What i ike nost about this channel, is i feel like this is one of my homies, just a normal dude going through the highs and lows of lawn care not pretending that he knows everything. Shout out to jesse.
I love watching these videos as I'm sitting here waiting for my seed to germinate. I swear the first 7 days is so nerve-wracking, especially knowing your neighbors are all watching your yard too to see if it all comes in or not. lol
@@RionPhotography that’s awesome! Gosh, such a funny coincidence. I’m on day 7, all the neighbors watching, germinated yesterday and finally seeing some sprouts. As I walked up the driveway to examine them, I noticed a few spots that I DIDN’T level, and I’m kicking myself for not focusing on that. And then I see your reply one year later. Looks like I know why I’ll be doing next year. I’ll have to continue our thread then haha
Went ahead and went down to an inch on my back yard yesterday.. also dethatched for the first time and fertilized. Looks terrible at the moment but I’m going to trust the process!
Dont believe you’re looking g at bent grass but rather Nimblewill. Nimblewill is very common and resembles the look of bent grass. Keep up the great work with your videos👍🏻
It was very useful that you included footage of actual scalping and discussed potential issues. Did you sand or topsoil level your front lawn to get the bumps out and make it flat?
I have never leveled my front lawn and it's a lot bumpier than it looks on camera. The greens mower is VERY forgiving. Let me know if you have any other questions man!
Back to your video again:) I still have been cutting taller (3"-3 1/2"), but I told myself "I'm gonna do it." Your video is the most detailed step by step for transitioning to low cut. One thing I wanted to ask is that did you feed your lawn after scalping? did you wait until grass recovered and started mowing again?
Found the link on TLF. Was following your journal there. I might be your first subscriber from overseas LOL. Great work. If you keep going and putting out content i predict you will have 20,000 followers by the end of the year :). Wish you all the best.
You're definitely my first overseas subscriber! That's awesome! I'm actually working on another video as we speak and hope to drop it in the next day or two. I appreciate you following along!
I'm in the middle of transitioning to under 1", eventually, but I'm trying to follow the 1/3 rule and transition more slowly rather than just scalping at the start, since I did leveling and overseeding last fall, and more overseeding a few weeks ago. I gotta wait for it to develop more, but it's thickening up nicely. I have a 70/30 mix of prg and fine fescue here in the PNW.
There's definitely more than one way to do this process and what you're doing is perfectly fine. Especially if you've already leveled. The scalping won't be bad in certain areas then. You'll love it once you start mowing low!
I want to do this to my front yard but I have tall fescue mix with Kentucky bluegrass and don’t know how that would look and I don’t really want to kill it off. Probably going to over seed with just Kentucky blue and cut low. Hopefully it won’t look to bad and it takes over the tall fescue. I cut my Bermuda backyard low and love it!
@lawnlife live in pa . Took my lawn to like an inch by accident. Few spots not as green and a little short. Raised the setting. Temps in 60s to 70s. Should it recover well?
Id like to take my tall fescue here in Michigan down and start mowing it as short as I can get with a zero turn. Haven't bought a reel mower yet as I have almost half acre of grass. Can I take tall fescue and mow it low?
i know that swamp. wouldn't mind driving by when i am on my way to alpine some day and looking over that lawn to see how much cross breeding it did with the golf course over by hwy10
I need to get my grass low. But it’s very bumpy. Do you recommend leveling off first? I have detached last spring and get it down to 3 inches and kept it there. It’s a burnuda grass. I’m in hot califnia weather as well of 100 degree heat in summers. I’m not sure if short grass required more water?
You might need to do more than just leveling if it's super bumpy. I took my utility tractor and box blade this summer and just started dragging all the bumps out because there was no way I was going to be able to just fill them in with dirt.
glad to have found your video. I am new to reel mowing. I have been wanting to cut lower but my lawn is bumpy. Even with rotary mower I have to change HOC so I don't scalp some areas..Have been adding topsoil/sand but still long way to go to level :/ Thank you for sharing your experiences and tips. it is very helpful!
as for dethathing.. I overseeded early Spring, and now many large spots in my lawn are yellow because of dead poa from the heat :/ Do I wait to dethatch until fall ? I fertilized 4 days ago and haven't cut the grass yet. if I cut the grass at 2.5in or lower, it will look yellow even more 😵 I am very new to reel mowing. I keep switching around with rotary mower since I was worried about scalping so much ekk
@@LAWNLIFE mixture of PRG and KBG. I moved to my current home 2 winters ago. I had no idea about lawn care. I believe previous owner had Tall fescue and some other grass (probably KBG/PRG). I overseeded 70% KBG & 30% PRG this Spring and will stick with that going forward.
@@shion_lwn I would wait to dethatch until the fall. You don't want to stress your grass out anymore than it needs to be with the heat. Dethatching really puts a number on the stress of the grass.
Good video! Informative and timely. Nice production too. Edited well, good shot selection, plenty of information but not too long, nice graphics. Very professional looking video.
Same procedure for warm season grass. If you want level it. Try aerating, rolling, then aerating again. If you have any deeper holes, you will need to fill those in.
How did you get rid of the moles. I have been using caster oil pellets it seems to be working. but i have to do it every 2 months 5 bags at 11 dollars is not cheap.
I used these and they work great. Moles are basically gone. Victor 0631 Out O’Sight Mole Trap - Reusable and Weather Resistant www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RAMY/ref=cm_sw_r_sm_apa_glt_fabc_H0QABQ4NYT6H1HG773DX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Your lawn looks awesome but I just have to question why we need them to look like perfect carpets. I'm in hot northern Louisiana and have migrated away from perfection level to OK level and cut my grass 1 notch from the mower's top height. Occasionally it looks a little shaggy as I purposely let the grass get to seed head height. Most ppl here cut their grass way too short in this heat. I spend less time than in previous years. I'm trying to get the fert / weed / insect applications down from 6 times a year total to 4 times a year.
Hey Excellent video. I would like to take my lawn low but might stay at around 2” inch then thatch , seed and fertilize. I will go from there. My Neighbors Zoysia is creeping over and I don’t like it. Maybe tenacity would help keep it out not sure. I like your technique.
What I would of done with rider is take bagger off mow low blowing it around then put bagger back on same height and picked it all up if wanted to bag. That would of worked?
I also have that exact same John Deere and honestly in my opinion if it wouldn’t of worked it’s because that mower doesn’t do as good of a job bagging. I have the same mower but Craftsman and the Craftsman does a way better job bagging sucking up all the extra debris and makes cleaner looking cuts.. just my opinion..
How difficult is this to maintain during July/August when the temps are in the 90s? Does mowing this low require a ton of water to keep in alive during the heat? Or can it go dormant and come out in the fall like normal. Great job on your first video!
Thanks Norbert! I had the experience of using my irrigation on long grass and short grass in my lawn and I can tell you with 100% confidence that there is no difference in the amount of water it takes to keep your lawn green through the heat of the summer. My short cut turf did not go dormant at all through the summer and looked great with the same cost on the water bill.
@@LAWNLIFE any difference in your fertilizer routine between tall and short cut? Do you have to level spots off if there’s dips and such in the lawn? Last question! How often do you have to mow when you keep it short?
@@brahambaseball thanks for checking out the video. I've been getting hit with these questions from everyone since the video has dropped (here and other platforms), so I'm planning on making a detailed video on all of these questions, plus more, tomorrow. I think that's just the easiest way to answer everyone at this point!
@@brahambaseball Hey man, just wanted to let you know this video is still coming. The actual discussion part has been recorded and edited for days already, I've just been waiting on this crappy weather to pass so I can get some more b-roll. Hopefully I can get enough of it tomorrow and drop it this weekend. Sorry for the delay!
I wouldn't recommend it, personally. When I've went real short prior to over seeding, those bumpy areas were completely scalped. Fixable but a bit annoying.
Hey Jesse, new subscriber here ... really enjoying your vids. Quick question ... can you do/maintain a low cut lawn with ANY type of cool season grass? I'm in Toronto and have mainly Ryegrass and Tall Fescue with a smidge of Bluegrass. I get the sense that you have primarily bluegrass.
I do have primarily bluegrass. The ryegrass will be able to handle being cut low but the tall fescue will most likely die off. It can't handle being cut that short. If you brought it down this fall, you should be able to start cutting low and overseed with rye if a percentage of it dies off.
Yeah it's kind of a mess because I didn't end up scalping or dethatching it that day, which I now regret. So I've been scalping it at one inch all year. It looks pretty bad. I'm going to do this same process to it in the fall this year if I have time. I may or may not be planning a renovation on my front yard. 😏
Would love to make the transition but my yard is so bumpy and uneven. I also have a tree in my front yard with some pretty bad surface roots in some areas. Also the last couple years I've overseeded with a pennington seed that is primarily perennial rye which I know can be cut low as well as KBG but there's also some tall fescue in it which I know probably won't tolerate it. Would probably need to do a leveling this fall and overseed with straight up KBG or perennial rye to try to get a more consistent grass type I imagine before considering making the switch. Just a saw a greensmaster on marketplace for $1000 in my area too 😪
I have a root on the side of my yard and it's a pain in the ass. So don't overlook that. You would be surprised how well a greensmower does with bumps. Take a manual reel over your lawn and see how it does. The greensmower is even more forgiving than a manual reel. Good luck!
I'm trying to do this!! Should I do it in the spring or fall? Did you areate the lawn after dethatching? And did you overseed the lawn after dethatch? Also do you add fertilizer after you scalp the lawn?? Thanks man!!
Knowing your grass type is crucial if you are following these steps. Have you noticed if your grass "heals itself". If theres a dead spot, does the grass grow itself back in?
@@LAWNLIFE yes. I'm almost positive it's a mix of KBG, Rye, and TF. I was going to scalp, dethatch, areate and then overseed with KBG. How long should I wait for the new seed to grow until I start cutting in under an inch?
@@keithowu no leveling there either. It definitely is not that smooth. Now there's not huge bumps like the back but there's definitely small hills all over. I'm debating a renovation so that's why I haven't done any leveling. I want some darker cultivars but I'm scared to ruin what I already have and regret it 😂
