How do you take care for your lawn?

Question

Fertilizers, ant killing, etc.

Answer 1

Scott's turfbuilder - best layed in the late Fall. Don't mow too often, the grass will burn up in the heat. healthy, taller grass will crowd out weeds and make nice green lawn when you do mow. keep about 3-4 inches tall. For the ants, they will never die! I have big ant problem and even the exterminator sprayed and they are happy and healthy all over the place.

Answer 2

We lime it in the fall or spring. We do not cut it very low, and if it's cut regularly, we don't need to rake up the grass cuttings. They act as fertilizer for the grass. We use no pesticides or herbicides or chemical fertilizer. We do not water it during the summer. It naturally goes dormant; if the summer is dry, the lawn may turn tan, but it's not dead! In the fall, or after enough rain, it turns green again. Occasionally, we weed out the dandelions.

We have a nice lawn. It's not perfect, there are other things growing in it besides grass, but they're all green, so the lawn looks nice. And we haven't poisoned any living creatures.

Answer 3

Sorry about the fire ants.......I don't have them. There are products on the market to eliminate them.....applied like fertilizer. The poison must be taken down to the queen in each colony hence it's really more like bait.

Anyway, maintenance depends on the type lawn. Cool season grasses like bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and fescues are fertilized in spring and fall, not in summer when they are semi dormant. Warm season grasses such as bermudagrass is fertilized in the warm months when it is most active.

I have tall fescue grass, a rather ugly but tough grass and not much of a thatch problem. For my bluegrass clients we'd power rake the lawns early in the year and also aerate (poke holes for oxygen infiltration). Then we'd fertilize....(IF we didn't fertilize late the previous season.) Mowing begins when it 's needed. No date, we go by the lawn. Since I have dogs I don't use pesticides for weeds.....but no dogs I'd apply weed killer if needed depending on the weed.....some you apply early, others like for crabgrass is applied a bit later. Watering of course as needed. We fertilize again before Memorial Day. This will carry us thru until Labor Day when we fertilize again. We aren't real precise about the Labor Day fertilizing....we may delay it until early October. If we did the Labor Day we turn around and do another fertilizing near Halloween. This last fertilizing is with a low nitrogen...."winterizer" type fertilizer.

We apply fertilizer at below recommened amounts since we strive for 4 applications. If we are broke or lazy and know we are only applying 3, we'll apply at recommended rates.

We need to irrigate regularly. We watch the lawn and apply when "asked" not by schedule. Consequently we use far less water per square foot than others. The lawn will "change" when it is dry....leaves roll, color changes, foot prints remain when walked upon. We have no hills so can apply water heavily without fear of runoff. Also different parts dry out more quickly........as I said we apply as needed and where needed only.

I do no tlive for my lawn. Scotts isn't going to use my lawn as "perfect" but I'm not striving for perfect, I want healthy but not toxic.

Finally I cut the grass high and don't pick up clippings. We mow often enough........every 4-5 days when it's really growing...that we don't have a "hay" effect from excess clippings. We remove only the very tips, not half the blade. The main lawn is about 13,000 sf and with a walk behind mower we can mow in 1 1/2 hours.

Since there's nothing on summer TV, mowing after work is no problem.