Growing grass

[A-Jay]

30 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Is that you in the back hoe?  Didn't realize you had a heavy equipment operator's license too!  LOL

LOL

Not me.

Looked fun though . . .

A-Jay

[12poundbass]

47 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Is that you in the back hoe?  Didn't realize you had a heavy equipment operator's license too!  LOL

You’ve never heard of Menderchuck Excavating? They’re a pretty big deal around these parts! 

[Koz]

When I bought my house in SC the yard was a mess. Weeds, sand, nasty flower beds, and what was an old vegetable garden. I tore out every bit of vegetation in the yard, built bigger and better flower beds. Then I added zones to the existing irrigation system so I had full coverage. Once that was done, I SEEDED the yard with Bermuda. It was a labor of love.

 

And when it all came in my grass looked beautiful. Walking on my lawn was like walking on carpet. But I had to mow the grass just about twice a week to keep it under control and looking good. That wasn't fun when we ran a heat index in the low 100's all summer long. It was a lot of work.

 

My neighbors never understood why I mowed my own lawn and didn't just hire someone. I didn't understand why they hired landscapers and then complained they could never save any money.

 

My suggestion before you plant anything is find a balance between having a great looking lawn and the maintenance you will need to do to maintain it.

[The Bassman]

I used to obsess about my lawn but over time gave up. I live in a semi rural area where nobody judges you like when you're shoulder to shoulder in a sub division. I went through a period when I was fully engaged with landscaping and lawn care. I came to understand that the perfect lawn you see on the fertilizer bags butts heads with nature. You're always fighting something, drought, weeds, bugs, digging squirrels, you name it. We used to have a local radio guy who fielded questions on a Sat. AM radio show. He would recall his years on a farm by saying that they didn't have time for lawn care. It was always green in the spring and that was good enough.

[T-Billy]

Hey man, I thought this thread was about something else man... Yeah me too man. Let's go get something to eat.

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Hey man, I thought this thread was about something else man... Yeah me too man. Let's go get something to eat.

Dave’s not here, man

[Chris Catignani]

There's two times a year to plant grass: September and next September.

[TnRiver46]

I got lucky and bought a house with zoysia grass. It’s lush in summer and totally dormant from about Halloween to May. Low maintenance haha. 

[TOXIC]

I have 3 acres.  2 3/4 are in the forest.  My house is on a cliff.  I used to manicure the forest and it looked like a park with 2 streams and a small pond.  Took me 2 years to clear it. My daughter grew up wading in the streams and we have an abundance of wildlife.  My side yard is where my septic drain field is and when we moved in we had it seeded.  My front yard is small and was designed by an landscaper.  When we moved in, we had all of the shrubbery removed, the ground graded to keep runoff from hitting the foundation of the house and had it sodded with mesh underneath but in doing so, the grading made the front a wash that in short order scalped all of the sod and left the mesh.  Then the trunk you see in the front is a sugar maple that I was told by another landscaper drinks about 150 gallons of water a day and as long as that tree is in the yard, I will have a very hard time growing grass.  I have pretty much given up on the perfect yard and settled for no weeds and scarce vegetation.  You need to be aware that pines will kill most anything planted underneath them due to the needles falling off.  

[Bassin' Brad]

On 3/22/2022 at 10:47 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

There's a house on one of the lakes I fish that put down the black weed barrier over their entire yard and then laid rock over top of it, so their entire yard is just rock save some nice mature trees and well maintained flower beds. After trying to grow grass in our yard the last few years, starting to think this man may be a genius. 

That's very common in the desert of New Mexico (and probably other places). You basically have 3 options when you live in a dry, arid, windy desert. 1. Put in an irrigation system or hand water like crazy 2. Have a nasty dirt yard that blows dirt and sand all over the place.  3. Put down rocks 

[king fisher]

Yards and gardens are for people that don’t fish.

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Yards and gardens are for people that don’t fish.

Or have spouses that don't fish and can't physically do the work.

[12poundbass]

3 hours ago, king fisher said:

Yards and gardens are for people that don’t fish.

Good call, astroturf it is!!

[Bird]

4 hours ago, king fisher said:

Yards and gardens are for people that don’t fish.

This really Hits home. Lol 

We live 1/2 mile off a state maintained road and I let the grass grow so long that I have to remove praying mantis before I mow....... honestly.

 

[12poundbass]

A little update. A fellow member sent me a PM talking about lawns so I figured I’d give a bit of an update. In typical 12poundbass fashion I had my hopes set a tad too high. This isn’t the greatest year to start a lawn and since we didn’t move until mid May I was off to a late start.
 

The grass is growing but so are the weeds. The typical crabgrass is growing and two other unknown intruders. I did spray a weed killer concentrate in June sometime and that seemed to help a bit but it seems what died was quickly replaced. I’ve watered pretty heavily until about two weeks ago and I slowed down because we started getting rain. I haven’t done a fertilizer yet, so my question to you grass experts what are these two weeds I’m frequently seeing, do I fertilize, and what do you use to eradicate these weeds? 
 

I do plan to seed again in the fall. 
 

Weed 1:

 

Weed 2:

 

[gim]

On 3/19/2022 at 8:44 PM, A-Jay said:

Install an irrigation system first

I just had one installed last week at my property I moved to in May. Omg what a relief if is NOT to haul around hoses and a sprinkler anymore. My yard looks a little rough right now because of the equipment they had to use to install it, but by the fall with some cooler temps it should barely be noticeable. I control it with a hydra wise app on my phone too. It saves up to 30% on water usage over traditional sprinklers and I run it every other day early in the morning for about 90 minutes.

[A-Jay]

4 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I just had one installed last week at my property I moved to in May. Omg what a relief if is NOT to haul around hoses and a sprinkler anymore. My yard looks a little rough right now because of the equipment they had to use to install it, but by the fall with some cooler temps it should barely be noticeable. I control it with a hydra wise app on my phone too.

It will be a game changer for you.

My soil is SAND.  Dries out after a huge rain in like 3 minutes.

I run my system every morning as soon as the ground thaws.

btw, you'll need to blow all the water out of the entire system in the fall with an air compressor. 

Don't want it to freeze. 

If you're lucky whoever installed your system added a 'fitting' & a valve to accommodate that.

I had to do it once I bought this place. 

Also don't wait too long - 1st of Oct is my cut off. 

Good Luck Mr Green Thumb

A-Jay

[gim]

13 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

It will be a game changer for you.

My soil is SAND.  Dries out after a huge rain in like 3 minutes.

I run my system every morning as soon as the ground thaws.

btw, you'll need to blow all the water out of the entire system in the fall with an air compressor. 

Don't want it to freeze. 

If you're lucky whoever installed your system added a 'fitting' & a valve to accommodate that.

I had to do it once I bought this place. 

Also don't wait too long - 1st of Oct is my cut off. 

Good Luck Mr Green Thumb

A-Jay

I had three estimates in late May and they were all about the same cost. The one I went with had a 5 year warranty instead of a 2 year warranty and offered to blow out the lines this fall for free my first year too. They recommended early October to blow the lines out.

 

These install companies are booked through the end of September now because of demand. I had to wait almost 2 months to get mine installed. Part of the increased demand is because it’s been so dry. People just get sick of manual sprinklers and hoses.

[padlin]

Sprinkler system doesn't do us any good, we're only allowed to water on Mondays, before 9 and after 5, so the lawn burns up anyway when it's in the 90's all week. Every year the restrictions come earlier then the last. Getting very frustrated.

 

FWIW for 12poundbass, whenever I work on an area, seeding and such, it takes 3 years for the grass to fill in well enough to match the rest of the yard.

[gim]

2 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Weed 1:

I believe that is knotweed. As for how to control it, I pull it by hand when I see it and spray twice a year with a normal broadleaf weed killer.

 

Not sure what weed 2 is.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

 

My soil is SAND.  Dries out after a huge rain in like 3 minutes.

 

I always wondered how/why the water never got muddy after all the rain I’ve seen in Michigan. Ours turns into yohoo real quick 

 

 

 

[A-Jay]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I always wondered how/why the water never got muddy after all the rain I’ve seen in Michigan. Ours turns into yohoo real quick 

 

 

 

We rarely see a puddle.

After the spring thaw that is. 

Also a Big help is we have a killer well.

A-Ja

 

[12poundbass]

58 minutes ago, gimruis said:

These install companies are booked through the end of September now because of demand. I

We have utility locate requests for sprinkler systems here in Michigan until December. Obviously they don’t fire them up in December, but they’ll come back in the spring and fire them up the first time. 
 

27 minutes ago, padlin said:

FWIW for 12poundbass, whenever I work on an area, seeding and such, it takes 3 years for the grass to fill in well enough to match the rest of the yard.

That’s good to know it’s takes up to three years, but also a major bummer it takes three years. 
 

The bright side of things is as you’re driving down the street you see a nice green lawn! ?

 

The other nice thing is the neighbor next door who started their lawn the same time we did, dropped $10k on a company to come in add a bunch of topsoil, put in a driveway, and hydro seed their lawn only to get a lawn that’s a tad better looking than mine. I did all the work, didn’t add topsoil, and did driveway work for under a grand so there’s that. 

[gim]

36 minutes ago, padlin said:

we're only allowed to water on Mondays, before 9 and after 5, so the lawn burns up anyway when it's in the 90's all week. Every year the restrictions come earlier then the last. Getting very frustrated.

Wow, that is pretty strict for an area that is not in the western portion of the country.

 

I am on city water here and I can only do it on odd days because of my address, before noon and after 6pm. Since @A-Jay has a private well he can use his every day.

[12poundbass]

Well water here too. I could try and turn this place into a lake if I wanted to and nobody could say otherwise. I do that though I’d be getting a nice Christmas card from the electric company saying thanks for all the power usage.