So...weather is throwing a monkey wrench at me again.

I was planning on having 10 yards of topsoil delivered this week to level out some areas in the back yard and seed by this weekend. With all the rain this week, the earliest I could schedule a delivery would probably be Friday(maybe Thursday) and there's still at least a 30% chance of rain everyday for the weekend(and lately I've had to add about 50 points to that percentage).

So, here's the plan... get topsoil delivered/applied asap. I'm approaching the end of seeding season here... although I and going with a TTTF or TTTF/Rye, I still hate to wait this long... but it is what it is...

Next I have to decide on seed. If anyone has followed my front yard reno, you'll know I used a TTTF/Rye combo(Lesco Teammates). I'm pretty happy with it. The only thing that I'm not thrilled about is that it doesn't seem to want to grow that tall. Now, it could just be early, and me being a novice could have no idea what I'm talking about. But it doesn't seem to have a tall upright growth habit...which is what I want. (Could also be my soil/tree roots) So I'm considering going back to Lesco and getting a straight TTTF blend like the Transition Blend. Two of the characteristics of the Transition blend are 'Dense Upright Growth' and 'Excellent mowing properties'.

So help me decide.... TTTF/Rye combo like the front or try the TTTF blend and see what differences there are from the front. For reference, here is a pick from the front 25 days after seeding:


Also, to start chronicling the back yard... Here are some pics the day after spraying roundup(Not even 24 hours):

It has only been 25 days. The temps are just cooling off. The rain has just returned. Its about time to fertilize. Your asking for to much top growth from your Reno. Just sit back it will start to grow in the next month

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Thanks. I figured I'm being impatient. I just fertilized Sunday(before the rains came).

I still think I might go with a straight TTTF blend for the back. Try something different. Otherwise I'll have no idea what the differences would be

Back yard scalped and ready for 10 yards of topsoil being delivered tomorrow:

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I still think I might go with a straight TTTF blend for the back. Try something different. Otherwise I'll have no idea what the differences would be [/quote]


FWIW - I'm very happy with my TTTF blend from Rose Agriseed

Yea man I'm still up in the air. After reading some more stuff from Rutgers and the like, it seems a seed with more than 5% PR will be dominated by PR. The mix I used in the front is 20% and most of the big blades(as far as I can tell) are PR in the front.

So I'm leaning towards either all TTTF or all Rye... Not sure.

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After waking up and looking at my front yard again, I decided to stick with what works....
So I went to Lesco(John Deere Landscapes) and got another bag of the Teammates mix. This one cost almost double what the last one cost though for the same 'name'. I went to another JDL last time and I asked why there was a difference. The bag I got today seems to have MUCH better stands in it, so I'm fine with the price increase. Also, I'm not sure if the guy charged me retail vs commercial as the other JDL might have.

Anyway... Here is the seed mix:
26.57% Falcon IV Tall Fescue
26.56% Finelawn Elite Tall Fescue
25.74% Five Point Tall Fescue
19.90% Palmer III Perennial Ryegrass

All the stands seem to be very high quality and recently improved from what I gathered from google. Also, I guess I can say I'm in the 'Elite' crowd now!

Topsoil is on it's way. Time to start stretching and eat a high carb meal. I'm getting 10 yards for $225 delivered. Not bad I guess. Plus the guy said it would be 10-12 yards haha. Whatever. Screened topsoil of course.

I figure... should be about 45-50 wheelbarrow loads. At least I won't have to do deadlifts for a while.

So, they guy shows up with my topsoil and he says... WOW, this was a generous load. You asked for 10 and you got 15 yards!!! I thought it was a good thing at first... but DANG THAT'S A LOT OF DIRT. 15 yards of completely saturated topsoil

I'll get better pics of the finished product tomorrow... I have a bit left to do before putting down the seed:

First off, I want to apologize. I think that I and I alone am responsible for all the rain this year.

I dropped seed yesterday and of course it poured this early morning lol.

Anyway... here are pics after I leveled the yard. I used about 13 yards in the back. It ain't perfect, but it's a lot better than it was that's for sure.

Just looking at that pile of dirt makes me cringe. Hope you had help. How long did it take you to spread it all?

I remember trying to be precise when spreading my 20 yard load of compost. After 5 hours I didn't care anymore - just wanted it to be over. Still got a pretty even spread.

The front looks great! When was your first mow? My backyard is TTTF/KBG and it's coming along a lot faster then the Fine Fescue in the front - that's to be expected, I guess.

silver8ack wrote:I thought it was a good thing at first... but DANG THAT'S A LOT OF DIRT. 15 yards of completely saturated topsoil

I feel you Silver8ack, it was a pain spreading 10 yd of topsoil and 8 yd of compost for me even with help from my dad.

Maggie wrote:Just looking at that pile of dirt makes me cringe. Hope you had help. How long did it take you to spread it all?

I remember trying to be precise when spreading my 20 yard load of compost. After 5 hours I didn't care anymore - just wanted it to be over. Still got a pretty even spread.

The front looks great! When was your first mow? My backyard is TTTF/KBG and it's coming along a lot faster then the Fine Fescue in the front - that's to be expected, I guess.

I'd say it took about a total of about 10-12 hours. However 4 of those hours I had 2 other guys helping me and they just kept dumping load after load... without them I'd still be out there. Probably did more in those 4 hours then the 6-8 I did by myself. I still have fill in the tire tracks the dump truck left... ground was Sooooo wet. But I didn't care... I left the side of my front Un-Renovated because I was planning on having equipment driving there. Now I wish I had sprayed roundup already cuz I could just renovate it right now with the remainder of topsoil that's sitting there. Oh well...

First 'real' mow was about 21 days. I had mowed it before that too, but only about 10% actually needed to be cut, haha... I was a bit anxious.

coliphage wrote:

silver8ack wrote:I thought it was a good thing at first... but DANG THAT'S A LOT OF DIRT. 15 yards of completely saturated topsoil

I feel you Silver8ack, it was a pain spreading 10 yd of topsoil and 8 yd of compost for me even with help from my dad.

Yea, I kept saying to myself... If he would've just given me the 10 I asked for I'd be almost done by now!! Haha.

Did you use Tenacity as a preM? I had a little time between my regrading and seeding and noticed a good number of weeds beginning to sprout in the new topsoil they brought in. I picked out what I could as I seeded, but I figured I would try Tenacity as well. I think you can put Tenacity down anytime prior to germination, if you feel weeds could be an issue.

No, I didn't use anything. I'm using the 'natural' approach haha... which means dealing with weeds later on

Im using PR/TTTF combo so I'm hoping on quick germination to snuff out most of the weeds. It seems to have worked OK in the front lawn... so hopefully the topsoil isn't infested.

+1

The reason you go with faster germinating cultivar is for quicker weed suppression.

I HAZ GERMINATION!

Dropped on the evening of Sept 11. Germination on the evening of Sept 15.

Here are pics from today:







And here's my Orbit Gear Drive sprinkler:

How's the weed pressure? For my Reno I used topsoil to level a few small spots in my lawn. So far the only weeds I have are located in the new top soil.

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The only weeds I've seen so far is wild onion. But I had them before and they are in some spots where I don't have topsoil. I also have them in my front yard where I didn't use any topsoil. So far the topsoil has been ok.