Thanks for the advice, as always, MOFO.

How often are you putting down the Milorganite on your neighbor's lawn?

I have some weeds starting to pop up on my lawn, so I guess I'll go to Step 2. I will definitely need to use something for slugs and Creeping Charlie.

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Does it also work on Cheap Charlie?

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

I follow the "holiday schedule". Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Halloween. Follow that and you cant go wrong. you can even put it down monthly if you like what you see and things are going well. Its pretty much fuck-up proof. On my neighbors lawn I have been a bit more aggressive - I have put down a full load of Milo and 2 full helpings of Scotts Step 1 crabgrass control, plus a load of a new fertilizer I am trying this year from Yard Mastery called "Double Dark". So far so good on that, but I dont have enough experience with it to recommend it quite yet. From this point forward I am going holiday schedule and spot spraying weeds.

Milo can easily be used along with Scott's products, you wont burn your yard or anything if you use the proper bag rates of application, you can pretty much go crazy with it though the five apps a year should be perfectly fine.

Just to re-iterate - when applying the Step 2 weed control, apply it when the yard is very wet for maximum stickiness, and when the forecast is dry so that it stays "stuck" for as long as possible for maximum effect. Once it washes off, or if it never sticks in the first place, you will get minimum results.

I think I mentioned above but another reminder - the grub control window is pretty much upon us. Grubs and critters feasting on grubs can definitely fuck your lawn up if left untreated. Grub problems are what got me into yard care in the first place, my yard was trashed 4 or 5 years ago. Anytime between now and maybe the 2nd week of June is the perfect time to apply Grub control. That stuff definitely needs to be watered in to be effective so keep an eye on the weather forecast and put it down the day before a wet period and you'll be fine.

I'm building a deck, I wanted to see about a quote for digging out 5 fence post holes, I did 10 last Sunday and it fucking sucked...$900 for 5 holes, yeah, I'll rent the auger again and do it myself.

Yes I will likely attack the dead spots in the fall. Missed the window this spring. The stuff I bought for Creeping Charlie is called Monterey Spurge Power Herbicide. Contains mcpa, triclopyr and dicamba (no 2,4-d). They sell a little pint bottle of it for about $25 and then you have to water it down significantly. Stuff is nasty and kills most anything it comes in contact with. Not sure I will use it much more as the digging it out at least from the weed beds is much more effective. I'll look for the other Weed B Gon stuff next time I go to Menards to attack the stuff in the yard. I follow your schedule more or less for the fertilizing and use Scotts Weed and Feed mostly. I have a relatively small yard at my current place so it was tempting to just have the lawn stripped off and start over, but that is an expensive fix and I think I can maybe get it to turn the corner with a little more work and another year of care. The previous owner didn't do much with it. Definitely could use an aeration I am guessing. I'd be surprised if it has been done before and the house has been here since 1938.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Man, what rain we got in Elgin, the lawn exploded this week. I'm gonna try to get out of work early and go home and mow. The grass is at that time in the season where it's trying to seed itself (it has the little seedlings on the end of the blade), so I want to mulch that shit down and help get them in to the ground.

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Certified Dirty Old Man

Here's a question for the gurus: If I've laid down fertilizer (granular, not liquid), does it hurt the lawn to water it too often? My understanding is that the "prill" (the actual grain/pellet) is designed with a coating so that the fertilizer is slowly released over time, but each time I water the lawn, the prill shrinks and more fertilizer is released. So not only does the application expire faster than expected, but I'm afraid I might be oversaturating/burning the lawn. Does that make sense or am I overthinking it? Should I just limit watering to once a week?

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yes, my lawn has been going to seed for a couple weeks. Those seed heads aren't going to actually germinate however. Any seeds you see on lawn varieties are nowhere near mature enough to reseed your lawn when you mow them down. Mowing them is very good for your lawn though, because the grass is using a lot of energy trying to grow the seed heads so lopping them off allows the plant to focus energy on root growth instead of useless seed head production.

so different fertilizers release at different rates. Organic ferts such as Milorganite are typically slow release and dont usually give you the instant WOW factor of a synthetic fertilizer such as Scotts products that, when applied and rained in, give much faster (but shorter term) results. I am not a chemist, so the chemical composition of synthetic fertilizers is beyond my comprehension but they typical have much larger doses of Nitrogen which promotes growth. It is virtually impossible to burn your lawn with an organic fertilizer. Common weed and feed products and Scotts synthetics can cause damage if thrown down too often or in too large of amounts.

As far as watering goes, unless you have fresh seed there is no need to be irrigating at this point. The temps have been cool and recently the rain has been sufficient. You cannot damage your lawn by over-saturating fertilizer, and regular rainfall in the warm months is always welcome. Once your lawn starts to go dormant (all cool weather lawns do) you can fight it off as long as you want through irrigation. I am on city water so my water bill gets a bit out of hand so once I go that first week of hot no rain I start watering twice a week (front yard only, I let the back yard check out), .25" each time. So .5" a week. I find that to be barely enough to keep it acceptably green. I dont recommend any aggressive fertilizing during the summer. The lawn doesn't want to grow, and putting excessive Nitrogen down stresses it out and unless you water the shit out of it it could burn your yard. I do the one load of slow-release Milo on Independence day and that's it. During hot summer months just water it regularly and refrain from pushing growth. It'll bounce back in September. Summer is when your lawn reaps the benefits of your consistent schedule of fertilizing. It will stay green longer than most and bounce back quicker, but even the best lawn is going to check out during hot stretches (unless you are irrigating daily and cost is no issue).

thanks mofo

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Tryclopyr is the key to tough weeds. 2,4-d is fine for common weeds like dandelions. Wild Violet, Creeping Charlie, Clover laugh at 2,4-d. So all my spot spraying is with Tryclpyr.

Nothing wrong with Scott's products, but unless you have a infestation of actively growing weeds, weed and feed isn't going to prevent weeds. I look at weed and feed as a one-off product to eliminate large weed problems, not a routine product. A good pre-emergent like Prodiamine in the spring will prevent weeds from growing. Weed and feed kills actively growing weeds. A thick healthy lawn is the best defense. Dandelions have little chance of germinating in my thick 4" lawn. After a year or too of nurturing a healthy lawn, weed control becomes less and less of the equation. And I had a salad bar up until 4-5 years ago, now I spend about 15 minutes every month spraying and pulling stray weeds.

So Weiss hit up the house this week with treatment #3;

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Certified Dirty Old Man

Is Weiss Lawn Care the company you use? How much do they charge for a full yearly program?

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Yes.

I am on the 7 step annual program plus grub control.

It is $40.65 per application so $284.55 annually plus $58.50 for the grub control application (which she said will be done next time they're out).

I am very pleased with their service. They turned my one yard at my other house from a weed fest to nearly a perfect yard that everyone in the neighborhood is complimenting on and now all have Wiess going down the block.

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Certified Dirty Old Man

Just as a heads up - things are pretty dry and the forecast isn't very wet in the next couple of weeks at least. The stage is setting for what could be a pretty damaging grub season. If you have had grub problems in the past or are concerned about them, you still have time to lay down grub control. With no rain in the forecast, water the shit out of it, or you can use one of the liquid controls on the market. I am noticing lawns all over town are already weak and dry and checking out into dormancy which is a bad sign in early June. Weak grass equals weak root systems that are vulnerable to grubs.

how many square feet is your lawn? I have only about 5000 sq feet so it costs me quite a bit less than that to do it myself, but that is actually a pretty good price for a larger lawn. I have a friend with a half-acre lawn that uses a lawn service and it looks great and he pays a lot more than that. my next door neighbor has roughly the same size as mine and he was paying $75 for 5 visits a year and his yard was still covered in crab grass and weeds. Just in the time since I took over in spring about 90% of the crabgrass is gone and the weeds are all just about gone. Its gonna take a couple seasons to get the grass thickened up. I am not anti-lawn service at all, I just enjoy doing it and in my case it is a lot cheaper. If i had a huge lawn it might be another story.

Not sure of the actual dimensions.

The West Chicago house has a larger "field" between houses. Something like 50 feet wide by 120 ft long. It's big enough that my tractor with a 42" deck takes 45 minutes to mow to mow the whole thing.

The Elgin house, I have (what I consider part of the "Front" lawn), a fairly large side portion... With my 21" mower it takes about 45 minutes to mow also.

Any of the pics I have to post are too big for this site unfortunately...

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Certified Dirty Old Man

Got a new lawn mower as a gift this weekend, a new Ego electric model. I had been eyeballing one for a long time but have remained fiercely loyal to my 20-year-old Craftsman. That is until I took the Ego out for the first mow this weekend. Very light, very quiet and a powerful clean cut. I got both mine and the neighbors yards done on one charge (about 10k sq ft). If anyone is considering an electric model, my instant review is positive. Now lets see how many years I get out of it.

The Ego platform is great! I have the blower and the hedge trimmer. When my Toro dies, I will get the mower as well. Glad to hear you like it.

Any concerns about the plastic blades getting messed up by branches or leaves?

While most of the mower is indeed plastic, the blade is steel. I typically clear off all the branches and debris before mowing, so I'm not too concerned about wear and tear on the mower. I won't lie, it feels very light, it doesn't have the heft I am used to, and my yard has some bumpy areas where I can feel that thing bouncing around a bit. The cut is incredible though - i have it on the mulching setting and it is amazing how thoroughly it cuts that grass up, the clippings are microscopic.

My plan is, if this mower works out for the long term, to replace my other yard tools such as weed whacker, leaf blower, hedge clippers with compatible Ego products that use the same batteries. I like that you can buy the "tool only" option without the battery once you have a couple batteries already. But i need to make sure the mower continues to function properly for a couple years before I invest a lot more into their stuff.

I have a friend who has been using an Ego mower for a couple of months and he really likes it.

I just picked up a Cub Cadet riding lawn mower, and it is working great so far. I'm going to get an aerating tool to hook onto it for fall overseeding. Looking forward to that!

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Which "lawn"? Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'm not against electric, but I have larger areas and very thick/dense turf to do, so it'd be dead after two passes.

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Certified Dirty Old Man

You might be surprised about that. This thing cut like a hot knife through butter through my dense bluegrass and didn’t even hiccup. I think ego even has a zero-turn option now.

I have the Echo version with the attachments…so nice not to deal with gas/oil.

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This has been a great stretch of weather for the lawn the last month or so. A good mix of rain and humidity and not overwhelmingly hot temps. I am still mowing twice a week into mid-July and that is pretty rare. This season I bought some new organic fertilizer online from a company called Yard Mastery, its the brand pushed by YouTube's Allyn Hayne, the Lawn Care Nut. Milorganite was getting more scarce and more expensive around here so I decided to buy this stuff online and use it this season. I am using it on the front yard only, just as a test while I continue to use Menard's Milorganite knock-off brand on the back yard and the front and back of my neighbors yard that I care for. I have to say, this stuff has been showing my some amazing results. My bluegrass front yard is as thick and deep blue-green as it has ever been, the fact that it is still pushing healthy growth this deep into the summer is amazing. Yard Mastery has an entire series of organic fertilizers that while expensive ($60 for a 45-pound bag, free shipping) is actually pretty inexpensive per application due to very low application rates and cheaper that the local going rate for Milorganite. I haven't used it even for an entire season yet so I am not going to go full-blown recommendation, but so far I am pretty impressed. The extra thickness has absolutely stopped weed growth, I haven't had to spray a weed since early June, when it was dry. I see more rain coming tonight and tomorrow, that will probably keep it thick and green for at least another week without any extra irrigation required.

Funny you mention Allyn Hayne, I've been following him too. Even though he's in Florida, I think he is originally from around here. I bought some Prodiamine from his company last year, and the results have been great (not just due to that, but I give it some of the credit). Question: is Prodiamine only used one time in the spring (pre-emergent)?

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Prodiamine is a pre-emergent, so yes you would us it in the Spring (or in the fall, though i dont use it in the fall). It doesn't kill actively growing weeds. The recommendation I follow with it is to put down an initial load (about 3/4 of the recommended amount) down in early to mid April, let that soak in with some rain for a couple weeks, and then put the rest down a few weeks later. It totals one recommended load, but it is just laid down in two seperate applications. I think I got that tip from Allyn.

Allyn used to live in NW Indiana, and his content from that period is priceless. Back then he was really low-key, his channel was very much focused on every-day lawn care, keeping it inexpensive, real solid advice focused on cool-weather grasses. In recent years, particularly since he relocated to Florida, his videos have gotten more slick and more commercialized and have lost some of the "everyman" appeal he had initially, and now he makes a living out of his channel and Yard Mastery. I still like his channel but the warm-weather focus on a lot of his videos and the focus on pushing products has turned me away and towards other channels that focus on cool-season stuff. Apparently his approach has worked on me because I bought Yard Mastery fertilizer, but his videos are no longer "must-watch" for me. Look back to his early stuff from 5-6 years ago, so much great information without a lot of the slick production.

Yea, amazing what a little water from Mother Nature will do. I can't keep up. I actually had to make two passes at the one house last Saturday. First to rough cut it it, then the second pass (in a crossing pattern), to clean up the cut (when you get so much grass under the deck, trying to mulch, it doesn't cut cleanly), and to recut the mulch.

Anyway, yesterday when I was there, it looked like I had never done anything.

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Certified Dirty Old Man