One acre bermuda lawn renovation with seed
Hi everyone. I wanted to post my process of renovating over an acre of lawn going from fescue, common bermuda, weed mix to a nicer quality hybrid bermuda. The purpose of this post is track progress, get feedback, and maybe help others who might be trying this in the future.
Background: I have two acres of land that I built a house and moved in last July. I had about 13,000 s.f. of Tifway 419 bermuda laid around the house around July 2016. I paid someone to do the prep work prior to the sod and they did an awesome job. However with all sod it has some bumps and I might tackle leveling it in the future. I am mowing with a 54" zero turn on the lowest setting (1.5"). Here are some pictures of it from this weekend.
The other 1.25 acres or so was rough terrain that was never maintained other than an occasional brush hogging prior to me purchasing the land. Mowing was frustrating because of all the bumps and rocks. So I decided to renovate by regrading and start over with Bermuda seed. Here are some pictures prior to starting (sorry I don't have great pictures of the beginning).
Over the past couple months I have made several glyphosate applications. Here are some pictures after two applications about 2 weeks apart back in late March/April.
I made one more application in mid April and had 3 loads of topsoil delivered. The last application seemed to get the majority of the rest of the grass/weeds that were being stubborn. I spent many nights and weekends picking up rocks that I could see on the surface after this. Then again after heavy rains. I would guess I picked/dug up 30 buckets of rocks.
My next plan was to spread the topsoil in the low spots with a skid steer. Knock down the high spots and use a home made drag made from angle iron to drag everything smooth. I did this on May 13th. It worked pretty good. Here is some in progress photos.
The next post will have more detail and pictures. I can't post any more pics to this post.
Comments (18)
josh02_2001
6 years agoHere are some pictures after spreading the topsoil and dragging the area a few times pulling the heavy drag behind the skid steer. I wanted to drag it much more, but I ran out of time and the skid steer had to go back the next morning so I will rent something that is lighter weight and more maneuverable in the near future to drag some more.
I was really happy with the results, but it still wasn't good enough. I wanted to have someone with a harley rake to come in and work on the ridges and pulverize the dirt some more to get a nice seed bed. Luckily I know someone who was going to come out and help me with a harley rake. I had some time becuase the soil temp was not quite at 65 degrees so I was willing to wait for my friend. The guy who was going to help saw the forecast and didn't want to do anything with the chance of heavy rain. He was right and unfortunately we had a 4" rain over the weekend and my hard work doesn't look so good.
So now I wait. Soil temps are good and I am ready to plant, but I need to get on this guys schedule and I know he is busy so not sure when I will plant. I did go ahead and do another application of glyphosate, this time just spot spraying the patches of weeds and crab grass that are sprouting.
After my friend comes in with the harley rake. I may rent an UTV and roller and pull the drag some more just prior to seeding. I hope that will be in the next week. I am anxious to get this going.
I realized I forgot to tell you the seed I am using and I'm sure you will ask. I am using Riviera for the front 1/4 acre, since this is so expensive I was only able to buy 25 lbs. Using La Prima for the back which is just under an acre (75 lbs). This is a large yard and I don't have sprinkler systems so I know that will be my biggest challenge. I am considering doing the back first and then the front a couple weeks after since Riviera can handle a cold winter easily if it isn't as established. I plan on having a few weeks of long nights and early mornings with help from my wife moving sprinklers and the lawn tractor sprinkler.
I am in NW Arkansas for those curious.
More updates to come, but this is up to date as of this post. Any advice is appreciated. I have never taken on a yard project this massive.
Joel Burton
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Does my Bermuda grass lawn need seeding?
Comments (4)Without knowing why the grass is thin, since shade was not the issue, it's hard to say how fast the bermuda will return. It will spread in from the outside for certain, but there might be enough root structure remaining for it to simple spring up. You are watering too frequently. Your nursery guy sells plants, seed, and likely sod. The advice he's giving you will maximize his profits, not your enjoyment. When you water you should water very deeply without runoff. Deeply means 1 inch at a time all at once. Measure one inch by setting out empty cat food or tuna cans. Time how long it takes to fill the cans. That's your target for watering until forever. This time of year you should be watering deep about once every 2 weeks. When temps get into the 90s you can go to once per week. When temps get above 100 you should still be able to go once a week but you might see it drying out in 5 days. Then go to every 5 days until it cools off. You do not need any chemical type fertilizer until you have mowed the grass for the second time. Before that you would be wasting fertilizer when you have no active roots to take up the fertilizer. Then start a monthly program with any high nitrogen fertilizer....See MorePlanting Bermuda seed in existing lawn
Comments (86)maidinmontana said, Can someone please tell me if there is a forum where someone can go to get some ADVISE on lawn care, and in the meantime those of you who want to argue can take it elsewhere, you aren't offering any help/advise to those who post here. (Notice the original poster hasn't been back) Sorry maidin but there is no Arguing About Lawns Forum. When people want to discuss this stuff, this is where they take it. It happens in all forums. Other places to not look if you don't like arguing are the food and plumbing forums! One of the things you learn in public forums is how to filter out the stuff that doesn't matter. It takes some time to learn that. The OP's questions were answered in a day or two. Now the forum is open to the nuances of climatology flavored with beer, other Internet sites, and TV images of the Master's Tournament. Actually I was learning a bit about bermuda - that is until texas-weed left to avoid getting tangled in the rope. Personally I don't care about the micro idiosyncrasies of Atlanta's climate/lot size versus Dallas or anywhere else, but if y'all can relate that topic to growing grass, then go for it. This thread has reminded me of just a few short years ago when Tif 419 was The Holy Grail of hybrid bermuda grass. It also reminded me of the just a few short years ago when any kind of bermuda was the Anti Christ. Oh, wait a minute, it still is. It also reminded me of all the 'discussions' I participated in defending organic lawn care before the Organic Lawn Care forum was started. [sigh] Good times [/sigh] For the record, I have never learned anything listening to myself. I learned 90% of what I know about lawn care from listening to discussions just like this one. I know this is snippy, maidin, but I can't resist. Maybe I could ADVICE you on a spell checker. For those of you who are counting my messages, I don't want to disappoint you: deeply and infrequently!...See MoreSeed suggestions for a midwest lawn (Renovating)
Comments (23)I'm new so I guess I'm a bit confused at this point. What does the average home owner do that knows about as much as me but didn't read these forums. I would never think to go buy three different brands and start blending them before I planted the seed. I want a TTTF lawn. You mean to tell me in order to do this right I really should go out and order TTTF from a couple of different places and mix it. I don't think my buddy did this and his TTTF lawn looks great. I'm almost sure he got his seed at Lesco. I guess I'll just give them a call today and ask what to do....See MoreConverting a Fescue Lawn to Bermuda by tilling and seeding
Comments (4)I'll start with the elephant in the room. Rototilling is the very worst thing you can do to prepare for a lawn, and it only gets worse for bermuda. So the term, 'proper tilling' means nothing. There is no proper tilling. There is only improper tilling. Why? I'll summarize The surface will settle unevenly and it is very hard to ever get a smooth surface again. It kills the microbes that give your soil health. It destroys the existing soil structure both structurally and biologically (sum of 1 and 2). Reestablishing a new soil structure takes 3 years. Grass seed sprouts on the top surface of the soil. You don't need to bury the seed into soft soil. Yes, nurture the current grass until the very day you decide to kill it all. Do that at the end of April. Spray with RoundUp and start watering lightly, 3x per day, every day for a week. This will sprout all the crabgrass and other summer annual weeds that may be lurking in the soil. After a week of daily watering, spray the area again with RU to kill everything that sprouted during the week. This approach may work better if you start watering a week before the first RU app. Oh and mow it short to let the sunlight in. Search this forum for the topic of sprigging. That is another way to get a very expensive lawn for not much money. You do some prep work, but the result is an expensive hybrid lawn for the cost of a few pieces of sod....See Morejosh02_2001
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojosh02_2001
6 years ago
dchall_san_antonio
6 years agoreeljake
6 years agojosh02_2001
6 years agojosh02_2001
6 years agoUPDATE: On Wednesday afternoon the yard was Harley raked. I then borrowed the neighbors tractor and pulled my heavy drag to smooth everything back out.
I then spread the seed. And drug all the area with a piece of wire fabric used for concrete reinforcing. This just barely moved any of the dirt to try and get 1/8" coverage over the seed.
Thursday and Friday I started watering a small strip about 50' x 130'. My plan was to wait for a rain to start watering the rest and to see how watering is going to go. I realized watering is going to be quite the problem. I don't have great enough water pressure to run 2 sprinklers and trying to water 1 and 1/4 acres with 1 sprinkler is physically impossible to water it all in one day.
The same guy who Harley raked Harley raked is going to come by and use his hydroseed machine to spray the mixture minus seed over the area to help retain moisture. This hopefully will happen this morning since we have a good chance of rain this afternoon and tomorrow. After the rain this weekend I will start watering the whole yard. I'll tinker with the pressure reducing valve on my side of the water meter to see if I can get enough pressure to run two sprinklers. If I can't, Im not sure I'll be successful getting this seed going. Time will tell.
Oh yeah, after Harley raking me, my wife, and kids picked up 15 more 5 gallon buckets of rocks plus a wheel barrel full. So many rocks, but I think I've gotten most them on the top inch of soil.
I'll update more as everything progresses.
josh02_2001
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoMy area just had about an 1" of rain in 30 minutes and it looks like steady rain for awhile as this storm rolls through. I'm afraid at least half my seed is gone maybe more. Not sure what I do from here. Don't feel like starting over. This is why normal people don't do foolish stuff like starting hybrid Bermuda from seed.
reeljake
6 years agojosh02_2001
6 years agojosh02_2001
6 years agoRight now I have the sprinklers running about 18 hours a day. The Bermuda seed has emerged.
This pic was taken a couple nights ago.
I bought 31 bales of straw yesterday and spread it around the yard to help keep the moisture trapped in. I should have done that several days ago. Still struggling to keep the soil wet on this large of an area. Rain is forecasted later this week so fingers crossed.
josh02_2001
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoWe finally received some rain. About 3/8" this morning. The grass in the back (La Prima) is coming in nicely.
The front (Riviera) seems to be about a week behind the back.
Lots of weeds so I plan on spraying some Drive weed killer next weekend. Maybe mowing the back tomorrow just to knock the weeds down and give the lower grass a chance to get more sun.
reeljake
6 years agojosh02_2001
6 years ago
reeljake