The obsessive compulsive lawn thread

[ThatVideoKid]

Just bought my house in May, I vowed to fix up the lawn and get some good perennial landscaping done. Well now we're in a severe drought, only a couple inches since April. Lawn is dead, most of the bushes and flowers I planted are barely clinging to life.

Doesn't help that I don't have a good time to water, I'm getting ready for bed as the sun is setting and I don't want to water at 3am(I work in TV). Most of the flower beds are next to the house so it's some topsoil, but it's over a gravel bed for drainage. Hopefully they survive the winter and they can develop enough of a root system where they don't need me. The lawn is a whole other issue

 

[JonM]

I bet your lawn's not dead - just dormant b/c of the lack of water. I bet it'll come back good as new next year.

 

[Stillraining]

Just bought my house in May, I vowed to fix up the lawn and get some good perennial landscaping done. Well now we're in a severe drought, only a couple inches since April. Lawn is dead, most of the bushes and flowers I planted are barely clinging to life.

Doesn't help that I don't have a good time to water, I'm getting ready for bed as the sun is setting and I don't want to water at 3am(I work in TV). Most of the flower beds are next to the house so it's some topsoil, but it's over a gravel bed for drainage. Hopefully they survive the winter and they can develop enough of a root system where they don't need me. The lawn is a whole other issue

Sounds like you and the neighbors kid need to come to a mutual agreement. There still are entrepreneurial kids out there.

 

[jimyson]

Depending on temperature, I think first year shrubs only need a good watering every 7-20 days. What zone are you in?

 

[ThatVideoKid]

Sounds like you and the neighbors kid need to come to a mutual agreement. There still are entrepreneurial kids out there.

Sadly my whole street is either commercial or very old retired folk. We're the only young couple on the street(very happy to be 23 and never rented outside of while I was in college!)

I'm sure the lawn will come back, just will need a ton of weeding next year. The plants I'm worried about more.

Plus we have an old dirt driveway dividing the back yard, going to be fun getting grass to grow there, probably going to need to replace all the soil.

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Only places I know are 100% dead are above the septic/leach(new and they never did a good job regrow growing it) and under where they had a swingset.

Edit: the phone is very flattering, and it's overcast. The lawn is not very green, just burnt.

 

[JonM]

I've gotten really good results with Ortho Weed-B-Gon when it comes to weeds, both for an early whole lawn pre-emergent treatment and for spot treating.

 

[ThatVideoKid]

I've gotten really good results with Ortho Weed-B-Gon when it comes to weeds, both for an early whole lawn pre-emergent treatment and for spot treating.

Yeah that's what I plan on using next year, I didn't want to stress the lawn this year so I didn't weed at all. This year has been about destroying the billions of ants that call my lawn home. They can't be good for the roots. This dry soil is making it nice and easy for them to nest too. I put down the granular stuff at triple the recommended rate, watered it in well. Haven't seen much luck.

 

[GHBWNY]

Shredded wheat.

 

[JonM]

Yeah that's what I plan on using next year, I didn't want to stress the lawn this year so I didn't weed at all. This year has been about destroying the billions of ants that call my lawn home. They can't be good for the roots. This dry soil is making it nice and easy for them to nest too. I put down the granular stuff at triple the recommended rate, watered it in well. Haven't seen much luck.

Ants, eh? Depending on how accommodating SWMBO is, this might be a rare opportunity to do anthill art. You're not in a place prone to wildfires, are ya? :rockin:

ETA: No time to water, you say? Check this out: Roger Cook approved.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20803336,00.html

 

[ThatVideoKid]

Ants, eh? Depending on how accommodating SWMBO is, this might be a rare opportunity to do anthill art. You're not in a place prone to wildfires, are ya? :rockin:

ETA: No time to water, you say? Check this out: Roger Cook approved.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20803336,00.html

Not typically prone to fires, but we're almost double digits below average on rain since May. Not the fun anthills either. We don't get big ants in NE

 

[passedpawn]

Fire ants are fun. I don't think you have them up north. Little attackers. Unreal when you get a platoon of them on your foot (or child). They are kamikaze biters, will bite relentlessly until you kill them. Amdro is the solution.

 

[Yeastieboy]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1468793837.402765.jpg

 

[passedpawn]

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That grass looks familiar.

 

[passedpawn]

An interesting thing about St. Augustine grass, which is the coarse grass we use down here in FL. It grows horizonally, forming a thick thatch. If the lawn is healthy, you end up with a several inch growth above the sidewalks / driveway due to the root system that it develops. The nice thing about grass that grows this way is it crowds out the weeds. So, you don't really have to kill the weeds, just encourage the St. Augustine to grow and it will overpower everything in its way.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I think I'm probably the neighbor that you all hate, my front yard is entirely moss, and the back is wild strawberry, both quite intentionally, both because I'm lazy.

 

[passedpawn]

I hung some solar lamps in my back yard. They are pretty nifty. They are waterproof, stay off during the day, come on at night. They flicker a little bit, and look just like a candle when they are on. I hung them from fishing line so the line is mostly invisible. They have been hanging out there for weeks, enduring nightly rain (which is significant here). No problem. I bought a dozen of them on amazon (here). Amazingly, they stay on all night (I woke up at 4am one night and looked and they were just as bright).

 

[Quadrupled]

So, you don't really have to kill the weeds, just encourage the St. Augustine to grow and it will overpower everything in its way.

That's because what Floridians call St. Augustine, the north calls crabgrass. In Florida, you purposefully grow it for your entire lawn and we kill it when we find a trace of it in ours.

 

[passedpawn]

That's because what Floridians call St. Augustine, the north calls crabgrass. In Florida, you purposefully grow it for your entire lawn and we kill it when we find a trace of it in ours.

True!

 

[Yeastieboy]

Texans to! Stuff grows like weeds here! 🤔 Oh wait...

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Yeah that's what I plan on using next year, I didn't want to stress the lawn this year so I didn't weed at all. This year has been about destroying the billions of ants that call my lawn home. They can't be good for the roots. This dry soil is making it nice and easy for them to nest too. I put down the granular stuff at triple the recommended rate, watered it in well. Haven't seen much luck.

I think the majority of lawns in NE have grub problems. You may go a couple of years trying to figure out what youre doing wrong when the buggers are really just eating your roots. They were bad in my yard and I thought it was the way I was watering. Then I pulled on the grass and discovered that the roots were really shallow due to them. Start off the year using Grub-x.

My lawn is broooowwwwn. Good news bad news is I had a 100' white pine come crashing down from a down burst. I need more sun in my yard. Time to override the neighborhood association and cut more trees.

 

[ThatVideoKid]

I think the majority of lawns in NE have grub problems. You may go a couple of years trying to figure out what youre doing wrong when the buggers are really just eating your roots. They were bad in my yard and I thought it was the way I was watering. Then I pulled on the grass and discovered that the roots were really shallow due to them. Start off the year using Grub-x.

My lawn is broooowwwwn. Good news bad news is I had a 100' white pine come crashing down from a down burst. I need more sun in my yard. Time to override the neighborhood association and cut more trees.

I kind of assumed that. Theres about 100 robins around and they're often picking at my lawn.

 

[day_trippr]

We've had almost a couple of weeks of baking temperature here, and even the neighbors that run automagic watering systems full bore are looking at totally fried and dormant turf now.

Meanwhile, my cultured weeds are filling in nicely...thanks to the raging crabgrass...

Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

We had a lot of robins of all ages decimating our mulberry trees this year. I need that bird netting in XXXXXL size. Been hotter than hell here too...& KISS was not involved. I need to do some weeding. Then transplant small Mulberry tree this fall & find a cheap weed killer for the lawn that isn't $25/bag.

 

[gunnuts]

I used to have a lawn.... being in CA I don't water anything I can't eat.

 

[Homercidal]

Our ass**** neighbors have been away for like two weeks. I am completely shocked that nobody else in the neighborhood has fertilized their yard with roundup...

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Our ass**** neighbors have been away for like two weeks. I am completely shocked that nobody else in the neighborhood has fertilized their yard with roundup...

nobody else?

 

[Homercidal]

nobody else?

Well, I'd never do it. I don't even own any roundup.

And I haven't decided what awesome thing to write yet...

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Well, I'd never do it. I don't even own any roundup.

And I haven't decided what awesome thing to write yet...

We used to freeze it into ice cubes. Toss them out onto the lawns for a polka dot effect.

 

[Yeastieboy]

Well, I'd never do it. I don't even own any roundup.



And I haven't decided what awesome thing to write yet...

How about a giant "D1ckhead lives here" right in the middle of the front yard?

 

[Homercidal]

I'm just going to dream about it. They have been gone long enough, and are at the age where one of their parents may have passed away. As awful as they've been to everyone else in the neighborhood, they haven't actually been bad to me. If they are grieving, I won't make their lives any worse.

I just don't understand how someone can enjoy living in a place where they seem to almost go out of their way to make enemies with everyone around them.