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vs Dinosaurs posted:Thanks for the advice. Internet says waiting days not weeks before tilling, which is better for my schedule. Days is fine, but understand rototilling is going to drag up dormant weed seed. You're better off tilling/preparing for seed and giving things a week or two to sprout so you can spray again, wait 2 weeks and then seed. (You're 2 weeks away from seeding with most herbicides like glyphosate or 2,4-D so every time you spray restart the timer before you seed)
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Sep 6, 2022 20:31
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I have a clear picture of what I need to do now, thanks yal.
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Sep 6, 2022 21:00
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Ubiquitus posted:Can anyone give me the skinny on pre-emergent? Is it safe to use in areas I never expect to make a garden? My understanding is that it changes the ph of the soil, is that correct? Or is it some heinous concoction that’s the equivalent of salting the earth? I use it spring and fall. Tried both prodiamine and dithiopyr, a/b tested on different sides of my lawn, dithiopyr seemed to do a slightly better job on my lawn. Really cuts down on the dallis grass and poa annua. Haven’t quite figured out the timing to get the spurge yet.
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Sep 7, 2022 00:29
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I just got my soil test results back (https://imgur.com/a/OUS2vBD), and the soil pH changes I understand (buy 180 lbs of lime for my 3000 sqft lawn), but I'm not sure about the 4-1-4 fertilizer. Is this something where I try to mix and match different products to reach that ratio? There's a lot of pre-mixed ratios (16-4-8 is the closest) out there but I haven't been able to find exactly my match. Also, I'm prepping to dethatch and overseed in the next few days: do I fertilize in a few weeks after the seeds have taken hold, or should I fertilize simultaneously?
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Sep 26, 2022 23:26
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I've owned my house since Dec 2015, and in that time I've never cut the grass or plowed it myself-- I've always just paid a service to do it. Originally I had "a guy" who had a landscaping company that lived around the corner who was both cheap and awesome, mostly ran his landscaping business for something to do, his wife made tons of money and was great, did everything we needed as needed, never had to bother him etc. Unfortunately he moved to Florida a few years ago, and since then we've basically gone through a different local landscaping business each year (once we went through two in the same year). They've all been extremely flaky, would say they're going to do something and not do it until I hound them over and over, I've asked all of them that if I'm paying for this, I want to not have to think about my lawn/landscaping and just have them do whatever is needed. So far the closest I've gotten to that is my current company who seem to manage the lawn itself just fine on their own, but just seem to refuse to do the weeding of our gardens that we're paying for unless I bother my contact regularly that their guys have stopped weeding again. I'm kind of fed up of paying thousands of dollars a year to various companies and still having to deal with it, albeit indirectly and trying to come up with a different solution to this problem. I know the "standard" solution to this is to just mow the lawn yourself, which in theory I don't have a problem with, but if I'm being realistic I'm not likely to keep up with it well for a variety of reasons (I get chronic migraines, and being out in the heat for extended periods of time makes them significantly worse and here in PA our summers are miserable for me, ontop of the fact that I have severe ADHD that makes me not think of the lawn/garden/etc until it's noticeably bad). This seems like a perfect use case for some of the robotic mowers... but I have no real experience with them to know how good they actually are? I'm not really super price sensitive here, it's replacing a service that's currently costing me about $8k/year (tried a more expensive one this year to see if they were any better) and it looks like the most expensive of these is something like $5k-$6k in cost. To make things more complicated, part of my lawn is a pretty steep hill but I'm not actually sure what the degrees is on it's incline and my total property size is 1.5 acres, but of course my driveway and house take up some part of that. I also have a "flagstaff" lot, so while most of my lawn is bordered by trees/woods, the "staff" portion is bordered by my neighbors property. Does anyone have any experience with these to know if they'd do a good job in this use case or anything to know before I pull the trigger on one? Some pictures of the land in question:      The other thing I'll need to figure out a solution to is how to clear my driveway of snow without a landscaper as our driveway is longer than I'm willing to shovel by hand. When we grew up with a long drive way we had a skid loader and just used that but I don't have that here. Is getting a plow for my truck a terrible idea for a single driveway and is plowing with a truck particularly hard? Is something like a 4 wheeler or tractor with a smaller plow a better idea?
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Sep 27, 2022 16:33
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Comrade Gritty posted:The other thing I'll need to figure out a solution to is how to clear my driveway of snow without a landscaper as our driveway is longer than I'm willing to shovel by hand. When we grew up with a long drive way we had a skid loader and just used that but I don't have that here. Is getting a plow for my truck a terrible idea for a single driveway and is plowing with a truck particularly hard? Is something like a 4 wheeler or tractor with a smaller plow a better idea? What kind of truck do you have? How much snow do you get? Is it usually wet and heavy? Most folks around me (northern Michigan) try to use a heavier duty, older, truck to plow if they plow. Like an old F350, as a plow is really heavy. Now if you don't get much snow, you might be able to deal with a "plastic" plow on a light duty pickup. Some folks use an ATV with a plow, but if you get heavy, wet, snow you'll have problems moving it. I'm a big fan of a snowblower myself, I have a 500' driveway and can snowblow it in like 4 passes. Not as quickly as a plow, but it doesn't tear up my yard and I can put it where I want it. Mine attaches to my lawn tractor. I'm in a fairly high snowfall area, so being able to have a place for the snow becomes a big issue with a plow, as you may end up plowing halfway across the yard to have a place to push it later in the year.
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Sep 27, 2022 17:29
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Comrade Gritty posted:
It sounds like the problem you're having with landscaping companies is that they won't do other stuff such as weed your garden? From what I've seen, it's hard to get them to do that. In general they want to come out to mow, trim, edge, and then leave. I don't think a robotic mower is going to do any of that stuff either. I use a landscaping company, but I still find that I have a work to do. I'm constantly weeding or throwing seed down in bare spots. I'd love to pay somebody to do this, but they don't do it to the level I'd expect. You might be paying thousands a year now, but by switching to doing it all yourself you're going to have to invest a thousand up front in equipment and then lots of time each week throughout the year. Do you have a spot to store all of this equipment? Are you handy enough to get small motors started each spring? Are you comfortable sharpening blades? You also mention ADHD. My wife has ADHD and from what I have seen she would be horrible at this stuff. It's better for someone like her to hire it out. MrChrome fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Sep 27, 2022 |
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Sep 27, 2022 17:42
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How much garden do you actually have? The only garden I’m seeing is the small trim rectangle at the front of the house, which might explain why the landscaper isn’t giving it much attention. Like MrChrome said, a robot lawnmower won’t solve a weeding or edging problem. Had another thought: is there a good reason why that section of hill is a lawn? If it’s forest that takes it out of the mowing equation. ohhyeah fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Sep 27, 2022 |
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Sep 27, 2022 18:25
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Yooper posted:What kind of truck do you have? How much snow do you get? Is it usually wet and heavy? I'm in SE PA, which the internet says Philadelphia gets an average of 15" of snow a year, which seems about right. We, very occasionally, get more than that (our first year in the house we moved in like 4 days before a snow storm dumped 2' of snow... which had me rushing to buy a walk behind snowblower as I walked up and down the driveway for 10 hours trying to keep it from getting to deep for the blower). It's generally not enough that I feel bad about shoveling the bottom of the driveway, but the whole thing is long, and there's a steep spot that if it gets any ice on it makes it hard for anyone to get out of the driveway. I drive an 2008 F150, with the.. supercrew? whatever the full four doors is with whatever the longest bed was that year, 8' I think. MrChrome posted:It sounds like the problem you're having with landscaping companies is that they won't do other stuff such as weed your garden? From what I've seen, it's hard to get them to do that. In general they want to come out to mow, trim, edge, and then leave. I don't think a robotic mower is going to do any of that stuff either. The company I'm using now generally mows and edges fine, it's just.. anything else it's like pulling teeth to get them to do. Aeration, Weed & Feed, weeding the gardens, etc. Even plowing has been a pain (though these guys have been the best at it) because it seems like everybody just wants to deal with commercial and not residential. I was maybe not entirely clear, I've more or less resigned myself that I'm probably going to have to deal with the stuff that's not actually mowing/edging regardless of what I do since I can't seem to find someone who will actually do it even if they've agreed and been paid to do it. Looking into solutions for mowing / plowing that work for me that aren't just paying these companies is mostly me not wanting to continue to give them money after they've promised me one thing and given me another. If the robot mowers don't work well for actually mowing then I probably don't have much of a choice but to hire it out and just don't continue to pay for the other services that they're not actually completing without me having to constantly badger them to do it. ohhyeah posted:How much garden do you actually have? The only garden I’m seeing is the small trim rectangle at the front of the house, which might explain why the landscaper isn’t giving it much attention. Like MrChrome said, a robot lawnmower won’t solve a weeding or edging problem. Those pictures are kind of old, they're from when we bought the house. We've added an additional garden on the right side of the house which means pretty much the entire front of the house has a garden on it besides just the actual doorway. There's also a large circular garden added to the front lawn, and the far side of the house is lined with a garden as well.
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Sep 27, 2022 19:37
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Comrade Gritty posted:I'm in SE PA, which the internet says Philadelphia gets an average of 15" of snow a year, which seems about right. We, very occasionally, get more than that (our first year in the house we moved in like 4 days before a snow storm dumped 2' of snow... which had me rushing to buy a walk behind snowblower as I walked up and down the driveway for 10 hours trying to keep it from getting to deep for the blower). It's not unusual for my snowblower to go through 20" at a pop, and I've got drift busters for deeper drifts. It takes me maybe an hour to do the driveway, parking areas, sidewalks, etc. If you get a solid dual stage Ariens, Husqavarna, etc, something you spent $2k on, it should easily snowblow everything you are getting in your area. I have no experience with a single stage snow blower, but it probably sucks and would explain the 10 hours. Your truck can run a 7' straight blade plow, a V plow is too heavy for it. Boss Snow Plow has a web tool on the website so you can input your vehicle and they'll tell you what works. You have the 5.4 3V Triton, which is not the torqueist engine ever, but for minimal snow should work fine. I hope it's 4WD, or you have 500 lbs of steel in the back with snow tires. Probably $6k - $8k installed.
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Sep 27, 2022 20:12
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The trees from the town fall sale need to get here, I’m ready. Carefully excavated the sod and used it to fill in dead spots throughout the yard. Hopefully the swale will no longer be a muddy mess in the spring!  
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Sep 29, 2022 15:32
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Comrade Gritty posted:This seems like a perfect use case for some of the robotic mowers... but I have no real experience with them to know how good they actually are? I'm not really super price sensitive here, it's replacing a service that's currently costing me about $8k/year (tried a more expensive one this year to see if they were any better) and it looks like the most expensive of these is something like $5k-$6k in cost. I have a robotic lawn mower, and it's the loving best thing I've ever bought behind wedding rings for my wife. Your lawn looks like a great use case, and you may wish to consider getting multiple smaller ones rather than a single larger one. My big issue with my back yard is that I'm on a septic system, so the lawn grows very unevenly. This solves the problem nicely. Incredibly quiet, too! I personally have a Worx Landroid myself, it has a ton of support, 3rd party mods and a decent Reddit. Customer support is very open about allowing owners to fix easy poo poo (I was actually sent assembly drawings over email!) rather than deal with unneeded returns and expensive labor. I have the midrange model; once I added third party wheel enhancements, it turns a 45 minute charge into 2.5-3 hours of mowing. The first time you're going to see a really weird mowing pattern, but it works itself out over time and looks great. Setting up the boundary wire is a pain in the rear end, so mow/edge down those areas before installation. After a month or two you won't see it anymore. it If you can split your lawn into three sections, three of the WR155 models would cost you around $4k. Throw in $150+shipping for 3rd party wheel enhancements and you're good to go. If the hillside is too steep, you can cheat it by nailing down chicken wire. This will vanish into the grass, but will give the mower something to grab on to. The phone app will handle multiple landroids just fine as well. Does this sound like it could work for you? devmd01 posted:The trees from the town fall sale need to get here, I’m ready. Carefully excavated the sod and used it to fill in dead spots throughout the yard. Hopefully the swale will no longer be a muddy mess in the spring! gently caress yeah, nothing like trading lawn for real plants, right? I don't know what was in that green bag, but the grass has likely taken a ton of nitrogen out of the soil so make sure to account for that. What kind of trees are you planting?
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Sep 29, 2022 17:47
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Swamp Oak, Red Maple, and an Eastern Red Cedar, all native. Placed them to help out with privacy from the neighbors, though it will take quite a while before they are useful. There is a row of lovely pines along the swale so I am starting to plant more trees along the back as they die off and I cut them down.
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Sep 29, 2022 18:09
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Those are good trees, especially the oak. They can grow to be huge.
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Sep 29, 2022 20:44
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Hell yeah we got trees  
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Oct 4, 2022 18:53
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Can it take 2 or 3 growing seasons before weed treatments and fertilizers take full effect? I've been applying pre-emergents and overseeding all spring and summer and I still have a lot of broadleaf weeds and dallisgrass and johnsongrass. poo poo sucks yo.
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Oct 5, 2022 12:06
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Not if your applying them properly, as in the correct quantities/dilutions at the correct time of year, at the correct time of day/weather and with proper coverage. What are you using, how are you applying and how did you decide on the products and their application method and amount?
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Oct 5, 2022 14:14
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I'm paying a local company called permogreen to do it
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Oct 5, 2022 14:57
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Yeah I just pay someone too. I really don’t want to learn about lawn fertilization/weed control or keep track of what to apply when, etc etc. Your company sucks.
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Oct 5, 2022 15:35
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In my experience most lawn care companies are either scams or insanely expensive.
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Oct 5, 2022 15:47
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devmd01 posted:Yeah I just pay someone too. I really don’t want to learn about lawn fertilization/weed control or keep track of what to apply when, etc etc. Neither do I, as lawn care is a Charybdis of misinformation, bad advice, money pits, and just as much broscience as the fitness industry. I paid 230 bucks for six treatments, so it wasn't prohibitively expensive, and I spent way less than I would have buying so the equipment and chemicals one on one. I won't be using them next year as the is zero improvement after five treatments. It's lawns that are the scams. lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Oct 5, 2022 |
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Oct 5, 2022 16:09
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lite_sleepr posted:It's lawns that are the scams. 
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Oct 5, 2022 16:14
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Here is what went down today Urea -- 2.88 Lbs Patriot -- 0.12 Fluid Oz Princep -- 4.26 Fluid Oz Specticle Flo -- 1.04 Oz Windsurf Pro -- 3.69 Fluid Oz I don't know what any of the named stuff is, but I'm guessing they're brand names and not specific chemicals
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Oct 5, 2022 16:23
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lite_sleepr posted:I'm paying a local company called permogreen to do it Find someone who doesn't suck at this and hire them. Your list above is meaningless without context: how big of a lawn, what application type, soil samples to know what actually need to be added, knoing if they actually applied what they said the applied. None of this should be your problem if you've hired it out. They aren't effectively doing the job they were hired to do so fire them.
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Oct 5, 2022 16:48
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This thread is hard to read as an anti-lawn radical. I have some volunteer blue mistflower coming up in my lawn that I'm hoping will colonize the whole thing.
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Oct 5, 2022 17:04
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Fitzy Fitz posted:This thread is hard to read as an anti-lawn radical. I have some volunteer blue mistflower coming up in my lawn that I'm hoping will colonize the whole thing. Agreed. I'm preparing a minor battle against my neighbour who has gone all in on perfectly managed lawn monoculture. He removed all moss and interesting stuff, and all summer he fertilized weekly and cut it two or three times as much. Meanwhile, my lawn is overrun with moss, not enough clover (I need more clover, even if it means stepping on a bee again) and cut twice a month if that. So far, I've gone all in on mint, which is hopefully gonna spread all over, and I'm going to attempt to copy my in-laws who managed to get a couple square meters of very grasslike thyme in their lawn. I still want to be able to picnic, but ideally on with as much different stuff as possible in the mix, including flowers. I'm in Danish suburbia, if you have any good ideas for picnic compatible grass alternatives with low maintenance, or just something that is nice, easy and edible, like my rosemary and thyme.
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Oct 5, 2022 19:06
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I'm just happy if I can keep the gorse, thistle, broom, and heath under control. If it's not spiny or insanely prolific I let it go.
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Oct 5, 2022 19:28
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I have some grass, I think. May just be all weeds and clover. Also, Texas, so in summer it's just brown stuff everywhere, because I'll be damned if I spend $300 in water keeping that poo poo green. At least I don't have to mow until it rains. Now my little (native to Texas) tree I planted (free from the local power management company!) a few years ago I water. I want it to grow up big and strong and shade my house.
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Oct 5, 2022 20:33
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Progressive JPEG posted:I'm just happy if I can keep the gorse, thistle, broom, and heath under control. If it's not spiny or insanely prolific I let it go. I just let the robot run everything over to keep the worst down, it's nicer looking than manicured lawns imo, more natural, bit messier.
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Oct 7, 2022 12:24
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Probably a dumb question. I am in zone 6b (southeast PA) and last week while I was gone from my house something tore up a few square yards of my lawn. Is it too late in the year to level + reseed?
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Oct 9, 2022 15:35
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Common advice I see is you want 45 days before the first frost, so it'll depend on the weather there. I'm not sure how well sod would work either without being established but maybe that's an option.
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Oct 9, 2022 15:51
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BonHair posted:Agreed. I'm preparing a minor battle against my neighbour who has gone all in on perfectly managed lawn monoculture. He removed all moss and interesting stuff, and all summer he fertilized weekly and cut it two or three times as much. Meanwhile, my lawn is overrun with moss, not enough clover (I need more clover, even if it means stepping on a bee again) and cut twice a month if that. Check if Roman (not German) chamomile will grow in your area. Chamomile lawns have been a luxury for centuries. It's a creeper with a lovely scent when crushed. Some people have planted garden seats with chamomile.
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Oct 9, 2022 16:04
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Anybody have experience with used railroad ties? They're available for cheap by me, and I was thinking about using them for some coarse landscaping. Is creosote really that nasty or can I get away with using gloves + mask when cutting them?
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Oct 11, 2022 11:07
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:Anybody have experience with used railroad ties? They're available for cheap by me, and I was thinking about using them for some coarse landscaping. Is creosote really that nasty or can I get away with using gloves + mask when cutting them? Gloves and a mask should be fine. Watch for spikes. Eye protection is sort of a given, right? I don’t even know if you need a mask, but it’s great if you want to wear one. I’ve processed thousands of junk ties and never been concerned with respiratory protection. Maybe I should have been. Also, if you’re getting them for free they could be in really cruddy shape. They might fall apart depending on how much cutting you’re doing. Re-useable ties go for some money usually. BigFactory fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Oct 11, 2022 |
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Oct 11, 2022 13:49
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BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:Anybody have experience with used railroad ties? They're available for cheap by me, and I was thinking about using them for some coarse landscaping. Is creosote really that nasty or can I get away with using gloves + mask when cutting them? Oh man, the previous owners of my house made a huge raised bed and I can't wait to get that poo poo out of here. It's nasty, it's likely going to break down quickly and a lot of places won't take it.
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Oct 11, 2022 17:28
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There's simply no way to really understand what kind of grass I have, what kind of weeds it is filled with, what types of herbicides to use and in what quantities and what time of year because there are so many goddamn variables like soil PH acidity, nitrogen levels. gently caress lawns, keeping a saltwater fish tank with exotic deep sea fish was less work than trying to have a good looking lawn. I had even purchased the Pennington brand Texas bermuda, which is allegedly what everybody has here in North texas, I tilled the soil I put down fresh topsoil and I overseeded a small area, watered the heck out of it and then covered it with a straw mat to prevent birds and wind from removing the seeds. Watered it regularly and not a single blade of grass grew in the areas I treated lol what a scam yards are. lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Oct 12, 2022 |
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Oct 12, 2022 03:46
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It wouldn't hurt to do a home soil test. This is one name brand. If you feel like spending some real money, call the county agricultural extension and ask who they recommend to do soil tests. I say all this because a lot of reasons that grass won't grow have to do with the soil. Is it too acid? Lacking important nutrients? Too hard packed for the grass to put roots in? A no-cost test can tell you what kind of soil you have: loam, sand, clay, other? Dig up some dirt, mix with water and detergent, put in a jar, watch it separate into levels. If plants won't grow, your first question must be, "What kind of dirt do I have?" e: I know you mentioned how complex it all is, but what did you find out when you did tests?
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Oct 12, 2022 04:13
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I've never done a single test
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Oct 12, 2022 12:10
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Once you have an established lawn it can become much simpler. Water, milorganite, spot or broadcast weed treatment once in a while. A healthy lawn can outgrow a lot of weeds and retain more water in the soil. Although I live in Minnesota now where the summers aren't brutally hot, if I still lived in Austin I'm sure I'd have a brown lawn in the summer like everyone else.
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Oct 12, 2022 14:32
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lite_sleepr posted:I've never done a single test So you've tried nothing and you're all out of ideas. What was your question?
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Oct 12, 2022 14:33
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