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Fertilizing my lawn for initial spring application

cyfan92 said:
If people want to get really dialed in. I'd recommend soil samples

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Yard Mastery Soil Testing Kit | The Lawn Care Nut

Shop the Yard Mastery Soil Testing Kit from The Lawn Care Nut that provides 13 plant available nutrient levels including Nitrogen and more pH now!
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I did this last week or so when someone else recommended it. Highly recommend the Yard Mastery kit. Analysis is thorough and they provide fertilizer recommendations.

Also, a lot of people near me had recommended adding pelletized lime to my yard to help with the stunted growth and amount of thatch in my lawn. Came to find out through the Yard Mastery results that my Ph was so high that if I added any lime to my yard I probably would have burned the hell out of it and killed everything.

I agree 1000% with everyone that says there’s no point in putting anything on your yard until you know what’s in your soil. You’re probably wasting money, and could potentially be doing more harm than good.
 
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Does anyone have any experience with dethatching? I moved into a new house late last fall and my grass is far and away the last one to be turning green. It is green underneath, but there is a ton of dead brown stuff on top that seems to be hindering the green underneath. It is coming on slowly, but it looks like crap to me. I was wondering if dethatching would be good to get rid of the dead brown on top. I have heard mixed things about it.
 
spierceisu said:
Does anyone have any experience with dethatching? I moved into a new house late last fall and my grass is far and away the last one to be turning green. It is green underneath, but there is a ton of dead brown stuff on top that seems to be hindering the green underneath. It is coming on slowly, but it looks like crap to me. I was wondering if dethatching would be good to get rid of the dead brown on top. I have heard mixed things about it.
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I would dethatch. I have not heard any bad things about dethatching, what have you heard?
 
spierceisu said:
I have heard it can do more harm than good sometimes.
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Dethatching cleans out the dead grass that is packed in. It will loosen things up also and create space for the growing plants to grow. It could slightly thin a thin lawn, but then an over seed with high mowing will help that. The only other negative I could see is removal of nutrients if you bag it, so then just fertilize to replace that.
 
I was amazed at the amount of dead grass I bagged with my mower a month ago. Was hoping to get a lot of saw dust from the tree I had removed I ran over the area twice, the opposite direction the second time. Ended up with two mower bags full. I did not go over one area and can tell to where I mowed and were I didn't it made that big of a difference.
 
spierceisu said:
Does anyone have any experience with dethatching? I moved into a new house late last fall and my grass is far and away the last one to be turning green. It is green underneath, but there is a ton of dead brown stuff on top that seems to be hindering the green underneath. It is coming on slowly, but it looks like crap to me. I was wondering if dethatching would be good to get rid of the dead brown on top. I have heard mixed things about it.
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If everyone around has green grass you might be dealing with a grass type weed called Nimblewill. It is slow to green up in the spring and a pain in the *** to get rid of. Usually I see large patches of it not the entire yard though.
 
spierceisu said:
Does anyone have any experience with dethatching? I moved into a new house late last fall and my grass is far and away the last one to be turning green. It is green underneath, but there is a ton of dead brown stuff on top that seems to be hindering the green underneath. It is coming on slowly, but it looks like crap to me. I was wondering if dethatching would be good to get rid of the dead brown on top. I have heard mixed things about it.
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Buy a greenworks or similar electric dethather/power rake off Amazon. Rake it out, mow or pick up the debris, and then hit it with a good starter fertilizer. Water it in and wait a week, and your lawn will look 1000x better.
 
Here are some pictures I took of my back yard yesterday. I am thinking hard about dethatching. Between the tree and the swing set is the most brown.IMG_4083.jpgIMG_4084.jpg
 
spierceisu said:
Here are some pictures I took of my back yard yesterday. I am thinking hard about dethatching. Between the tree and the swing set is the most brown.View attachment 84394View attachment 84395
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Mine looks similar. I dethatched earlier this spring and hauled away about 200lbs, and put down fertilizer a couple weeks ago.
I'm hoping the warm weather next week makes my lawn "pop".
 
cycloner29 said:
Why does the back 10' and right off the deck look a lot greener? More readily availably water?
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I had wondered that myself. No clue. I am trying to figure out as I go. I moved in at the end of October and am not sure what the history of fertilizer and lawncare were from previous owners.
 
spierceisu said:
I had wondered that myself. No clue. I am trying to figure out as I go. I moved in at the end of October and am not sure what the history of fertilizer and lawncare were from previous owners.
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If you are unsure about history I would recommend the Yard Mastery soil analysis mentioned earlier in the thread. Find out what your yard is deficient in and you can give it what it needs.
 
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spierceisu said:
Here are some pictures I took of my back yard yesterday. I am thinking hard about dethatching. Between the tree and the swing set is the most brown.View attachment 84394View attachment 84395
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Your yard looks like mine did this spring. Found out it was severely deficient in the big 3 (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium). I have 2 year old sod on a new build. Sod was placed directly on top of clay. Also, Ph was suuuuuuuper high. Got some additive fertilizer to help begin lowering the Ph.
 
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OMG!! With the cold temps we've had here in central Iowa the last few days, we've had to cover our plants. My neighbor bought a $6 tomato plant a few ago and planted it. It looked a little rough due to low daytime temps and lack of sun.

Here the other night he had covered it loosely with a sheet and it was open at the bottom. Yesterday afternoon, once he took the sheet off and the sun hit it, it went from a green color to a limp grey color. What does he do last night again? He covers it back up!!:oops::oops: This morning it it totally dead and flat on the ground. I am going to go out get him a new and give him my condolences. I'll give him a flat of 3 for $2.
 
I think dethatching every few years can be helpful if you are not bagging. The grass clippings take a long time to break down and can build up too much over time. I saw a video from Ryan Knorr recommending the greenworks dethatcher. You can adjust the height if you are worried about tearing up the yard too much. You could start out high and work your way down if needed.

I would plan on having someone aerate and overseed this fall. I think A+offers this. Get some fertilizer put on in late fall to help give the grass a head start in the spring. This will help choke out some clover and weed pressure for next year.
 
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