Lawn Care (2 Viewers)

[SaintsFan742]

No matter how well one maintains their lawn during their lifetime, it's all for naught. That s*** will grow back ugly as hell when you're dead and gone if not kept up.

 

[You]

I was a farmer for a few years and ran into some issues with roundup and other chemicals.

If you want to sell your product through the regular channels, you had to follow their rules. Among other things, That included using roundup (or other glyphosate product) and melathion.

I have no proof that these products are dangerous but I didn’t want to use them. I had no choice though. Going organic was a whole other headache.
Nazi’s on either side.

 

[tomwaits]

I was a farmer for a few years and ran into some issues with roundup and other chemicals.

Hold up, are you saying you were literally Farmer Brown?

 

[MTDB1983]

I was always a tree lover growing up. I enjoyed the woods & for the first few years of being independent and living on my own, I would always make sure the house we rented or apt we rented had plenty of trees and a gorgeous landscape.

Fast-forward to me buying my house, and trees are the devil. Give me a leave/pine straw free yard that gets plenty of sunlight and beautiful turf grass any day of the week.

I’m getting ready to plant some Palms in pots and turn my front and back yard into a Tropical Oasis.

 

[mjcouvi]

And it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to certify something organic, which only serves to increase the price of eating healthier for consumers.

Devil's advocate...you can get things that are organic without it being certified "organic". It takes effort (money) for regulatory agencies to go and check if something's "organic," so you pay for that. If just any product in the supermarket could be labeled "organic" then the word would become kinda useless in the world of supermarket descriptors.

 

[mjcouvi]

Good perspective. My uncle has a Ph. D. in agriculture and recently retired from USDA as one of the agency's top soil scientists. He's a smart guy with interesting perspectives about a lot of things and we often get in long discussions over many beers during the holidays or family gatherings. He firmly believes that the interests of feeding the human population are best served by GMO and other agro-technology that makes our food production far more resistant to catastophy - and that many of us have just been fortunate to live during an era where crop failure and resulting famine just aren't part of reality for us. But make no mistake, those things are possible and agro-engineering helps us defend against it.

My wife is on the other side. She doesn't carry a firm belief that GMO or engineered foods are bad, per se, she just has a strong instinct to avoid unnecessary exposure to anything created in a lab or human synthetics . . . because we often learn, decades later, that these things can be harmful. So it's a sensible prophylactic thing, in her mind. It isn't some pathological thing, she doesn't worry about eating things that aren't organic when we go out or anything like that. But on the stuff she can control easily, she chooses organic/non-GMO whenever possible.

Me, I tend to find that the organic products often taste better. For example, I used to never buy organic bananas, I figured the fruit is protected by the peel, so who cares what they spray on it. Then one day I had an organic banana, and the flavor was remarkable - I became a renewed fan of bananas. I eat them (organic) all the time now.

Yeah, I think your wife is making a wise decision. Just because some GMO crops help the world's poor get more food, that doesn't mean those same crops would be best for her.

Those of us who live in a world of food abundance and choice have many options and we should choose what's best. Personally, I'd prefer to eat organic and grass fed and all that good stuff that's less chemically manipulated. I think it's healthier...just not healthier than not getting enough food at all...which is why mass agriculture through GMOs is good for some people in many parts of the world (relative to going hungry).

 

[MTDB1983]

Just wondered if you had a response to the article I posted.

Guess not.

 

[Bayouboy]

I'm thinking about hauling some fill to raise up my front yard. If I do, I may choose to sod the area. Do I go with centipiede, or St. Aug? I have two rather large oak trees in the yard, so there's a bit of shade thrown around.

 

[You]

I'm thinking about hauling some fill to raise up my front yard. If I do, I may choose to sod the area. Do I go with centipiede, or St. Aug? I have two rather large oak trees in the yard, so there's a bit of shade thrown around.

St aug will do best in the shade. It still might struggle depending on moisture and light but it’ll do better than centipede

 

[MTDB1983]

St aug will do best in the shade. It still might struggle depending on moisture and light but it’ll do better than centipede

Totally agree. Get ProVista St. Aug.

 

[egautr1]

O.k. guys give me some advice and/or help.

I have a realtively small yard with lots of sun. No trees. I have centipede grass. I usually use just lawn fertilizer, last year I used the Sta-Green Lawn fertilizer with 2% Iron.

I usually put this down around the first cut.

Then a few weeks later I have been putting down a separate weed killer. In the past I have used the Spectracide Weed Stop. Seems to do a decent job.


So I am asking am I doing this right? I haven't used weed and feeds as I have read/heard mixed things about them. I read it is better to do the fertilizer and weed killer separate. Any recommendations or tips?
Should I apply before or after the first cut? and which one first. I live on the northshore and have 2 young kids who play in the yard, so I need safe products.
Many of my neighbors have already started cutting. But my grass is still a little brown and isn't all actively growing yet. Shouldn't I wait till the grass is growing and has a little depth on it before I cut first? And what length or depth should I cut my centipede at?
You guys seem to know a lot about this stuff. I am still learning. Any advice tips is welcome.

Oh, and I have a ditch in my front yard that always has weeds growing in it. I usually weed eat it down as much as possible and have sprayed roundup on it in the past to kill it. But I don't think I am supposed to use roundup around drainage areas. Should I keep using roundup in the ditch or try something else?

 

[Bayouboy]

O.k. guys give me some advice and/or help.

I have a realtively small yard with lots of sun. No trees. I have centipede grass. I usually use just lawn fertilizer, last year I used the Sta-Green Lawn fertilizer with 2% Iron.

I usually put this down around the first cut.

Then a few weeks later I have been putting down a separate weed killer. In the past I have used the Spectracide Weed Stop. Seems to do a decent job.


So I am asking am I doing this right? I haven't used weed and feeds as I have read/heard mixed things about them. I read it is better to do the fertilizer and weed killer separate. Any recommendations or tips?
Should I apply before or after the first cut? and which one first. I live on the northshore and have 2 young kids who play in the yard, so I need safe products.
Many of my neighbors have already started cutting. But my grass is still a little brown and isn't all actively growing yet. Shouldn't I wait till the grass is growing and has a little depth on it before I cut first? And what length or depth should I cut my centipede at?
You guys seem to know a lot about this stuff. I am still learning. Any advice tips is welcome.

Oh, and I have a ditch in my front yard that always has weeds growing in it. I usually weed eat it down as much as possible and have sprayed roundup on it in the past to kill it. But I don't think I am supposed to use roundup around drainage areas. Should I keep using roundup in the ditch or try something else?

It's still to early to fertilize or use weed n feed products. Wait until about the second week in April when the grass is active again. Try to do it prior to a light/meduim rain so the fertilizer can soak in. If you don't time the rain right, use a lawn sprinkler. You can spray for weeds right now (its actually a good time)....just pick a good selective herbicide and spot spray or cover the entire lawn. I use Fertilome weed free zone. It is more pricey, but I get great results.

Go ahead and cut now just to get your lawn looking good. After a long winter, even the best kept lawns get a little straggley looking. A fresh mow will have you the envy of the neighbors! Centipede is usually cut @ 1 - 2.5 inches.

It's perfectly fine to use Round up on your ditch! You could use the selective herbicide on your ditch, but some weed species may not be killed. Round up will kill anything green...

 

[MTDB1983]

I wouldn’t use RoundUp. But everything else BayouBoy said is pretty spot on.

Of course, you’ll wanna go ahead and lay an application of Pre-Emergent to keep the winter weeds from coming up this upcoming Nov/Dec. Try Prodiamine.

Then a week later you can do an application of post-emergent. Try Celcisus.

Then go ahead and fertilize it. Use Milorganite so you don’t have to water it in. It’s a Biosolid that will break down on its own. Of course, your lawn should get 1.5 inches of water every week. Split that up into two waterings.

Once you get blanket control of the weeds, spot spray as they come up. Do it on a calm day.

Then lay down 4 apps of fert per year.

I would HIGHLY recommend finding someone on YouTube that you like and follow them as they give tips.

I like The Lawn Care Nut. Good luck.

 

[egautr1]

It's still to early to fertilize or use weed n feed products. Wait until about the second week in April when the grass is active again. Try to do it prior to a light/meduim rain so the fertilizer can soak in. If you don't time the rain right, use a lawn sprinkler. You can spray for weeds right now (its actually a good time)....just pick a good selective herbicide and spot spray or cover the entire lawn. I use Fertilome weed free zone. It is more pricey, but I get great results.

Go ahead and cut now just to get your lawn looking good. After a long winter, even the best kept lawns get a little straggley looking. A fresh mow will have you the envy of the neighbors! Centipede is usually cut @ 1 - 2.5 inches.

It's perfectly fine to use Round up on your ditch! You could use the selective herbicide on your ditch, but some weed species may not be killed. Round up will kill anything green...

Awesome thanks guys!

So for the Fertilome weed free zone, do you use the spray or the granules?? And is it safe around kids? I have a rotary spreader so I usually use that to put down the spectracide on the whole lawn. Do you guys recommend or have any experience with that?

And thanks MTDB1983. If not roundup to use in the ditch what would you recommend? I don't want anything growing in my ditch. I like it bare to collect the water, plus it looks nice and neat. Some people just let the weeds grow in their ditch and it looks like the marsh. I don't get it....
thanks for the tips guys!!

 

[MTDB1983]

Awesome thanks guys!

So for the Fertilome weed free zone, do you use the spray or the granules?? And is it safe around kids? I have a rotary spreader so I usually use that to put down the spectracide on the whole lawn. Do you guys recommend or have any experience with that?

And thanks MTDB1983. If not roundup to use in the ditch what would you recommend? I don't want anything growing in my ditch. I like it bare to collect the water, plus it looks nice and neat. Some people just let the weeds grow in their ditch and it looks like the marsh. I don't get it....
thanks for the tips guys!!

Any non-selective Herbicide that doesn’t have Glyphosate is fine. Spectracide works just fine. Of course, if you don’t want anything to ever grow there... ever... you can solarize it and then take all the dead stuff out, then put a pre-emergent down. You’ll need to do spring and fall apps for a couple of years and then it’ll probably never grow weeds again.