Who takes pride in their yard?

I mow 2 acres in about hour and thirty minutes with my Gravely Pro-turn 152. I could do it quicker but the back yard is so rough I can't run the Gravely wide open.

 

i'm at about 90 min. to do a 1/2 acre with a toro self pace. I may look at upgrading to a bigger mower, but with a 15 yr old who can mow as well, i'm good with what I have.

 

Regular residential lot from edging, mowing, and blowing everything off takes me about an hour and 10 mins.

 

I have about 1/3 acre, just mowing takes about 50 minutes. Edging takes another 20 or so, then I have the roses and garden to tend to, dog poop to collect, etc. I spend about 90 minutes to 2 hours.

 

It helps to have one of these



It was a lot of $$$ but it has been well worth the investment. I was using a Troybilt POS zero turn. I cut the time in half with the Gravely.

 

30 minutes, maybe. 20 if the GF edges while I mow.

Weeding, on the other hand...That takes quite a bit longer.

 

I recently found & downloaded the Scott's fertilizer app. You input you zip code, what type of grass you have, what condition your lawn is currently in and how nice of a lawn you are trying to have and it builds you an annual program telling you what Scott's products to use and when. Then you set reminders / alarms so that you never miss a treatment. I think it's a pretty cool app.

 

I have seen that, but generally people will overfeed and use too many unnecessary chemicals. Using a mulching mower, mowing at the right height (and often enough to avoid adding stress), and proper irrigation can decrease the need for so many chemicals.

Texas A&M used to have some good evapotranspiration rate info, which is what I used. Knowing your water application rate and how much your soil will absorb in a given amount of time will help you determine how to program your irrigation system. You can measure your application rate using rain gauges in different spots of the yard, and see how much time it takes for water to start pooling or running off. When I was in TX, (north of Austin), I could only run a station for 10 minutes before water started pooling. In the heat of the summer, I would run 2 rounds at 10 minutes per station 3 times per week to get the proper amount to soak in. That is the key thing people miss -- you can't just run each station longer, you have to give it time to soak in.

I would fertilize twice a year using the plain Scotts lawn food at about half the recommended application rate, and I never had to spray for weeds.

Here in the midwest we have those crappy rotating heads that take forever to put down any water, so I run pretty long station times. I miss my TX yard.

 

Completely agree with that. Most of the nitrogen and nutrients come from the grass clippings themselves. Like you, I've got the gear driven heads so it takes longer to water a specific spot in my yard. There is a fine line between over watering and waiting until it's just slightly too late to water where I live. I use a tuna can as a gauge to let me know how much water I've put down in a given area. In July and August when the temps top out over 100 most every day then generally you're just keeping the grass alive. Nothing beats rain water and city water lacks any of the minerals that assist the grass with what it needs. I tend to do 3 fertilization's per year and like you mentioned.... If your grass is thick enough the need for chemicals goes way down as far as weeds are concerned as the grass chokes them out.

 

I started using that app this year as this is out first home where I'm responsible for the yard work. Initially, my yard was more weeds that grass. Following the suggestions of this app along with a couple additional weed control spray applications, my yard went from the worst on the block to one of the top ten. I'll post pictures later.

 

I agree with you both about the app over doing it a bit with the recommendations, after all it was created to help Scott's sell fertilizer. I was already using Scott's products & like that it will remind you when to fertilize and with what product. I entered that my yard was already in good condition (true story) and that my goal was to maintain that & the program it gave me was for 3 total treatments throughout the year. However just to see what it would do I input that my yard was in the worst condition possible and that I wanted the best yard on the block and it wanted to schedule 6 treatments for the year. I deleted that entry. lol

I already use a mulching mower for the nitrogen / nutrients and have it at the highest setting to try and promote stronger / deeper roots but when it comes to the science behind watering I still have a lot to learn.

 

I am trying to have a nice lawn as we just bought our first house last July. The backyard is in OK shape (I overseeded in the fall and fertilized in march), greened right up but still have a few trouble spots. Dog piss is giving me a few brown spots. The front yard is a wreck and needs to rebuilt. Too much shade and moss is taking over.

My plan is to aerate in the fall, overseed the front yard and fertilize before winter sets in. Try to fertilize again next spring and hope to salvage it. I made the fatal mistake of pushing all the snow off the deck into the same spot all winter long and am left with a completely dead strip of lawn. Will definitely disperse the large piles this winter and keep the weight down right near the deck.

Oh, and on a final note, fuck poison ivy. I can't seem to keep it under control - I have sprayed the hell out of it but it just keeps showing up.


Lawn showing piss marks and area that piled up snow killed off (reseeded already)


Crappy front lawn showing many bald areas. Hopefully some lime to take care of the moss, an aeration, and overseed can bring it back to life.


Poison Ivy vine that I hacked off to kill the upper portion taking over a tree. Applied roundup to the cut vine in an effort to kill the root system.

 

You might want to aerate in July. That is usually when I have mine done as that is when my lawn starts needing more water. It also helps remove some of the thatch which helps the root system of the grass.

 

Scott makes quality fertilizer. That is the only fertilizer that I use in fact. It sounds as if you are doing it correctly also.

 

ET = Evapotranspiration Rate (this varies based on time of year and location in the world, your local agriculture board or universities should publish this for your area)

Kc = Crop Coefficient (based on what you are growing, also varies duing the year)

EFF = Irrigation system efficiency (using 85% is probably close enough)

ET x Kc / EFF = how much water you need to put down

Then you have to determine how much water your system puts down and how fast your soil absorbs it. Once you know all that, you can program your sprinkler system or time your watering properly.

I just put together a spreadsheet based on monthly rates and adjusted my cycles on a monthly basis. Yes, I am slightly OCD.

More info: http://texaset.tamu.edu/growers.php

Kc values for turfgrasses: http://www.irrigationtoolbox.com/ReferenceDocuments/TechnicalPapers/IA/2008/2127translated.pdf

The more you know . . .

 

Thank you very much for this information! I will get to work on this.

 

This should make it easier for you and matches about what I had for central TX:

http://www.riversideirrigation.com/watering.html

I could only go 10 minutes at a time before the soil was saturated, not a full 15-20 minutes per station. You may have more sandy soil there, mine was mostly clay. I would go 2 rounds at 10 minutes each. Then just add a day or turn a day off depending on time of year. Don't water every day!

 

I try to keep the lawn looking reasonably green and at least a majority actual grass without watering and as little pesticides/herbicides as possible. I dont like the idea of exposing my kids to the chemicals not to mention they all run off into our water supply. And sprinklers are a no-no because our town aquifers are so depleted due to overuse (from people attempting to make their lawns like a golf course ) we are in permanent water ban.

We use natural/organic slow release fertilizers 1-2 times a year as needed, spot treat the worst of the weeds when necessary, mulch mow, dethatch when needed every few years and overseeding of thin spots annually to keep it up. I have used pesticides like grub killer when we had an obvious grub problem but prefer not to apply them "just because". Every few years Ill send a soil sample to the local university to find out if I need to add lime or adjust hte fertilizer mix. Overall the lawn does quite well but there are some spots that could use a topdressing of compost or aeration to help dead spots.


We do put a LOT of effort into my wife's flower and vegetable beds and spent a lot on landscaping and outdoor entertainment/play equipment to make the yard an actual useful extension of the living space, not just an ornament.

Back yard (overdue to be mowed)



Wife'svegetable garden before it all started to sprout. We've had salad every day for two weeks form just these tiny beds.


Front yard in April after we replanted the front border. The dead spots in the lawn have since grown in and that tree is a flowering dogwood that turns bright pink in May

 

I love that house and yard. It reminds me of a house that belongs in Great Britain for some reason.