Lawn care?

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by hudson, Apr 17, 2015.

  1. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    My echo has been great for 5 years or so
    Put a new spark plug in it the other day and it fired up first pull
     
  2. Baseballman86

    Baseballman86 Well-Known Member
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    Thanks, I’ll check them out.
    Anybody do battery trimmers? My yard isn’t huge and I’m just trimming grass, no brush, so I don’t necessarily need gas power.
     
  3. Trofie

    Trofie Well-Known Member
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    I bought one, my wife said she wouldnt weed wack because she couldn't start the gas one. It sucks and she still has never used it.
     
  4. Det. Frank Bullitt

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    I use gas (echo) but this site recommends an electronic one as "best for most people", but I won't be switching from gas to electric/battery powered any time soon.

    https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-string-trimmers/
     
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  5. BleedinGreen

    BleedinGreen Detroit, Michigan State, and Celery
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    I purchased the Ego (actually the carbon fiber one w/ the line feeder as they were out of the cheaper one) and I think it's fantastic. I also have a pretty small yard and only use it around around the lawn and edging. Def. gets the job done. I have the mower as well and have never had an issue with it either.
     
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  6. BleedinGreen

    BleedinGreen Detroit, Michigan State, and Celery
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    Some sort of Kentucky Bluegrass but there is some other stuff mixed in. Raking up all the dead grass seems to have done the tick as it looks noticeably better compared to last week. Will probably mow next weekend if the weather cooperates.
     
  7. Oranjello

    Oranjello Well-Known Member
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    A buddy is trying to convince me to look at Makita over EGO due to the Makita battery "ecosystem" being the best. For example, where DeWalt would require you to get a new ~40v battery to power a mower, with Makita you simply put 2 18v batteries onto the mower and you're good to go. So the same batteries can be used for lots of different tools. Anyone else looked into this, not finding a ton of comparisons online
     
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  8. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I already have all makita cordless drills and stuff, so this interests me
    But for now my gas powered stuff works great, so I haven't looked into it much
     
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  9. dahldennsull

    dahldennsull Living in the best state
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    not pure 'lawn care' per say, but felt mighty handy this weekend as previous owners left a super beat up electric pole saw in my lawn shed when they moved.

    looked up the model, bought some replacement parts for the broken stuff, replaced the chain, cleaned it all out, new oil and trimmed a bunch of dead limbs out of my trees yesterday. Such a nice clean feeling not seeing those ugly dead branches sticking up the middle or out the top/sides of your big trees.

    Some are still too damn high to get to as a dad and not wanting to collect life insurance

    Had my big helper out with me too. Got some even bigger in my front yard, forgot to take pics, you're welcome neighbors

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Joystick Izzy

    Joystick Izzy Well-Known Member
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    I own a bunch of Black and Decker battery-powered tools, including a string trimmer. It works well for me and gets the job done. I've got a bunch of spare batteries as needed, but the battery lasts a decent amount of time. It's not going to give you the same power that a gas-powered one will, but for general weed-eating and even edging, it works fine. It also is going to be much more durable and require no maintenance long-term compared to gas.
     
  11. Funshot Residue

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    Fucking snowed on me (Central Va) while I was servicing the tractor/finish mower this morning. That was a new one.
     
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  12. 49ers169

    49ers169 Administrator
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    So my wife and I are looking to upgrade our lawn, as right now it is weed infested. What is the going rate for sod?

    We have probably a medium size lawn and were quoted $13K for both the front and back and seeding approximately half of that. Another quote we got for seeding was $465 for all of it (they don't do sod).
     
  13. Det. Frank Bullitt

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    how many sq ft or perhaps you were quoted by # of pallets of sod?

    I am seeing $175-225 per pallet, with bermuda and st augustine and the bottom, and GMO St augustine/zoysias on the top end.

    I am something like 23.5 pallets (~10K square feet) and have seen prices from $7-12k all in. I personally wouldn't do sod without a sprinkler system, and since we don't have one, the quotes for that were another $4-8k, meaning the project would have been pushing $20k. Too rich for me to go with the 'overnight' lawn without first seeing what I can do myself.

    The sales guys that came in all said nuke it and start over, but I am going to treat it for this year with all of the TLC I can and see how it looks spring of next year.

    If that doesn't work, I'll reconsider paying for a new lawn, but it wouldn't be fully sodded, I would checkboard parts and seed other parts - and only sod the front in its entirety.
     
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  14. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    This is the route I went. Compadre Zoysia. I bought one pallet to get my back yard going. They were squares so I spaced them out to get more coverage once they established and started spreading, seeded the rest. Front yard I completely seeded. It’s taken about 3 summers to get there but it should finally be were I want it to be this summer. I also last year put in my own sprinkler system, that’s help a ton obviously.
     
  15. War Grundle

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    I have a couple Black & Decker battery power lawn stuff as well. Work great.


    Today I’m installing electrical lights all around my walk way and around the pool. Thankfully it’s like 75 outside and not hot.
     
  16. Sub-Zero

    Sub-Zero ALL THE TOSTITOS!!!
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    Trying to finally getting around to getting my backyard lawn into something that should be a lawn.

    I need a bunch of the sprinkler heads moved/adjusted since i just extended a screened in patio. I have no idea what these repairs should cost but got the below quote. Anyone have any ideas if this seems reasonable?

    upload_2020-4-11_14-54-43.png
     
  17. Cabs

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    including labor that doesnt seem too outrageous. I do a bunch of irrigation at work and all of that sounds reasonable/not like they're trying to bs you
     
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  18. 49ers169

    49ers169 Administrator
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    Yeah the lawn guy we initially had out to evaluate said nuke it all and his quote to reseed wasn’t terrible ($465). Our back I would say is 50/50 weeds and our front is absolutely atrocious with crabgrass having killed 25 % of the lawn area.

    The back current grass area is approximately 1,330 square feet and they priced approximately $8k to sod which seems quite ludicrous. Front is about the same relatively.

    Also found the guy is absurd and think his clientele just pays absurd amounts of money without caring for cost.
     
  19. 49ers169

    49ers169 Administrator
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    The last landscaper provided us a sod specific company that was a third off the cost and has really good reviews.

    Do any of you guys have retaining walls? We have one in the front of our house and the wife wants to edge immediately behind it to prevent weeds and the like from getting in. Seems pointless to me and search results have been a mix bag.
     
  20. Baron

    Baron Well-Known Member
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    So since I bought my house last year, the yard has been a work in progress with weeds etc. Finally got rid of a lot of hte clover and have a lot of bare spots, whats the recommended treatment for patching those spots? Should I just get some Scott's 3 in 1 seed from HD? I live in OH, so my yard is fescue, or some variant.
     
  21. Dukes

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    If it’s just small bare spots then you can throw down seed and it might take with a lot of water. If it’s a big area your best bet is probably to wait until the fall when temps cool down especially for fescue. It’s unlikely anything that germinates now will survive the summer
     
  22. Lucky24Seven

    Lucky24Seven Ain't nothing slick to a can of oil
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    If you decide to seed now, keep the seeded area damp. Multiple waterings a day, but be sure not to water heavily as to move the seed from the area.
     
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  23. Baron

    Baron Well-Known Member
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    This is what I’m dealing with here and there, some spots could be bigger.
     

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  24. Lucky24Seven

    Lucky24Seven Ain't nothing slick to a can of oil
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    Rake all that dead stuff out there first to give the seed a good bed to germinate on.
     
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  25. double RL

    double RL old school
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    We haven't sanded this yard yet, but it's really coming along nicely since we sodded it last month. They went with a very minimalist approach from our original design, but overall, it's going to look really nice. IMG_20200529_083157.jpg
     
  26. Det. Frank Bullitt

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    lawn looks sharp. what is the protocol to keep the grass trimmed/neat with all of those edges? Just weedwhack real low?
     
  27. Lucky24Seven

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    If I were maintaining it, I’d have an edger or turn a line trimmer upside down to accomplish the same thing. Safety glasses a must with the trimmer method if anyone tries something like that.
     
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  28. double RL

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    It's Zeon Zoysia, and if you set the stones at the right height, you can just mow over it. You can't put the stones so low that rhizomes can climb across them. Each stone is set in a bed of tamped #8910.
     
  29. Det. Frank Bullitt

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    Am an edger purist, but I don't think that would look good here imo. Either edger or weedwhacker would take forever with dozens of cuts/passes.
     
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  30. Randy Bobandi

    Randy Bobandi Well-Known Member
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    Is this a safe space to talk about plants and trees? Or are we on strictly grass business?
     
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  31. Cabs

    Cabs eatin' fried okra with Oprah
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    Ask away my friend.

    Should just mage this the general Hort thread
     
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  32. Randy Bobandi

    Randy Bobandi Well-Known Member
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    Bought some 7-8 foot trees online. Came bare root. Planted them in some nice compost soil (have sandy soil thought they needed better than sandy) and some rooting hormone. My question is how long do I need to water above and beyond what my lawn sprinklers provide? 2 cherries a peach and a fig btw.
     
  33. Lucky24Seven

    Lucky24Seven Ain't nothing slick to a can of oil
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    Soak the SOBs. Trees take a gallons upon gallons of water a day. I think Oaks can drink 100 gal of water a day. Most important aspect of planting trees is to have the top of the root ball at soil level or slightly higher. If it's buried deep, it can snuff out your tree.
     
  34. Baron

    Baron Well-Known Member
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  35. Cabs

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    Like Lucky said, burying it too deep is the worst thing you can do. Soak the shit out of it. Easiest thing to do is building a berm around it and fill it with water. Water it until the ground stops absorbing it and then top the berm off
     
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  36. Dale Doback

    Dale Doback Well-Known Member
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    Lawncarenut released a lawn app. Still a little rough around the edges but will be good once fine tuned.
     
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  37. double RL

    double RL old school
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    My standard planting routine is to plant with the top 3" above the soil line. Put a mix of organic planting mix and layers of the natural soil pretty thick around the ball. Root stake the trees instead of top staking. Set a water ring out and don't let the roots go dry until fall.

    And don't forget mulch.
     
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  38. double RL

    double RL old school
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    If you have plants that you absolutely want to live, plant them with ProMix soil and Mirimichi Green. At least one or the other.
     
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  39. The Hebrew Husker

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    Had some landscapers do some work and it appears one part of my lawn got kind of indented, I watered and now there’s a couple puddles forming.

    I assume most of the grass that was matted down will recover since it’s still early spring, but would something like a garden fork work to try and build up my soil in the areas where the puddle is
     
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  40. THF

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    I will defer to the experts but couldn’t you take the easy route and drop down some top soil or sand in the low areas and even it out?
     
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  41. Randy Bobandi

    Randy Bobandi Well-Known Member
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    I had a really nasty dent in a well grassed area. I took an irrigation cutter and sliced the grass/sod picked it up like a bed sheet and put some soil under it. Tamped it down lightly and watered the holy hell out of it. No more dent.
     
  42. The Hebrew Husker

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    That’s the other thing I was thinking but didn’t know if it would deter grass from growing “through” it.
     
  43. THF

    THF BITE THE NUTS, THUMB IN THE ASS!
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    It will look like shit for a few weeks but it shouldn’t be a problem unless you pack the soil too tight. As long as it’s a bit loose the grass should grow right through it.
     
  44. Lucky24Seven

    Lucky24Seven Ain't nothing slick to a can of oil
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    All this rain and cooler temps are doing a number on my yard. Gonna have to go out with a light, quick release N app to get stuff back in order. Just Red Thread, nothing that will kill turf, just making areas look like shit.
    507DE438-1D8F-48FF-B8C4-871EEE84388E.jpeg
     
  45. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    Have posted a lot in here the last few years, have put 1000’s of hours into my yard and think finally this is the year it looks close to how I want. Unfortunately don’t have great front yard before picture but imagine several pine trees and just completely over grown. Here it is this afternoon.
     

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  46. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    Here is a nice little progression of the same area of my backyard:
     

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  47. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Pine trees are hard to deal with
    Guy down the road planted a bunch of them 20 years ago and they are huge
    He died a couple years ago and rhe guy who bought his property is left to deal with them
    Just saw he has a crew cutting and trimming a bunch of them
     
  48. Beachy Toast

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    Looks nice.
     
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  49. Lucky24Seven

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    Nice work! Really like those hydrangeas. That leaf stuck out to me like a sore thumb, lol :awesomeface:
     
  50. Det. Frank Bullitt

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