DIY lawn care? Anyone?

[Flbeachluvr]

I love the DIY philosophy of the TFP pool method. Has anyone done anything similar with their lawn care? When I lived in California it was fairly easy to maintain a good looking and healthy lawn myself. Now that I live in Florida though, it seems like it's much more complicated with things like cinch bugs and other pests that have to be treated for in addition to weeds. I currently pay for a lawn care service but it's over $500 per year and I still have weeds. I'm thinking I'd like to save some of that money and do it myself if I knew what I needed. All my neighbors have lawn service so there's no one I can ask.

 

[woodyp]

There's a whole internet you can ask based on your type of grass and what is required for certain problems.

 

[Flbeachluvr]

There's a whole internet you can ask based on your type of grass and what is required for certain problems.

I know but I respect the opinions of people in this forum and just thought I'd ask. Lots of bogus information on the web

 

[WASP]

Perhaps you can try Trouble Free Lawn.

Thats assuming that there is such a site.

 

[Flbeachluvr]

Perhaps you can try Trouble Free Lawn.

Thats assuming that there is such a site.

Don't I wish...


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[jrguzmanr]

I read aroundtheyard.com, it's much like this forum.....

 

[Flbeachluvr]

I read aroundtheyard.com, it's much like this forum.....

I'll check it out. Thanks.


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[Marlahoutex]

What kind of grass do you have? (That sounds really bad...! LOL!) We have St. Augustine's and use Scott's Turf Builder for Southern lawns (or something like that) on it every spring. Weeds are minimal.

 

[Flbeachluvr]

What kind of grass do you have? (That sounds really bad...! LOL!) We have St. Augustine's and use Scott's Turf Builder for Southern lawns (or something like that) on it every spring. Weeds are minimal.

It is St. Augustine so I'll look into that product. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Trouble Free Lawn = Artificial grass !

I'd rather waste my water filling my pool. Seriously, best investment I ever made. Beautiful patch of turf right outside my back door. Never needs watering, mowing, fertilizing, etc, etc. My neighbor just put in 1000sq ft of sod. Already has brown patches, constantly fiddles with the watering schedule, etc, etc.

 

[Plazaglass]

The University of Florida is a great resource for just about everything having to do with Florida

ENH5/LH010: St. Augustinegrass for Florida Lawns

Edited to add: Make sure you never mow St. Augustine grass too low. It will stay much healthier (and more dense, crowding out weeds) if you don't scalp it.

SaveSave​

 

[gwegan]

Easy in California? Up till June 1 I could water my lawn one day a week for 10 minutes. For some reason in May my lawn didn't like that and rebelled by turning Brown.

 

[buzzard302]

Florida here with St Augustine. A lot of it has to do with your quality of soil/pH of the soil etc. I have done the Scott's plan and it works fine. I lost a lot of grass to chinch bugs last summer. This year, I am working on an organic plan using Milorganite and corn meal. Search around online, there are quite a few lawn geeks that use this type of method. If the St. Augustine is strong and healthy, the weeds will get crowded out. I'm still working on the strong and healthy part lol.

 

[Esloser]

Check out the LawnCareNut Allyn Hayne on YouTube! I've been following him for the last year and my grass has never looked better.


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[ap2002]

I use the Scott's turf stuff here, I fertilize in March and May, and my lawnmower is set at the highest it could be, sprinklers come on at 9:30pm and 6:00am,,, the main key to me in my experience in the last two homes I lived in was cutting the lawn at the highest setting, always had compliments on how thick and green it looked.

 

[IrwinK]

The 2 yr. bi-monthly contract I have for fertilizer, weeds & cinch bugs will be over with the July treatment.
I'm not renewing as I was never satisfied with their work. I will save a lot doing my own and get better results.

As for cutting the lawn I will stay with the lawn service I have now.
Not up to buying equipment & tackling that job now although I would have better results doing it myself.

Got my new pool hopefully starting up next week.

 

[downtfish]

I highly recommend a fertigator. It plugs into the sprinkler system and delivers a small amount of fertilizer while watering. My front yard looks great, green, and thick using this. The back I'm still recovering from the bobcat that came in to dig my pool. I just killed off a lot of crabgrass in the back, which isn't helping either. Apparently got a bad pallet of grass. It's St. Augustine as well.

EZ Flo Main Line Units for Sprinkler System Fertigation -- If you want to check it out.

 

[PJD]

I read aroundtheyard.com, it's much like this forum.....

Came to second this.

There are some parallels to pool care too. Sending out samples to understand your soil chemistry, etc. Great place to start.