Treat your yard yourself? Or hire it out?

[The Pol]

Anyone try the gator blade as a replacement mulching blade? A guy I work with swears by them. I find the OEM Toro blade sucks for mulching.

I put one on my mower this year, so far, so good.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Okay so I had myself a lengthy discussion with a professional sod grower who specializes in Bermuda. Long story short, he set me to a challenge with a guarantee. Here what I done per his instruction;

1.) I cut my lawn to 1.5 Inches tall.
2.) I watered for 2 hours to attain 1" of water (cup method).
3.) I core aerated. (5-1/2" plugs).
4.) I applied fertilizer (Scotts Turf Builder with Weed Control), Gypsum, and Ironite Mineral supplement per man recc rates.
5.) I lightly watered everything in (1/2 hour).

I will follow all this up with a minmal weekly mowing at 1.5" and water when needed to 1" (impressions left by foot, blueing, wilting).

His guarantee is that by the end of the month my lawn will be greener, thicker, and healthier than it has ever been before with few to no weeds.

His justification is that, by repeated cuttings the runners will branch out (like topping or heading a tree) causing the grass to form a dense mat that will block weeds from growing through. And that, the infrequent watering will force the roots to go deep into the soil and the grass will take on it's natural drought tolerance characteristics.

He further added that this would have to be done THIS month as this is the most active growing month for Bermuda in this Zone (7a) and this is the only time that it will recover from being scalped in this manner.

His guarantee is that if by the end of the month my lawns aren't looking better that he will pay for the aerator rental ($65), fertilizer ($45), and 6000 gallons of water ( a whopping $12.00).

I figure I had nothing to loose. My lawn at 3.5 Inches tall already looked like hell.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Last night I said to hell with all you people!
I'd been mowing my grass at the 2nd to highest setting this year based off this d*mn thread and and have been mowing constantly with my grass always looking bad. Granted it did really thicken up, but crap that means more to mow and harder to push the mower through. Last night I set the mower 2nd to lowest (down 2 settings from previous) and went to town. Should buy me more time between mowing. I'm glad I don't live in an area where everyone has perfect lush lawns. I don't know where you all find the time. I hate the hour mowing even takes away from my evening. I get 4.5 hours from coming home from work till my son goes to bed. The less time I can spend doing yard work, the more I get to spend with him. Stupid yard work.
As I was mowing the backyard I was visually planning the largest brick patio I could without it looking ridiculous!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

It's not even been a full week since I went drastic on my lawns. The front yard is still recovering from teh chop but, the back yard is already springing back to life. Large patches that were lifeless and near death are greening up and softening out now.

Now if I could just figure out why my Blueberries and Rasberry plants are withering away.

 

[The Pol]

I agree fully with "water when it wilts". You will get MUCH better root depth and next year, those areas wont need water, or very little.

Also, I am still mowing mine high, it was already thick... but it helps the lawn retain water by shading the ground and roots.

I gave up on Scotts.... I am now using MEIJER brand and have had much better results, at 50% of the cost.

I have used WEED B GONE from Ortho to spot kill weeds... I had about 10-20 weeds TOTAL, so a full lawn application seemed silly.

My grass gets cut at 3.5" once per week. It ends up at about 5.5 inches tall by the time I mow it.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I gave up on Scotts.... I am now using MEIJER brand and have had much better results, at 50% of the cost.

I was using the "Expert" brand ( a Pennington product, IIRC) and I found it fed the weeds better than it killed them. The granule consistency was poor too. That stuff had a LOT of dusty like material which made for poor distribution from my drop spreader.

 

[The Pol]

The Meijer brand has quite large granules and spread very evenly from my broadcast spreader. I also have not seen an issue with weeds, none more so than the past 18 months with Scotts.

Until I find a compelling reason to pay 2x as much for Scotts... I am using the "generic" stuff.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

The Meijer brand has quite large granules and spread very evenly from my broadcast spreader. I also have not seen an issue with weeds, none more so than the past 18 months with Scotts.

Until I find a compelling reason to pay 2x as much for Scotts... I am using the "generic" stuff.

I don't blame ya'. If I could find a quality "generic" I would too.

 

[PsicloneRN]

How often are you guys fertilizing? Once a season?

 

[android]

How often are you guys fertilizing? Once a season?

the normal recommendation for homeowners is 0.5-1.0 lbs N/1000 ft sq in the fall and the same amount in the spring. quite frankly, you can put as much fertilizer as you want on the grass and if you want a good response, find a local pesticide/fertilizer distributor and get some straight Urea Nitrogen from them (usually a 46-0-0 analysis). more and more, research is pointing to not needing much P or K (especially P) to keep your grass happy.

 

[The Pol]

How often are you guys fertilizing? Once a season?

I fertilize about 5x a year. Early spring, late spring, mid summer, fall and then the winterizer...

I also use Ortho Weed B Gone to spot spray any weeds that think about emerging... AND I spray a 3' swath of my neighbors yards where they border mine to keep thier weeds from infesting my grass.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Depends on the product. IIRC, with this Scotts 28N-?P-?K fert I am using, they "want" you to apply every 3 to 4 months. But mostly, I let the grass tell me when to apply. I have a sloped front and back yard so, I don't usually get the full 4 months benifit. Especially if we have some downpours which is usually how it goes here. Nothing for 2 months and then 1 inche in 30 minutes.

The algea blooms in the lakes are lovely tho'.

 

[The Pol]

Thanks to Meijer Brand lawn products. And, sweat. I am cutting it 3.5" high, the temps here are normally 85-90F during the day and mid 60's at night. If I go much lower, I have to start watering. Currently it can go about a week without water before it begins to wilt. It really needs to be mowed every 5 days... if I can.

Gila... I have a sloped back yard too, I hear ya on the downpours. I generally let my grass tell me when to fertilize too, as well as water.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Pol, I gotta comment on your edging. What do you use? I currently use my weedwhacker and lets just say it gets less than beautiful sometimes.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

What species of grass is that?

 

[The Pol]

Pol, I gotta comment on your edging. What do you use? I currently use my weedwhacker and lets just say it gets less than beautiful sometimes.

You arent going to like my answer...

Old school, $10 HAND edger from Sears. Yah, the wooden handle, little wheel sort? In 90F heat, it is hard, but that is how I roll. My neighbor has a gas powered edger, but I cant bring myself to have all of these self propelled machines, it makes me lazy. The day that I cannot edge my lawn by hand, is the day I die...

 

[The Pol]

What species of grass is that?

Kentucky Blue...

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

You arent going to like my answer...

Old school, $10 HAND edger from Sears. Yah, the wooden handle, little wheel sort? In 90F heat, it is hard, but that is how I roll. My neighbor has a gas powered edger, but I cant bring myself to have all of these self propelled machines, it makes me lazy. The day that I cannot edge my lawn by hand, is the day I die...

The day I edge by hand, is the day I die. Expansive clay soils. And I don;t care for the weed wacker edged look.

Nice looking lawn. I tried 3.5 on my Bermuda and it got too thin. At 1.5 it's looking good but still greening back up.

 

[The Pol]

Yah, my yard care plan is obviously based on my grass species. In the mid summer, Kentucky Blue really likes 3+ inches of height. Not only will it promote deeper roots, but it offers plenty of shade to the underlying soil.

When I say soil, I mean clay... hard clay.

Hand edging is hard, but if I keep up on it, it isnt SO bad.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I bought one of those edger like you're talking about. Just need to use it. But I am lazy and would love a gas motor on it

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Yeah.

I posted earlier that I am told Bermuda is the opposite. Apparently, it wants to be short to dig deep. Uggg. I can't imagine edging by hand in clay. It'd be easy enough in the dry times but after each rain the deep grove disappears and you start over.

I used to run the weed wacker attachments and it works great cept' they don;t make anything solid anymore so I went with a dedicated edger. i still miss the maneuverability of the edger attachment.

I can't believe how quickly my lawn has recovered since I core aerated. I mean Wow! the back was nearly all brown last week and now it's patchy green at worst. Wahoo.

 

[amercuric]

DIY ALL THE WAY.

And I don't even own a lawn. How about something that doesn't need to be mowed for ****'s sake. America is pig disgusts me.

 

[uglygoat]

my lawn looks like the pasture in the back of the pol's pics. i don't treat it with anything excepting the lawn motor once o week or so. there's lots of clover, dandelions, goats beard, thistle, and other wild flowers. we keep it about mid calf length in the back forty so the bees and bunnies have somewhere to play, but keep the front trimmed up a bit nicer. no fertilizer, or herbicides will i drop a dime on.

 

[MeatyPortion]

I hire out to treat my lawn. It's especially necessary with me being away now, but even when I'm at home there's so much else to work on in the yard.