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Many have asked me, how does your lawn look so good it’s the envy of the neighborhood? Well, just a little bit of effort can yield huge results so it’s that time of year to start planning and getting ready...
My overall cool season lawn care program looks like this:
- Crabgrass preventer in the spring (Lesco Dimension with no fertilizer). Crabgrass typically germinates when soil temperatures reach 62 degrees Fahrenheit at a depth of 1 or 2 inches. Crabgrass preventer should be applied when soil temperatures reach 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Great website to track the soil temperature in your area: Soil Temperature Maps
- Fertilize with Milorganite (organic approach to feed the soil as synthetic only feeds the plant) or apply spring application of Orgo (1/2 -3/4”).
- 1" of rain per week (all the same time instead of spread out over several days).
- Spot treat weeds as needed (hand spray). (Gordon’s Speed Zone lawn weed killer)
- Late June for grub control and various insects, apply Bayer Advanced All Season Grub Granules.
- Cut tall fescue grasses 3-4" in height during the late spring/summer/early fall.
- Aerate in early fall and seed/starter fertilizer as needed. (never try to seed in the spring)
- Make the most synthetic fertilizer applications in the fall.
For my flowering perennials, I apply Epson salt and Jobes Organic Rose and Flower Fertilizer.
For insect control, from all my experience, Bayer Advanced 3-in-1 Insect Disease and Mite Control Concentrate, 32-Ounces is the one to get.
I have many weeds - violets, clover, crabgrass, and whatever in my lawn.
I have tons of bees visiting my weeds - especially the clover. I have groundhogs and rabbits nibbling on my lawn, weeds and all. I have a variety of birds eating fat, juicy worms that live in my lawn.
Frankly, I think all grass lawns are sooo boring and without purpose.
Lawn People
In the book Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are by Paul Robbins, the lawn and a “myriad of other objects of daily life, constitute who we are” (p 15). Our modern concern with appearance and social status is reflected on the appearance of our lawns. Robbins argues that there are several influences that turn someone into a “lawn person”. Of these are political and economic forces rather than free choice, culture, and consumer demand.
Not the appropriate place for this. Please consider removing it. If you want to debate the topic of lawn care chemicals, please do so with your own dedicated thread. Hijacking another poster's thread is not acceptable here.
Lawn is actually still rather green for beginning of January.
Mine is floating away! Soooo much rain lately. I've had to "dedicate" a pair of shoes just to walk in the lawn as they get soaked and muddy now.
I neglected a bit last year, and also complied to my neighbor's complaints about the stink of the alfa and soybean meal. I have clover issues now in the back yard and thinning a bit. I don't really like my neighbors anymore, so I'll be coating my lawn again with the soy and alfalfa again soon enough. I have plenty of the sprays left over from last year to go again this year, thankfully. So weeds and crab grass shouldn't be a problem again. Will certainly do another round of the Bayer tree/shrub treatment again this year (stuff worked great). I did overseed and feed in the fall, will see how that comes up in a few months. But, 100% going to throw down more fescue seed and a ton of the alfalfa and soybean meal again this spring. Going to get my golf ball trick back! Probably cost me around $500 or so for the lawn itself.
Still stuck on big items at the moment though. This year's outdoor ticket item will be the addition of 14 Thula Green Giant trees while removing 3 crape myrtles, 3 baby blue spuces, and 1 weeping cherry that the deer are using as dental floss. Going for complete and total privacy for our side and back yard now (we're a corner lot). I have a wholesaler who can get me the Thula's at 7-8 feet tall for about $75 a tree, and a landscaper who'll charge me about $40 a tree to install, along with reworking some of the lines on the irrigation system. All-in, probably around $2k to get it done.
At this rate of home repair, I'm might have to skip Milwaukee and go direct myself for budget purposes....
Not the appropriate place for this. Please consider removing it. If you want to debate the topic of lawn care chemicals, please do so with your own dedicated thread. Hijacking another poster's thread is not acceptable here.
Sorry but its really not acceptable how that stuff washes down the storm drains and contaminates the drinking water pollutes the lakes and rivers red tide algee blooms ect. All I am all about liberty and to each his own that's great but that doesn't include poisoning everyone else in the process.
I was done anyway. But since I am already typing this thread is funny, make your lawn "the envy of the neighborhood" lol the last thing I envy is a toxic waste dump for a yard. The number one symptom of narcissistic personality disorder is constant need for admirations "my lawn!" look how great I am.
This nonsense with the yard poison should be something of the decades past when we did not know better.
Maybe I will start a thread. This thread looks like it was started by Bayer the new owners of Monsanto !
The number one symptom of narcissistic personality disorder is constant need for admirations.....
Speaking of which....
Happy trails amigo. Watch out for the lime disease.
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