🏡 Better Homes Lawn Lords and Garden Gentlemen

[RedBeard]

Not sure if we had an official lawn care thread so posting in here...

Bought a thatch rake to pull all the dead shit out of the lawn. Nearly filled the entire trash bag and I haven’t even finished my whole front lawn yet. I’ve knocked outthe section from the power box back towards the house. So 7-8’ more on the front section.

 

[GTvert90]

We can just change the title at this point lol I've appreciated all the tips! Thanks guys!

 

[DanJ]

Not sure if we had an official lawn care thread so posting in here...

Bought a thatch rake to pull all the dead shit out of the lawn. Nearly filled the entire trash bag and I haven’t even finished my whole front lawn yet. I’ve knocked outthe section from the power box back towards the house. So 7-8’ more on the front section.

View attachment 65729

That’s a lot of work to do by hand.

I spent a good chunk of my day ripping this ivy ground cover shit out. Trying to get as much of it as I can by hand, then I’m going to go over it with a rototiller before getting some topsoil to level it out and seed. 6 yard waste bags in so far.

 

[DanJ]

Forgot I posted about that project. Took a bit over a week of tilling out roots by hand because of all the tree roots. Twelve 32 gallon yard waste bags and two loads in my dads Canyon and got the area cleared out. Put down GCI Turf’s turf type tall fescue, Carbon Earth Xstrt DIY 8-24-4 fertilizer and some peat and now we wait.









used jason05gt aeration guys today for $42 and they did a really good thorough job. Was surprised for the price. Over seeded my patchy back yard with the same fescue and fertilizer combo. Put down about 16 pounds of seed on 1900 square feet.

DIY wobbler head sprinklers are working out great now that I’ve jetted them down from 4 to 2.2 gpm. Just ordered the parts to make 3 mini wobbler setups that will spray a 25 foot diameter instead of the 40’ these big ones do so I can water my side yard without soaking my neighbors driveway or my house. $18 in parts and $12 in shipping to make 3 of them so not terrible.

 

[Kensington]

Moving next week...going to have QUITE a bit more yard and WAY more trees than I've ever had, so should make for an interesting fall. Finally going to send my old Craftsman mower, with broken self propel off to C-list land, and getting my buddy's parent's Toro with working self propel.

Fighting with the wife, as the previous owner decided to put seemingly 20 different varieties of bush/hedge along the fence....I want to dig them up, and go with grass to open up the yard a bit, and less of a haven for critters along the fence that my dog could corner, but she wants to keep them.

Got a big willow tree that needs to be taken down. Most of the branches are way dead, and the truck has massive insect destruction. Huge fall risk....

Anyone got any cheap tree people?

 

[jason05gt]

used jason05gt aeration guys today for $42 and they did a really good thorough job. Was surprised for the price. Over seeded my patchy back yard with the same fescue and fertilizer combo. Put down about 16 pounds of seed on 1900 square feet.

They do a great job for the price. I’m going to use them in a few weeks and do some overseeding in my backyard.

I put down some Milo two weeks ago and got the benefit from the rains last week. The front of my house has never looked better.

 

[Stink Star]

Google street view finally updated my house for after I moved in and started caring for the lawn. Feels good man

 

[Stink Star]

Oh and my lawn compared to the neighbors lawn makes me happy too

 

[01Cobra]

Chipmunks and squirrels using my backyard to hide their loot and make tunnels. Not good.

 

[DanJ]

Oh and my lawn compared to the neighbors lawn makes me happy too

View attachment 67093

I’m just glad a driveway separates my lawn from my neighbors. One side is all weeds, and the guy on the other side is really into grass. His lawn was dark green all summer. I also think he leveled it at one point.

 

[DanJ]

They do a great job for the price. I’m going to use them in a few weeks and do some overseeding in my backyard.

I put down some Milo two weeks ago and got the benefit from the rains last week. The front of my house has never looked better.

View attachment 67088

I had the rain and milorganite combo out front too. Now that it’s been aerated I’m going to get up early tomorrow to put down some starter fertilizer up front to help with recovery and water it in.

 

[blakbearddelite]

I've been on the fence with de-thatching this year. I have a lot of spots where I think that might just leave dirt patches. I can't really tell if some of that grass will come back with the cooler weather and rain we get in the fall.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

Oh and my lawn compared to the neighbors lawn makes me happy too

For once, the neighbor's yard across the street is a flaming mess of dead patches everywhere whereas mine is somewhat living after the drought we had this year when his is usually like yours and mine is worse than your neighbor's. Feels good man.

 

[DanJ]

Two week progress is looking good so far.





little thin along that ratty ass fence. Talked to my neighbor the other day and neither of us know who’s fence it is, but they’re replacing it since they want to adopt a dog. Win for me.

 

[01Cobra]

Aerated and did an overseed/milorganite mixture tonight. Ran the sprinklers. Bummer I missed the rain.

 

[DanJ]

Weather for the next two weeks is looking favorable. My overseed from 9/15 should be doing great.

 

[DanJ]

Not sure if we had an official lawn care thread so posting in here...

Bought a thatch rake to pull all the dead shit out of the lawn. Nearly filled the entire trash bag and I haven’t even finished my whole front lawn yet. I’ve knocked outthe section from the power box back towards the house. So 7-8’ more on the front section.

View attachment 65729

I came in here to bump this thread for the 2021 season and completely missed that rake last year. I actually got the groundskeeper II from my in laws for Christmas. Used it when we had some warm weather last week and pulled a ton of dead shit out of the lawn. It’s a pretty sweet rake. I think you could use it for leaves too if you really adjusted your technique and used zero down pressure.

Always said I would never spend the money on a battery powered sprayer and here we are. Sprayers Plus had their 12V 30psi 2 gallon sprayer for 15% off and I used GOELECTRIC for free shipping which made it a bit easier to justify. I use liquid prodiamine as a pre-emergent, various post emergent weed sprays, liquid soil loosener, humic/fulvic acid as a soil treatment, and spray for mosquitos so pumping manual sprayers was getting a bit old.

 

[b00sted]

I'm getting ready to dethatch and overseed as soon as the temps get a bit more stable.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

Weiss came and did my first application for the season Monday morning. Then it snows Monday afternoon. Derp!

 

[DanJ]

I had a company come to my door the other day asking if I wanted weed prevention spray. Soil temps were 38 degrees so I’m not sure why they’re spraying anything. Should be put down around 55.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

Yea, I thought it was way too early too. But they hit the entire block because their signs were in 3 or 4 other yards down the street.

 

[Stink Star]

I came in here to bump this thread for the 2021 season and completely missed that rake last year. I actually got the groundskeeper II from my in laws for Christmas. Used it when we had some warm weather last week and pulled a ton of dead shit out of the lawn. It’s a pretty sweet rake. I think you could use it for leaves too if you really adjusted your technique and used zero down pressure.

View attachment 83705



Always said I would never spend the money on a battery powered sprayer and here we are. Sprayers Plus had their 12V 30psi 2 gallon sprayer for 15% off and I used GOELECTRIC for free shipping which made it a bit easier to justify. I use liquid prodiamine as a pre-emergent, various post emergent weed sprays, liquid soil loosener, humic/fulvic acid as a soil treatment, and spray for mosquitos so pumping manual sprayers was getting a bit old.

when do you put down your prodiamine? I did April 6th last year and already had some crabgrass so I was obviously too late. I might do it this weekend if the soil warms up a bit

 

[DanJ]

when do you put down your prodiamine? I did April 6th last year and already had some crabgrass so I was obviously too late. I might do it this weekend if the soil warms up a bit

Everything I see says when soil temps are at 55 degrees because that’s when weeds germinate. We hit 55 briefly a week or so back, but are back down in the 30’s. I have a soil thermometer I use sometimes, but also this site is great, and gives you the soil temp by date as well as 5 and 10 year averages.

Soil Temparature Maps | GreenCast | Syngenta

www.greencastonline.com

I had no idea what I was doing last year and just put down weed and feed randomly sometime in April.

 

[DanJ]

Seems like good information in here, and I’ve been loosely following this guys lawn plan since the middle of last year or so.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

Yea, I already had un-dandelions popping up in untreated areas.