Reader Question: Heavily Compacted Soil
Sean wrote in to ask a question about dealing with heavily compacted soil in his lawn.
"I purchased a soil probe last summer to test watering coverage and moil soil. Unfortunately the soil is so compacted that I couldn't get the probe into the ground more than 3-4". Lawn aeration and top dressing with compost have little to no effect. Should I remove existing turf, rototill in fresh compost and seed/sod or continue aeration and top dressing?"
Question
"I purchased a soil probe last summer to test watering coverage and moil soil. Unfortunately the soil is so compacted that I couldn't get the probe into the ground more than 3-4". Lawn aeration and top dressing with compost have little to no effect. Should I remove existing turf, rototill in fresh compost and seed/sod or continue aeration and top dressing?"
Wind 'N Go Crank LED Lantern
This post was originally submitted from my phone during Superstorm Sandy. Before the storm I ordered a bunch of hand crank lights because I always forget to get new batteries before I need them. Luckily I didn't lose power but I have some family nearby that did. These hand crank lanterns helped them find their way around their home for over a week without power.
Very impressive considering how affordable they are. See the quick review I posted and video from my phone demonstrating the hand crank lanters.
I ordered these Wind 'N Go Mini LED Lantern
before hurricane Sandy but they didn't arrive until today. They provide a decent amount of light and you don't need to worry about batteries or power. One minute of cranking provides up to an hour of light. It's enough light to read by if close and can help you find your way around a small bedroom. The lantern has a total of four LEDs but can be run with only two. Pressing the button once turns on two LEDs. Pressing the button again will turn on all four. With all four LEDs on the lantern will only run thirty minutes from one minute of cranking. The Wind 'N Go Lantern can also be charged with an optional AC adapter. Five hours of charging will provide six hours of light using two LEDs or three hours using all four. An optional cell phone charger can also be purchased to get one or two minutes of talk time from one minute of cranking.
Wind 'N Go Mini LED Lantern
How To Remove Broken Sprinkler Risers
The cut-off riser I used when mounting a replaced my impact sprinkler on a spike base with a rotor sprinkler broke when I was re-positioning the sprinkler and I couldn't get it out. Luckily I found a tool designed to remove broken sprinkler risers and nipples. The Orbit Nipple Extractor
removed the broken cut-off riser portion that was stuck in the hose-end spike base effortlessly.I previously tried all sorts of tools and methods including plyers, knives and saws to try and remove the threaded portion with no luck. I even wound up cutting one of my fingers pretty badly in the process. The nipple extractor took it out within a few seconds. Once again right tool/right job and things go smoothly.
The Orbit Nipple Extractor costs about as much as a replacement hose-end spike base and I had contemplated just purchasing a new spike base rather than trying to get the broken riser out of it. In the end I decided it would be a good idea to have the nipple extractor in case I ever need it in the future. I decided to stick with the plastic cut-off risers which are designed to break before other components because it's easier/cheaper to replace a riser than it is to replace a sprinkler body or pipe fitting. In the future I might also install a full, in-ground sprinkler system and this tool would be nice to have in case anything goes wrong.
The version of the nipple extractor I purchased comes with 2 removable reamers that are used to remove plastic threaded components that have broken while still screwed into their mating pieces. One is for 1/2" risers while the other is for 3/4". Simply choose the appropriate reamer and screw it onto the T-shaped handle. Keep in mind that the reamer is threaded in the opposite direction. It's righty-loosey/lefty-tighty and not righty-tighty/lefty-loosey.
Once you insert the nipple extractor into the broken nipple, press down and slowly turn the handle counter clockwise. The fins of the nipple extractor should dig into the plastic of the riser or nipple creating enough friction to begin unscrewing the riser out of the fitting.
I had no idea such a tool even existed. I happened to run the Orbit Nipple Extractor while searching for something else. If only I found it sooner I could have saved myself a couple hours trying in vain to use other means and saved myself the pain and inconvenience of cutting my index finger. I highly recommend anyone that owns a sprinkler system to pick up one of these.
Reader Question: Lawn Renovation
Reader Manny wrote in with some questions concerning my recent organic lawn renovation project.
Hi,
I am enjoying your blog. Thank you for sharing so much detail. I have some questions. Did you consider verticutting your existing lawn and overseeding, rather than killing your lawn and starting from scratch? It seems that your goal was to amend the soil and this would be achieved by starting anew.
It is now September 24, 2012 and I live in Pittsburgh. I had a late start. I am concerned about the grass getting established well enough before the first frost. Did you have the same concerns when beginning your project?
Regarding your choice of seed...did you consider Pearl's Premium? I noticed that both Black Beauty and Pearl's Premium Sunny both have Dakota Tall Fescue. Pearl's is marketed as needing infrequent watering and mowing i.e. once per 3 to 4 weeks. Black Beauty is not promoted as such, but I am wondering if it does have these qualities. I am wondering which grass seed in the Pearl's blend gives these infrequent watering and mowing qualities.
Manny thank you for taking the time to ask a question and for your kind words on my site. It's always great to get feedback!
I didn't consider verticutting for a number of reasons. First I'm only doing a small area and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of going out and renting bulky equipment.
Second, and probably most importantly, one of my main motivations for doing a lawn renovation was was to substantially change the appearance of my lawn. In particular I was looking for a lawn that was a much darker green than my previous lawn. That's why I went with Jonathan Green lack Beauty grass seed.
Overseeding the old grass with the new grass wouldn't give me that deep, dark look I wanted. I had also overseeded a few times in the past. While it did improve the lawn it didn't change the overall qualities dramatically. Starting over almost completely from scratch seemed to be the best route for me.
Verticutting is better than just spreading grass seed over an existing lawn but I think if you dethatch or core aerate at the same time as seeding you'll get results that aren't too far off from verticutting. It still takes at least 2-3 years of overseeding to significantly have the new grass dominate the old.
Amending the soil wasn't my main factor. In fact as I mentioned in that soil amendment update I didn't even plan to do as much work to the soil as I actually did. My plan was to top dress with a little compost, work the compost into the top inch of existing soil, seed then top dress with more compost.
The composted manure I used was very wet and clumpy and impossible to topdress which meant I needed to do a lot more to get it integrated into the soil. Disturbing the soil like that brings up weed seeds, which I'll have to deal with next spring.
I was concerned about the timing but seeding through September in my area is fine. We're in similar climates but if I were you I would check out the website or contact your local Cooperative Extension Office and see what they recommend.
I had seen Pearl's Premium Grass Seed
when I was looking into Dakota Tall Fescue as well but I wanted to use a grass seed that was all Tall Fescue, such as Black Beauty, so I can get a more consistent look. Getting a dark green lawn was also important and the pictures I saw of Black Beauty seemed to have a darker color than Pearl's.
My seed choice came down to Jonathan Green Black Beauty
or a custom seed mix. One of the reasons I went with Black Beauty was that it was available at my local garden center. I haven't run across Pearl's anywhere.
Pearl's Premium is a mix of Dakota Tall Fescue, Frontier Perenial Ryegrass, Deepblue Kentucky Bluegrass, Harpoon Hard Fescue and Carmen Chewings Fescue. The last two seeds are fine fescues. Fine fescues are frequently used in low maintenance situations such as the sides of highways. Dakota Tall fescue doesn't seem to be that fast growing compared to other grasses. Perenial Ryegrass and KBG in general require more maintenance. I haven't looked into each variety in depth but I did recognize some of the seeds as ones used or created by Jonathan Green or their seed grower.
Black Beauty is advertised as a grass that requires less maintenance as far as watering is concerned and Turf Type Tall Fescues generally require 3lbs of Nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft as opposed to 4lbs for KBG. I don't know if it's the type of lawn that can go weeks without mowing though. I have seen a tall fescue lawn that doesn't get mowed frequently and it doesn't look good to me.
Question
Hi,
I am enjoying your blog. Thank you for sharing so much detail. I have some questions. Did you consider verticutting your existing lawn and overseeding, rather than killing your lawn and starting from scratch? It seems that your goal was to amend the soil and this would be achieved by starting anew.
It is now September 24, 2012 and I live in Pittsburgh. I had a late start. I am concerned about the grass getting established well enough before the first frost. Did you have the same concerns when beginning your project?
Regarding your choice of seed...did you consider Pearl's Premium? I noticed that both Black Beauty and Pearl's Premium Sunny both have Dakota Tall Fescue. Pearl's is marketed as needing infrequent watering and mowing i.e. once per 3 to 4 weeks. Black Beauty is not promoted as such, but I am wondering if it does have these qualities. I am wondering which grass seed in the Pearl's blend gives these infrequent watering and mowing qualities.
Answer
Manny thank you for taking the time to ask a question and for your kind words on my site. It's always great to get feedback!
Verticutting
I didn't consider verticutting for a number of reasons. First I'm only doing a small area and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of going out and renting bulky equipment.
Second, and probably most importantly, one of my main motivations for doing a lawn renovation was was to substantially change the appearance of my lawn. In particular I was looking for a lawn that was a much darker green than my previous lawn. That's why I went with Jonathan Green lack Beauty grass seed.
Overseeding the old grass with the new grass wouldn't give me that deep, dark look I wanted. I had also overseeded a few times in the past. While it did improve the lawn it didn't change the overall qualities dramatically. Starting over almost completely from scratch seemed to be the best route for me.
Verticutting is better than just spreading grass seed over an existing lawn but I think if you dethatch or core aerate at the same time as seeding you'll get results that aren't too far off from verticutting. It still takes at least 2-3 years of overseeding to significantly have the new grass dominate the old.
Amending the soil wasn't my main factor. In fact as I mentioned in that soil amendment update I didn't even plan to do as much work to the soil as I actually did. My plan was to top dress with a little compost, work the compost into the top inch of existing soil, seed then top dress with more compost.
The composted manure I used was very wet and clumpy and impossible to topdress which meant I needed to do a lot more to get it integrated into the soil. Disturbing the soil like that brings up weed seeds, which I'll have to deal with next spring.
Lawn Seeding Dates
I was concerned about the timing but seeding through September in my area is fine. We're in similar climates but if I were you I would check out the website or contact your local Cooperative Extension Office and see what they recommend.
Pearl's Premium Seed
I had seen Pearl's Premium Grass Seed
when I was looking into Dakota Tall Fescue as well but I wanted to use a grass seed that was all Tall Fescue, such as Black Beauty, so I can get a more consistent look. Getting a dark green lawn was also important and the pictures I saw of Black Beauty seemed to have a darker color than Pearl's.My seed choice came down to Jonathan Green Black Beauty
or a custom seed mix. One of the reasons I went with Black Beauty was that it was available at my local garden center. I haven't run across Pearl's anywhere.Pearl's Premium is a mix of Dakota Tall Fescue, Frontier Perenial Ryegrass, Deepblue Kentucky Bluegrass, Harpoon Hard Fescue and Carmen Chewings Fescue. The last two seeds are fine fescues. Fine fescues are frequently used in low maintenance situations such as the sides of highways. Dakota Tall fescue doesn't seem to be that fast growing compared to other grasses. Perenial Ryegrass and KBG in general require more maintenance. I haven't looked into each variety in depth but I did recognize some of the seeds as ones used or created by Jonathan Green or their seed grower.
Black Beauty is advertised as a grass that requires less maintenance as far as watering is concerned and Turf Type Tall Fescues generally require 3lbs of Nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft as opposed to 4lbs for KBG. I don't know if it's the type of lawn that can go weeks without mowing though. I have seen a tall fescue lawn that doesn't get mowed frequently and it doesn't look good to me.
Organic Lawn Renovation - Soil Prep and Seeding
Days 9, 10 and 11 of my organic lawn renovation project were pretty tough. A lot of raking, digging and incorporating compost. I ran into some snags that made it even more difficult but hopefully it will all be worth it when my new lawn comes in.
I was expecting to have seed down by the 10th day but I ran into a few snags. I had the bright idea to do all the work with manual tools since it was only 600 sq ft that I was renovating but it wound up being more tiring than I expected. This post is a few days late as a result. My whole body was sore and my fingers were too tired to type. It was a pretty good workout though. :)
The first major step was to kill off as much of the existing lawn as I could using two organic herbicides instead of RoundUP. (See BurnOut II vs Nature's Avenger.) That went pretty well and both killed a large majority of the existing grass and weeds. There was some weedy looking tall fescue that was coming back too fast and I decided to dig it up before I went on to amending the soil, leveling the lawn and seeding. Details discussed below.
Digging Out Tall Fescue
The first step was to get rid of the nasty Tall Fescue that seemed to be a little too stubborn for the organic weed and grass killers. Some of it seemed to be an improved tall fescue but most of it was unimproved, wide bladed fast growing and ugly. There might have also been some orchard grass in there as well.
It was only in Section 1 which was about 300 sq ft. I keep eyeing a Mantis Electric Tiller
but haven't actually bought one yet. I called about renting a tiller and it was only around $50. I saw this Sun Joe Electric Tiller/Cultivator
which is only twice as much as renting and now renting seemed like a waste of money but there wasn't enough time to get the cheaper tiller. Plus some of the reviews are bad for this model. I decided to just grab a hoe and a rake and start tearing up that section by hand to pull out the clumps of tall fescue.By the time it was half way done I was regretting not renting the tiller because it was very hot that day. Three and a half hours, 1 gallon of water, 64 oz of Gatorade later and I had dug up all the tall fescue clumps and raked them out of the soil.
The amount of wide bladed, unimproved tall fescue I pulled out was enough to fill up a leaf collection bag. BurnOut II and Nature's Avenger killed about 95% of the grass in this section. It did a bit of damage to the fescue but it was just growing back too fast. After going over the area with my thatch rake
there was a lot of bare soil. Once I was done digging out the fescue it was more like 99% bare soil.In hindsight doing it by hand was probably better because the fescue wasn't torn up as much as it would have with a rototiller and I likely got more of it out of the soil than if I had rototilled. This grass is tough and would have reestablished if not removed. Unfortunately digging up the soil like that can bring up weed seeds that had been waiting deep in the soil.
Regrading the Lawn
Since I was putting down new grass seed it seemed like a good time to regrade the lawn. There were some awkward high and low spots that made it difficult to mow. I also had to smooth out Section 1 which I had dug up.
In Section 2 there was this strange hump around the lamp post. It caused a lot of problems. It's a small section and the lamp post is fairly close to the edge of the lawn. This caused a very steep slope from the post to the edge. In the winter water would shed off here and sometimes freeze on the front walkway. If I kept one side of the mower's wheels on the walkway I'd wind up scalping part of the lawn and it would fill up with weeds. If I kept both wheels on the lawn I'd have to struggle to keep the lawn mower from sliding the slope. It was also impossible to get a nice edge. After edging the soil would slowly slump down since it was a couple of inches above the walkway.
It didn't take long to figure out why the hump was there. I kind of expected it but was really hoping I was wrong.
There used to be a ring of landscaping stones around the lamp post creating a small circular planting area. I guess someone decided they didn't like the planting bed any more and rather than remove the stones, they just covered it up with dirt and put down grass seed.
Some soil might have been removed from the back of that section since it was noticeably lower than the other sections. This was a problem because it was up against the foundation where water can pool during rain. Luckily there were never any water issues.
These weren't little bricks that were laid out around the post. These were rocks buried 10-12" into the dirt. It took some work to get them out. On the plus side I'll have some decent looking landscaping stones once I power wash them.
After the stones were removed I used a bow rake to spread the soil out and give the soil a proper grade away from the house while providing a more level surface that I can mow and edge easier.
My plan was to buy a level headed rake but instead I wound up borrowing a bow rake. The bow rake, along with my thatch rake did a good job of moving the soil around to smooth it out. The bow rake was one of the nice old forged ones with a wooden handle that I don't think you can buy any more. I went looking and the closest I could find was this Kodiak Forged Bow Rake
. It's a little more than the welded steel aluminum bow rakes you usually find but if it holds up as long as the one I was using did it's worth it.
Adding Compost To Lawn
My lawn's soil wasn't that great and even with mulch mowing my clippings, fall leaves and spreading organic fertilizers it was a bit low in organic matter so I planned to incorporate some compost.
Since I was only doing a small section of my lawn I couldn't find any place that would deliver that little bulk compost. I had to get bags of compost from my local garden center and since I don't have a truck I had to make multiple trips to bring that 800lbs of compost home.
My plan was to get some plant based compost and some composted manure but when I got to the garden center they only had composted manure. It's not plain composted manure but also has some grass clippings and leaves composted as well. From what I understand it's primarily duck manure.
|
| Composted Left/Not Composted Right |
I got enough 40lb bags to spread a little more than 1/3rd of an inch of compost over the sections I was renovating. The composted manure was from Long Island Compost. It was very clumpy and moist and I couldn't see how anyone would be able to topdress with it as the back of the bag indicated. I broke the bags of composted manure in half with my spade and the product practically came out in too big chunks. It smelled fine though. Since I was almost starting with a clean slate I would be able to wrestle it into the ground.
After I was done applying the compost I contacted LI Compost and was informed the Long Island Compost Composted Manure was meant more for gardens and not lawns. When the bags are packed on pallets and sit in garden centers awaiting purchase they get compressed from the weight of other bags on top of them. I was told their Hampton's Estate Premium Composted Manure or Premium Topsoil would be a better fit for applying to lawns. The Hampton's Estate line is double screened and has peat moss mixed in to give it a better texture.
Update: LI Compost provided me with a few samples of their other types of compost and top soil. The Hampton's Estate Premium Composted Manure is very fine and loose. It's a much better material to top dress with. They didn't know anything about my blog or my renovation, just that I purchased a lot of their compost.
Using my thatch rake and Garden Weasel Cultivator
I was able to incorporate it into the soil. It was more labor and time intensive than I thought it would be but the thatch rake made things go smoothly.I'm really surprised by how much I use my thatch rake. I initially purchased a thatch rake to remove ground ivy from my lawn but it has so many other uses in the garden. It can be adjusted to a more aggressive angle that pushes the tines a few inches into the soil which helps loosen it and the cultivator end of the tines (the bent tines) help pull up and incorporate amendments. By working the thatch rake back and forth over a small area, then pulling in some composted manure, breaking it up with the thatch rake, then again going back and forth until the composted manure was broken down into small particles and mixed in with the existing soil I wound up getting a nice layer of rich topsoil that was a few inches thick.
You can see what a difference the compost made in the picture on the right. The top section is Section 3 which had the compost incorporated and on the bottom Section 2 which did not.
The soil in the top section looks dark and rich while the bottom section looks grey. One benefit of having to manually cultivate the soil so much with the thatch rake is that I was able to get out some more of the grass that hadn't been killed by the organic herbicides I used. These 2 sections don't get as much sun as the other section and there was still some grass left unharmed. The majority was desiccated by the spraying and removed with the dethatching but the more aggressive cultivating with the thatch rake trying to get those clumps of composted manure broken down got rid of some of what was left. Some of the grass was just buried in the new soil.
I was going to apply an organic starter fertilizer and lime as well but the composted manure has a guaranteed analysis of 0.5-0.5-0.5 which will provide more than enough nutrients based on how much I applied and the Fast Acting Lime I applied a few years ago is still keeping the soil pH where it needs to be. Before frost hits I might add some Fast Acting Gypsum
to increase the calcium and lower the pH because it's seems a little high.
Planting Black Beauty Grass
I had a hard time deciding which grass seed to go with. I had decided to go with Turf Type Tall Fescue instead of Kentucky Bluegrass. One of the grass seed mixes I was considering was Black Beauty grass seed
from Jonathan Green. It looked like a nice grass and had decent results. I was considering another custom blend but in the end the small patch of Black Beauty I grew in a container wound up looking very good. You can check out my time lapse video of Jonathan Green Black Beauty germinating.The thing that tipped the scales in favor of Black Beauty was Jonathan Green's great customer service, they were a local business in my state and it was a seed I can pick up from my local garden center if I need more. I was able to see more pictures of actual Black Beauty grass seed than I could the other varieties I was looking into.
Before spreading the seed I lightly scratched the soil with my thatch rake to loosen it, then I applied the Black Beauty Seed with my Scott's Accugreen 1000 drop spreader which I don't think they make anymore. The Accugreen 100 has different spreader settings than other Scott's drop spreaders and I had to guess what the correct spreader setting should be for Jonathan Green Black Beauty. I knew how much seed I would need and added it to the spreader's hopper, set the spreader to 9 and made two passes over the lawn in two different directions and still had more than half of the seed left. After increasing the spreader setting to 12 I made 3 more passes in different directions and used up all the seed. More passes than I wanted but the seed went down evenly.
I went over the soil one more time lightly with my thatch rake on a less aggressive setting so I could scratch the seed into the soil to cover the seeds about 1/4" then watered.
Until the seeds germinate I'll be lightly watering 3 or 4 times a day. Around 8am, 12pm and 4pm. The test container of Black Beauty I had germinated in 3 days because it was a more controlled situation out of direct sunlight and since it was sitting on my desk I could water it more evenly. I expect the Black Beauty seed outdoors to germinate around the 7-10 days indicated on the bag.
This was a lot of work and now I have to just wait and water patiently and hope everything works out.
Organic Lawn Renovation: BurnOut II VS Nature's Avenger
Today is the first day of my organic lawn renovation project and it starts off with killing off my existing lawn and weeds. I didn't want to use RoundUp or other glyphosate based herbicides so it seemed like a good opportunity to compare two of the available organic weed and grass killers I mentioned in my post on organic RoundUp alternatives to see how well they work.
As I posted previously, there are three sections of the lawn I'm renovating and will apply BurnOut II
to half of each section and Nature's Avenger
to the other half.This is a multi-day process so bookmark this post as I'll be updating it with the results. I'll also be tweeting when I update this post so please follow me on Twitter.
Table of Contents
- About The Products
- Day 1 - Initial Spraying
- Day 2 - Spot Treating Missed Areas
- Day 3 - Initial Observations
- Day 7 = One week Observations
- Day 8 - Mowing Raking Final Spraying
- Day 9 - Dethatching
About The Products
BurnOut II
BurnOut II is a product from St Gabriel Organics, a company that has been in business for over 30 years selling organic products. Their first being Milky Spore Powder
for organic grub control.BurnOut II is an OMRI Listed (Organic Materials Review Institute) weed and grass killer with the main active ingredients of Clove Oil and Citric Acid.
The version I'll be using is a ready to spray formula that comes in a 1 gallon bottle with integrated pump sprayer.
Nature's Avenger
Nature's Avenger comes from Cutting Edge Formulations which was founded in 2003 by the CEO of a successful lawn care company
Nature's Avenger is also an OMRI Listed weed and grass killer with the active ingredient of d-Limonene which is derived from oranges.
For perennial weeds and grasses the recommended dilution is 1 part Nature's Avenger Concentrate to 3 parts water which is the mix I'll be using.
Conditions
Lawn
A full description of the areas to be spread can be found on the first post regarding my lawn renovation.
There are 3 sections:
- Section 1 - Receives full sun and has a lot of different weeds and a mix of grasses.
- Section 2 - Receives partial sun and only has a bit of crab grass at the edges. The grass is mostly Kentucky Bluegrass.
- Section 3 - Receives little sun and has no weeds. The grass is fine fescue.
I've divided and marked each section in half. Sections 1a, 2a and 3a will be treated with Nature's Avenger while Sections 1b, 2b and 3b will be treated with BurnOut II.
Weather Conditions
Both these products work by making the plant vulnerable to the elements in one way or another and work best when the weather is warm, sunny and humid.
I have not watered these sections of my lawn for over a week and there has been very little rain. About 0.10" total fell 2 and 3 days ago and conditions should be warm and clear for the next few days.
Today's high will be 93 degrees. Outside temperature at the time of application was 85 degrees and there wasn't a cloud in the sky and little wind.
Warning
Even though these products are organic they contain strong ingredients and you should follow all instructions on the label when it comes to use and safety precautions.
Day 1 Application
Based on recommendations from St Gabriel Organics I'm going to follow an application schedule of initial spray, spot spray 2nd day any missed areas, spot spray any regrowth on the 7th day.
Today is the first day of the application as well as the first day of my renovation and I have sprayed each section with it's respective herbicide.
BurnOut II
The bottle of BurnOut II came premixed in a pump spray bottle. It's convenient, especially if you don't have a good pump sprayer but as with other limited use pump sprayers like the one BurnOut II came in, it's not all that great.
There is very little adjustment with the tip. I could only seem to get it to give a small spray or a stream and not much in between. It works well if you're only using it to spot treat some weeds here and there but for covering a large area I'd recommend the BurnOut II Concentrate
in a better pump sprayer. I was able to use the built in pump sprayer but it was very slow.I started application of BurnOut II at 12:00pm once temperatures climbed above 85 degrees.
BurnOut II has a strong smell of cloves which might make you crave a bowl of rice pudding or reminisce about that cute girl you met at a college party wearing all black, looking bored and smoking a brown cigarette.
It took me about 20 minutes to spray all the areas and I could start to see results almost immediately. The photo on the right shows Section 1b below the yellow line that was sprayed with BurnOut II. The area above the yellow line (1a) had not been treated yet.
The various grasses and weeds are starting to die, at least in some areas. I wonder if the poor sprayer resulted in uneven coverage as there are some areas that were sprayed that showed little symptoms of stress. It has only been a few minutes. As the days pass and I spot treat more grass and weeds will hopefully die.
I also sprayed a few weeds that were growing within the stress cracks in the concrete. Below is a picture of crabgrass that was sprayed with BurnOut II. It started turning brown almost immediately. The picture was taken about 30 minutes after spraying as well as a clover looking weed in a similar area
Nature's Avenger
I received Nature's Avenger as a concentrate. It needs to be mixed with water. There are three recommended dilution ratios.
- 1:6 for young annual weeds
- 1:4.5 for tougher annual weeds
- 1:3 for perennial weeds
To tackle the perennial weeds and grasses I opted for the 1:3 mix and used my 2 Gallon Smith Garden Sprayer with a fan tip to apply it to my lawn.
Nature's Avenger's main ingredient is d-Limonene which is a strong degreaser derived from oranges. It is an ingredient that I've seen used in more eco-friendly/biodegradable concrete cleaners and adhesive removers. It smells a bit like oranges but the clove scent from the nearby BurnOut II treatment still overpowered it.
It also seems to dissolve styrofoam. I was using a styrofoam cup to measure out the appropriate amounts of water and concentrate. By the time I finished pouring out the first cup of Nature's Avenger the cup had fallen apart.
One of the nice things about Nature's Avenger was that it leaves a white coating for a few seconds where it was applied which makes it easy to apply without missing any spots.
I began the application around 12:45pm when the temperature was around 86 degrees, skies were still clear and there was little to no wind.
To the right is a picture of Section 1a (below yellow line) shortly after application of Nature's Avenger. The grass and weeds are already starting to turn brown. Many leaves have shriveled, others have become darker.
The dutch white clover in this area seemed to be particularly susceptible to the application. Some of the wild violet looks injured, others look fine and I paid extra attention on those weeds to make sure they were thoroughly covered.
Nature's Avenger also did a good job with weeds growing where they shouldn't, such as in between concrete cracks. Below is a close up of some crabgrass that was sprayed with Nature's Avenger only minutes earlier. It didn't take a long time for it to show signs of stress.
Thoughts for Day 1
I'm glad that I'm using safer products to kill my existing lawn and weeds. I know this process can take multiple days but with the mode of action I was expecting move visible results within the first day. I'll spot treat tomorrow and post more pictures. Both products have performed well on many of the weeds, especially the new ones that were growing in cracks in the concrete but not all the weeds are showing signs of their demise nor some of the grasses, particularly tall fescue.
Sections 2 & 3 which have less direct sun show signs of something happening but it's hardly noticeable in photos.
I'm a little nervous but haven't given up hope yet.
Day 2
Things look a lot better (worse for the grass that is) today. There is significantly more damage to the grass and weeds. The plan for today is to spot treat areas that are still green.
Weather Conditions
Like yesterday, today is a hot, sunny day with little wind. I started application of both BurnOut II and Nature's Avenger at 11:00 and 11:20 am respectively. Temperature was 85 degrees with 45% humidity. There are some clouds in the sky but they do not block the sun.
When I planned this process the weather was going to be clear throughout but forecasts indicate that some rain might be coming earlier than I expected. I'm not sure what impact that might have.
Crabgrass In Cracks
Both BurnOut II and Nature's Avenger seem to do a good job dealing with weeds that grow in unwanted areas such as the stress cracks in concrete joints. Below are photos of the same weeds photographed yesterday. One sprayed with Nature's Avenger, the other with BurnOut II. Neither received a second application today. Both show significant damage to the plant.
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Section 1
Section 1 receives full sun and both products seem to be doing well killing both the grass and weeds in this spot. 1a was treated with Nature's Avenger and 1b was treated with BurnOut II. There was still quite a bit of green this morning but that may be due to poor coverage.
The photos below show Sections 1a (Nature's Avenger) and 1b (BurnOut II) separated with a yellow line from two different angles. The photos were taken about 2 hours after the spot treatment that was sprayed today.
For some reason the first angle show more green than the second angle. Both products appear to be doing a good job killing off both the grass and weeds with BurnOut II showing a little better results. We'll see how things look tomorrow after today's application has some more time to work.
To get a better sense of the effectiveness of these products here are two shots which include portions of the neighbors untreated lawn. Note the brown spots in the second picture are due to issues in the lawn and not overspray.
Sections 2 & 3
Sections 2 & 3 receive less sun than Section 1 due to a tree that casts shadows throughout most of the day. Section 3 receives less sunlight than section 2. Section 3 was planted with a fine fescue mix while 2 is mostly Kentucky Bluegrass.
At the end of Day 1 there seemed to be little damage to the grass and even after today's application there is still significant green in the lawn. More grass has died and all the crabgrass in section 1 has been damaged.
Because there was so much undamaged grass these areas were resprayed with their respective organic herbicides. Nature's Avenger for the 'a' plots and BurnOut II for the 'b' plots. The photo below was taken roughly 2 hours after today's respray.
Closeup Photos
Below are some overhead, close up shots for each section to give you a better indication of how each section is going.
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Thoughts For Day 2
I'm feeling a little more confident in these organic herbicides than I was yesterday. Both BurnOut II and Nature's Avenger work faster in heat and direct sunlight and I'm hoping in a few more days the grass in the shadier sections as well as some of the green spots in the sunny areas will begin to desiccate.
Before I started this project I had concerns that it might be too big a job for either BurnOut II or Nature's Avenger. I'm still on the fence but they're both working well so far.
Day 3
As per the plan, I'm not spraying anything today. The weather isn't as warm as previous days. Mid 70's for most of the day with a high of 80 this afternoon. Humidity is higher, in the mid to high 60's with a small chance of rain this afternoon. They sky has been overcast all day but a little bit of sun is starting to peek through. All photos were taken at around 9:30am.
Section 1
One of the nice things about the overcast conditions is it allows me to take better photos that give a more accurate representation of the condition of the lawn. See my post on garden photo tips for more info.
Section 1 is in full sun throughout the day and both products have done fairly well in browning the weeds here. As you can see there are still quite a few patches of green throughout the lawn. These are grasses that have not (yet?) been desiccated by the sprays. Section 1a was sprayed with Nature's Avenger while Section 1b was sprayed with BurnOut II.
Section 2
Section 2 doesn't get as much sun as Section 1 and is planted with mainly Kentucky Bluegrass. The shade mixed in with dappled sun made it harder to see the results of the spraying. Today's photos give a better representation. As you can see a lot of the grass remains green, likely due to the shade but there is more browning than was observed yesterday. There was some crabgrass growing on the bottom edge in the photo which has all turned brown.
Nature's Avenger was applied to 2a while BurnOut II was applied to 2b.
Section 3
Section 3 receives even less sun than Section 2 and was planted with a fine fescue mix. There were no weeds in this section. While there is still a bit of green left in the lawn there seems to be more browning than in section 2.
Nature's Avenger was applied to 3a while BurnOut II was applied to 3b.
Day 7
Weather
Since my last update the weather hasn't been ideal for this task. Skies have been mostly overcast and I've received about 1.25" of rain. Humidity has been high. Temperatures were good. Except for one day that was in the high 70's all other days were in the mid to low 80's.
Based on my schedule I should be respraying today but conditions are overcast while tomorrow will be warmer and sunnier so I'll hold off until then.
Crabgrass In Cracks
Both of the crabgrass weeds that were growing in concrete stress joints haven't started to turn green again. The Nature's Avenger treated one appears worse and more straw colored than the one treated with Burn Out II but both seem dead.
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Regrowth
This isn't unexpected but there has been some regrowth. All I've seen start to grow back is some of the dutch white clover and the fast growing, wide bladed tall fescue. I haven't seen any noticeable regrowth in the other grasses or weeds.
The idea is that the roots will exhaust their energy reserves and when I do the final spray tomorrow that should really knock them back so that the new grass seed can come in and out-compete the old grass.
I thought the wild violet would be difficult to kill but there are no signs of it coming back.
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Section 1
Section 1 receives the most sun and has the most foliage death. There has been some regrowth in both the BurnOut II (1b) and Nature's Avenger (1a) treated sections. Both seem to kill the grass and weeds well but I think the integrated pump sprayer in the BurnOut II bottle didn't give me great coverage. When I respray tomorrow I'll pump the BurnOut II into my garden sprayer first.
I kicked some of the grass with my boot and it exposed soil. I yanked at a random bit and the grass pulled out easily roots and all. When I start working the plots getting it ready to reseed I'll know if it's like that throughout. Whether this is a result of the spraying I don't know but it was something I observed.
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Section 2 & 3
Sections 2 and 3 didn't have many weeds and the area receives a lot of shade. Neither product did particularly well even after 2 full sprays. There has been significant killing of the grass blades since I first sprayed but the areas that get more sun have done better. I should have split up these sections a little differently because the A sections get a little more sun as does the bottom portion of the Section 2 photo..
Thoughts on Day 7
I was hoping for a little better performance in the shadier plots but I wasn't surprised that I didn't get it. To be honest, both performed better in the shade than I expected.
The tall fescues that are coming back in Section 1a and 1b concern me because even though these are grass plants, and I'm replanting with tall fescues, the existing tall fescue grows very fast and is one of the grasses I really hate in the lawn. They also have a very wide blade and coarse texture. Hopefully one more application will knock them out long enough while the Jonathan Green lack Beauty grass I'm planting germinates. It should start coming in within a few days. If I was planting a slower germinating Kentucky Bluegrass I'd be more concerned.
Day 8
As expected today was hot and sunny. Instead of just respraying the lawn as planned I decided to mow the lawn at the lowest mower setting. I had to work it down a little at a time or it started to bog down. I put the bag on my mower but still had to go over the lawn with a spring tine rake to clear the dead grass clippings.
After seeing how the tall fescue started to grow again I thought it best to clear as much room as possible to make sure the spray got down to any new growth and to the crowns of the plants. I went over the whole area with a light mist of spray but made sure any spots that had green were thoroughly coated.
The tall fescue seems to be tough to kill. There are some spots in Section 1a and 1b I might have to dig out by hand as I prepare the soil tomorrow unless they take a turn for the worse overnight.
I ran out of BurnOut II before I could retreat all the sections. I had enough left to retreat Section 1b and parts of 2b but not 3b. The grass seed needs to go down this weekend so I had to use Nature's Avenger on parts of 2b and all of 3b.
For both products (and both types of sprayers) I only got about 450-500 square feet per gallon of ready-to-spray product. Instead of using the pump sprayer in the BurnOut II bottle I used my Smith Garden Sprayer. Using the fan tip I had more control of the spray and was getting more consistent coverage. Had I used the garden sprayer from the beginning I might not have run out.
Section 1
Here are photos of Sections 1a (Nature's Avenger) and 1b (BurnOut II) about 1 hour after mowing short, raking and respraying.
After mowing and raking I was happy to see just how much bare soil there was. Some of the areas were scalped by the mower but some of the grass pulled out while lightly raking. Including the roots. I noticed yesterday that some of the grass was easy to pull out. I'm not sure what might have caused it as it's not an advertised feature of either product.
Yesterday I noticed some of the clover coming back. Other than the tall fescue it was the only other foliage to recover from the spraying that I noticed. Having sprayed and mowed today it's died down again. Since my grass seed should start germinating in less than a week if I'm diligent with my watering it should start taking hold before the dutch white clover comes back.
Section 2
After mowing and spraying there seemed to be a little more dead grass today but there's still quite a bit left. I believe the majority of the grass in this section was Kentucky Bluegrass since that's what I used to overseed in previous years but there may have also been some older perennial ryegrass and fine fescue. Because this area gets less sun I don't think either product was as effective as in the sunnier sections.
It looks like I might have to do something to remove more of the green grass manually before I reseed.
The bottom part of 2b in the photo was the last bit of BurnOut II was used. Above that and in section 2a I used Natures Avenger.
Section 3
This morning section 3 looked like it had less green grass than in previous days, even before mowing and raking. This area gets even less sun than section 2 which caught me by surprise. The grass consists of fine fescues. One reason the grass might have been more susceptible than section two is that it was all new grass that was planted a few years ago. The other sections contain grass that has been there for decades.
After mowing and raking it looked pretty ready for reseeding. As I mentioned earlier I ran out of BurnOut II and had to use Nature's Avenger to treat both sections 3a and 3b.
I was quite exhausted after all the work today and didn't take the best photo of section 3. I'll post more photos tomorrow showing what it looks like about 24 hours after today's final spray application.
Day 9
This update is a few days overdue. The work that followed the spraying was harder than I anticipated and really tired me out.
After the final spraying there was more dead grass in each section though the shady parts of the lawn still had a bit live grass in them. Here's the updated picture of Section 3 from day 9 before any further work was done to the area that shows section 3a better.
Dethatching
After mowing down the grass on Day 8 and raking up much of the dead grass clippings it looked like it would be a good idea to dethatch. I had earlier noticed that some of the grass pulled up easily roots and all and dethatching would not only allow for better seed to soil contact but it would also help clear out some of the grass plants that have been sprayed.
When I normally use my thatch rake on my lawn it pulls out the thatch as well as ground ivy but generally leaves the grass intact even on an aggressive setting. This time dethatching exposed a lot of soil as can be seen in the picture on the right.
The thatch rake cut through a lot of the dead grass leaves and even pulled out a lot of the grass roots as I was hoping. It didn't take any more effort than is normally required when dethatching.
After dethatching the grass that hadn't been injured by the sprays is easier to spot. Overall I'd say each spray achieved roughly 95% defoliation in the sunny areas and 90% defoliation in the shady areas.
Tall Fescue and Dutch White Clover
The fine fescues, kentucky bluegrass was very susceptible to the herbicides as were all the weeds. The tall fescues were more resilient especially the very fast growing weedy lookig tall fescue. Some of it may be the unimproved K-31 tall fescue but some of it also looks like it might be orchard grass.
Dutch white clover was the only weed to start showing signs of life one week after spraying (it's now over 2 weeks since I started spraying and none of the other weeds have come back.
There was clover and tall fescue in Section 1a (sprayed with Nature's Avenger) and Section 1b (Sprayed with BurnOut II) and there was no difference that I could detect in how the clover and tall fescue was affected.
After dethatching it became apparent why the clover and tall fescue wasn't as damaged as the other grasses. Below is a picture that includes dutch white clover on the left and tall fescue (maybe orchard grass) on the right and a bit of other tall fescue throughout.
Dutch white clover spreads via stolons and little stems grow off that stolons where the leaves grow. The stolons grow on top of the soil and it looks like within or under the thatch layer. This causes two problems with these organic herbicides. First it's location makes it hard to thoroughly coat the
stolons to injure it and second the thatch and taller grass helps shade it from the sun which reduces the effectiveness of the sprays. The colors didn't come out great in the photo but the
stolons were still green and healthy looking but all the leaves had been desiccated and crumbled off the stem.
A lot of the
stolons came up during dethatching but others had to be hand pulled. They came up easily with a slow steady pulling (not yanking) that hopefully got most of the root out. After amending the soil and keeping up with a good fertilization program the clover shouldn't be a problem once the new grass comes in.
The nasty Tall Fescue and/or orchard grass and other ugly clumping grasses that were in my lawn also had quite a bit of their structure in the thatch layer and even under the soil.
The leaf sheaths were thick, almost woody and new leaf tissue could be seen growing out of them. In addition fescue is a clumping grass and where ever there was blades poking out through the top of the soil there was a mat of thick leaf sheaths and roots about the size of a hamburger patty underneath.
Some of the tall fescue seemed to be of an improved variety but most of it was not very attractive. It was the main reason I wanted to do a lawn renovation.
Had I left the tall fescue as-is in the lawn it would have surely come back. It already started coming back. Once I amended the soil and began watering the new seed it would thrive. The thick clumps underground would also make it difficult for the new grass to develop good roots.
The tall fescue had to go and neither spray eradicated it. Section 1 is the only section where I had this unimproved tall fescue so my plan is to dig it out. Using a heavy duty hoe like this Ames True Temper 2 Pronged Weeding Hoe
I dug out all the tall fescue plants by driving the hoe underneath the clump and pulling it up. I then went through the area with a bow rake to collect as much of the grass plants as I could. I wound up digging up all of section 1 because the tall fescue was so prevalent. It's something I was hoping to avoid because it can bring up weed seeds that were too low in the soil to germinate but I really don't want that unimproved fescue.
No Earthworms
Every time I use my thatch rake on my lawn I see earthworms coming up with the thatch. Not this time. I didn't see a single one in any of the sections. Not even when I was digging the tall fescue out of section 1. Weeks earlier I did see earthworms in the garden beds along section 1.
I did however see about 10 grubs in total and 2 wireworms.
UPDATE: I passed by the renovated section at night about a week after my last spraying and decided to pull out my keychain flashlight and have a look. Right there in the middle of the beam of light was a fat red worm dragging a bit of dead grass blade back into it's hole! I did a little more reading on worms and it seems that earthworms go into a form of hibernation called estivation when temperatures are too hot or dry. There was little rainfall during the time I first sprayed and I didn't irrigate the lawn in these sections much before spraying to begin with. The sprays themselves likely didn't harm them but not watering the lawn for so long drove them deep underground to wait for better conditions.
Soil pH
This one threw me for a loop. I used this consumer model soil tester that Encap was giving away this year. I tested it in a few different areas and compared it to other results and it seemed to do pretty well.
Considering BurnOut II's ingredients consist of a few acids I had expected the soil pH to drop at least in the 'b' sections where BurnOut II was sprayed. I checked a few parts of each section and the readings were all about the same. The pH actually increased making the soil more alkaline.
I had anticipated spreading lime before seeding but now it looks like I might need to add some sulfur instead. Until I amend the soil with compost and recheck with other means I'll hold off applying anything.
Thoughts For Day 9
I'll know more once the new grass starts coming in but so far I'm pretty impressed with both Nature's Avenger
and BurnOut II.Both did a superb job killing weeds that grew within the driveway and sidewalk stress cracks with only one spraying.
Both also killed all the weeds that were in the lawn. There was some regrowth of the dutch white clover because the stolons were in the thatch layer where they were protected from the sprays and sun but the one weed I thought would be a tough one to hurt was wild ivy and I haven't seen any signs of it coming back so far.
Both were effective in the sunny areas and did a respectable job in the areas that get around 4 hours of sun a day. The areas that get less direct sun than that didn't do as well but more than 90% of the grass was killed. Tall fescue was tough because a good bit of the leaf was covered by thatch and soil. The faster growing tall fescue would have already re-established itself before the new seed would have begun to germinate.
If you don't have a lot of tall fescue or don't mind if some of it comes back it seems both these products are a pretty good alternative to RoundUp (glyphosate) for a lawn renovation. At the very least it will provide considerably more coverage than just overseeding would.
Having used the products now I'm starting to formulate some ideas of how the process could be improved. Mowing low and dethatching would definitely be incorporated prior to the first spraying.
For general weed killing as far as spot killing younger weeds in driveways, sidewalks, patios, pavers, garden beds and lawns I would absolutely recommend these to anyone that doesn't want to use glyphosate.