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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:What kind of grass do you have? I've done two fall over-seedings with 90% TTTF and 10% KBG. The grass that's there is a horrible mix of whatever trash the previous owners seeded, plus whatever blows in from the adjacent golf course.
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Apr 7, 2023 16:40
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Not in the panhandle but the “North Texas” area, but I’d stick a your mileage may vary on adding sand to clay. I do it all the time for backfilling rocks(limestone) and leveling and haven’t had any issues with compaction/concrete/etc.
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Apr 9, 2023 16:04
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Is it kosher to hit up an ag extension that's not in your county? I live in Brooklyn and wanted to hit up Cornell for clover lawn advice/resources. This is the chapter in my city, not even county and there is zero information about horticulture! NYC is five counties and not all of them are wall to wall skyscrapers. Next door Nassau County's extension looks much more familiar to my home county's.
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Apr 9, 2023 16:13
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If I want to nuke all of the vegetation in my backyard (complete renovation - adding a garage and some other stuff), should I just get some glyphosate and go hog wild?
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Apr 9, 2023 22:28
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SubponticatePoster posted:If I want to nuke all of the vegetation in my backyard (complete renovation - adding a garage and some other stuff), should I just get some glyphosate and go hog wild? Probably yes, but that depends on the what vegetation, location, and proper application techniques at the correct times. It's not a substitute for a miniex or skid steer, which is often much more useful as a first past at a "remove everything".
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Apr 9, 2023 22:42
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My house is built perpendicular on a hillside and has a mossy stone trench on one side meant to keep the grade away from the foundation. (Picture below.) Someone put some big rocks in the trench and kinda lined the top but I'm wondering what I can do to blend the trench into the landscape or hide it in some way. Can i put a thin layer of gravel or decorative stone in there? Or what are some other options? 
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Apr 9, 2023 23:29
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Motronic posted:Probably yes, but that depends on the what vegetation, location, and proper application techniques at the correct times.
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Apr 10, 2023 01:52
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Motronic posted:Probably yes, but that depends on the what vegetation, location, and proper application techniques at the correct times. My experience with glyphosphate is not to over concentrate it. If it browns off everything "too" quickly, some of the hardier stuff will come back because it still has to let the rest of the plant die while keeping the green off. Got some planting done between showers over the weekend. This little patio area is just a dollar weed hellscape. I ripped up a pile of those shoots with the landscape rake then overseeded/pooped the hell out of it.  Raked a new section to start planting once everything close by has taken hold satisfactorily. So many little sticks and roots. Bonus doggo in her little Carhartt coat if you zoom in   As good as that little Agitator I ordered for the Newer Spreader is https://newerspreader.com/ Don't put a bunch of discarded stringy spray field coastal hay in one like wife did this morning. Unless you want to be picking strands of this stuff out that's been endlessly thrashed in horseshit. 
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Apr 10, 2023 02:42
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Got a couple spots in my backyard zoysia that are flummoxing me. Basically it's getting "leggy" -- it's growing out long stolons but not rooting. It's a very different texture than the rest of the yard. Many of the stolons look dead but a good number of them have active green growth at the far end. These pics are after I used a leaf rake to scratch up the looser dead stuff and mowed over it. There is some thatch underneath but it doesn't seem that bad. Maybe half an inch, if that. What should I be investigating here? I'm assuming compaction and/or insufficient water, so I plan to core aerate and see how much water ends up in these spots when the sprinklers run. Just wondering if there is anything else I should be looking at right off the bat. I'm willing to pick up a thatch rake too, just don't want to tear up the live stuff too badly.   I think the genesis of this is the same as all the other problems with the yard - bare minimum maintenance for many years, followed by 6 months of vacancy during which the owners did literally nothing. Not even mow. Said 6 months included a crazy hot summer with almost no rain.
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Apr 10, 2023 22:59
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Not sure if this is the right thread but figured I'd just post. We bought our house about a year and a half ago, first home, and I feel like we're still beginners at this homeowner thing. We have a very small back yard (maybe 300 square feet total) and part of it has pavers with pebbles in between that the previous owners installed and it's where we have our patio furniture. Looks nice but we have a giant cedar tree in the back that drops needles constantly, so it builds up quickly. What's the best way to clean the needles up from the pebbles? I've googled this issue many times, watched a bunch of YouTube videos. We've dug them out by hand (ouch), used a broom (sweeps up pebbles too), and bought a combination leaf vacuum/blower which seems to work the best so far but isn't perfect. Is there some other method I'm missing? Will I just have to deal with some amount of cedar needles stuck in the pebbles?
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Apr 11, 2023 00:58
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:Will I just have to deal with some amount of cedar needles stuck in the pebbles? Yes. This is an outside space. It can't be reasonably kept to the standards of an inside space. A leaf blower is your best bet, and using one frequently so the needles don't get rained on/rot into the stone is the most effective way.
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Apr 11, 2023 02:19
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Motronic posted:Yes. This is an outside space. It can't be reasonably kept to the standards of an inside space. Thanks - I think knowing that there's only so much I can do is fine, I just wasn't sure if there was something I was missing.
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Apr 11, 2023 02:50
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Eason the Fifth posted:My house is built perpendicular on a hillside and has a mossy stone trench on one side meant to keep the grade away from the foundation. (Picture below.) Someone put some big rocks in the trench and kinda lined the top but I'm wondering what I can do to blend the trench into the landscape or hide it in some way. Can i put a thin layer of gravel or decorative stone in there? Or what are some other options? The moss looks great I’m not sure what you want to fix. You could do a some more rocks to give it a natural stream look. Or raise the level of the trench visually by planting some groundcover, something like a sedge or phlox. If you do plant groundcover try to stay away from invasives like ivy and pachysandra.
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Apr 12, 2023 15:34
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:Thanks - I think knowing that there's only so much I can do is fine, I just wasn't sure if there was something I was missing. Our neighbor has had decent success with landscape glue for their white pea gravel. That would make easier to aggressively blow the needles away. Something to consider if you want a more manicured look.
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Apr 12, 2023 15:40
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Idea 💡 What if I purchase the largest tarpaulin I can and use it to cover sections of my lawn that are thick with weeds. The idea being the tarpaulin would block the sun and kill everything under it except for the hardiest of common Bermuda grass. Feasibility?
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Apr 13, 2023 14:48
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That's called solarizing and it works, but it might take a little while and I don't know if it would spare your grass.
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Apr 13, 2023 15:05
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lite_sleepr posted:Idea 💡 Buuuut IME with it, it will kill grass first and weeds last and the first things to grow there again will be weed seeds.
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Apr 13, 2023 15:32
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ohhyeah posted:Our neighbor has had decent success with landscape glue for their white pea gravel. That would make easier to aggressively blow the needles away. Something to consider if you want a more manicured look. Thanks, I'll look, that's an interesting thought. I'm not really concerned about a manicured look per say, it's more that the cedar tree drops needles at such a rate that if I don't tackle it for two weeks (rain, no time, etc) that it's just a full carpet of needles. And we have had an arborist come out to make sure the trees are healthy.
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Apr 13, 2023 15:40
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lite_sleepr posted:Idea 💡 When this is done in the context of conservation areas it's black plastic and it's left down for a year. Black is important because you're not just blocking light but trying to cook the remaining weed seeds. Most of the people involved with this kind of work at my ag extension/PSU seem to agree it's not a very good method and the plastic mess has a greater environmental impact than simply applying glyphosate a couple of times. Since you're trying to get rid of weeds why don't you just use the appropriate thing for that. Depending on the weeds that's going to look a lot like 2,4-D or a mix like Surge or Crossbow. If those have too much environmental impact for you then the only real option is to stop trying to grow a monoculture/lawn as it will always require this type of periodic maintenance. Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Apr 13, 2023 |
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Apr 13, 2023 15:42
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GOt that mole trap, put it in a few of what I am pretty sure are the mole trails...nothing so far. Been like 5 days, and been moving it to a new "trail"/area every day. Maybe the moles just aren't awake/active yet from their hibernation/torpor? Either way, in the meantime, what's the best way to "smoosh" down everything? I figured, whether the moles just aren't awake yet, or they moved on or died out... I still need to tamp down/smooth out the lawn. Rent a roller again? Or can I use one of those manual "tampers" like this:  Cause I've already got one of those, so it saves me like a 40 minute round-trip to home depot and the $20 (plus gas money) to rent it. And just do it relatively gently just to pack down the mole trails and mounds? And then if they DO become active again, I can at least see the new trails that are active/in use and not put my trap in last year's tunnels.
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Apr 13, 2023 17:03
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Rain, snow and mowing should tamp them down naturally. If a trap doesn’t spring within a day or two, move it. One mole can cover a huge area and they’re constantly moving to keep up with their fast metabolism.
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Apr 13, 2023 17:07
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Motronic posted:When this is done in the context of conservation areas it's black plastic and it's left down for a year. Black is important because you're not just blocking light but trying to cook the remaining weed seeds. I have no idea what kind of weeds are growing, or what to use for them. I'm guess it's crab grass, dallisgrass, nutsedge, and some cover/dandelions There are so many herbicides out there like drive, dimension, remedy, barricade, etc. And it's just a confusing expensive mess. lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Apr 13, 2023 |
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Apr 13, 2023 19:33
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lite_sleepr posted:I have no idea what kind of weeds are growing, or what to use for them. Mow high. Whatever the highest setting your mower has is, probably use that. 4-4.5” is great. This helps the grass outcompete and shade out the weeds. Water occasionally but deeply. This encourages the grass to grow deeper roots and makes it more drought tolerant and again, better able to compete against weeds. It’s much better to run your sprinklers once a week for an hour than to run them 5x week for 15 minutes. Depending on where you are, you may never need to water. Here on the gulf coast, I water maybe twice a year when it gets real dry in may/June and then in September/October when it dries out again. Ideally, don’t use a weed and feed. Instead, use a pre-emergent in late winter/early spring. (If you want) Fertilize in the spring when the grass starts to green up and start growing. But I f you’re lazy like me, use weed and feed when you would fertilize. It’s fine. If you can do the separate pre-emergent, that’s better as it will prevent a lot of the early spring weeds from getting started. Don’t overseed with ryegrass in the winter unless you just really love mowing. It also really damages your lawn IME. It’s big and strong in the spring when the Bermuda grass needs to get going and the ryegrass will outcompete it in the critical early growth period. My neighbor always does his and gets a strip of ryegrass seed in the edge of my grass and that strip always looks a ton worse even though I mow and fertilize it just like the rest of the yard. Most importantly though, just mow what grows. If it’s green, it’s fine! Half my backyard is really nice St. Augustine but half is a mix of st. Augustine and creeping Charlie because it’s shady and the st. Augustine doesn’t do as well in the shade. I just mow the creeping Charlie and it looks fine from my kitchen window, even if it doesn’t look perfect from 5’ away.
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Apr 13, 2023 19:59
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I'm in North Texas. 2 hours from DFW. I'm told that I have common Bermuda. Which sucks, I'd rather have zoysia, so perhaps once I have the weeds under control and I learn a little bit more I will see about trying to replace the Bermuda with zoysia by overseeding zoysia
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Apr 13, 2023 20:33
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lite_sleepr posted:I'm in North Texas. 2 hours from DFW. I'm told that I have common Bermuda. Which sucks, I'd rather have zoysia, so perhaps once I have the weeds under control and I learn a little bit more I will see about trying to replace the Bermuda with zoysia by overseeding zoysia Zoysia doesn't seed. It's planted as plugs. So if you want to do that, just do that. The weeds will get nuked along with the bermuda in the process or prepping the site for plugging.
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Apr 13, 2023 21:34
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I believe you're thinking of St. Augustine. Zoysia definitely seeds. I'm looking into just identifying the kinds of weeds I have, and getting selective herbicides to target them. Being that this is the north of TX, they all look like crabgrass, couchgrass, dallisgrass, and nutsedge. Maybe some clover too. I should get my soil analysis back from A&M extension service this Monday, so I can get fertilizers I actually need. I need to dethatch my lawn because it's just covered in thatch and leaves, and then aerate again around May/June according to this here calendar. I'm too late to have hit it with all the necessary pre-emergents, so whatever the ferti-lome crabgrass preventer doesn't get, the selective herbicides should. e: actually surge and crossbow sound too dangerous. 'Harmful to humans and domestic animals. Causes irreversible eye damage.' lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 01:29
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lite_sleepr posted:I believe you're thinking of St. Augustine. Zoysia definitely seeds. It seeds, but from everything I've seen getting it to grow from seeds is really difficult. quote:e: actually surge and crossbow sound too dangerous. 'Harmful to humans and domestic animals. Causes irreversible eye damage.' I'm not suggesting mixing these, but they're both made up of the standard broadleaf herbicides you'd fine anywhere else. You won't really find anything safer.... wear (and understand) your PPE, and you'll be fine. Honestly it's up to you... something like sedgehammer would take care of the nutsedge with minimal other impact. I'd probably try pulling dallisgrass by hand if it's not too giant (a "stand up weeder" is really helpful). If you want a uniform lawn you're going to need toxic chemicals. There's no way around that. devicenull fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 01:43
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I have a stand up weeder! I was just using it in the front yard to pull up what look like thistles, but were probably small crabgrass plugs. Best way I can describe them. I really need to figure out how to ID these. I'll snap some pictures of what I have and say what I think it is.
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Apr 14, 2023 02:36
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lite_sleepr posted:I have a stand up weeder! I was just using it in the front yard to pull up what look like thistles, but were probably small crabgrass plugs. Best way I can describe them. Google lens is pretty good at weed ID’s or at least will usually point you in the right direction. Your state extension service also probably has a ‘common weeds of north texas’ publication. Or take pictures and send them to your county extension office. E: you also dont really need to know exactly what you have, though it is nice to know which weed you’re cussing at. Most weeds are Not Grass and equally susceptible to selective broadleaf herbicides like atrazine or 2,4-D. Nutsedge/crabgrass are a little different but it sounds like you’ve already ID’d those. Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 02:44
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Google lens is pretty good at weed ID’s or at least will usually point you in the right direction. Your state extension service also probably has a ‘common weeds of north texas’ publication. Or take pictures and send them to your county extension office. To second this general idea, I use LeafSnap and it has done a decent job of identifying the weeds I'm dealing with. I suspect the mix of weeds in North Texas is not terribly different than what we have along the coast. Atrazine will harm most southern grasses though. I think it's only labeled for St Augustine and centipede.
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Apr 14, 2023 14:58
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lite_sleepr posted:e: actually surge and crossbow sound too dangerous. 'Harmful to humans and domestic animals. Causes irreversible eye damage.' They're not when used properly, but it appears you're one of the afraid of "chemicals" people - I could tell when you started out talking about solarizing. That's fine, but it means you don't get to have a monoculture lawn, period.
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Apr 14, 2023 16:52
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I wonder if there is a group of organic-only perfect lawn hippy dads out there somewhere E: to echo what motronic is saying though, decide if no potentially harmful chemicals or a perfect lawn are more important to you and embrace that. Trying to do both is just going to be really frustrating because you really can’t have a ‘perfect’ monoculture lawn without herbicides/insecticides/fungicides/fertilizers. But you can totally have a decent looking lawn without all that! It just will probably have some oxalis or clover or ryegrass mixed in, and that’s fine! Mow what grows. Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 18:33
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Got my soil analysis back. According to AgriLife I should look for a 1 - 2.2 - 0 fertilizer, but I'm not aware of any with those ratios. I suppose I should just get a bag with numbers closest to those. Also what should I use to bring down the pH to about 6.5? I understand ideal soil pH is about 6.5 All said it didn't seem too terrible. I still want to dethatch my yard to allow for better soil contact, so I'll try to do that this weekend, but fat chance finding a dethatching machine in any brick and mortar store. https://imgur.com/a/ym4NH6B Really I'd rather not have lovely looking weeds, dead spots/bare spots. lite_sleepr fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 19:03
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Clover planting day 1! Got a lovely tilled mud pit going on that I seeded with just under a pound of Miniclover. Put in a sprinkler and smart timer to keep the seed moist while it germinates. I e read the clover posts itt a few times (as well as a dozen other websites) but any other pointers while it does it's thing? 
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Apr 14, 2023 23:39
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theflyingexecutive posted:Clover planting day 1! I'd get some straw cover down over that to protect the seeds from birds before gemination and to hold moisture during that time.
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Apr 15, 2023 00:30
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Motronic posted:I'd get some straw cover down over that to protect the seeds from birds before gemination and to hold moisture during that time.  I have a feeder juuuust out of frame that is doing a great job distracting them with giant hunks of corn vs my tiny clover seeds.
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Apr 15, 2023 17:32
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theflyingexecutive posted:
Nice. It will still help with the germination parts and holding mositure and probably shading the seedlings from excessive sun. I've always been more successful with a cover on things like that. You can get a compressed bale of straw all wrapped up in plastic so it doesn't make a mess of your car from Tractor Supply or whatever feed/pet supply place you have nearby and it looks like that would be plenty for that space. And keep that feeder full.
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Apr 15, 2023 17:56
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In the fall I'm going to put down a one two punch combo of Celsius, Sedgehammer+, and a surfactant. Then in early winter I'll put down pre-emergent. It'll be great. These herbicides are expensive af what's up with that?
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Apr 15, 2023 18:45
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lite_sleepr posted:These herbicides are expensive af what's up with that? They've all gotten expensive, but especially the name brand blends. Glad I don't use much because ouch.
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Apr 15, 2023 20:20
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I bought and planted three boxwoods to go along side one that came with the house. When we took them out of the pots the soil was really really heavy clay. I ended up removing the outer layer of clay to expose the roots - was this a bad thing? Very conflicting answers online. It’s been about a day and the leaves are a little droopy.
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Apr 15, 2023 20:46
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