks I am working a half-day tomorrow, I will roll over and stay in bed a while longer and crank the Lawnmower instead of my Subaru)
Tomorrow, I cut...
Friday, I cut LOWER, then I spread the Scotts weed and feed, then I cut again in 2 weeks, when I will also fertilize and seed, then all I will do all season(s) is cut.

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WERDdabuilder

before...

after reseeding...



dat grass

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ManoNegra

^ nice job

After playing phone tag with the grass farm for a couple of months I gave up on the St. Aggy
Every time I called the grass wasn't ready to cultivate
questions I had could only be answered by the grass expert who was never on hand
fuck
that
shit

I decided to go back to my second choice of lawn: zoysia
I ordered 4lbs of Zenith Zoysia seed a few weeks back
the weekend before last I prepped the yard and laid down the seed
this past weekend I started noticing the tiny zoysia sprouts among the weeds
I'm stoked but apprehensive at the same time since I hear zoysia laws take a long time to establish from seed

Phlip

^^^ Funny, I’d been playing with the idea of using some Zoisia in my mix of grass seeds this year. That shit was 50 bucks for a TINY bag, so I went with a mix of rye, creeping red fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass (which they WILL NOT sell in stores here, I had to order it). I was late with it, so I aerated and put seeds down, then followed IMMEDIATELY with the Milorganite fertilizer.

4/23 – 7:16am (one week after seed/fertilizer:


4/30 - 7:01am (two weeks after seed/fertilizer)


4/30 – 7:43am, following cuts in two directions


Despite my late start this season, weeds have been a VERY minor problem, and the grass was quick to spread into the few spots that DID die over the very warm winter we had down here.
I cut my grass on Saturday morning and I am already seeing growth now on Tuesday, so I KNOW I will be forced to stay on this.

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ManoNegra

From the little reading I've done I gather zoysia isn't good for mixing
and yeah, the seed wasn't cheap but $100 in seed > $400+ in making st aggy plugs

funny but here in Cali all they sell in stores is Marathon I-IV which are mixtures of rye, fescue, bluegrass, etc.

I ordered my zoysia from Hancook seed in Florida and they only sell it peridiocally at specific times in the year (summer).

Phlip

Not according to what I read.
Zoysia Grass Seed & Plugs|Zoysia Grass From Seed| How To Plant Zoysia Grass Seed|Zoysias.com
MY major issues were that it was cost prohibitive and too late in the season

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ManoNegra

seen that but I took it to mean when starting a new lawn
don't remember where but I've read that zoysia seeds don't do well in already established lawns


it's been about 4 weeks since I laid down the seed
socal is in full summer grass mode and the sprouts are doing well for the most part







I had seed left over and decided to get some seed starting kits
and grow additional plugs to plant in the areas that didn't have good germination



I'm stoked

r20crazy

^ nice grass pubes mano!!! and nice job on turning the truck into a mobile grass plug growing device

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future

So how do the coffee beans work? I was thinking about picking up a shit ton from starbucks tonight and lawing it down tomorrow. Do you lay a little? A lot? Or like when thy out cow shit down and its so muc that you canhardly see the grass?

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Phlip

You won't need "so much you can't see grass" (trust, that would be more grounds than any 5 starbucks could give you).
They'll likely give you a couple trashbags full (hint: go between noon and 3 if possible), and that should do you just fine.

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kennedy8383

IF you want you lawn to be thick .. Aeration would be your choice and don't cut your lawn on hot day..

Phlip

Seeding without aerating is a sucker's bet.
I aerate early season (late feb) and at fall overseed (oct/nov)

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WERDdabuilder

started taking care of the other side of my yard that was destroyed by gophers. i still have more fixing up to do.
shallow mafia grave. grass already sprouting only after a week.

started working on the planters. queen palm/blue fescue/cyperus umbrella/red flax. picked up some mulch from lowes, theyre having a special this week 2.50$ a bag.


for anyone that has weeds/etc in their lawn i recommend

i used this after ortho weed-b-gone didnt work at all and it was a success.

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ManoNegra

Been a while, updates:
I've spent a good amount of time pulling weeds
spraying stuff to kill ants and bugs
spraying weed killer
and, this past weekend, laying down a mixture of chicken stiercol and pet moss on bare areas
to help break down hard soil and retain water

these are from yesterday, week 8:
nicer area that gets sun most of the day



section of the lawn that gets only partial sun though out the day
seed has sprout but it's lagging behind the nicer area



-juan

ManoNegra

Another update.
This past weekend was week 17.

the good




and the ugly


Lawn needs another two months of sun and 70 and above weather in my estimation. Stoked with the progress so far.

Phlip

We hit a mini-drought the last week of June and first 2 weeks of July, where within that 3 weeks we had 16 days (13 consecutive) where it was 93° or better and very little rain. As this was the week I had gotten married and spilled over including the week of my birthday, I was WAAAY more lax about getting and keeping it watered than I should have, so my grass was depressingly brown for a couple weeks until I got back on it.

Even now, it is not as deep green as it has been in previous images in this thread, but I have been working on getting it there. I will post a pic when I get home from work

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ManoNegra

90°s have been the average here in for the last few weeks.
In the San Gabriel Valley where I'm at we saw consecutive 100°s last week.
The shade the trees provide has helped and I've been keeping an eye on the lawn to water as needed.

btw, this guy is kept in the garage and still this happened:

Phlip

Typical here for that time of year as well, in fact it has cooled off to the 80s a little earlier than normal, but we normally have enough rain for it to not be a problem.

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Bubbles

That's a sweet little area. So jelly.

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godrifttoday

So I need some help here... I read up on several lawn care sites and just about everyone has different opinions...

Sod was place about 5 months ago along with automated sprinklers... We were watering 7 minutes for 3 times a day, 5am, 1pm, 7pm and that seemed to be working fine but water bill was crazy high! so I switched to 2 times a day, and currently now I'm at 2 times a week( i just started this pass week). I water the lawn now on wed at 5am for 16 min, and 7 minutes on Sunday. I also air-rated the lawn and used some fertiziler about 2 months ago, and I also I overseeded about 3 weeks ago.

Most seemed to agree that 1 inch a week of water is just about right. Just like the post above what can I do to get my lawn that green?? Anyone recommend some ph reader to determine what the grass needs?

I live in SoCal and the pass couple of weeks has been hot. Any recommendations ?

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initial_jc

Finally got my front throw mower adjusted, so much easier and better result