Keerock
Footballguy
I'd say pull what you can... even use some weed killer. Rethinking the aeration... if you've got a lot of bare dirt, you should have plenty of seed-to-soil contact.
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Lawn Care Tips (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter andy_b
- Start date
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
A few areas that I have reseeded in the past couple years with turf type fescue go completely brown at first sign of drought, and don't really come back like the rest of the lawn when it starts raining again.
Is this a grass type issue or just the fact it is only a few years old?
Is this a grass type issue or just the fact it is only a few years old?
AAABatteries
Footballguy
glvsav37 said:
seriously, this may be one of the best typos ever - I’ve been
like a school girl for 5 minutes
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Also, worst cam ever!
No offense GB!
No offense GB!
glvsav37
Footballguy
would you pay $4.99 per minute to live stream an overweight Mexican gentleman sweating in my yard as he 'lays some pipe?"
Keerock
Footballguy
Interesting. TTTF is supposedly one of the more heat/drought tolerant cool season grasses. It does, however, need sufficient irrigation. I've heard bad things about the K31 variety referenced in this article, but I think all TTTFs have similar properties. This guy swears by TTTF, has his own mix, and tons of videos showing how to care for it.
Garrett
Footballguy
The entire yard looks better across the board right now. Unfortunately, the weather here cooled down a bit over the last few weeks so I am not sure how much to attribute to lower temps vs humate/kelp.
Garrett
Footballguy
That's odd; my experience has been TTTF is the absolute last thing that is going to suffer from drought in my yard. I thought that was attributed to TTTF having deeper root systems so it was not impacted as badly by the upper layers of soil drying out.
Garrett
Footballguy
Solid plan. Sometimes I add some peat moss after overseeding to help with moisture retention and just keeping the birds away from the seed.
Lehigh98
Footballguy
How many of you have aerated and over seeded? We've never done it before and we've grown our lawn from construction dirt and clay to pretty nice shape after 12 years (well, with the help of a lawn service and regular weed and fert applications). Just wondering how much of a difference it would make and if its worth the $1,000 to ever try it if the lawn already looks pretty good.
Here's what I've been having done each year:
Here's what I've been having done each year:
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Garrett
Footballguy
I think that Scott's starter package uses Mesotrione. If so, it is super effective pretty much year round on almost all weeds. You can buy it as Tenacity and mix it up at will if you want...
https://www.domyown.com/tenacity-herbicide-p-1877.html?keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjw-8nbBRBnEiwAqWt1zeaPPtSEOPzMfN1CksnxdOwQ8wbdWinwWhABh5DCBx2FtkbOLqmXfxoCW1kQAvD_BwE
That 8 ounce bottle mixes up roughly 16 gallons of the actual product so it goes a long way depending on how big of an area or weed problem anyone has to deal with. I'm not sure of many other weed killers or preventatives that can be put down at seeding, which is obviously why Scotts is using it here.
Garrett
Footballguy
I guess it depends on how large of an area you are talking about if you are wanting to do cost/benefit analysis. Seed is relatively cheap (even for premium blends), and you can cover a lot of ground with a rental aerator in a day. $1,000 to aerate and seed sounds high for average residential yards (5000 SF or less), but you could have a large yard to take care of so it's all relative.
Are you trying to address thin areas of the yard, just add new cultivars of seed, or just looking for a general improvement across the board?
Lehigh98
Footballguy
I think we're probably closer to 20-25,000 sqft of treatable area? It was listed at a 0.88 acre lot.
Currently just some spots I need to target and work on, whole lawn looks good overall. Was just wondering if I should do it as a preventative measure or wait until there was an actual problem. We've got some thatch building up from a few heavy mows over the years but not sure at what point it becomes a problem.
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offdee
Footballguy
My lawn guy says Aeration and overseeding is crucial to maintaining a healthy and good looking lawn.
On top of just aesthetically looking fuller, guess all the extra good grass growth blocks out room for bad grass/weeds to happen.
Lehigh98
Footballguy
offdee
Footballguy
rate, as in what is the price?
I only have a 1/2 acre...I think if I remember correctly it was around $225-ish total for aeration and overseed. I pay around $450 for the year which includes 5 maintenance treatments + grub treatment + aeration + overseeding.
Lehigh98
Footballguy
Garrett
Footballguy
That's what I was expecting but didn't want to assume. That's a pretty good size area; that could easily be $225-$275 in seed cost alone. They likely own or are renting the aerator for jobs throughout the Fall; so you are adding labor and gas/etc on top of that.
Aeration is always going to help; the question becomes to what degree. That's largely dependent on how compacted the soil is. If you know it has not been done for over a decade, I would be inclined to give a try. I'm not sure if you are wanting to mess with it, but you could probably rent an aerator for a day for $100 or so.
Regarding the overseeding, is there a plan for watering (especially in the thinner areas) or are they counting on rain to handle that? The percentage of that seed that turns into grass is largely dependent on that piece of the plan.
Lehigh98
Footballguy
For the initial seeding I had a four sprinkler timed manifolded setup that I had to run through, move, run through, move, and run through. Three different areas in total the four sprinklers were moved to so about a 12 sprinkler coverage area. It's been 12 years and I don't have that gear anymore so I'd either need to reinvest or do a rain dance.
ChiefD
Footballguy
Agree a billion.
Don't buy your off-the-shelf stuff at home depot.
I had a lawn care client years ago, and he and I had a discussion about seed. He used a 100% grass seed. Meaning, no weed seed. A lot of off-the-shelf stuff may have something like .01% of weed seed.
But his philosophy was why, out of a million pieces of grass seed in a bag, would you want to introduce 100 weeds into your lawn?
I found some seed at Ace Hardware of all places this past spring that was 100% grass seed. It's been by far the best seed I have purchased. I'll see if I can find a link.
Garrett
Footballguy
If you want to go really deep into the rabbit hole, start looking at NTEP trials for your area/grass type. For most grass types, they do field testing in various areas across the country to see which specific cultivars perform best under certain criteria.
Any seed you buy is going to be required to list what variants they are using on the label; it's in that same section that lists the percentage of weeds/other materials.
http://www.ntep.org/tables.htm
Garrett
Footballguy
Soil test the problem area...Maybe there is something wrong with these particular parts of my yard, which is why I had to reseed them in the first place.
I seeded a larger area where I removed a sandbox and play equipment and that area is doing great.
https://algreatlakes.com/
When I first moved in to my current place I had spots so bad weeds wouldn't/refused to grow; it was a severe potassium deficiency. Lot's of 0-0-60 fixed it.
If the same seed it doing well in other areas, it's a soil issue in the problem spots.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
BTW, regarding overseeding, seed needs to be in contact with wet soil in order to grow. When you overseed, I would assume a very small percentage of the see actually gets into the aerated holes and contacts soil. The rest is probably sitting on the thatch. Even the seed that gets in the holes, I would not give those shoots much chance of surviving because those holes close up pretty quickly.
Aeration is definitely good for your lawn, I just don't think overseeding does much.
Aeration is definitely good for your lawn, I just don't think overseeding does much.
Keerock
Footballguy
If you have a well established, thick lawn I agree. Unfortunately, that's not me so overseeding to help fill out the thin/bare spots.
Lehigh98
Footballguy
EYLive
Footballguy
I have lots to learn. The front yard I inherited is patchy and it's been ugly hot the past month in Southern California. More water won't solve the brown chunks and I don't want to re-sod without knowing what I'm doing or how to maintain the lawn. My neighbor had their lawn re-sodded and it looked great for about a year, now it's about 35% brown but not patchy yet.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
It would be better to till up those areas, rake in seed, add fertilizer and protector, and water religiously.
That is very hard to do over an entire lawn.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
No. I tried putting some peat moss or something down one time, and quickly realized how much it would take to do an entire lawn.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
That is ridiculous, especially for the aeration part. Rent one yourself. If you have to pay someone, you should find someone way cheaper.
jb1020
Footballguy
Yeah, I've done some reading and just popping out that core seems to be the big advantage. I sanded a yard as a teenager and that was some awful ####.
Lehigh98
Footballguy
How long does it take compared to mowing? It takes my about an hour and a half to mow. Push mower in the front (hill), riding mower in the back. I'm just wondering how much of my day I'd be spending on this.
The Commish
Footballguy
It will feel like it's taken three years, but will be about the same amount of time. If you have a riding mower, get one you can pull behind your mower. It's cheaper and SIGNIFICANTLY easier. Depending on the slope of the hill in the front yard, I'd probably "forget" to do it.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
Let's see a pic of this hill.
The ones I have used are wider than a push mower, and the self-propelled is faster. A little more difficult to turn, so all in all I would say about the same time to mow, maybe a little less.
You should be fine with a half day rental.
top dog
Footballguy
Live in northern Ohio... Yard is a complete mess. Never really did anything with it since we bought the house in 2004 and now it is predominately weeds. Ground ivy, crab grass and a bunch of nut sedge in patches. Yard doesn't drain all that well, so that is why the nut sedge is going nuts. It's been a pretty wet summer here.
What is my best strategy here other than tilling it all up and starting over? Scott's makes a Winterguard Fall Weed and Feed. Was thinking about putting that down labor day weekend. Overseeding is a thing I see as a strategy as well. Thought about doing that after the fall weed and feed but you have to wait 6 weeks before putting down seed. That will put me into late October and our average first frost according to Farmer's Almanac is around October 20th. I read on a site that you should overseed at least 45 days before your first frost.
If I throw the fall weed and feed down, and then throw the seed down in late October am I wasting my time with the seed or will it just pick back up in the spring and grow?
What is my best strategy here other than tilling it all up and starting over? Scott's makes a Winterguard Fall Weed and Feed. Was thinking about putting that down labor day weekend. Overseeding is a thing I see as a strategy as well. Thought about doing that after the fall weed and feed but you have to wait 6 weeks before putting down seed. That will put me into late October and our average first frost according to Farmer's Almanac is around October 20th. I read on a site that you should overseed at least 45 days before your first frost.
If I throw the fall weed and feed down, and then throw the seed down in late October am I wasting my time with the seed or will it just pick back up in the spring and grow?
The Commish
Footballguy
I'd spray the weeds, aerate and seed like a banshee. But I'd also probably just suck it up and till it up after it was all dead. Aerating is at least as time consuming as tilling it up.
jb1020
Footballguy
If the drainage is bad enough, and the yard's been neglected for that long, you might consider having it regraded. Not sure how big it is. I finally have a flat, well draining yard for the first time and I love it.
Might be worth it?
top dog
Footballguy
Not really an options due to the layout of the yards in the neighborhood. I'd have to raise my yard to be higher than all the neighbors. Which is actually prohibited by city ordinances. There is actually a drain tile that runs parallel to the house at the lowest point of the yard. But it was built in the 60's, clay and busted somewhere along the way. It runs through various people's yards so you would have to convince enough people that it was worth the $$ to fix it. You are only going to get as far as the guy who's lawn does drain well enough.jb1020 said:
I've looked into a couple other ideas such as a french drain but haven't wanted to put the money into it.
The Commish
Footballguy
I'm talking about taking a ground clear sort of project to the area...not treating through weed/seed. You can even look up how to make your own round up (vinegar, dish soap, salt etc) if you don't want to do chemicals. That area can be treated one weekend, tilled and seeded the next if you wanted to. You'd have plenty of time.
Garrett
Footballguy
What percentage of your yard is actually grass? Are we talking like 60% or more of it is purely weeds? If so the scorched earth approach The Commish suggested is your best course of action for quick results. If that seems like jumping into the deep end, you probably should just consider a heavy weed control program this Fall and work on seeding next year.
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top dog
Footballguy
Yeah. At least 60%. Probably more. I don't want to go with the scorched earth approach mainly because of the dogs. They would turn that into a mud pit wrestling match the first chance they got.
