Lawn Maintenance

stb222 said:
It is a fish or some shit. You can call him wobble dong if you like.
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i shoulda used the google rather than some vocab word from mid-last-century...

Did they intentionally create a swale between the tank location and the house?
(the google tinks i spelt swale rawng)

Luke: need a link for that last one, cause i got nothing.
 
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stb, yea that's what I thought you meant but I probably won't fabricate one until I start sculpting my yard a bit

thanks Jason, we need to meet up and ride too!
 
I figured I'd revive this thread since I can actually now see some parts of my lawn. The backyard, in particular, is in rough shape. We have sort of a terraced arrangement and the top stays extremely wet after a rain. It's pretty much an icy swamp at the moment. It's also the main thoroughfare for playing with the dog and I'm assuming the previous owners and their kids spent a lot of time on it. The point being that it seems very tightly compacted which I'm assuming isn't helping with the water. Additionally, I seem to have like a 5:1 thatch to grass ratio...also probably not good. So my thoughts are:

-De-thatch once conditions improve enough to do this. It could be a while before it's dry.
-Aerate.
-Add new seed.
-Water/cross fingers.

I don't particularly care about having a perfect lawn, I'm just looking to not have a swamp/mud pit and have it hold up to the dog running around a bit better. Suggestions?
 
So I just threw down my spring dose of lime and fertilizer. I don't think the rain around here will be too heavy, should soak in nicely.

Ever since the snow melted my dog has been grazing in the yard on what look like dried up weeds. I hadn't seen any of these alive until today(there's plenty of other weeds though). Can anyone ID this?

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Not quite about the lawn but Lisa started a blog about her garden. Suggestions and pointers always welcome!

"cuCumberland Road"

So far the lawn looks great this year. All the work last fall and earlier this spring paid off. I've got a few things planned this fall to help keep it moving along in the right direction.
 
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So, lawn time! I'm planning to overseed in about 2 weeks and I want to get my crap straight. I also haven't re-read this thread, so some of my questions may have been answered already but a fresh perspective always helps.

I plan to dethatch, seed, fertilize. My focus is on the front, which is ~65-70% healthy, the rest is weeds or thin spots. Total area ~ 6500 sq ft.

1. Am I going to murder myself if I dethach 6500 sq ft by hand? I'm trying to save the budget by renting just 1 power machine, which brings me to..

2. Is a power seeder worth it? Or will I get enough soil contact just by detatching? Is my money better spend on renting a power rake? Is that going to damage the shit out of what good grass is left?

3. Any recommendations on seed brand? I'm trying to avoid the big box stuff. I'm willing to pay for something quality. I've heard that Jonathan Green is a good brand of seed, but I could be totally off base here.

4. Am I being foolish by skipping the soil test? Can I just fertilize and assume I'm good, or its this tossing $$? Is it too late to test my soil if I want to seed in about 2 weeks?

Thanks!
 
rlb said:
So, lawn time! I'm planning to overseed in about 2 weeks and I want to get my crap straight. I also haven't re-read this thread, so some of my questions may have been answered already but a fresh perspective always helps.

I plan to dethatch, seed, fertilize. My focus is on the front, which is ~65-70% healthy, the rest is weeds or thin spots. Total area ~ 6500 sq ft.

1. Am I going to murder myself if I dethach 6500 sq ft by hand? I'm trying to save the budget by renting just 1 power machine, which brings me to..

2. Is a power seeder worth it? Or will I get enough soil contact just by detatching? Is my money better spend on renting a power rake? Is that going to damage the shit out of what good grass is left?

3. Any recommendations on seed brand? I'm trying to avoid the big box stuff. I'm willing to pay for something quality. I've heard that Jonathan Green is a good brand of seed, but I could be totally off base here.

4. Am I being foolish by skipping the soil test? Can I just fertilize and assume I'm good, or its this tossing $$? Is it too late to test my soil if I want to seed in about 2 weeks?

Thanks!
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OK, lets take this one at at time.

It's a waste of time to de-thatch by hand if you plan on overseeding. A good overseeder has thatchers up front(groved blades in pic) and discs in the back. The discs in the back makes a slit in the ground for the seed to fall into. This is all you need to overseed into a lawn. Use it in multiple directions on your lawn. The healthy grass in you lawn will be able to tolerate the overseeding. It may look like crap at first but after watering it will come around.

Seed to soil contact is the most important thing when overseeding. Heavy watering at first will help the seed find its way into the slits and provide a good seedbed. If you have excessive thatch on your lawn after overseeding you can rake it off.

Jonathan Green does have good seed. More important then getting a soil test is choosing the seed best suited to your site. Choose a sun or shade mix depending upon your exposure.

I'm not sure what the turn around time is for a soil test. I would take advantage of the weather and seed within the month. You can always apply lime later if needed. I would apply a starter fertilizer at the time of seeding. Fertilizer is made up of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium(NPK). You want something with a higher P ratio. Follow label rates on fertilizer bag and apply seed at recommended 1lb./1000 for that particular seed.

Anymore questions and I'm going to start billing.😀

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I've found that aerating before overseeding works well also. In addition to being healthy for your existing lawn, I've found that overseeding aftarwards results in good growth. You can rent an aerator from Lowes or the Depot. As an added bonus, you will get an awesome upper body workout.
 
pooriggy said:
Anymore questions and I'm going to start billing.😀
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I'll shake your hand next time I see you 😀

I stopped at home depot on the way home and their seeders don't have the disc up front, so you pretty much have to rent the thatcher also. In the meantime I'll keep looking for a seeder like the one you showed, but are you pretty much saying that dethatching isn't necessary?

Is it any less effective to go Monkey Soup's route and just aerate then use a broadcast spreader to spread the seed?
 
rlb said:
Is it any less effective to go Monkey Soup's route and just aerate then use a broadcast spreader to spread the seed?
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Aerating you lawn then overseeding it is optimal, the more ground you can open up for seed to come into contact with the better. If you only have the budget to rent one machine its best to rent a good seeder if you want to overseed your lawn. The problem is most rental shops don't have really good walk behind seeders. In the past what I've done is rent an aerator and seeder(bluebird) and rip the shit out of my lawn in a bunch of different directions with these machines. Then I followed it up with broadcasting some seed in addition to the overseeder. Fertilize, water and then watch the grass grow.

Convince your neighbor(s) to go in on the rental of aerator and seeder with you to cut rental cost. This is what I did, I even used my neighbors pick-up truck to go pick the machines up😉

Also its a good idea to use these machines when the ground is not hard as a rock. Otherwise the machine is bouncing all over and not really penetrating the soil. Ideally after some rain or irrigation, when the ground can be penetrated is when you want to give it a go.
 
Forget all the fancy machinery. get some topsoil, spread a couple of inches on top of what is there and start fresh. mix in some peat moss. On top of that, scotts lawn soil with seed and mix and spread (only need like one inch). Top off with more seed on top and finish with some hay. Water the crap out of it everyday. Let it grow a few inches high before pulling the hay off and cutting.
 
Weekend landscape warrior here...

I'm currently winning my streets lawn tournament this year... it took me 4 - 5 years to bring is back from the dead after a really bad season of bug infestations that ate the roots followed by tons of crab grass.. Basically started over from scratch in the front yard and recovered the back yard.

I came up with a decent schedule of things to do and when (water, food, seeding, aerating, thatching, mower deck height - depedning on the time of year) + how to cut the grass to prevent thatching...

If you would like me to send you my schedule and processes, I'll be glad to shoot you a PM. I've spent a ton of time and energy + trial and error to come up with something that works for my lawn so maybe some of my hardwork will save you time and effort of figuring it out on your own.

I use fertilizer and other chemicals but don't want to state what I do since folks on this forum could be sensitive to that sort of thing....

By the way, there is a huge amount of time taken away from cycling when you decide to create a manicured landscape - Something I am battling as we speak...
 
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