For those who are new to the forums (maybe just joined this spring or summer), you might want to catch up to speed with my original thread labeled: World's Worst Lawn. I wrote it last November in anticipation to this 2011 Lawn Renovation. At first, I wanted to go with TTTF, but ultimately decided to go with KBG for it's spreading capability. That might have been a very good choice.

I started killing the lawn in early May. I fallowed for 3 months. Although not always consistently, I sprayed grass/weed killer those whole 3 months. I battled Creeping Red Fescue and had to ultimately sow the seed and not worry about it. I didn't win the Red Fescue battle by the way. So as I went into this renovation, I go into it which much weed invasion. As a side note, I have not mechanically aerated and disturbed the soil at anytime. If I did, I think it would be safe to say that it would be marginally worse.

8/23 Seeded with Peat and OceanGro Fertilizer.
8/24 Seeded another area in dead grass with no covering but with OceanGro Fertilizer.
8/28 Hurricane Irene removed a good portion of top dressing.
8/29 Germination on the 8/23 seeding time.
8/31 Germination on the 8/24 seeding time (Very sparse)

Looks like the most difficult portion of the renovation will be the seed I sowed into dead grass (alive weeds). Time will tell and I know I have to be patient, but I am preparing as I will have to plug some areas come Spring. I'm fine with that! On the picture with the house view in the background, look on the left side where it looks like a patch of new grass. Is this Poa Triv, Poa Annua, or neither? I'll let the experts give their opinion of that as I also have a close up shot for you at the bottom of this post.

I would bet money that the closeup is not kbg looking like that after 7-8 days. It would be more like hair just pushed out of the ground at that point. That is way more mature. I would almost be tempted to spray just that area with Tenacity to give me a better clue.

eriocaulon wrote:I would bet money that the closeup is not kbg looking like that after 7-8 days. It would be more like hair just pushed out of the ground at that point. That is way more mature. I would almost be tempted to spray just that area with Tenacity to give me a better clue.

+1....Tenacity may be a good choice since those do not appear to be KBG.

The other close up with the visible peat is exactly how the new sprouts will look. Don't worry about the seeds in the dead grass, that will serve as a good mat for them to grow. They may not be as visible because you don't have the dark background to see the babies sprouting.

Let me just say the pictures are a little embarrassing to post since you really can't see much past the weeds. However, there is grass coverage in about 70% of the areas. In addition, I think November will be the true tale bearer of what this renovation will turn out to be. At least I'll be able to spray some weed killer. Right now, I'm on the 17th day of renovation. These pics were taken this morning. I am holding off on Tenacity until week 4 or 5, so I have not yet sprayed that grassy patch of weeds on the last picture submitted here. I might do another feeding of Oceangro and am thinking about doing a half dose of urea. Any advice on that? Should i be walking a spreader over this young grass or wait a week or two? Thanks.

That's pretty normal, although your weed pressure seems to be extremely high. Fortunately, that can be handled.

The grass looks old enough to walk gently, so if you want to drop Oceangro and/or urea, that's fine. I was meandering over mine every seven days and had three dogs on it using it when they went out.

That is a lot of weed pressure - especially for 3 months of fallowing. It is manageable, but is going to take some work. You may also want to consider starting the Tenacity a bit earlier as some of the weeds look like they are dense enough to cause problems with your new seedlings.

As for coverage. I have a number of areas in my back that are at 27 days post seeding and are growing new sprouts in them over the past two days.

Today marks 20 days since seeding. Some areas are coming in very strong. I'm going to get the mower blade sharpened this week. Don't want any issues when i start to mow. Even amongst the weeds, the KBG is growing up!

That weed pressure is unreal, especially after fallowing. Did you use Round up?

I switched between Roundup and Spectracide Weed & Grass killer. I literally sprayed the weeds 10X over a 3 month period. The weed invasion you see there didn't actually come up until I seeded...go figure.

EDIT: On a side note, I am looking into solarization when i do the backyard in 2012. I PM'ed turf_toes on the subject since he had a colleague that was doing a solarization renovation. He said that she reported that it really did kill everything and she was in the same climate as NJ. The weed pressure is really immense. In particular, I didn't take any pictures of the creeping red fescue still alive and spreading. I got my work cut out for me for sure!

i didn't fallow as long as u did, only for about 2-3 weeks. During that whole time nothing really spawned and i thought i was fairly safe with weeds. So i seed and water and i also get a ton of weeds, maybe not at the same level as yours. I even applied Tenacity as a pre-em at seeding.

Maybe your lawn has been really neglected for years by the previous owners and has accumulated tons of weed seeds.

You can start considering spraying Tenacity in a week or two. I sprayed tenacity at day 28. I'll let u know if i see any damage to my lawn when u hit day 28.

xxryu139xx wrote:Maybe your lawn has been really neglected for years by the previous owners and has accumulated tons of weed seeds.

+1000000

I'd really like to go crazy with that number, but there is no doubt it was neglected. I think they were happy that they could mow every week and if it turned brown and weedy...oh well, they got a vacation that week from caring. That's why i think solarization needs to be seriously considered in this case.

I do believe I will spray Tenacity on the more mature looking KBG starting on the 4th week. I'll be watching your posts closely as I know you just sprayed your reno with Tenacity.

I sprayed Tenacity this evening as it is expected to rain tomorrow. Besides the sidewalk strip, there is a ton of weed invasion. I started spot spraying in the "good" area and then I realized that there really wasn't a good area. I noticed that an area that looked like no weeds actually was matted down in between the KBG. Very disappointing. I'll work hard on it though. It is now 27 days since seeding. For those that used Tenacity after germination, it will be interesting to hear your feedback.

I would just blanket spray your whole lawn. with your weed pressure, anything growing there is suspect. tenacity homes in and will stunt the growth and kill your weeds. that will give your grass a fighting chance from being outcompeted by your weeds for valuable resources to grow.

Day 1

Click for full size

Day 9

Click for full size

You can see most of the dicots are gone from mowing down to 2 inches. If you look at the two big limey patches on the right side, they have turned white and are starting to disintegrate. If you compare the photos right next to each other, you can see that the kbg is still thickening up and looks like its starting to close some spaces. color is coming back too under the white areas. my test pots are still alive although they don't look to happy. their top ends are white while the bottom are green. i think its actually starting to look better more and more everyday.

It has been a long time since my last post and I wanted to write a more detailed post with weeks three to six, but for now I'm going to post the latest pics for now. I'll try to get a comparison in at a later time. Today marks exactly six weeks since seeding time. The progress from the major weed invasion is amazing. Tenacity has done a fine job. I sprayed Tenacity exactly a week ago, but i won't have time for a reapplication until Friday. Yesterday, I was able to mow for the 3rd time down to 2.125 inches which is an amazing looking cut in person.

The sidewalk strips are lacking major color and are suffering from the Tenacity treatments. Probably the result of the baby grasses being covered underneath enormous weeds. At this point, I cannot tell whether I'm looking at grass that is suffering under there or whether it is wild onion and some other form of weeds suffering. I plan to go another two rounds of Tenacity treatments.

Major Improvement you have a good starting point. At this point I would rather have to deal with weeds then bare germination like I'm experience. You can address weeds later but cant do much if you arnt having grass grow.

Looks Good Keep up the work it'll pay off. Specially with your recent pics compared to old ones!!!!

Awesome results. Your weed pictures vs today is so much different. This time there is more uniformity of grass than weeds. Keep up blanket spraying. There may still be weeds germinating/growing in there and aggressive is good since your cultivars are not susceptible to tenacity. Make sure you feed to get them growing. Keep mowing if u want to get the white stuff to disappear quickly.

Wow....Amazing Tenacity results. Keep up the good and hard work.

Thanks for all the compliments. I plan to apply the 3rd Tenacity application in about an hour. Plan to do another spot spray on some tough areas. Other than that, I'll try to get some pics up next Tuesday or Wednesday and I'll show the progression pictures from week 3 to week 7. Should be interesting to compile.

Looking out through the window today, the dark color of the lawn is simply amazing. To think that it will get darker than it already is just shocks me.

EDIT: Couldn't resist!

Color is great....Just think, all of these areas where the weeds are being nuked will fill in beautifully.
Here's to Tenacity

p.s. Where are you in CNJ?

Sorry it took me so long to update the thread. I didn't do a week 7 update and on the 8th week I was sick and not able to take any pics. I did however take pics today which marks the 9th week and 64 Days since seeding. I will show you the comparison from week 7 and week 9 which is quite amazing.

I did 3 Tenacity treatments, but have decided to stop. I'll redo in the Spring time. I might dormant seed one of the strips and some other bare areas. You see the trouble spots I'm referring to. By the way, NJDave, I am in Piscataway.