Any other lawn enthusiasts?

[david_]

Bermuda enthusiast here.

I just got done spraying the lawn with pre and post emergent weed control (Celsius, Certainty, Prodiamine). GrubEx next weekend. I use a 41 gallon sprayer towed behind my Deere X350. Maintaining about 30k ft.

Only been in this house a year but seeing massive improvement already. It's tons of work starting out, but gets easier and easier every year in my experience.

I'm a member at TLF but don't visit as much since the ownership change.

Anybody else slightly over-obsess about grass?

 

[ajw22]

Some older threads on the topic...

Know any good and active lawn care forums?

Recently sent off a soil sample for my backyard and received the results. Looking for a good forum to do some research and maybe ask a few questions. I have spent the last 30 minutes searching around google, but didn't come up with anything that looked very active. Better yet, anyone here...

www.troublefreepool.com

Lawn care forum suggestions

Hi All, When I built my new house, we had an IG pool installed (or first pool.) Had I not found this forum prior to opening our pool, I can only imagine what shape my pool would be in (or how much money I would have spent at the pool store.) Right now, I am sitting in my home office overlooking...

www.troublefreepool.com

Grass is NOT low maintenance!

I put a lot of sod (grass) around the pool areas last year. This is getting to be a HUGE pain because the grass blows into the pool/deck when it is cut. It is also a royal pain to cut right next to the aluminum fence since the weedwacker gets hung up on and tears up the fence bottom so can't be...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[reggiehammond]

Get on Neil Sperry’s email list; he’s the local guru and has a great book geared toward North Texas.

Particularly important are his schedule recommendations for weed control. Just go into it with the knowledge that you’re doing it wrong - but I can tell you the results using his knowledge are better than just about anyone else.

 

[Newdude]

I saw @sodfather online before. Something tells me he's a fan.

If I hit Mega or PowerBall, I'd love the lawn. I can spend $2k to $3k a season on my acre and when I start getting frugal halfway there, I get sad I even spent the first half. Looking back, I can't tell you which years I got frugal quickly and had a so-so lawn. I can tell you those thousands not spent are still in the bank though and i wish there was more of them.

 

[sodfather]

Very. If you aren’t using a roller on your lawn mower check out big league lawns online. They sell for multiple models. It will change your life. People stop and ask all the time about my grass.

 

[midlifecrisis]

Present. I had TiffTuf installed with my new house last summer and it was tough with the heat To get it settled. Then we started the pool build And the folks that redid my landscape look dumbfounded when I asked for TiffTuff... they hadn’t heard of it. I’m checking the roller out though. I’ve got someone cutting my lawn once a week while I heal. I can do it once but not twice. Hopefully I’ll get back to doing both times myself soon.

I think I’m going to like it better than my last Tiffway lawn.

 

[Katodude]

Becoming lawn obsessed here. Have 419 in the yard. Spend a lot of time over at TLF. Just trying to get my Bermuda to spread.

 

[Mdragger88]

I guess I am also a bermuda grass enthusiast- as it’s what my 5 acres is covered in
We only spray 2.5 acres.
We did our prodiamine in late feb along with round up for the leftover winter weeds.
Had plans to do it in the fall but the rain never let up then the cold came so we ended up missing our preemergent window. We had previously been using simazine but it’s gotten expensive. I was able to do the prodiamine for $20 an acre. So basically a $100 a year w/ 2 applications. Hopefully it goes well. So far it seems to be. We still haven’t cut our grass yet. Every one around us has been mowing their weeds for well over a month. Plan to do the next app at the beginning of September. I put it down at the 6 month rate. Time will tell if I need split it up more.
For the bug/grub stuff & fungus stuff I only do right around my house/pool. I do some spot spraying with image for the dreaded nutsedge when needed. Hopefully staying on schedule with preemergent will prevent too much need of post emergent.

 

[david_]

I saw @sodfather online before. Something tells me he's a fan.

If I hit Mega or PowerBall, I'd love the lawn. I can spend $2k to $3k a season on my acre and when I start getting frugal halfway there, I get sad I even spent the first half. Looking back, I can't tell you which years I got frugal quickly and had a so-so lawn. I can tell you those thousands not spent are still in the bank though and i wish there was more of them.

I had to buy a mower this year, which stung. But I'm usually sub-$500 including fertilizer and weed control for a season. Spraying really saves $$, as does buying fert from local feed stores.

Very. If you aren’t using a roller on your lawn mower check out big league lawns online. They sell for multiple models. It will change your life. People stop and ask all the time about my grass.

I don't know of many folks who roll bermuda. I envy your northern grass types for that look.

Present. I had TiffTuf installed with my new house last summer and it was tough with the heat To get it settled. Then we started the pool build And the folks that redid my landscape look dumbfounded when I asked for TiffTuff... they hadn’t heard of it. I’m checking the roller out though. I’ve got someone cutting my lawn once a week while I heal. I can do it once but not twice. Hopefully I’ll get back to doing both times myself soon.

I think I’m going to like it better than my last Tiffway lawn.

Tifftuff is great. Any hybrid usually can do fantastic with enough sun. Not sure what I have.. probably 419 or wild.

Becoming lawn obsessed here. Have 419 in the yard. Spend a lot of time over at TLF. Just trying to get my Bermuda to spread.

What method? I'm a big fun fan of plugging, though this year I'm trying sprigs pulled from the lawn using the sun joe dethatcher. Looks promising so far and less work than plugging.

I guess I am also a bermuda grass enthusiast- as it’s what my 5 acres is covered in
We only spray 2.5 acres.
We did our prodiamine in late feb along with round up for the leftover winter weeds.
Had plans to do it in the fall but the rain never let up then the cold came so we ended up missing our preemergent window. We had previously been using simazine but it’s gotten expensive. I was able to do the prodiamine for $20 an acre. So basically a $100 a year w/ 2 applications. Hopefully it goes well. So far it seems to be. We still haven’t cut our grass yet. Every one around us has been mowing their weeds for well over a month. Plan to do the next app at the beginning of September. I put it down at the 6 month rate. Time will tell if I need split it up more.
For the bug/grub stuff & fungus stuff I only do right around my house/pool. I do some spot spraying with image for the dreaded nutsedge when needed. Hopefully staying on schedule with preemergent will prevent too much need of post emergent.

2.5 is a lot! I typically do twice prem a year; March/September ideally. You're brave using glypho on the dormant grass.. is it greening up?

I've always wanted to try simazine, but it's pricey. Supposed to be awesome on poa annual which I fight, even with prodiamine. Check out Outrider to kill the sedges. Lower cost per gram them Certainty/sedgehammer.

 

[dfwnoob]

My lawn is the one thing I would gladly pay someone else to mess with if I had more disposable income. I literally do not feel that way about anything in my life. It is the direct opposite of my pool and my cars.

I was pretty psyched when we moved in here last year because the lawn came back quickly in a nice lush green, and the whole yard had just been professionally landscaped. This year it looks like hot garbage, I don't know how to fix it, and it literally upsets me

There is so much work to be done I don't even know where to start, and I don't even know what kind of grass I have. The only lawn care implement I care about is my Honda HRX 217 and I'm pretty sure that's only because it has an engine. I've watched YouTube videos on making your grass not look like trash, but I'm sure it's just like pool "care" videos that are 75% wrong.

 

[Mdragger88]

You're brave using glypho on the dormant grass.. is it greening up?

It’s not an issue if done early enough- as you said, the bermuda is dormant.
It’s greening up now. Probably have to mow next week or so.

For the sedge - most of it is/was near & mixed in with my ornamentals so that’s why I chose the image. It didn’t take much & I just used the pump sprayer for it.

The simazine didn’t used to be that expensive but then again everything has basically doubled in price.
We joke that we chemically mow our lawn
If we didn’t use $150 or so worth of chemicals a year we would need to mow at least 3 times as much & spend way more than that on diesel. Not to mention all that time to mow. Like I said, My neighbors have been mowing for well over a month already- those weeds grow early & fast! At our old house we never sprayed anything- we had to mow some part of the yard almost every day to keep up with it. It was about the same size . What a pain in the rear! The people who owned this house before us did a lawn business on the side so we inherited a decent lawn & rode on that for a while - finally figured out that preventing weeds is cheaper than chasing them with post emergent. So Thankful we’re able to spray ourselves, my relative who lives in a subdivision down the road, only gets his small front yard sprayed, pays $70 every month for someone else to do it.

 

[Mdragger88]

My lawn is the one thing I would gladly pay someone else to mess with if I had more disposable income. I literally do not feel that way about anything in my life. It is the direct opposite of my pool and my cars.

I was pretty psyched when we moved in here last year because the lawn came back quickly in a nice lush green, and the whole yard had just been professionally landscaped. This year it looks like hot garbage, I don't know how to fix it, and it literally upsets me

There is so much work to be done I don't even know where to start, and I don't even know what kind of grass I have. The only lawn care implement I care about is my Honda HRX 217 and I'm pretty sure that's only because it has an engine. I've watched YouTube videos on making your grass not look like trash, but I'm sure it's just like pool "care" videos that are 75% wrong.

Check out the lawn care nut - he’s legit. They’ll all have you believing you have to do a ton of stuff all the time but just start with a twice yearly application of some kind of pre emergent that your grass type (which you need to identify) can tolerate & apply it at the right time. similar to the pool, it’s not about air temperature, it’s about soil temperature.
There are calendars/temp trackers where you put in your zip code to figure out when that is for you.
Even if you just go with some weed & feed or hose end sprayer type stuff from a big box store until you figure out your calendar & plan it should help with the hot garbage look
Similar to the pool stuff, look at the ingredients & look up what they do first so you don’t fry your grass.

 

[Katodude]

I spray Prodiamine and Isoxaben (really helps prevent the sprurge). Then later in May I usually spray Pennant Magnum to help prevent the sedges. I also bought a split of Outrider to knock out any sedges that pop up. Sedge is a multi year battle but I am starting to win there.

As for getting my lawn to spread, I have tried using a ProPlugger with limited success. The best method for me has been cutting out a piece of sod from the healthy part of my lawn that I dont see very much and transplanting it. I would love to try the sprigging method at some point. I still have not bought a dethatcher, but that is probably one of the next purchases.

 

[jark87]

I mow my lawn but hired a service to take care of feeding, weed control, grub control, etc. Best decision I ever made for my lawn, as I could never seem to get it right. I did my research and found a local, family-owned business to do the work. They do a great job. My lawn is lush and weed free! Even better, I no longer have bags of fertilizer, preemergent, or stuff that requires a hazmat suit to handle.

 

[jark87]

My lawn is the one thing I would gladly pay someone else to mess with if I had more disposable income. I literally do not feel that way about anything in my life. It is the direct opposite of my pool and my cars.

I was pretty psyched when we moved in here last year because the lawn came back quickly in a nice lush green, and the whole yard had just been professionally landscaped. This year it looks like hot garbage, I don't know how to fix it, and it literally upsets me

There is so much work to be done I don't even know where to start, and I don't even know what kind of grass I have. The only lawn care implement I care about is my Honda HRX 217 and I'm pretty sure that's only because it has an engine. I've watched YouTube videos on making your grass not look like trash, but I'm sure it's just like pool "care" videos that are 75% wrong.

Check out Nutrigreen. I was in the same boat. I thought it might take at least a full year to get my lawn back to good health but they had it looking great by mid-summer of my first year using their service.

Free Quote PPC - Nutri Green Lawn Treatment & Weed Control Services

nutrigreenlawns.com

 

[Newdude]

Check out Nutrigreen

Using you as a refrence point,

What size is your lawn ?
What do they charge ?
How often do they come ?

 

[jark87]

Using you as a refrence point,

What size is your lawn ?
What do they charge ?
How often do they come ?

Typically small DFW residential lot, I think just over 1/4 acre. While our backyard is larger than others in our neighborhood, the pool, decking and landscaped areas take up 80%. I think I pay $500-$600/year. There’s a schedule of services - something like 8-10 applications/year. They fertilize, treat for weeds (mostly with pre-emergent), treat for grubs and apply gypsum to help with compacted soil.

While cost wasn’t my #1 factor, I did compare the service to what I was spending (and doing a poor job with.) I had found a forum similar to TFP( Lawn Care Forum ), and discovered all kinds of treatments that I was previously unaware of, many of which, like Celsius, were really expensive even though the dosage for my lawn was minimal. I figured I was spending at least $200/year doing it on my own.

 

[Newdude]

....

^^^^^^^^^^ all of the above........THANKS.

 

[midlifecrisis]

I had found a forum similar to TFP( Lawn Care Forum )

Great. Another forum I didn't know I needed.

 

[Katodude]

TLF will take you way further down the rabbit hole than this place. They make borates and phosphates look like beginner pool care.