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Lawn Care Tips (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter andy_b
- Start date
The Commish
Footballguy
I've been putting off landscape lighting for a while. I've never seen solar powered lights that have the warm light I am after. They all look like runway lights and if the railing caps I have on my deck (here when we bought the house) are any indication, they don't last very long. I am hardwiring mine. Just have to find the time to do it.
Al Czervik
Not wearing pants
Going to put some lighting in and hardwire. The solar stuff around other people's houses seems to glow more than produce light and it seems like after a while some of them stop illuminating.
Statcruncher
Footballguy
Solar
Weak lights, a highly visible solar panel on each light, and they usually dim and go out instead of lasting through the night. Easy as heck to install. You're sacrificing the functionality of lights for ease of installation.
Hardwired
Bright, functional light that is continuous with far better looking housing options. Hardwiring is clearly more labor intensive. You're sacrificing the labor of installation to get exactly the lighting you want.
Weak lights, a highly visible solar panel on each light, and they usually dim and go out instead of lasting through the night. Easy as heck to install. You're sacrificing the functionality of lights for ease of installation.
Hardwired
Bright, functional light that is continuous with far better looking housing options. Hardwiring is clearly more labor intensive. You're sacrificing the labor of installation to get exactly the lighting you want.
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Bull Dozier
Footballguy
It's a mix. We have a lot that is 1 1/2 times deeper than a standard lot in our area. The back third was not kept up by the previous owners, so it is basically forrest/brush. The spring after we moved in (a few years ago) we went in and cut down the smaller trees, so there are a few big old trees, and some medium sized trees left around the perimeter of the yard. It's all brush, saplings, crazy weeds throughout and I just want to napalm it all except for the trees.
matuski
Footballguy
The Commish
Footballguy
You can always broadcast spread most of the area, stay away from the trees then go back and pull the stuff around the trees by hand.
Fat Nick
Footballguy
I'm slowly expanding my landscape lighting. Had some solar units when we moved in. Super cheap and cheezy. If you want it to look nice, go wired.
I've found THIS SITE to be very helpful and also to sell a great quality product for the price. I can't recommend their transformers enough. Super high quality. Built like a tank. Very flexible as far as how you turn them on/off (Timer, photocell, or other automation product...I use Z-wave). Their fixtures are awesome too. I'd recommend going LED for many reasons.
I've currently got 8 of the China Hat lights, and 2 up-lights. I'm going to add a 12V post light down my driveway and some lights to highlight certain trees at some point. I just bought a 2nd transformer to power my deck post lights once I get that all installed. I'll have plenty of extra voltage if I want to add some lights down by the fire pit or elsewhere.
The Commish
Footballguy
This was the product I was going to try out. Anything special to consider? I want to light the house as my first stage. Then I was going to move to up lighting several of the trees and possibly adding path lighting for the sidewalks.
Fat Nick
Footballguy
If you go LED, the 300W transformer is plenty. Again, I'd higly recommend LED...not only do they allow you to use a lower-power transformer, and last a long time, but you can also then just daisy-chain your fixtures, which makes the install very easy. Their wire and such is overpriced. I just bought the fixtures and transformer from them and got the wire in bulk at Lowes/HD.
They have a $100 minimum order. Keep that in mind. You may want to throw an extra stake or bulb in your order just to have it. I've been very happy with their products thus far and want to keep adding to my setup.
The Commish
Footballguy
On the front side of my house, I'll have between 6-8 "up lights" on the house plus another 4-5 on the trees. Then in the back yard it will be a mix of up lights and pathway lights. I might even light the posts on the deck (not really sure about the back yard at this point). I'll have more in the back than front is my guess. A 300W transformer is plenty for all that?
The Commish
Footballguy
Let's talk rodents.....I have some voles in my yard (I think)....rat poison in the holes?
matttyl
Footballguy
My Aussie Cattle dog would be glad to help. She's the one in my picture. She's gotten at least 10 out of my yard in the past year. She got a big rat, too.
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The Commish
Footballguy
Fat Nick
Footballguy
Sorry! Missed this. If you do all of those with LED's, yes...300W will be plenty. If you start to do incandescents, each one of those up lights can be like 60W+. LED's really made landscape lighting a lot more affordable b/c you don't need the huge transformers.
The only reason I got a 2nd 300W was I wanted to be able to independantly turn on and off the front walk and the back deck. I could've easily powered my whole set-up with the original 300W.
The Commish
Footballguy
Thanks! I was wondering if those boxes might be "zoned" so that I could turn on part or all of it if I wanted. Seems like the answer is "no". So if I wanted to control the front/back separately, I'd have to have two transformers also.
Fat Nick
Footballguy
Zones would be a huge feature upgrade, but alas, no...I'd imagine you could do this somehow with relays or something, but that's a whole different ballgame.
The Commish
Footballguy
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
My lawn has become thin and patchy. please critique my expected procedure to remedy this.
This is an area of about 1 acre. It is not thin or patchy enough to bring in loam (which worries me if the below will work)
In early fall
1) Rent thatcher and perform an aggressive thatch of lawn.
2) Rent an aerator and aerate entire lawn (ground appears to be very compressed right now)
3) Spread seed across entire lawn
4) Spread starter fertilizer across entire lawn
5) Keep moist for 2 weeks until full germination
I have never done overseeding like this. Will this work?
This is an area of about 1 acre. It is not thin or patchy enough to bring in loam (which worries me if the below will work)
In early fall
1) Rent thatcher and perform an aggressive thatch of lawn.
2) Rent an aerator and aerate entire lawn (ground appears to be very compressed right now)
3) Spread seed across entire lawn
4) Spread starter fertilizer across entire lawn
5) Keep moist for 2 weeks until full germination
I have never done overseeding like this. Will this work?
Al Czervik
Not wearing pants
Thanks for that link. This project is on my summer list. Quick question... for "up lights" on the house and trees, do you guys use Flood Lights or Spot Lights?
NutterButter
Footballguy
I'd definitely rake after step 3. Seed soil contact is important. You could also roll using a lawn roller for the same reason.
matttyl
Footballguy
For me, this was the biggest help. The ground was extremely compressed, so I've been aerating every spring and fall (you can't do it too much). This has done wonders.
Addition - oh, and get a "plug aerator, not a "spike" or whatever the other kind is called.
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Chadstroma
Footballguy
For the aerator, it seems it would cost me $60 to rent at a 4 hour min (likely will take me less than half that time without rushing). I have asked for a couple of qoutes on having someone else to do it for me. Do landscapers have decent rates on this kind of thing? I mean, I am thinking that it should cost me right around that much to have someone do it for me. An hours worth of work for a landscaping company can't be that costly... no?
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
I've always read that if you aerate you do not need to de-thatch at the same time.
I do not think just throwing seed down on the ground. It needs good soil contact. You may want to rent a slit-seeder.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
MattFancy
Footballguy
What about seeing if other neighbors want to use it and split the cost? That's what we do in our neighborhood.
MattFancy
Footballguy
Same issue for me. There's one side of my house that gets total sun all day long. No matter how many times I water it or seed it, it will be nice and brown.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
ok thanks. If I use the lawn slicer for the seeding, would you recommend Thatching or Aerating before that?
NutterButter
Footballguy
In the northeast, we gotten very little grain over the past month. I've had to get the sprinklers going earlier than normal to keep the lawn green.
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Chadstroma
Footballguy
Lot is 9,704 sqft with a 1,963 sqft house. Minus out small dog run, other non yard area, driveway and garage.... Let's call it about 5,500 sqft
Chadstroma
Footballguy
The Tick
Footballguy
Anyone have any good suggestions for Crabgrass control. My front yard has about 10 big ones, and they are multiplying. Last year I tried one of the hand bottle spray's that was supposed to take care of Crabgrass, but I swear it did nothing. One of my friends has suggested image, which I have to mix up myself in a spray tank, maybe that will be the answer.
Any other suggestions here? I need to get rid of that stuff, I have an OK Bermuda grass front lawn besides that crabgrass.
Any other suggestions here? I need to get rid of that stuff, I have an OK Bermuda grass front lawn besides that crabgrass.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
the best way to handle crabgrass is to attack it before it germinates.
Scotts has a product called "Halts" that you can put down in the early spring when you fertilize that helps prevent the crab grass from germinating.
glock
"Don't grumble, give a whistle!"
Came here now just for this. But I don't want to be spraying stuff at this stage of the game that will just leave a big brown spot for the summer.
( Crawled around on my hands and knees for about an hour last night...
)
NutterButter
Footballguy
The Commish
Footballguy
This is my general question too. BUT, I think the spot lights will do just fine. I've wondered into neighboring yards to check them out and most of them have the spot light variety. There are a few that have the flood lights for really tall parts of their houses though. I think if you're just trying to light up 10 - 15 feet, you'd be plenty happy with spot lights.
The Commish
Footballguy
I wouldn't thatch AND aerate and once the seed is down you might want to add a step of rolling the yard to make sure the seed is in good contact with the ground.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
Scotts has worked great on my lawn for crab grass for many years. Have you had problems with it?
The Commish
Footballguy
Bayer's weed control includes crabgrass. I've not had success with anything other than this product...works really well.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
So which one(thatch vs aerate) is better to do in the fall before seeding? (Assuming I use a slit seeder as recommended above)
The Tick
Footballguy
Yeah, I'm using a pre-emerging now, but my biggest problem is the ones that took root a couple years ago, before I started using it.
The Tick
Footballguy
Yeah, that's option B, well maybe G, I'd rather have the dead spots for the year then do that most likely.Came here now just for this. But I don't want to be spraying stuff at this stage of the game that will just leave a big brown spot for the summer.
( Crawled around on my hands and knees for about an hour last night...
Chadstroma
Footballguy
Also, not quite a lawn question but close enough since it concerns the yard and weeds. I have a small dog run with rocks. It is over run with weeds right now (after my car accident it was impossible for me to keep on top of this and the spring has come back with eagerness). I am looking to have someone clear the weeds for me but I am looking for a good option to treat to keep weeds from coming back. I am reluctant to use the vegetation killer stuff that I have for that area since that is obviously where my dog goes. I had someone mention using vinegar. Who has some thoughts/ideas on this?
NutterButter
Footballguy
Yeah, haven't had any success with it. For a few years, I'd put it down in April and still had lots of crabgrass. The prodiamine on the other hand has worked great.
Chadstroma
Footballguy
I got the spreader system they have when it was on sale last fall. I basically used it for the winter mix stuff and then just used it earlier this spring for the recommended weed and feed. Mostly did a great job. Our neighbors yard has a ton of weeds while ours has just a few (mostly on the edges like along the sidewalk or street).
NutterButter
Footballguy
Crabgrass is an annual so anything you see that's actually crabgrass sprouted from seed just this year. There's other weeds that look similar that are perennials.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
One thing I found with halts years ago was to never use it based on the calendar and to use based on nature.
Since nature changes every year, it is easy to miss your window for the Halts.
So I looked up what plant flowers at the same time the crab grass is just about to germinate and I use that as my gauge every year. (In my area it is the flowering of the Forsythia bush that matches up best).
matttyl
Footballguy
I vote aerator. I purchased this one last year (at a local hardware store when it was on sale for less than this) and used it last spring and fall, and then again this spring. Instead of renting one and having to pick it up and drop it off each time, this has already paid for itself.
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