🏡 Better Homes Lawn Lords and Garden Gentlemen

DanJ

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May 25, 2007
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Aurora
Seed went down Sunday evening and these little guys started popping up late last night and early this morning. It’s wild how much they thicken up and grow over night.

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CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,155
31,276
Elgin
Trying to figure out a good set of blades for my 42" deck on the tractor.

Blade sets I have for it;
1) OEM Sears/Crapsman mulching blade
2) Gator style Blades.

I've used the Gator blades a lot more over the past year. Regardless of which set I use, I usually sharpen them every 2 - 3 weeks. Things I'm finding;

OEM Crapsman blades are thinner, sit lower to the grass when mounted to the mandrels, they seem to cut better than the gators, but mulch for shit. Their thinner metal also makes is much more audible as the blades try to mince up the mulch under the deck.

Gator Blades are thicker, heartier, don't initially cut as well, but mulch infinitely better.

So my question is, are there any other blades out there that work well with Crapsman/Husqvarna decks? I have the star mounting design. All I keep finding are the OEM style or Gator style. So just curious if someone else has something different that works well.
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,155
31,276
Elgin
As I look at those, The tangs are also bent a different way than the ones I currently have, as well as they have a longer main cutting edge.

I need to verify my length first (I don't want to scare the ladies...). I keep seeing 21" and then 21 & 3/16 listed. So I want to be sure before I order.
 

Blood on Blood

rumble baby rumble
Apr 6, 2005
56,478
45,955
Detached the yard (Greenworks electric detacher, set to medium height). It was thick which leads me to believe it wasn’t performed by previous two owners.

Overstuffed 8 yards waste bags

Overseeded the front and sides with Johnathan Green BB Ultra. Also laid down Scott’s Starter fertilizer

I’ll seed the back in about 7 - 10 days

Now I get to enjoy a ridiculous water bill.


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Blood on Blood

rumble baby rumble
Apr 6, 2005
56,478
45,955
I seeded my renovation work again today. I thought I could cheat and seed early because I have a lot of shade, but after a week of 90 degrees plus and then getting pounded with 3.25” of rain in two hours it wasn’t looking very happy.

Nice…. I watched the new Allyn Hane video with the North Dakota lawn restoration that took place last month.

I thought to myself, the average working Joe would be happy to find time to run the sprinklers once a day, but 3x a day, good luck unless one is permanent WFH and doesn’t have back to back meetings, or has the money for an automated sprinkler system.
 

DanJ

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May 25, 2007
33,560
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Aurora
Nice…. I watched the new Allyn Hane video with the North Dakota lawn restoration that took place last month.

I thought to myself, the average working Joe would be happy to find time to run the sprinklers once a day, but 3x a day, good luck unless one is permanent WFH and doesn’t have back to back meetings, or has the money for an automated sprinkler system.

I have my backyard covered with a series of lower flow sprinklers hooked up to one of these and it has worked really well. I just turn it on in the morning and off once it gets dark.

RESTMO Sprinkler Timer, Programmable Water Timer for Garden Hose, Outdoor Faucet, Drip Irrigation and Lawn Watering System, Compact Design | Automatic Digital Control | Manual ON/Off | Rain Delay https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08S3CDW2Y/?tag=tcg21-20

My grandma is in new construction that’s getting sod this week so I’m rigging up a 4 zone setup to keep her new sod alive without trusting an 87 year old lady to move a sprinkler around.
 

DanJ

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May 25, 2007
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Well I put seed down again Sunday and one area got washed out again from rain. I’m up to three times seeding all these new leveled areas so that’s fun. I’ve bought 7 cubes of peat moss at this point so I’m hoping this is it for me. They make this blue seed cover pellet stuff that expands when wet that I’ll look for next time I do something like this. Seeding number two on my south plot should start popping out tomorrow or Friday based on when the north plot that was reseeded last Wednesday started germinating. If it does germinate that section is going to be thicc as I hit it with another 2 pounds of seed on roughly 500 square feet today. Lesson learned. No amount of shade and water will save you when you’re starting from seed and it’s over 90 for a week. Will be waiting til after Labor Day from here on out.



These Turf Truth videos are really going to shake up these YouTube lawn guys hustles if people pay attention. This one basically shows that the my soil testing kits are essentially bullshit science. It’s a secret identity but from what I’m reading it’s the guys from the grass factor videos who actually have degrees in turf management and have worked in sports turf management and other various high end grass jobs. I’m definitely doing a less is more approach next year. I’ve done the RGS, Humic acid, seasonal fertilizers and all the other shit all year and haven’t seen any improvement over when I was just shotgunning shit at the lawn and pounding it with milorganite last year.
 
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Blood on Blood

rumble baby rumble
Apr 6, 2005
56,478
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This year I addressed a vast majority of the weeds in the lawn (vast majority as weeds never go away)

I used Scott’s pre and post emergent (crabgrass / weed n feed), milorganite, ironite, yardmaster anti-stress fertilizer, Simple Lawn Solutions fertilizer, Safer Lawn Restore all depending on the month.

Yard looked fantastic until mid-July, then turned dormant like all other yards (I did water, but only weekly during the summer as I thought the fertilizer would carry me). End of July my yard looked no different than yards who used the Scott’s 4 step. Dormant

With detaching, seeding, starter fertilizer and daily watering the yard is rebounding.

Next year, going a little more simply with my product approach and water a little more often, or simply accepting dormant, saving the $$$$
 

Blood on Blood

rumble baby rumble
Apr 6, 2005
56,478
45,955
That’s what that video is saying. Their is no studies that show the plant really uses that much potassium except under one or two circumstances. I’m doing less is more next year for sure.

My thoughts;

Soctts pre/post emergent
Organic or natural fertilizer each season
Couple Milorganite applications for color
Aerate / dethach / seed

I’m not looking for a $1k a month water bill to have the perfect lawn.

I am going to cover 4 feet weed n feed overlap into my neighbor’s cow pasture as his yard is 80% weeds, 20% grass
 
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