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Please share with us once you come up with your plan.
My snowblower is collecting dust.
Posted in another thread, but here is my 2017 tall fescue plan:
- Crabgrass preventer in the spring (Lesco Dimension with no nitrogen fertilizer 0-0-7), repeat 3 months later
- Fertilize with Milorganite (organic approach to feed the soil as synthetic only feeds the plant) or apply Orgro to the lawn once a year for even better results
- 1" of rain per week (all the same time instead of spread out over several days)
- Late June for grub control and various insects, apply Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer Granules
- Late Spring begin applying prevent fungicide such as Bayer Advanced Lawn Fungus Control Granular
- Spot treat weeds as needed (hand spray with Gordon Speed Zone Lawn Weed Killer)
- Cut tall fescue grasses 3-4" in height during the late spring/summer/early fall
- Aerate/Dethatch as needed in early fall
- Make the most fertilizer applications in the fall.
- Highly Recommend Bayer Advanced All in One Rose and Flower Care Granules for all your roses, flowers, etc. and Bayer Advanced 12 Months Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed Granules for all your
Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonMike7
Winter's been mild for me as well. Really only used the snowblower once this year. Despite being dormant, the lawn still looks pretty good.
Still formulating my springplan, but I need to dig some areas up to do some landscaping type work.
No worries there, it's sharing the thoughts, approaches, products, etc.
I might have to venture out to your Southern States in the coming weeks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NC211
Wow, my typos are really bad on this iPhone, thanks for not calling me out! I need to hire a teenager to write on this thing for me!
We dumped out the flower potting soul a few weeks ago and raked it into an area that is normally pretty shaded by tall v-birch trees. Wouldn't you know it, middle of frigggin January, and that area is as green as august again and I can see little sprouts of new grass coming up. It's like a tease of what's to come in a few more weeks!
Honestly my friend, give a few bags of that alfalfa meal and a few bags of soybean meal a try this year. I really think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what they can add to your already lush lawn! Loudoun Milling a few miles past Leesburg has a ton of both, as does Southern Stares in Manassas usually too. Won't be a wasted effort, I promise! Plus, your earthworms will love it too!
It took my lawn from this to this in about 3 weeks. Had those trees installed, then hit it all with the soybean and alfalfa. Second house it's done this for.
You want to wait until the ground is above 50 degrees to use it. It won't really activate at below that temp. I do recommend using it with the alfalfa meal too, and the "meal" part is very important. If you use pellets, you'll get spots and you'll feed ever bird, squirrel, rabbit, deer, and so on within a mile.
Fair warning though, the soybean stinks once it starts to do its thing. You'll smell like hot garbage for a couple of days, but that's how you know it's working. Totally worth it though. It's 100% organic too, which means you can't over do it and burn up your lawn. I really go heavy with the stuff personally. At first my neighbors weren't happy. Then a few days later they were over it (smell went away). Then about 10 days later, they were in awe of the results and asking where to get it and borrowing my spreader!
Been a while since I did a spring Top dressing with this, but results were amazing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NC211
For the others in here, "movin2reston" and I are in the same town, which had had a pretty mild winter so far. Almost feels like the edge of winter / spring in some days. Makes it difficult for green thumbs like us to sit quietly and wait for things to start growing again!
I'm not sure what I'll use this year. Definitely want to use the backpack sprayer though, so I suspect some kind of surficant from southern ag. I had such tremendous results with that Drive XLR8 last fall with wiping out all of the the crab grass, I'll likely make a solution of it for a hand-held spray bottle for spit applications this year to have handy.
I need to learn about the timing for when I can out down the surficant and new seedlings too. This year, I'm going to over seed again, then cover with more alfalfa and soybean meal (like I normally do), but also add a fresh layer of compost dirt to the yard. Gonna have meadow farm drop a truck load off in the driveway and then wheelbarrow around the yard and spread it out.
Hard to believe in the 40s today, but next several days in the 60s.
Picked up my crabgrass preventer today....been monitoring the soil temperature and something tells me a week from now things are going to be quite different and will probably be needing to put down my crabgrass preventer.
Great weekend to be out in the lawn and start pruning back those perennials.
Updating my annual lawn program:
- Crabgrass preventer in the spring (Lesco Dimension with no nitrogen fertilizer 0-0-7), repeat 3 months later
- Lesco 5-0-20 in late May for deep greening from iron
- Apply Orgro to lawn in early spring
- 1" of rain per week (all the same time instead of spread out over several days)
- Late June for grub control and various insects, apply Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer Granules
- Late Spring begin applying prevent fungicide such as Bayer Advanced Lawn Fungus Control Granular
- Spot treat weeds as needed (hand spray with Gordon Speed Zone Lawn Weed Killer)
- Cut tall fescue grasses 3-4" in height during the late spring/summer/early fall
- Aerate/Dethatch as needed in early fall
- Make the most fertilizer applications in the fall
- Highly Recommend Bayer Advanced All in One Rose and Flower Care Granules for all your roses, flowers, etc. and Bayer Advanced 12 Months Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed Granules for all your shrubs and trees.
THINK GREEN!!!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by NC211
Thanks my friend! I love the stuff!
You want to wait until the ground is above 50 degrees to use it. It won't really activate at below that temp. I do recommend using it with the alfalfa meal too, and the "meal" part is very important. If you use pellets, you'll get spots and you'll feed ever bird, squirrel, rabbit, deer, and so on within a mile.
Fair warning though, the soybean stinks once it starts to do its thing. You'll smell like hot garbage for a couple of days, but that's how you know it's working. Totally worth it though. It's 100% organic too, which means you can't over do it and burn up your lawn. I really go heavy with the stuff personally. At first my neighbors weren't happy. Then a few days later they were over it (smell went away). Then about 10 days later, they were in awe of the results and asking where to get it and borrowing my spreader!
Last edited by movin2Reston; 02-17-2017 at 06:35 PM..
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