Zone 4B (SW Montana)
Bought my first house and inherited this yard that was 50% dirt and 50% weeds. Decided to do a complete renovation as well as build and install my own in ground irrigation. All fueled by Reddit and zero experience in anything. Detail in comments breaking it down
by tjreicks
12 Comments
1. May 2023-KILL IT ALL. Felt bad using chemicals, but I sprayed it all with bulk glyphosate, raked it up, sprayed again 2-3 weeks later. From then until seed it was just bare dirt
2. Got irrigation quotes for $8-12k for only 5,000 square foot yard. My dumbass thought “I can figure it out myself” with zero experience at all. Proceeded to take me 2-3 months to do due to working full time and family stuff. I can give more detail if anyone needs it, but it sucked. Although now it looks like a professional install
3. Soil test revealed good overall levels besides low N and high P. Easy enough.
4. Mid-September 2023: Spread GCI cool blue grass seed (85% TTF and 15% KBG). Date is important as it’s a month later than I wanted as frost date in Montana is mid to late September
5. Seeded at 8# per 1k square feet. Covered in peat moss (sorry) and then watered each zone 5-10 minutes 4X/day
6. Slowly weaned down watering after germination
7. Germination and overall growth was slow due to temps and I never even got to mow it before snow came in October unfortunately (especially the KBG part)
8. May 2024: Spring came and yard looked like crap after the snow left. Spotty, poor coverage, etc. Decided to do a spring overseed despite our droughty summers and basically did the same thing as I did with original seed, just focused on the bare spots with a higher rate of seed than the germinated spots
9. Used Scott’s seed fertilizer that has tenacity when I seeded, which maybe helped some, but not a lot. Controlled weeds all this summer with Tzone (which works very well for basically everything)
10. Watered 2-2.5” a week all summer due to young grass and drought conditions and kept it around 3.5-4” height
11. Now: looks fantastic. Needed a break so decided no fall overseed. Want to give the grass a year and see if the 15% KBG fills in some weak spots or not.
12. Currently doing a fall nitrogen blitz of .5# of N per 1k square feet every week for 6 weeks using fast acting N. I have to mow a lot…
13. Plan next year: Prodiamine split app in spring, Tzone spot killing all summer, and may just be basic and use Scott’s fertilizer all year and see how it goes.
That’s it for now. Ask any questions or give any advice!
Looks great, dude!
I’m exhausted reading all your work. Nice job. It’s beautiful
Looks great! You in Missoula? Can’t believe you already got snow!
Very nice. I’m jealous of how lush those cool season grasses get.
Wow. 👏
Man, I love that blue spruce in the front. Looks so good against that deep green lawn. Plant a nice deciduous tree in the back and you’ll be golden. Nice job mate.
Dude, all that work and you couldn’t sweep/blow the clippings before taking the picture?
Looks great, nice job!
What did you do with dog while working on the lawn? I have 3 that have prevented me from even trying to touch my back yard.
Awesome!!
perfect lawn man
keep it up!
Excellent work sir! I have also done my own irrigation system in our yards. I enjoyed doing the piping and fittings. It was a lot like playing k’nex as a kid. Moving dirt was grueling!