Am I really making a bad decision by overseeding with KBG?

16 years ago

Vs. starting fresh?

I know you will all say "yes" but I just can't think of tilling up 150000 square feet. However, if I should be doing it now would be the year as I have a 1st year lawn that is kind of a mess anyways.

I just dont think I can get the motivation, on top of everythign else I am doing, to till up the entire yard again. Maybe I hsould just do the front yard or something :) but how long will it take for e to till up the whole yard again??

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (15)

bestlawn
16 years ago
Why do you think you have to till?
billhill
16 years ago
Parafly9 DonÂt till. Tilling just brings to the surface, nasty weed seeds that have been lurking in your soil for years. Overseeding is 90 percent of the total labor in full renovation of a lawn. The only additional thing you would need to do is to kill the existing grass with Round Up using a hose end sprayer. ItÂ not that hard. (But it takes a lot of guts the first time). And did you mean to say 150 thousand sq. ft. ? Are you able to water your renovated or overseeded lawn twice a day for six weeks ? Bill Hill
Related Discussions
help me make seed choice. kbg or tttf???
Q
Comments (7)
NC Lawn Nut, The new Elite KBG are very tough when it comes to heat and drought tolerance. My research and experience with KBG vs Fescue has been very favorable. My lawn is on a High Maintenance schedule, so I expect a lot out of it. If I wanted the same results out of Fescue, I'll be very disappointed. KBG is not for the masses, Fescue is for the most part in the transsition zone. I don't grow Fescue because with my maintance schedule I get MUCH better results with KBG. Af far as water usage, I've only water my lawn 3 times so far this summer to my neighbor's Zoysia 7 times. His lawn looks good and green with some winter damage (still) but not dark green like mine right now, and then it turns brown in the Fall and does not fully come back until May or early June. I don't concider KBG a water-hog, you need to train the grass roots to grow deep in the soil by letting the grass go thru a temporary drought period. Just for testing purposses, I let one side of my yard with NOT water to see the results. After record high temperatures in early June and lack of consistant rainfall, my Monostand of Midnight II started to go off color and dormant. Rain came and it greened back up to about 90%. Then it rained again a few days later, and today is about 99% green with no additional care. My neighbors Fescue lawn with the same care is about 85% green today despite rainfall. There's no doubt wether or not KBG grows in your area, it does. The question is: Do I want Fescue or Bluegrass? You decide. To me, the answer is very clear.
...See More
I am a fan of the August 15 overseeding or renovation
Q
Comments (24)
Well, it's day 7 now for my Kbg reno. I don't see anything coming up yet.... I'm not too worried yet as I don't think it's too unusual to not see anything yet on day 7 Day 7 is very early. Relax. Keep telling yourself that it takes 21 days. :) but at what point, what day, do I consider it a total failure? ... If by day 20, Sept. 15, I don't see anything, do I still have time to try it again (rake, reseed)? Or do I wait longer than that? Don't worry. It will come in before that. The first little bit of mine started to come in at day 8. Since then it has been slow torture. It is now day 15, and the first areas are starting to knit together, others are just starting, and there are still a couple of bare spots, but it's a little better each day. So hang in there.
...See More
i'm thinking about overseeding my kbg with ttprg
Q
Comments (24)
rcnaylor, If you read carefully, I did mention that we (NC) had one of the hottest/driest summers on record. We set record highs every other day during the month of August, rain was MIA. We experienced a Phoenix-like summer, which is VERY unusual for NC. The record highs were in the 100's not 90's. To put this into perspective, our average high during the month of July is 87F, and the average low is 67f. Those temperatures are acceptable for PR to survive. I was also referring to the strip of grass which some of you have seen many pictures. That strip is in nearly full sun. My backyard, about medium shade I will say, is comprised of mostly TTPRG, some KBG, and some Fine and tall Fescue. I only lost about 5% of the entire area. Grubs did NOT eat any of the roots unlike the front yard. Anyway, my point is that Gryd mentioned that PR browned easily during the summer. I said to him/her the soil because despite the hot summer conditions mentioned above, my PRG lasted until the 2nd week of August - that's is 2 weeks again from fall seeding. That tells me how heat and drought tolerant PRG is. BTW, I have decided NOT to overseed my KBG lawn with PR. I figure it's too late anyway. Even for PR to get establish. In other words, it'll have to do until next spring. As far as tall fescue, I personally do not care for its looks too much. It doesn't provide anything that KBG already has. I'm not concern about drought because I water whenever the law needs it. I'm not concern about heat either. The newer elite KBGs have outstanding heat tolerance, not a problem here in Central NC even under Phoenix-like style summers. I'll be willing to bet that KBG can grow further south of here. Anyone from Jacksonville, FL who wants to try KBG? I have extra seeds I can send down there for testing. It's Midnight KBG. Let me know.
...See More
Am I really a bad person for wanting a decadent shower?
Q
Comments (16)
EVen in new construction, this isn't going to be exactly an inexpensive option. You have to plan the whole system for "worst case scenario" rather than the more common everyday usage. A tankless water heater that only supplies one or two of your MB shower features while the tanked heater supplies the others might be the best way to go to give you your once a week indulgence. However, it won't be an inexpensive indulgence. A tankless able to supply enough heat rise to run 2 shower features at once will run you around $1200-$2000. It will need to have it's own separate supply line for the gas it will consume. As Antss said, you're talking 199BTU+. And although a gas tankless unit is smaller than a conventional tank unit and can conceivable be located in a master closet location close to the master bath, there are still some pricy requirements about their venting needs that need to be considered. THe double wall stainless vent pipe isn't cheap, and if you have a long way to go to penetrate the roof, then you may have just incurred another 1K of expense for the project. And there's the additional labor for the install, probably another $500-1K, depending on complexity. If your home doesn't have natural gas available, then electric on demand units are also available, but your home's electrical requirements just doubled, and you have to factor in a much larger service drop from the pole in the beginning as well as a larger service panel installed. Only your utility company and electrician can tell you how much that will add to your expense. The biggest bonus to electrical is that they do not require venting, and thus are easier to place in the home. However, they really do not save you but about 1-3% over a standard tanked electric heater, so it will be difficult to recoup the much higher initial up front costs without being in the home for 30 years. A better choice for someone who has an electrical only home would simply be an additional 80 gallon tank dedicated feeding those 2 extra features that you only turn on on Friday night and then turn off on Saturday after your shower. An 80 gallon tank with a 9 year warranty would run you around $800 here, plus the extra pipe needed to do the runs, you might only be looking at an additional 1K in systems materials to have your shower---PLUS the cost of the controls and the trims and valves for those features. You can figure out the additional operating costs of running your once a week shower from your utility rates and water consumption rates of the features you are considering. Other considerations to having such a shower would be the ventilation needed to ensure that the additional moisture was correctly removed from the home. With a vent fan needing to run for such a long period due to the long shower times, a cold climate bath might need an ERV unit attached to keep from exhausting so much conditioned air to the exterior. ON the whole, you're talking about adding around 5K extra to your project for a once a week indulgence. NOt a lot of money up front, and as I said, you'd need to look at the utility costs to be able to determine operating costs. But once a week shouldn't be onerous unless you live in a water restricted environment where water is expensive or tightly regulated. Unfortunately, more and more of "regular" America are encountering water restrictions. Much of the South was under water restrictions a couple of years ago and Lake Lanier outside Atlanta was almost dry. Check into your municipalites water sources and the possibiltiy of them encountering issues during drought times if you want to really be clear of any ecological impact of your decision. But, the good thing about putting just the "feature sprays" on a separate supply is that you don't have to use them during water restrictions if your area encounters them. Your everyday shower heads are the ones tied to your home's main water heating supply, and those can be "ultra low flow" heads if need be.
...See More
User
16 years ago
+3 Don't Till. Just kill, dethatch, mow it up, and slit seed.

But do yourself a favor...don't make the new grass compete with any of the old. Nerve-wracking, absolutely. Late on Day 12, I'm still waiting for a lawn...
billhill
16 years ago
Patients grasshopper. I think youÂll have a lawn by Thanksgiving. Bill Hill
User
16 years ago
Patients grasshopper. I think youÂll have a lawn by Thanksgiving.

Patients we got at work at the hospital. Patience I'm starting to run out of. ;-)

I know I shouldn't gripe or worry, not when Day 12 featured 10% color this morning and 15% this evening. I still gripe and worry. :-) My lawn and gardens are my babies.
parafly9
Original Author
16 years ago
Whoops, no, 15000 square feet, not 150000. LOL.

I just think if I kill the existing and overseed won't it end up looking like it does right now?

I don't want to kill my whole lawn, parts of it (especially the flat parts!) are nice !
parafly9
Original Author
16 years ago
I just don't know about killing the whole lawn. I spent a lot of time this year trying to get it to come in nice. Also, I think ther is no way that hydroseeding will be less effective than planting new grass - and I want a thick lawn next year, not another sparse weedy mess.

What to do, waht to do. If i am going to kill the lawn I am going to have to do it very soon.
parafly9
Original Author
16 years ago
I really fell like I am behind the ball> I wasn't going to kill the lanw entirely but now I am starting to think I should, and I feel like I am behind the ball on it and running out of time.

I think I should just A) round up the yard today and again in a week; and in two weeks (end of August) slit seed, fertilize, compost on top and water 3x daily lightly.
boatboy24
16 years ago
parafly:

Why not kill off part of the lawn and see how it turns out?

If I were spending the cash on premium seed, I wouldn't even consider overseeding. So, if that is what you plan to do, there's my two cents. :-)
parafly9
Original Author
16 years ago
WEll looks like I will probably just kill the whole thing :)

At this point I kind oof agree, I have all the steps in place with the exception of killing hte grass - I have the slit seeder rented, the premium seed, the irrigation system, the compost, everything - really not much difference between killing off my lawn or starting over

If I redo my lawn KBG on, say, Labor Day weekend, what will it look like by the November / December?
rcnaylor
16 years ago
If you have a half way decent amount of grass, just mow it short, catch the clippings and then overseed.

I've done this many times. If you mow it short, and aerate heavily, it will set the existing grass enough to give the new seed time to get going.

The only time I would spray it all is if I had a bunch of weeds or weedy type grass.
rcnaylor
16 years ago
Also, it takes much less labor than completely killing and tilling.

If you do it right, it will look like a battlefield for about three weeks before the new grass starts coming in.
parafly9
Original Author
16 years ago
I have people telling me a) kill it and b) don't kill it.

My existing grass is very thick on one part of the lawn (flat side) and very thin on the other (hilly area). I think I might end up with diifferent colors because of the darkness of the KBG I am putting down.

Also, the existing mix has rye grass in it - I though I read the KBG won't grow near the rye?
boatboy24
16 years ago
I saw your other post that contained your plan, and you've got it all down. You know exactly what needs to be done and you're prepared to do it. You live in a climate where KBG can do very well (New England, i think I saw). You've already purchased the seed, and you've lined up all the equipment.

I think it'll turn out just great. Sure, you might want to overseed next year, but that's probably the worst possiblity. Most lawns take 2-3 seasons to really establish themselves anyway.

You've done your homework, you know what needs to be done, and you're prepared to do it. Go for it and don't look back. This time next year, you'll look back and have a good laugh at yourself.

Cheers!
parafly9
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the very reassuring comments!

Am I really making a bad decision by overseeding with KBG?

Comments (15)

bestlawn

billhill

Related Discussions

User

billhill

User

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author

boatboy24

parafly9
Original Author

rcnaylor

rcnaylor

parafly9
Original Author

boatboy24

parafly9
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Am I really making a bad decision by overseeding with KBG?

Comments (15)

Related Discussions

parafly9Original Author

parafly9Original Author

parafly9Original Author

parafly9Original Author

parafly9Original Author

parafly9Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author

parafly9
Original Author