Best Lawn Mower Lift

Wait! “Glyphosate” and “veggies”. Those two are okay together? Must be the farmer coming through. LOL!

I’m glad the pre-emergent worked out. It’s nice to try something and see a result that reinforces one’s thought/idea. You’ll want to hit it again, ~2nd week of August to stop the fall weeds.

With post-emergents, it’s really important to catch stuff before it has a chance to flower/go to seed. That’ll make a huge difference, as you continue working on a plan. It’s why I always spot-sprayed when I serviced a property.

I switched to Momentum, because MY cost per ounce was less, plus I moved all my chemical business over to Site One (the GM was stellar with me, whereas I’d had some issues with my previous supplier). However, YOUR cost between the two could be different. You’ll just need to do the math.

IIRC, Momentum is missing one chemical (starts with a “C”) that is especially effective against red clover, which SpeedZone has. However, Momentum mixed at 2 ounces/gallon of water smoked everything I sprayed it on. Sprayed in the morning of a sunny day, you’ll see results by nightfall.

*If you don’t have one, you need to buy a Ratio Rite cup and be exact on your measurements, at that strength of either chemical. 3 ounces/gallon will kill everything, so you have to be absolutely accurate. There’s NO adding a dab more!*

You’re welcome. I don’t know everything; only what worked for me.

No. I never did any YT videos. It’s just not my thing.

You have to be careful with TN. You’re right on the dividing line of warm- or cool-season grass. Closer to AL, you’ll probably be looking at a warm-season variety (maybe St Augustine). Closer to KY, you’ll be looking at a cool-season variety (you’d want tall fescue). They each have their own needs and chemicals are NOT universal between them. However, use of a sprinkler system is. It’s a tough area and you’re going to need to pay close attention to the health of whichever grass you go with.

Before developing a plan, you need to figure out which variety will be best for your area. Select one of the grasses that has the attributes you want. Then, look at what you have. Is it what you want? If not, kill off the whole yard and plant/sod what you want. That'll be your foundation and develop your plan off that. Initially, this won’t be cheap. However, once you get it going good, it’s just a matter of maintenance.

If that yard is mixed grass, it’ll never be a beautiful lawn. Whatever grass you choose, stick to that one variety. There are countless mixes available, such as “tall fescue/Kentucky blue grass/rye” mix. The tall fescue is beautiful, the KBG is very course and meh, rye is a creeper (the shit will invade everything) and ugly. Don’t let someone talk you into a mix. Now, there are mixes of the same variety, such as a tall fescue mix. Those are OK.

During this process, you’ll want to develop a relationship with someone at your Site One store. Let them be a helping hand, because they know the local growing requirements and many of them have forgotten more than you’ll ever know about this stuff.

If you run into anything you have questions about, just post here and we’ll try and help you. However, I have little warm-season grass knowledge/experience.

That’s funny and had to be stinky. Just leaving my mowers in the trailer a couple days with packed decks was funky enough.

 

I'll be right on the Kentucky border. The yard is definitely mixed and and from what I've found, the tall fescue seems to be the ticket for the area, but I will get with a local expert to make the right choice. KBG also seems to be a go to. The tall fescue mix is in line with what I'm thinking to fill bare spots and then overseed. But I'll figure it all out once I get there and can get to work. And I'll get a good look at some nice yards with those grasses and see what looks good to me.

 

Kill it, mid-July, with glyphosate. Then, let it dry out. Second week of August, sacrifice a mower blade, set the deck to scalp, and bag it off. Third week of August, slit-seed in tall fescue, criss-crossing the yard, at double the bag’s recommended drop rate. Spread Lebanon 18-24-12 at the Lesco #18 drop rate. Liberal watering. You should see germination by the second week of September. Do not mow for 6wks after germination, cut at 4” height, and bag that off. Let it get to 6”, then, mow and bag it off at 4”, again. You want to keep the blades of grass as long as possible, for water retention and growth. You’ll have a lot of clippings, so you need to bag that off to minimize buildup and keep the soil clear for emerging seedlings. I never apply emergents in this critical stage of a lawn, either. Start the following year, as the grass will have endured cuttings and a winter, at that point, and be more strong and tolerant of chemicals.

Never cut tall fescue shorter than 3-3/4”, measured at your mower blade’s cutting edge. Try and mow before it gets to 6” height.

KBG is more coarse, the blades stiffer, and doesn’t mow as nice, so it’s not as pleasing to the eye or feet.

 

That’s my plan with my front yard this year, kill it off and start over. It looks good from a distance but up close there’s too many types of grasses for my liking. After killing it off with glyphosate for a couple weeks and watering in between, I was thinking about a truckload of dirt to level it a bit and hopefully give the new grass better soil to grow in. Then Tenacity after seeding for a pre-emergent, starter fertilizer, and something to keep the birds from eating all the seed.

 

Why would you water after glyphosate? You want what was once alive to dry out, so you can scalp it off and bag it. After doing that, you want barren dirt, for a fresh start. Watering will only help germinate weed seeds that have blown in from elsewhere.

Grass doesn’t necessarily need great soil to prosper. The 18-24-12 I’ve mentioned will jumpstart growth. If you want to get crazy, a periodic, light application of that stuff will be all you can handle on the growth/mowing side of things.

DO NOT apply any chemicals for at least 8wks after germination. I prefer to skip the rest of the year, as there will be seed germinating all the way until freezing. If an “Indian Summer” occurs, even more grass will pop up. It’s better to play catch-up on the weeds, in the spring. Let the grass have a chance to get good and matured, before chemicals. Despite grass tolerating chemicals, they’re not good for grass.

Birds aren’t going to be an issue. Slit-seed, apply 18-24-12, judiciously water, and work on more pressing worries.

 

The stuff I’ve watched about renovations said to kill it off and then water to get anything you might have missed to pop up and then spray again.

I didn’t think of slit-seeding, I’ll have to look into renting one of those.

 

I would simply do a one time burn down with glyphosate, do the clear out, spray area with Tenacity as it’s safe for seeding, then slit plant the grass seed. If you can’t obtain a slit planter, loosen up the soil with a rake or even get a bag or two of potting soil and work it in with the yard soil then broadcast grass seed and work it in with a rake. As long as you have good seed to soil contact, grass seed will easily germinate. The only thing to be cautious about is when watering, as water droplets hitting the ground can disturb the the seed and displace it prolonging root soil attachment etc. this is one reason why slit seeding is preferred. I would definitely skip doing two burn downs as it’s not necessary. H and throw down a starter fert.

 

I just learned something new: Tenacity can, indeed, be used at seeding. I’d like to learn what allows that? Is it because it’s a natural-occurring compound? The rule of thumb I’ve always read is if it has pre-emergent properties, it’ll disrupt grass seed germination.

 

Its active ingredient, mesotrione, is based on a naturally occurring compound produced by the bottlebrush plant (Callistemon citrinus) that inhibits photosynthesis in susceptible plant species. It is absorbed by plants through the roots, shoots and leaves and distributed throughout the plant by both xylem and phloem translocation. Turf grass is apparently not a susceptible species.

 

And it turns crabgrass into a beautiful white ink blot sort of shit