I wish mine would die. I hate mowing.
Lawn care?
- Thread starter nickaluch
- Start date
We have Centipede grass in our new home. Previously in our last home I installed zoysia which I think is the best lawn for the coastline all the way up to Long Island NY but I am stuck for now with Centipede, close but no cigar.
Anyway, stuck with Centipede as that is what the builder installed. Textbook says use little fertilizer. I use a lot. All I know is anyone whoever passes our house compliments our lawn and asks what I do. As they did my last house.
Another key here is most people leave their sprinklers on all the time. Meaning. Builder set up lawn and irrigation system and ALL season long people let the things run, even after 5 weeks of a foot of rain last year. This kills palm trees here, turn grass yellow as they drown their lawns. I let mine run I think two times in august - Sept last year because all the rain. Our community is pretty much built up swamp mud. You can pour water in a hole you dig and it will still be there a week later *LOL*
I run the sprinklers when the lawn starts to look stressed
Scotts Pre-emergence at the start of April
Scotts Starter Fertilizer 2 weeks later mid April. I use starter fertilizer (any brand) because it contains phosphate. Phosphate helps the grass fill in and spread. It's only available now in starter fertilizer in most all states. Walmart all sells "Texas" Fertilizer which contains it, they would ship free to me but not looking good for that this year.
Due to arrive today is Pennington All Season lawn food. I will apply that about Mid May. Pennington All Season has a lot of Iron, keeps that yellowish Centipede more green.
Mid to end of June another application of Scotts Starter Fertilizer. only because my neighbor gave me a bag he didnt want. If not it would have been any generic like Walmarts standard lawn food as it contains Iron.
Toward the end of July another application of Pennington All Season lawn food.
Im not loyal to any lawn food really. AS long as some point before summer I can put down any brand starter fertilizer and the remaining fertilizer of any brand MUST have iron in it. (always blow off walkways when using iron, or it can stain (forever) concrete.
I also check for a fair amount of slow release nitrogen but most all are good in that respect.
Pretty much I apply lawn food every 5 to 6 weeks. I also apply insect killer on a "need basis" Typically in liquid form but sometimes granular. Centipede can be tricky, I wouldnt suggest everyone put down as much food as I do unless they observe their lawn for any issues. The key is not to overwater. Give the grass a break from automatic watering, let the roots breathe.
Anyway, stuck with Centipede as that is what the builder installed. Textbook says use little fertilizer. I use a lot. All I know is anyone whoever passes our house compliments our lawn and asks what I do. As they did my last house.
Another key here is most people leave their sprinklers on all the time. Meaning. Builder set up lawn and irrigation system and ALL season long people let the things run, even after 5 weeks of a foot of rain last year. This kills palm trees here, turn grass yellow as they drown their lawns. I let mine run I think two times in august - Sept last year because all the rain. Our community is pretty much built up swamp mud. You can pour water in a hole you dig and it will still be there a week later *LOL*
I run the sprinklers when the lawn starts to look stressed
Scotts Pre-emergence at the start of April
Scotts Starter Fertilizer 2 weeks later mid April. I use starter fertilizer (any brand) because it contains phosphate. Phosphate helps the grass fill in and spread. It's only available now in starter fertilizer in most all states. Walmart all sells "Texas" Fertilizer which contains it, they would ship free to me but not looking good for that this year.
Due to arrive today is Pennington All Season lawn food. I will apply that about Mid May. Pennington All Season has a lot of Iron, keeps that yellowish Centipede more green.
Mid to end of June another application of Scotts Starter Fertilizer. only because my neighbor gave me a bag he didnt want. If not it would have been any generic like Walmarts standard lawn food as it contains Iron.
Toward the end of July another application of Pennington All Season lawn food.
Im not loyal to any lawn food really. AS long as some point before summer I can put down any brand starter fertilizer and the remaining fertilizer of any brand MUST have iron in it. (always blow off walkways when using iron, or it can stain (forever) concrete.
I also check for a fair amount of slow release nitrogen but most all are good in that respect.
Pretty much I apply lawn food every 5 to 6 weeks. I also apply insect killer on a "need basis" Typically in liquid form but sometimes granular. Centipede can be tricky, I wouldnt suggest everyone put down as much food as I do unless they observe their lawn for any issues. The key is not to overwater. Give the grass a break from automatic watering, let the roots breathe.
I grow 35 acres of sage brush.
That said, riding mowers could be a section unto themselves. I've had more adventures with Cub Cadet than I care to remember.
Interesting on the HumiChar, will read up more on it.
As far as iron.
The Pennington full season has 5% iron so pretty close on the DGL You can also buy straight iron.
The key here is, I never much looked into it, something about water soluble iron or otherwise it's not useful. I never bothered to learn more about it though because I have found bags that contain iron do bring that deep green. I dont go after that too much as it seems within a few weeks the deep green seems to fade.
I have noticed some landscapers put something down with must be a lot of iron, because it makes s REALLY crazy deep green. Dont think I am after that as much as I like my lawn like a carpet.
Thanks for the post.
It is hard to change things when you have the best lawn in the community and people walking down the block, sometimes stop in their car or golf cart and ask how I do it. My first recommendation is turn off their automatic sprinklers if it rains more than an inch in any week. We can get 4 inches of rain or a tropical storm and I will see sprinklers on one, two, three, 4, 5, 6 days later. Drowning the lawn further. Again, we are built on swamp mud. If your on sand that isnt a problem
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Get a Rachio smart sprinkler controller. It understands the weather via Internet connection.
I like the Rachio, but have been suffering random disconnects and incredibly hard reconnects, like having to go to the controller and do hard resets. I also keep losing my settings with every new version and at 14 zones timed around electrical cost its a pain to re-enter.
Sadly this seems to always happen the first hour of any out of town trip I take leaving the place unwatered until my return.
The problem we have here is its dry as bone and 100 for months on end.
It reminds me of my ex wife and printers. I could rattle off any number of pages when I was home yet the second I left it stopped utterly and was completely unable to print anything until my return. It contributed to divorce.
We do have a rain sensor, but I don’t use any of that stuff.
I just said it to automatic a few times during the summer that the lawn needs water.
One big problem with weather around here is it’s never accurate. It can vary so much even 5 miles away.
A perfect example was just a couple days ago. We got a quarter inch of rain but our forecast Area received as much as an inch and a half.
Down near the coast, it’s kind of hit or mess.
Thunderstorms roll through more than predictable cold and warm fronts if that makes any sense.
We never can rely on the forecast as crazy as that sounds even when it comes to going boating.
Sure sometimes it’s right, but not enough to trust the sprinklers to an outside source.
I assume with that system, you could probably turn on a Rancho remotely and there would be some value in that.
The rachio will work anywhere you have a cell connection and you can see whats upcoming, past and or what may have been skipped if you turn the forecast option on.
You can also put minis controllers on bibs which is kind of neat.
That rock in the front and back yards does not take a lot of care.
You can also connect the Rachio to a weather station at your house.
But even if you have perfect weather forecast for a smart controller, most irrigation systems are just "good enough".
Get several empty tuna fish can and spread 4 or 5 across a single zone and turn on irrigation for 15 min. Then go measure the water in the tuna fish cans. I will bet it's all over the place.
When/IF you find a consistent sprinkler/rotor head please let me know!
It's not the rotor head as much as putting 8 or 10 together for a zone. And proper setup is to overlap to the next rotor.
Yes, I measure the water my sprinkler heads put down
If we’re lucky enough to have a dry spell in summer, I water 1/2 inch twice a week
It's a combo of things for me.
When I have pump water uphill I can only drive 5 in a zone.
Thats part of the reason I have 14 zones.
I'm obsessed with all three only because it's who I am and I can't turn it off
. When I had my own business that was my obsession
It's simple one for warm season grass other for cool season
Lowe's stopped carrying lesco what ever stock that's around is last year's. I scored two large bags 30/0/10 for $5 each
You are probably referring to chelated iron, which is altered to keep it easily available for plant use. The good fertilizers will have iron in chelated form, so it's a non issue. Another factor to consider is soil pH. High alkalinity can cause iron and other nutrients to be not available for plant use. In effect, you "might" be treating the symptom and not the root cause. But...............I know nothing about the southern warm season grasses, soil types, etc.. In other words, pay no attention to my arm chair quarterbacking.
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- May 28, 2014
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I'm working with Kentucky Blue grass. So far I've put down Spectracide weed killer in March. I then made the mistake of dethatching and now some areas have dandelions and clover.
I'm thinking about applying more Spectracide weed killer this weekend. Also need to work on seeding some small areas.
I'm thinking about applying more Spectracide weed killer this weekend. Also need to work on seeding some small areas.
So yesterday (Friday) I cut the lawn. This is about the 3rd cut this season. Lawns over the next couple weeks really come into their own around here. NOT a fan of centipede grass but was put here by the builder. Zoysia by far is my preferred and LOVED grass type. My last home lawn was Bermuda grass also not a fan but I put in Zoysia plugs and over a few years the Zoysia overtook the Bermuda. However in this home, I read Zoysia will not overtake Centipede so am stuck with it. I am thinking about putting some Zoysia plugs in to test that theory though.
As I was cutting the lawn Amazon delivered my next two applications of lawn food. I also have one bag of high phosphate food in my garage that I will apply next or after a round of the one pictured which doesn't have phosphate but does have the iron that you need around here. More or less with one feeding already put down 2 weeks ago. I will put 3 possibly 4 more down for the season.
Photos show front lawn, back lawn has an area in the center that got beat up by the massive amount of rain last year, also with some fungus and below normal winter temps. No doubt it will fill in over the next month or two.
Also the lawn food delivery and my mower battery charging up for next weeks cut.
Colors sometimes dont transpose in uploaded photos onto a portal such as this but we are among the greenest at this time of year and most all year *LOL*
As I was cutting the lawn Amazon delivered my next two applications of lawn food. I also have one bag of high phosphate food in my garage that I will apply next or after a round of the one pictured which doesn't have phosphate but does have the iron that you need around here. More or less with one feeding already put down 2 weeks ago. I will put 3 possibly 4 more down for the season.
Photos show front lawn, back lawn has an area in the center that got beat up by the massive amount of rain last year, also with some fungus and below normal winter temps. No doubt it will fill in over the next month or two.
Also the lawn food delivery and my mower battery charging up for next weeks cut.
Colors sometimes dont transpose in uploaded photos onto a portal such as this but we are among the greenest at this time of year and most all year *LOL*
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