Lawn Care - What do you use?

[BIATCHabutuka]

no lawn care, but bug care which is related to it for me.

i use diatomaceous earth in a perimeter around the house and at all obvious entry points to the house.

looks like brown / gray dust, actually is a skeleton of the ancient diatome harvested from the sea floor.

microscopically sharp and any bug with an exoskeleton will get scratched by it if they dare try to cross it and die of dehydration. you will never see another ant in your house, never a cockroach. no walking bugs ever basically. i bought a big bag years ago at a farm store (agland) and it works great.

safe for humans and dogs and cats too.

i try not to kill bugs by smashing them, but i see no issue with perimeter control either. i fear no chemicals, but i don't know anything as effective as diatomaceous earth.

 

[ScriptOhio]

I spray a couple bottles of "weed & feed" a couple times a year. They connect to the garden hose. I get whatever brand is on sale at Home Depot, Lowes, and/or Walmart, etc. It doesn't give me a lush green lawn; but it keeps the weeds out. Another problem is that my front yard is all [censored]ing silver maple roots from the tree the building contractor put in there over 40 years ago.

 

[buckeyboy]

Any recommendations on lawn mowers?

Last year I purchased a Husqvarna push mower. It's an excellent mower. It has a Honda engine that is more than powerful for our large yard.

 

[Mac]

I spray a couple bottles of "weed & feed" a couple times a year. They connect to the garden hose. I get whatever brand is on sale at Home Depot, Lowes, and/or Walmart, etc. It doesn't give me a lush green lawn; but it keeps the weeds out. Another problem is that my front yard is all [censored]ing silver maple roots from the tree the building contractor put in there over 40 years ago.

I've got a silver maple in my backyard. Beautiful tree, but the roots suuuuuuck. I spread some dirt around them and seed last year, at least now I have grass growing hiding the roots somewhat. I wish it would warm up some so I can get the yard aerated, fertilized, and over seeded

I get to rebuild a fence on one side of my house that blew over in one of the bad wind storms we had late fall. Wood posts rotted to nothing at ground level.

 

[CleveBucks]

Any recommendations for a Columbus area company to come in and reseed my lawn from scratch? Whatever variety of grass was planted in my yard sucks. It's a bunch of wide blades of grass that grows at an angle, so it pretty much always looks like crap. I'm ready to kill it all and start over, just not sure I want to do it myself.

 

[Mac]

Any recommendations for a Columbus area company to come in and reseed my lawn from scratch? Whatever variety of grass was planted in my yard sucks. It's a bunch of wide blades of grass that grows at an angle, so it pretty much always looks like crap. I'm ready to kill it all and start over, just not sure I want to do it myself.

Wide blade, are you sure it's not crab grass?

 

[ScriptOhio]

Any recommendations for a Columbus area company to come in and reseed my lawn from scratch? Whatever variety of grass was planted in my yard sucks. It's a bunch of wide blades of grass that grows at an angle, so it pretty much always looks like crap. I'm ready to kill it all and start over, just not sure I want to do it myself.

Justy curious, does it look like this?

 

[Best Buckeye]

What do I use?....... the wife :tongue2:

 

[Taosman]

Coyote poop. (it's not working!)

 

[CleveBucks]

Wide blade, are you sure it's not crab grass?

No, I think it's a tall fescue.

 

[Mac]

Okay so last weekend I overseeded some spots where I had raked out some moss and also some thin/bare spots. Put down seed, put a thin layer of dirt on top, and raked it in a bit. Seed is beginning to germinate.

I since have had some nice chickweed/clover pop up. How long should I wait to take care of these weeds with the seed that I put down? I've started pulling as much as possible. I was thinking of using one of those sprays that you hook up to your hose instead of a slow release granule, so I can let the new grass get a better root into the ground before summer. I used this weed preventer last year with good results.

So how long should I wait to treat the weeds because of the new grass coming up?

Thoughts? Advice?

 

[buxfan4life]

Okay so last weekend I overseeded some spots where I had raked out some moss and also some thin/bare spots. Put down seed, put a thin layer of dirt on top, and raked it in a bit. Seed is beginning to germinate.

I since have had some nice chickweed/clover pop up. How long should I wait to take care of these weeds with the seed that I put down? I've started pulling as much as possible. I was thinking of using one of those sprays that you hook up to your hose instead of a slow release granule, so I can let the new grass get a better root into the ground before summer. I used this weed preventer last year with good results.

So how long should I wait to treat the weeds because of the new grass coming up?

Thoughts? Advice?

I would wait until you feel good about mowing the area. Did this on the side of my new house where the grass was pertty much burned out (southern exposure with no shade), then did the weed and feed too early after the planting and killed off the new growth. Second round I waited until after the first cut to do the weed and feed and it held out.

 

[AKAK]

Okay so last weekend I overseeded some spots where I had raked out some moss and also some thin/bare spots. Put down seed, put a thin layer of dirt on top, and raked it in a bit. Seed is beginning to germinate.

I since have had some nice chickweed/clover pop up. How long should I wait to take care of these weeds with the seed that I put down? I've started pulling as much as possible. I was thinking of using one of those sprays that you hook up to your hose instead of a slow release granule, so I can let the new grass get a better root into the ground before summer. I used this weed preventer last year with good results.

So how long should I wait to treat the weeds because of the new grass coming up?

Thoughts? Advice?

You're gonna have to wait until you feel like the grass is fully established if you want to use weed and feed, so June probably, if its making you nuts, and the weeds are concentrated, I'd use a spray applied weed control (Ortho weed be gone, Bayer, whatever) and then be as selective as you can when you spray it, in that case you're prolly okay about the time you have to mow it... its painstaking I realize but its also generally more effective and a little goes a long way, you might even mix it at half or 3/4 strength. the weeds and the grass are competing, make sure the grass wins.

 

[Apache]

Dude.......uhhhh dude.......fertile lawn....uhhhhh I need some cheetos!

Justy curious, does it look like this?

 

[jwinslow]

Regrading Dirt

I figured this fit better here than the Home Repair thread.

We are in year 2 of home ownership and did very little landscaping last year (beyond grass seed/weed/maintenance). Most of our renovations were indoors so far. This was a bank owned foreclosure that sat for awhile and was poorly maintained for years before that. The interior was in good shape (just ugly), but the landscaping naturally has been unmaintained for awhile.

This winter we spotted some water damage in our basement. Had a basement repair specialist inspect it, he said we needed to wait until spring and then:

• Dig up the broken sump pump pipe, fix it ourselves for $10-20 bucks
• Regrade our soil around the foundation to run away from the house.

Sump pump is in NW corner, near trouble spots (in pink)

We have a bunch of free, clean fill dirt to use, so I'm hoping to regrade every problem area.

1) West/East sides: Do we need to dig up all of the vegetation and top soil, fill that space with dirt, top it with top soil and vegetation?

Or can we simply get rid of the big stuff, top everything with fill dirt, then top it with top soil & vegetation?

(there is little vegetation and none we planted or like)

2) Northwest Side: lots of shrubbery/vegetation. Should we just pile up the topsoil and make sure we add a grade of soil & mulch each year to keep water running away from the house? Or does that need to come up too? That NW corner is the main culprit of the water damage.

3) South side: we are going to redo this deck in the next year or two. Can we get away with just piling up fill dirt here? Should we build the deck first (maybe in june) and then regrade the dirt below it?