So here is my "official" renovation thread. I will post updates on my progress here that can hopefully be used to help others in the future.

So on Friday I picked up a pallet of Zoysia Sod - 169 sheets for $100, covers up to 450 sq. ft. alone. The sod farm loaded my trailer with a pallet, but I had to unload the pallet by hand, so here is what it looked like:



All of my comical family and neighbors said "I Hope you didn't pay a lot for all of that dead grass, hahaha! (I didn't want to explain the difference between dead and dormant!).

I have about a half acre, but I am not going to put Zoysia on the whole lawn right now (the back, east corner gets very little sun in the summer. So I have about 7,000 total sq. ft that I wanted to plug. Needless to say I had too much sod.

The process of plugging is very simple, but very tiresome:

- Take a sheet of sod and lay it grass side down on your work bench.
- Take a circular saw, and cut through the sod like wood to make plugs (NOTE - the saw cuts better plugs if the sod is damp, but that tends to jam the saw).
- Load up the wheelbarrow with plugs (I took about 100 at a time).
- Get a corded Drill (or a cordless if you have several fully charged spare batteries) and buy a bulb planting attachment at Lowes.
- Drill your holes at a depth of about 1 inch
- The plug will be wider than the hole, but drop the plug and stomp it in to get goo soil contact.
-Water Thouroughly and repeat until you feel you've been beaten like a rented mule.


Here are some pictures of the plugs and one spot where I unloaded some of my excessive sod to level out a low spot. As I mentioned, I got WAY too much sod















I have no doubt that once all is said and done, my lawn will be 100% Zoysia. The question is how well did I do and will it Bethriving a few months from now, or will it be a few years from now.

I still haven't decided what or when my next fertilizer drop will be. If the grass is green in mid-April, I'll try either 10-10-10 fertilizer, or maybe even miracle grow (read somewhere that miracle grow will really get Zoysia spreading. We will see how it goes!

So your hoping the zoysia will spread out and over the fescue? Or do you need to stress the fescue to get the zoysia to take over? How much spread do you think you will get from one plug?

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The zoysia will definitely spread out and take over the fescue over time, even if I don't try. Even with the best maintenence, the Fescue will thin out in the summer because of the high temperatures. The patches where I have zoysia right now were lush, green fescue just last spring.

But to your point, yes I do plan to stress the fescue by cutting it lower in June - September. It also won't help the Fescue as I fertilize the plugs in the hot months. I'm going to maintain my fescue as normal through June, and by that point any Zoysia that is going to survive will have survived and it will be time to start helping it spread.

zoysia is very invasive, just plant little pieces of it here and there, 2-3 years latter, zoysia is everywhere.
(if you have any fescue that stands up to it, can I dig it up and bring it home with me? beer deal?)

You got it Clay! I'm not going to kill the fescue, just stress it. So if any of it survives maybe i've found a new species!

Just a quick update on the reno - nothing new/exciting to report. The plugs and sod are still dormant. We had a warm snap 2 weeks ago, but then it was very cold last week. We are just now getting back into the 70's here so the soil temps are a little low. I can spot a few green shoots, but the dormant zoysia is still very apparent among the thriving fescue.

I am definitely impressed with one item. The existing Zoysia areas that I plugged 3 years ago (that are now thriving) have greened up. It grenned up when we had a few 80 degree days a couple of weeks ago. Even though last week we had a couple of cold nights, I didn't lose the green. The bermuda lawns up here are all still dormant. So for someone looking for a warm season grass with an early green-up, I have to give the thumbs up to Zoysia over bermuda.

Once low temps are consistently above 50, I expect I'll start seeing some action. I am hoping/expecting this to occur in the next couple of weeks, at which time I'll fertilize. I will then need to apply a second round of Dimension in early June (which will also include a second round of fertilizer) to hold back the crabgrass.

If anyone has any thoughts or comments, I would love the feedback!

has anybody ever nuked whatever yard they had and planted zoysia seed? Click here for more information

To my limited knowledge, Zoysia doesn't grow well from seed. Around here, it's always done via plugging.

There is now a variety of zoysia that can be grown from seed, but it's very difficult. Zoysia seeds are dormant and require direct sunlight in order to germinate (meaning you can't cover them with soil/hay/peat or anything else or they won't germinate).

I think in your scenario, a flat patch of dirt with no competition from other grass, seeded varietys would work and may be ideal for a large pasture area. But for the typical lawn of an acre or less, if you're going to clearcut and nuke everything, you might as well go ahead and plug.

SEED USE NOTICE: Please note that we ONLY recommend Zoysia seeds for use in bare soil areas. Planting seeds into existing grasses has a HIGH FAILURE rate. If planting into an existing lawn (grass and/or weeds) we recommend that you consider using Zoysia plugs instead of seeds. - Zoysia seeds also are difficult to achieve germination in low light / shady areas. Use plugs in these areas for best esults.

Update on the reno - Mowed the lawn this afternoon and the zoysia plugs are starting to show more green shoots and the full sold pieces I laid down are probably about 40% green now. I spread out some high nitrogen fertilizer last Sunday, but temps cooled off on Monday and Tuesday, then we had heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday. This weekend should show some good progress because it was in the 80's and dry today thru Sunday.

I'll be seeing more rapid progress come June, but right now I'm just happy to see things taking root and turning green. The other problem I have with the plugs is the TTTF is shading them even though I'm cutting the fescue lower. The rain we've had along with the temps have really been causing the fescue to grow. Once we get into May the fescue will slow down, and I'll drop the mower another notch to help the zoysia.

I will try and get some updated pictures this weekend. I'm still confident in my methods (plugging an established fescue lawn instead of killing the existing lawn), but am holding out for the heat so my growth will really kick into gear!

I took some updated pictures and am posting them below. It has been in the 80's here pretty consistently (although it suddenly dropped into the 50's for yesterday and today, but we'll be back in the 80's by weeks end).

The Zoysia sod that I laid down is actually doing quite well as you can see. I am also posting a picture of the zoysia that was established a few years ago. It looks very good.

I am a bit worried about my plugs. I took a picture of one today, but I cannot find most of them. I don't think they disappeared, but I am concerned because even mowing twice a week, the fescue grows so quick that it blocks the plugs access to sunlight. Of course my other concern is that because the zoysia blends so well with the fescue, maybe most of them have greened up and I just can't see them? I have one patch in my lawn where the zoysia has spread within the fescue in an 6' x 6' patch. In the wintertime it was very obvious what was zoysia (brown) compared to fescue, but now that it's greened up, I have to look closeley to pick out the zoysia

MY thought was to go ahead and get the plugs in early so they would have time to establish immediately once conditions were right. But I may find out that it would have been better to wait until the fescue growth was slowing, or maybe I just need to lower my mower a bit (since I'm trying to eliminate the fescue anyway).

Here is the sod I laid down:



Here is a close up of the existing zoysia:



Here is one of the plugs (still mostly brown):

I have been waiting for this. Cut the heck out of the fecsue. Forget the 1/3 rule scalp that sucker.

Update on the progress, last night I added my second round of Lesco Dimension plus fertilizer. We got what I believe was a "perfect" amount of rain last night to water in the fertilizer. The reason I think it was perfect is because it sounded like we were getting hammered with rain and I was afraid all my dimension would wash away, but it sounded worse than it was, I got up this morning and there is just a little bit of water in the rain gauge. It was enough to water-in the fert, but not to wash it away as I could still see granuales in the yard this morning.

No reason to add pics today, everything looks exactly the same as last time. I am dissapointed that I haven't seen any spreading yet, but I think part of that is just that with Fescue I've conditioned myself to watch grass grow and help it along until it turns crispy in late may. I've got to re-condition myself that I'm just now to the point of the prime growing season.

Even my existing Zoysia which has been green since March has not started to spread yet. Temps have been crazy this spring, going from hot to cold pretty often, but I think we are now headed into the prime growing season. I can still see many of my plugs, and many still have a lot of tan to them. But I tug and they aren't pulling up so I believe something must be growing to root them.

I am pleased with my pre-m results so far. Last year I came back from vacation in July and the crabgrass had started growing because my initial pre-m in March had worn off. I have noticed some crabgrass popping up i the cracks of my patio and in my neighbors lawn, but none in my lawn so far. Hopefully this next shot of Dimension will carry me through to mid-August and any crabgrass that shows up then should be easily killed with WBG+CG

Any updates?

Thanks for asking Simpson!

- The temps have been in the mid to upper 90's since May 28th. And what's interesting is the week before the skyrocketing temps, the high's were in the 60's -70's! So weather has been a rollercoaster, although temps are predicted to be in the 90's for the next 10 days, so that should help me with Zoysia.

- On Saturday we came home from camping and I noticed all of my zoysia had shriveled up. It had been 10 days with no rain and constant highs in the 90's, so I figured it needed a little water. Sure enough, I watered Saturday in the early evening and on Sunday morning the zoysia looked better than ever. This was unique to me. With Fescue, you can water it in the heat but the grass doesn't look measurably better. This really makes you feel like what your doing is working.

- I've lost sight of most of my plugs. Potentially some of them have died, but most likely they are covered by the fescue. In hindsight, I should have sprayed round up to make a "spot" where I wanted the plugs to go. Since fescue's spreading is minimal, that would have ensured there was plenty of sunlight reaching the plugs.

- I am still not seeing any spreading frmo any of the plugs or the sod strips. I am seeing spreading from the established zoysia so I assuknow the temps are right.

-The dimension barrier is still intact. The only place I am seeing crabgrass so far is in my patio cracks and flower beds. And I can spray those pretty quickly!

One other thing I didn't add. When I started this little project, I had no idea the city was going to increase our water and sewer rates. They raised water by 40% and sewer by 60% (and, oh by the way, just increased our property taxes 100%). So the cost of my project just got more expensive than I budgeted for, of course I guess that's life...

You may ask why sewer matters. It costs $2500 for a second water tap (plus the cost for a plumber to connect to my house) that wouldn't have sewer. Right now our sewer bill is based on how much water we use, regardless of how much actually goes in the sewer.

must be a raging realty market and at least 2 jobs for everybody? why else would the politicians raise the prop. tax 100%, prop. value went up 100%? (any meetings or protests to address this issue?)
sounds like somebody at the water dept. was asleep and was just giving the stuff away, woke up and raised the rates?
here in STL the metro sewer dist. ties their rates to water usage. didn't want to put meters on the sewers I guess.
good luck with the transition to zoysia, keep plugging away. (zoysia really does want to grow).

Yes, there were meetings , protest, unemployment is 10% but you know there's a 5 year plan that has to be funded come hell or high water!

I watered again tonight, but I think that it's just so hot and so dry right now, I can't keep up!

It is just amazing to me how the grass literally perks up after bing watered. The temps are right, I think I may try watering every other day for about a half hour in each zone. I'm getting more concerned at the fact I can't find most of the plugs that I painstakingly planted. Of course the foulr plugs I originally planted seemed to disappear a few years ago, and now each of them, which started as a 4" x 4" patch of grass, has grown to about 6' x 6'. Maybe I just need patience...

Ok, I typed up a bunch of stuff but lost it because I can't see how to add pictures.

Anyway, we've gotten a lot of rain and temps have come back to normal (mid 80's instead of upper 90's). Needless to say, the grass looks MUCH better! Here are a few pics:

Here are some of the plugs:

[img][img=http://s4.postimage.org/2obfxyqxw/IMG00197_20110620_1950.jpg][/img]

[img][img=http://s1.postimage.org/1w9yue6v8/IMG00198_20110620_1951.jpg][/img]

Here is a picture of some of the sod. The Zoysia sod is running alongside the path and also perpindicular to the path at the bottom of the shot:

[img][img=http://s1.postimage.org/1wa742xc4/IMG00199_20110620_1951.jpg][/img]

Here is a picture of my original zoysia, it is doing great except for the part in the middle that the dog uses as a running track:

[img=http://s4.postimage.org/2obzsewv8/IMG00200_20110620_1952.jpg]

Here is one of the big areas that I covered with some of my extra sod:

[img][img=http://s4.postimage.org/2oc1fy9d0/IMG00201_20110620_1952.jpg][/img]