Man this is highly thought provoking even if I am completely unsure about what to do with my lawn now for the academic studies is it an extreme clay soil environment with no history of grass growing or topsoil over the clay? Maybe an extreme “lab” is environment that isn’t as reflective of your average yard that has clay a few inches down?
I mean, I went to school for turf grass management and have been in the industry for 20 years, but it’s your yard. Do what you want. The amount of organic material you would need to put down to change the percentage in a half acre yard by a percent, maybe, would easily be 20,000 pounds or more going on an estimate of a half acre yard having almost 1,000,000 pounds of top soil.
Spend the money to get a soil sample test of your yard to see what you’re actually working with. Then you can develop a plan.
This is my last rant on it. I spent the majority of my career managing golf courses in the mountains with predominantly clay soils for fairways and rough. Sand and clay makes sandy clay, not concrete. Sand really is an impurity that opens up the soil. That’s why it’s great for drainage and compaction issues. It adds more micro and macro pore area in the soil. When a “clay soil” hardens due to sand it’s because there is an access of magnesium salt. That’s why you want a soil test and determine what you need to be amending your soil with.
This is what I thought I remembered extension agent telling me at our old place (also clay), but I wasn't sure.
So, according to pH, what would you amend with, respectively, for acid and alkaline soils? I'll likely have a company come do this, but if we get into some COVID purgatory work from home, I'm going to get to work with a cultivator...
You can use lime to balance your pH in the soil. It’s a slow process, though. I prefer to do a application in the fall after punching holes, before the grass is dormant. The freeze / thaw cycle of the winter helps to break the lime down in your soil. Don’t ever apply more than 50 pounds per 1000 sq feet. If a soil tests indicates that you need more, split the application into a spring and fall project. Also, make sure your yard is dry. Lime can burn leaf tips. Feel free to water it in after application.
Is this the correct thread for a backyard makeover? Moved into this house in November and it had a terrible backyard. Tons of really tall ugly plants I had to rip up. Put a bunch of pine straw down today. Removed tons of ugly shrubs. Whenever it gets warmer I'm seeding Bermuda along that fence line. Speaking of fences, replacing that thing is a must.
Depending where on the fence line, you may struggle to grow Bermuda (shade). Just FYI. Great work on the transformation
Any ideas on what to do then? There's a long strip along the fence line where they had a bed with those tall plants. I guess I'll try bermuda and if it fails then I'm not sure what I'll do.
depending on what side of your house, it will be fine if it gets enough sunlight. If the fence shades it out, you’re toast. Could mulch the fence line, create a bed, put in some shrubs/flowers.
Regarding the fence, I’d strip/pressure wash it then seal instead of replacing the whole thing. The initial pressure wash will take forever but every 2-3 years will be a lot quicker.
Starting to think about my lawn. I have centipede grass. Was wanting to do some Scott’s triple action but would also like to add some seeds this spring also to thicken up my yard. Give me your best suggestions on how to better my yard.
condolences I planted st Augustine and zoysia in spots around mine and letting nature take its course so that inferior centipede can die the slow death it deserves
I wish I could do that. My front lawn would be perfect to change. But I don’t want to resod. Can I through zoysa over centipede.
I had a few spots in my front and back yards where I had some bare patches to deal with. Small minority of the whole. Planted st Augustine plugs in front and zoysia in back and let them spread. They’re now variant patches that you notice if you look for them intentionally, but someone driving by won’t. They might notice those areas look a lot greener/healthier in growing seasons actually, but that’s about it. In both cases the st Augustine and zoysia dominate the centipede and have completely taken over where they’ve had time to do so. But this is explicitly a long game and if you’re extreme type A it won’t work. If you don’t plan on sitting tight for 10-15 years - or alternately won’t enjoy watching the process play out - this is not the strategy for you. Further rold man wisdom: I do think of my lawn through a few lenses. Call them 50/10/1. People driving by/curb appeal = 50 feet. Your lawn is an impressionist painting to them. Green is green. Water Sun and weed and feed will do what they need to do. Your average visitor walking in it = 10. They might notice detail of where they’re walking - think of it like a putting green - keep those areas nice. But rough can stay rough. And then 1 = you and your maker. No one else is going to stoop down and notice a small patch of something annoying growing in it but you. Whatever you’re doing for the “1” is pure self actualization so treat it as such. is this like the clean bracelets post for the lawn thread? Feels like I’m straying into that zone but yolo
Hello With my last house I really didn't give a shit about the yard because it was just there and whatever I just cut the grass whenever. With this current house it's not as simple. The previous owner had the entire yard resodded in June and stopped watering the shit right before we closed. In result there are strips of turf that's just dead as fuck to where I can kick it loose now. Is there any salvaging that shit or should I prepare to rip it out and start over? What should I replace it with in the Midwest? I'm dumb aa fuck when it comes to lawns but I now want to have a beautiful one. I will now hang up and listen.
Anyone have sod laid recently? I'm getting an irrigation system put in and sod laid this spring. Going with some Zeon Zoysia per various recs & sun in the yard. Looks like sod is about $400 a pallet. Installed it's about $275 per pallet. Wondering if that installation charge is about what everyone else paid.
I hired my own labor and oversaw the install. Personally, I wouldn't pay that install rate. All in you're paying 675/pallet; how many sq. feet are you installing? A pallet typically covers ~500 sq. feet. I paid ~.45cents/sq. foot for the material. Palisades Zoysia.
Just put down a bunch of centipede seed yesterday along a long narrow strip next to my fence where I dug up some ugly plants and now it is just dirt. Should I put some Scotts turf builder on top now? I probably should have done it yesterday. I'm going to water the seed twice a day for 3 weeks or until it grows 2-3 inches. Interested to see if this works.
seeded centipede grass in a bald spot along fence and it has sprouted 3 weeks later Also planted 10 encore azaleas last weekend
Kentucky Blue Grass weed is the devil. I know the heat will kill it but I want it gone now. Sprayed it with round up/Ortho. It is dying. The weed and feed killed a bunch of it too. It is resilient. Grows like crazy. Played Robert Trent Jones in Mobile last weekend and it was covered with it. Need to hit it with pre emergent next year.
Been on a plant buying spree lately... Have planted 10 encore azaleas, 4 dwarf lorapetalums, 5 pittosprum/cheesewoods, and 10 hydrangeas. Also bought 4 ferns and 4 petunia baskets for hanging.
Anyone have recommendations for a battery backpack sprayer? I put down preeemergent on Thursday expecting light rain on Friday and it was pretty much a downpour all day. So I'm expecting a decent amount of postemergent needs this is year.
Degausser Looking good! Mine is still waking up. The forecast finally calls for some sustained 80s during the day so it should start moving along. About a month out from being picture worthy.
I’m in Charlotte. Have had a pretty mild April. Early this week was in the 50s with lows in the 30s. Not the recipe I’m looking for.
We've had a much more extended spring than normal around here too. It seems like we get 2 or 3 mild weeks a year before it's 90s every day, but we're going on a month and a half of 40s-50s overnight and mostly 70s in the afternoon.
Where are you? it’s a catch 22 for me, love it for being outside etc and playing with the kids. Hate it for the turf. That said, it’ll be sustained 90s before I know it and I’ll be mowing 3x a week. A real love hate.
I'm outside Columbus, GA, a couple hours south of Atlanta. We're definitely enjoying having so much porch time this spring.
Laid down some pinestraw today, did some more centipede seeding, put together a patio table and some chairs, blew the pollen off everything, watered my centipede that has sprouted and my azaleas, and dug up more blue grass weed. Grindin
All the professionals I see use pump backpacks They seem pretty simple But I wanna know how big your yard is to justify it
Well it’s a start. I’ve put down over 100lbs of pre emergent and poa still is a thing. My neighbor’s TruGreen membership isn’t doing me any favors. I used image (3oz per gallon) about 8 and 4 weeks ago. The lawn was still dormant but man it’s still taking a toll on the yard.
My yard went from dormant to full on growing in 3 days, and my mower decided to shit itself when I had about 7 more passes to finish everything off.
I bought a trailer to hook up to my mower and got a 20 gallon tank that connects to the lawn mower battery. It’s pretty lazy and I’m for it.