lawn care experts
- Thread starter Wahawk56
- Start date
I downloaded the Scotts Lawn Care app. It tells you (and reminds you) what and when you should put on your lawn.
It's not the best to navigate but for a new homeowner and rookie yard guy, it works for me.
The Scotts Yard App was behind for crabgrass application this year. It just goes off a general timeframe of when to apply. This spring the soil warmed up quicker than usual and if you would have waited to apply it when the app suggested you would have been too late. I agree that it could be way better in general.
So if I have a bag of crabgrass preventer with fertlizer that I haven't spread yet, should I still do it? I thought the bag showed to do it by May 10 in central Iowa. If this isn't going to do any good, is there something else I can put down? I put my sod in in July 13 and it always seems to take longer to get green then all the neighbors. I don't know if it is the type of grass or because I didn't use fertilizer. I did use fertilizer last year and still took way longer to get green. It also seems to turn brown earlier than everybody elses in the fall. I am okay with that, though, since I am usually ready to stop mowing
After 2 or 3 days of 70 degree weather the crab grass is sprouting. I would still put down but you may have to spray crab grass killer on in a couple weeks.
Put down the crabgrass treatment now, it hasn't been warm enough to be past the stage of not being effective. Water it in for best effect. Then go with weed treatment in a couple weeks. Then follow up with another treatment in 6 weeks. That's being aggressive, but will help. If you don't water or if it doesn't rain this won't work. If you go this route enjoy mowing.
The N-P-K on the bag is the tell all of what these products do. N= above the ground(green)k P= below the ground & K=all around treatment. If you go liquid route make sure it's a couple days after mowing or couple days prior. You mow then spray, chance of burning the grass.
The N-P-K on the bag is the tell all of what these products do. N= above the ground(green)k P= below the ground & K=all around treatment. If you go liquid route make sure it's a couple days after mowing or couple days prior. You mow then spray, chance of burning the grass.
You're probably too late to prevent crabgrass but it won't hurt to put it on. Your grass will use the fertilizer. Up in NW Iowa I had some goose grass (a crabgrass type grass) come up already. Bayer All In One Weed and Crabgrass killer will take care of pretty much everything and not kill your grass. It just takes a couple weeks for weeds to die off.
Your sod probably doesn't have the root system yet to make it green up well or handle drought/heat like your neighbors. I think that usually takes a couple of growing seasons to really set in.
The most important thing you can do for your lawn is PLUG AERATE it!
So, twice a year, i aerate and just do a general weed and feed. Once in the spring and once in the fall.
Simple, fairly inexpensive, and easy.
My lawn looks pretty dang good, definitely better than all the trashbags I live around that are the poors.
I think all those steps and all that is just overkill.
So, twice a year, i aerate and just do a general weed and feed. Once in the spring and once in the fall.
Simple, fairly inexpensive, and easy.
My lawn looks pretty dang good, definitely better than all the trashbags I live around that are the poors.
I think all those steps and all that is just overkill.
Don't mind me...I'm just testing out a feature I just realized we had now.
You can highlight a section of someone's post, then a Quote/Reply option will pop up automatically. Clicking on 'Quote' will add it to the multiquote feature. Reply automatically sends it to the reply box below.
Carry on.
Okay, I went ahead and put the crab grass preventer/fertilizer on tonight. I will water if we don't get this rain. My other issue is the grass between my deck and the kids playset. This is a high traffic area and my grass looks like crap around this area. What can I do about this?
Segmental paver walkway. If it is truly a high traffic area you can forget about turf.
Wow, you aerate twice a year? I always thought once, in the fall, was sufficient.
Regarding treatments, I just do the Scotts 4-step plan. Then, if I see weeds or dandelions, I usually hand pick them (roots and all) or spot spray them with Weed-B-Gone or something similar. Just be sure to get the one that will NOT harm your grass.
Otherwise I mulch the clippings back into the lawn when I mow ... the nutrients act as a nice secondary fertilizer (or so I've been told).
So far I've been happy with what I'm doing.
Also, I always set my mowing height a little lower in the spring, say 2 or 2.5 inches, and mow every 3-5 days. Then in July and August, when the lawn takes a beating from the heat, I raise it to 3 or 3.5 inches to give the lawn and roots more protection and crowd out the weeds. I usually only mow every 10-14 days then. In the fall I go back down to 2 or 2.5 inches, and if there's a single layer of leaves, I'll mulch them into the lawn. I've seen guys mulch several inches of leaves into the lawn and call it a day. A smaller amount of mulched leaves is actually good for most lawns ... but too many can cause serious damage.
The swingset is awesome. My dad built it for my kids. It has two slides, including a big enclosed spiral slide, a rock wall, swings, trapeze bar, and a picnic table. Even after my kids get older, it probably isn't going anywhere. I have kinda assumed my grass will just look crappy in that area until my kids are old enough to not want to play outside.
I can't speak to Chem-Lawn, but I repeatedly see Tru-Green break about every herbicide application law possible. Their people are supposed to be certified for this, so they either are not, or they are, and break the application laws anyway.
That's service master for you. Well, they awent with service master anymore, but they were up until last year. I was gonna take a job with Terminix, and the Shit I seen there was unbelievable.
You should be fine for crabgass application, get it down by this weekend. I just put mine down on Wednesday night. The bag of Scotts had us zoned for an application date of May 1. The lilacs are blooming now here in SE South Dakota (that's always my cue to get the crabgrass preventer down) so I think the timing is just right. If you are in the northern half of Iowa I think you should be ok. Rained here last night so everything timed up perfectly.
I've found that Scotts lawn service is great. I've negotiated down to about $38 per application. they come 6 times so it's cheaper than buying and doing it myself.
I've always aerated in both spring and fall and I have the best yard on my street, and it's not even two years old. I also took time to roll it the first year after sod was layed.
Likely just don't care. Each facility is run differently but I worked at a Tru-Green briefly doing lawn applications a few days a week for a spring and summer when I was a junior. They had me get certified first but afterwards it was complete garbage. I didn't even get the proper equipment to be handling all the chemicals that I was handling. Said they didn't have anything for people my size (6'6" 290lbs back then) and they kept forgetting to order anything.
Put milorganite on twice a month, no weed killer in it. Greens and thickens, golf courses use it.
Yes, to the above poster, asking about grass adding nutrients to the turf. If you let the clippings stay on the yard, you get about 1 pound (of the 5 pounds needed per year) of fertilizer. The most important time to fertilize is fall, the spring is secondary. I would NOT do all of the Scott's steps. Early spring (and crab grass preventer) and late fall will have your lawn looking nice all season.
I agree that all of Scott's applications aren't necessary. In addition to the Fall and Spring feedings ,I like to put on the 2% iron stuff. I feel it really gives it a deeper green color thru the summer.
This is the website I've used the last few years to time the crabgrass pre-emergent. Its worked very well Actually someone on HROT posted it once. According to this you are way late if you are doing it now. I put mine down about three weeks ago. I need to research this milorganite stuff...
http://www.gddtracker.net/?model=7&offset=0&zip=52245
http://www.gddtracker.net/?model=7&offset=0&zip=52245
You just made my day, since I'm the one that posted it. It is amazing, and anyone who cares at all about their lawn and timing of applications should use it.
Seriously, I'm genuinely happy that someone else is getting good use from it.
Latest posts
-
-
Who Could Be Iowa MBB's Next Commit? + Two Priority Visitors Scheduled
- Latest: Eliot Clough
-
-
HawkCast 122 BIG BOYS: 3 OL Commits, MBB to Miss B1G Tourney?, CC Jersey
- Latest: Eliot Clough
-