Looks really good, but the last picture looks more like Fescue than KBG. I know high intensity sunlight will make the lawn look bright green rather than dark. I like to look at my lawn right at dusk, so dark green...

Try to go lower on the mower so that the grass can spread faster. Not too low, just lower than on the picture. Like 2 1/2 inches will be good.

Good job on the renovation.

Thank you Auteck, like I mentioned that last photo doesn't exactly capture the actual color of the grass (which is much darker to my eye), and being a really crappy photographer I have no idea how to fix that. I have been mowing at 2.25" for the last six weeks or so, and, for this mow, I increased it by maybe a half an inch. I was mowing so low for exactly the reason you mentioned (lateral growth), and I think I achieved a lot of that, but now that it all seems to be waking up I have started to boost the blade height in anticipation of summer heat, and increased vertical growth, hope that makes sense.

Again, thank you!
Paul

You have bragging rights for sure. That looks great! I'm not fishing for compliments because the stuff I post here is almost always collected from the works of others, but what advice did you get here that seemed to work best for you?

Outdoor pix almost always look better when taken on a cloudy day.

David, thank you! This may sound trivial, but I think the best advice I got (and it was on this forum) was to roll the seeds with an empty roller after laying them down. I think that did more for my initial success than anything else.

Always good to see a great result. Congrats!

Hey Paul that looks AWESOME!

...the best advice I got (and it was on this forum) was to roll the seeds with an empty roller after laying them down

Noted and reiterated. Thanks!

Thanks guys!

David, just to elaborate, after preparing the soil I had intended to rent a slit seeder, but wasn't able to get one when I needed it, can't remember why. So I just went ahead and weighed out my seed and paced the small lot over and over with one of those handheld whirlygig seed spreaders on a low setting, and then rolled. I really do think the rolling was very important, and much more effective than my previous "rake over" method, but that might just be because I simply dropped the seeds on the surface. I did use pennmulch, but am not convinced that it did much of anything other than provide the starter fert.

Paul, your lawn is looking really good. I wish I had that weed free lawn..

Hi vkolte01, that photo is deceiving, my lawn is not weed free, just mostly "broadleaf challenged" right now. There is a ton of Poa, it is just not very prominent because that photo was taken just after a mowing, and the harsh sunlight that makes the grass look light apparently also masks the Poa. There are also some grassy weeds here and there, but not too many, mostly thanks to Dimension I think. I did have a major amount of broadleafs, but got rid of many of them by spot spraying WBG about a month ago, and following up with the dreaded Weed and Feed (what I had leftover from last year). Both products seemed to work very well, which was a surprise to me given all I have read about the difficulties of early spring weed control, and the inefficiencies of W&F products. I personally hope that after my grass fills in I won't be tempted to buy another W&F product, and I do think that will work out, but the fact is that, for whatever reason, weed and feed seemed to help me this year. FWIW it was a Lebanon Seaboard "Greenview" product.

Paul,

that last picture looks so much like the color and texture of my 2005 renovated back yard with the sun like that.
I've got Award, Bedazzled, and Blackstone out there.

Nice work, looks great!

Looks great. You mention that you're mowing shorter to speed up lateral growth. Is this as beneficial in a lawn that has a mix including KBG? I have KBG/Fescue/Rye and I've been mowing at my highest height for about a month now. I do have a lot of holes/patches that need filling in because of snow mold damage (and that's the least of my worries as far as damage goes) and I'm wondering if mowing a height shorter will help as you say, at least until the real heat gets here.

Egghead, thank you! Very glad to hear that, especially since our blends are so similar.

Fourstringdrums, thank you too! I'm no expert, but if you have a good amount of KBG (which is what I have) I believe the lower mowing helps a lot, particularly in spring and fall, and that it is much less effective for the clumping grasses, which, though I am not sure about this, I believe would include your rye and fescue.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, hopefully someone else can chime in. If not I think this would be a great topic for a new thread.