I lucked out- the home I have has its system on a separate meter- and don't pay sewer charges on it. Apparently pretty pricey up front, but I didn't pay for it (directly)
Yearly Spring/Lawn Thread
- Thread starter Greenway4Prez
- Start date
Aeration will go a long way to allowing grass to remain healthy (but steer clear of your shallow tree roots to avoid damaging them or the aerator).
As well as dethatching; and if putting in new seed, either using a Garden weasel to lightly till up the soil, or an actual seeder (which is a dethatcher/power rake w/ a seed bucket attached to it) will get the new seed into looser soil so it can germinate.
See if this is an option for you
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Get one of those fancy tractor sprinkler heads that follows the hose lol 😂
I have to disagree as respectfully as possible. And, a lot of people smarter than me that write books and teach the best turf managers in the world disagree too.
If you have been able to do it successfully, then that’s awesome and you should be commended for it. But it is so much harder to get spring seeding to succeed.
I spend a lot of time talking customers out of spring seeding. As a company, we have seriously discussed not even offering it anymore.
If someone really knows what they’re doing, go for it. But most people don’t (which is why they hire it done), and it saves so many headaches when they agree to wait until fall.
I agree late summer, early fall is best. However, I have had success overseeding/seeding in the spring too. No sense in waiting imo.
I was thinking of just getting some soil and putting where the dead spots are then water the hell out of it. Get something that germinates quickly and throw some peet moss in it.
It does better and better each year, but its growing season is still really short. You’ll find some here and there in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, but it generally is viewed negatively by Iowans.
I would be 100% good with a zoysia lawn, because it means I’m not having to mow before May 1 or after October 1.
In my opinion, we’re headed for an environment where two types of grass will be suitable for lawns in the southern half/two-thirds of Iowa:
Tall Fescue (turf-type or RTF)
Zoysiagrass
Cold-tolerant zoysias are being worked on constantly, and Purdue has zoysia on their football field. They’re a decent amount south of us, but it’s worth monitoring.
Iowa's kind of in the transitional zone, so it can work, but not exactly ideal. It does great in July/August, but turns brown early and wakes up late.
One of the two dogs could easily go... I'll never get the mass appeal of those stupid golden doodles. I like our bullador more than about 97 percent of people. Closer to a hundred if you discount family, so that's a non-starter... And all our adjacent neighbors have large breed dogs as well, so that's never going to be an issue.
honestly this would be my advice. Split all the yardspace you have into zones (for example front yard is zone 1, back yard zone 2). Determine the zones you want to look good, for example you want zone 1 to look good bc of zone appeal, maybe a certain patio area is ranked high bc you want to look at it on a warm summer night.
Find the zones that are either hidden or you don't care about, and try to get your dog to only pee there. That can be the sacrifical lamb zone.
I've owned a dog for the majority of the last 25 years or so and I've never noticed burned/browned grass where my dogs relieve themselves, in fact quite the opposite, the grass grows more quickly and is a deeper green color in those areas. I'm not sure why that is, perhaps the urine is correcting the soil pH to a more beneficial level or the amount of ammonia isn't concentrated enough to cause the N burnout. My current dog is a rescued greyhound (former racer) and she refuses to poop in the backyard so I know it's not that factor in play. I may start watering the ground a little after she pees just so the fertilizing effect expands a bit and is less patchy.
This. No sense in waiting until Fall to repair dead areas.
Also, as has been mentioned, the crabgrass preventer in the Spring also prevents new grass seed from taking hold. I've skipped crabgrass preventer a few years and planted new seed with fertilizer. Grass has come in real well in the Spring and also had no issues with crabgrass. Frankly I'm beginning to wonder if crabgrass preventer and weed and feed is a bit oversold by the lawncare industry. Once you have your yard under control I just haven't had the need for it. Regular fertilizer and then spot spraying the occasional weed has worked for me most years.
Our entire neighborhood is covered with dandelions every year except for those of us who take preventive measures.
My wife doesn't appreciate the amount of money I put into the yard. I should have taken "before" pictures. Yard was garbage.
There’s some validity to this. If someone uses crabgrass preventer for years, you’re just fine skipping a year here and there, especially if the lawn is thick and healthy.
Where that gets tricky is if you live in an area that had a land-bound hurricane when plants had gone to seed, and who knows what was blown in. You and I would think, “Better use preemergent next spring, who knows what blew in.” But most lawn care customers don’t think that way, which is why they hire it done.
