OT: Lawn Care
- Thread starter HandSanitizer
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The most effective way to kill creeping charlie is spraying 2 4D in the Fall but you will be fighting an uphill battle until your neighbor decides to get his yard in shape because that crap spreads like wildfire.
Cool, thanks for the reply...
Did you say you should aireate you yard once in the Fall and again in the Spring? Could you explain that a little further?
As long as you have a good lawn that has a good subsurface ecosystem (i.e. earthworms and such) you will never totally eliminate moles. They will come from other yards and areas so your best bet is to keep trapping. (F.Y.I. - my fiance swears that she heard that putting bubble gum in the mole tracks will kill them also. I myself am skeptical of that.)
I've found that usually if you offer to spray their yard too they are receptive to it because usually they dont even notice it and they are glad to have someone do it for free.
It's a good investment on your part too if you aren't going to get rid of it unless they do.
I think I read somewhere that moles are attracted to grubs so you might want to take a look at the grub issue.
I've had good luck with the traps that spears the mole by shooting down into their trench. It's a good way to know if you actually got them instead of waiting until the bubble gum did the trick. :wink:
You likely don't need to aerate twice a year. In a situation where you have a lot of traffic, foot or otherwise, you might want to do that. I meant that most homeowners could aerify in spring OR fall. It shouldn't be done during the hot part of the growing season.
I overseeded last fall, the lawn could use it again this year.
I used a slit overseeder and would rather not ever do that again - it was hell. We have a 25,000 sq. ft. lot, that overseeder nearly killed me.
I've read that broadcasting the seed on top of the ground can work very well - especially if you aerate before or after (some like before, some like after).
Any truth to that?
I used a slit overseeder and would rather not ever do that again - it was hell. We have a 25,000 sq. ft. lot, that overseeder nearly killed me.
I've read that broadcasting the seed on top of the ground can work very well - especially if you aerate before or after (some like before, some like after).
Any truth to that?
A whole lot of truth to that. I would think you would want to aerate before you did it(as opposed to after) and that way when you broadcast seed the grass seed it falls in the plug holes and protects it from birds who eat bird seed like we eat pizza. Big key to remember though is that germination don't happen until somewhere between 46-55 degrees so wait till the soil has warmed up. Right now the soil temperature in Dallas County is 34.
And just in case you don't want to use the wifes baking thermometer to find out when your soil is at optimum temperatures for planting, here is a handy-dandy website where you can check it daily.......Enjoy
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/NPKnowledge/Soiltemp/yesterday.jpg
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A couple of questions for the lawn experts:
- How do you handle people that think your driveway is just a suggestion, not a requirement on where to drive? I have some deep ruts (4-6") where some clowns drove on my lawn when it was muddy. Aerate, I assume, but how do I repair the mess?
- I have areas where grass growth is really spotty, not sure of the reason. Any suggestions to right the ship in those areas?
Ooooh, this just ticks me off, royally!
I have a driveway that is about 2 feet away from my neighbor (who is awesome, btw!) and I probably repair her French drain 2-3 times a year, when some non-driving idiot comes up my driveway, but misses the driveway, and drives up the grass strip in between them, crushing my neighbors drain pipe.
It's not a huge deal; just dig out the crushed part, screw in a new plastic pipe and bury it again, but it leaves the strip between our driveways looking like Passchendaele.
I can think of several punishments for non-drivers who don't "get" the whole driveway/lane thing. But I won't share them due to "appropriateness" issues.
I have never aerated my lawn in the 12 years I have lived there. Would it be worth aerating this spring, I had construction done last summer, and they tore the entire back yard up. I got it all seeded with a bluegrass/ryegrass/fescue mix, and it is starting to look really nice. But am wondering if an aeration would help things a lot this spring. I will spread new seed in the bare areas here once it gets a little warmer and starts raining all the time.
The results from aerating are more long term as opposed to short term. But if you have compacted soil it provides more room for roots. I'm not a big fan of aerating in the spring. I'm sure aerating in the spring helps the lawn but for me it causes to many other probelms. My theory is there are more weed seeds (dandelions, crabgrass) in the spring that the holes fill in with PLUS it makes a muddy mess in the yard when all the plugs get wet and all you want to do it kick the kids outside in the yard after a long wnter and they come back in all muddy.I wait until late fall when the kids are not outside as much.
I too am not a huge fan of aerating in the spring - but wouldn't mind getting some seed down. I've read elsewhere that people have broadcast seed on top of the ground - no aerating or slit seeder.
Just doesn't seem that effective...I'd like to be wrong though...as it's what I'd prefer to do this spring.
Just doesn't seem that effective...I'd like to be wrong though...as it's what I'd prefer to do this spring.
I've done over seeding at least 5 ways:
After aerating...
Before aerating...
After power raking to remove thatch...
After brisk hand raking...
After doing none of the above...
It was effective each time, but the results were probably in descending order. The key is to lightly water daily to protect the germinating seeds.
I do all my lawn care myself and I think my lawn always looks better than those that the neighbors who pay for their lawn service. Basic things I do:
Spring: Scotts Fertilizer with crab grass preventer. Follow up in late spring/early summer with another application of Scotts with weed killer sometimes. Also running a power rake in the spring right as it is starting to turn green will get the thatch out and immediately just overseed it with some grass seed since you probably have some thin spots after doing that.
Summer: I use ortho for the weeds and usually put on some kind of fertilizer too, usually the Scotts with insect treatment. I also spray the lawn about once a month with some cheap $5 misquito killer/repellant.
Fall, another fertilizer late in the season. Also some Gypsum to help loosen up compacted soil.
For bugs I just spray as needed. I had grubs last year late and I put some granular stuff down that did a good job of killing them. I'm going to spray again this spring for them just to be safe but I never had to treat for grubs till then. Aerating your lawn helps a lot too for a lot of things.
Spring: Scotts Fertilizer with crab grass preventer. Follow up in late spring/early summer with another application of Scotts with weed killer sometimes. Also running a power rake in the spring right as it is starting to turn green will get the thatch out and immediately just overseed it with some grass seed since you probably have some thin spots after doing that.
Summer: I use ortho for the weeds and usually put on some kind of fertilizer too, usually the Scotts with insect treatment. I also spray the lawn about once a month with some cheap $5 misquito killer/repellant.
Fall, another fertilizer late in the season. Also some Gypsum to help loosen up compacted soil.
For bugs I just spray as needed. I had grubs last year late and I put some granular stuff down that did a good job of killing them. I'm going to spray again this spring for them just to be safe but I never had to treat for grubs till then. Aerating your lawn helps a lot too for a lot of things.
The key is you MUST have seed/soil contact. If the seed is just laying in the thatch, it's done. Of course a spring-appied crabgrass preventer will kill your grass seed too. It amazes me that.. well, nevermind.
If you only spray as needed how do you already know you're going to spray this spring? Spring treatment for annual white grub is not advised since the grubs feed for a short period of time in spring and are reaching maturity, thus are not controlled easily. In addition, turfgrasses are actively growing at that time so usually don’t show damage. The damaging grubs hatch after midsummer.
It's true you need a good amount of Nitrogen to make your grass green, but if you're seeding make sure your fertilizer has lots of Phosphorus. It helps new seedlings grow.
Fertilizer is always labeled with 3 number which is (Nitrogen first, Phosphorus second and Potassium third).
Make sure you aerify your yard too. Decreases compaction in the soil which allows the roots to grow deeper. And deeper roots are always a good thing.
I almost forgot. NEVER use TruGreen. They called my dad and told him they were doing a neighbors yard and saw he had some brown patch in his yard and wanted to know if he wanted him to come look at it. Said it's probably some sort of fungus. Here's the kicker, my dad didn't even have grass. He was still in the process of building his house and was going to sod it when he was finished. Flat out lied to him. They are not professionals, just guys who took a pesticide test and on the 4th time passed, and are trying to earn a few dollars.
Fertilizer is always labeled with 3 number which is (Nitrogen first, Phosphorus second and Potassium third).
Make sure you aerify your yard too. Decreases compaction in the soil which allows the roots to grow deeper. And deeper roots are always a good thing.
I almost forgot. NEVER use TruGreen. They called my dad and told him they were doing a neighbors yard and saw he had some brown patch in his yard and wanted to know if he wanted him to come look at it. Said it's probably some sort of fungus. Here's the kicker, my dad didn't even have grass. He was still in the process of building his house and was going to sod it when he was finished. Flat out lied to him. They are not professionals, just guys who took a pesticide test and on the 4th time passed, and are trying to earn a few dollars.
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