What do you add to your lawn to keep it looking good?

[ZZman]

There are many options to keep it healthy and looking nice. Here are mine for this year so far:

Granular fertilizer/crab grass preventer
Granular iron supplement
Pelletized lime

I may reseed a shady area I have that seems to be a constant thin spot.

I will often add a granular grub and insect treatment as I have kind of sandy soil and the ants go crazy.

How about you?

 

[atikovi]

At my warehouse I prefer to keep it low and thin so I only have to mow it every 4 to 6 weeks. Spray Roundup on it every spring.

 

[Zee09]

Unlike my neighbors my property is a sanctuary to all animals and without chemicals it's always very healthy and inexpensive to maintain.

 

[spasm3]

Lime and 10-10-10 or 17-17-17 fertilizer.

 

[ZZman]

Unlike my neighbors my property is a sanctuary to all animals and without chemicals it's always very healthy and inexpensive to maintain.

Does that mean no chemicals or do you kind of let it grow wild and long?

 

[parshisa]

Granular fertilizer, I use Yard Mastery flagship product, great value cost per lb vs nutritional content. Yields excellent results on my san Augustine

 

[ZZman]

At my warehouse I prefer to keep it low and thin so I only have to mow it every 4 to 6 weeks. Spray Roundup on it every spring.

 

[Zee09]

Does that mean no chemicals or do you kind of let it grow wild and long?

No chemicals ever. I cut it at 3.25" as often as required. Now every 5 days. Good Luck.

 

[CharBaby]

I am certainly no green thumb but my lawn looks decent.
Generally I use Scott's Weed & Feed. I also keep a separate weed killer on hand for those pop-up weeds.
And I will also buy a bag of regular fertilizer and spread in on thin when rain is in the forecast.

 

[BMW Dom]

Some fertilizer 2-4 times a year. I try to mow twice a week. I mow long at 4.25 inches

 

[MrHorspwer]

I've pretty much given up on making it look "good".

I do keep it weed free, treat for grubs/insects, and fertilize on schedule.

I live in a relatively new neighborhood and the grading on pretty much all then houses is high. This is important.

I also live in any area that is 100% clay. The high grading means everyone's yard slopes toward the property line. Over the course of years, topsoil is washed off the clay and down toward the property line. This creates an area of no topsoil and all clay, which is hard to grow grass in. If you are able to get grass growing by loosening the clay and cultivating seed (overseeding doesn't work), it is incredibly heat intolerant and goes dormant at the first sign of summer.

Water never penetrates the clay either (part of the cause of the heat intolerance) and just rolls down the grade toward the property line. That's where all the topsoil ended up though. So all the irrigation water rolls down the hard clay grade, ends up under the loose topsoil, and makes all the property line spongy. I've seen neighbors get their riding mower stuck in the muck by our property lines.

So what do you do? After the first summer, I paid to have topsoil trucked in and spread, then hydroseeded. 7 years later, it's right back to where I started. I've given up on the constant hassle and cost of topsoil and seeding. I don't even run my irrigation system anymore.

It looks great in the spring, goes dormant in the summer, and looks great again in the fall.

That's life. At least it's weed-free, which is more than I can say for some of my neighbors.

 

[joekingcorvette]

I use the crabgrass preventer and preen on the rocks. I use a generic weed/feed whenever I feel it needs lunch. I run the automatic sprinkler system when it gets dry and the lawn looks pretty decent every year. This year it had a few brown spots from so much snow cover. It's a never ending battle keeping it in top shape but when you are retired it's more like a nice little hobby. I mow with a riding lawn mower and have a self propelled mower too.

 

[wpod]

Does the soil report say lime is needed? Lime adjusts the ph.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

I find Menards 4 step program to be cost effective and it works great. I started with Scott years ago but it is significantly more expensive than the Menards brand.

Just my $0.02

 

[Dave Hess]

Photos of lawn would be helpful….

 

[slug_bug]

Milorganite 3 times per year. Early spring, early fall, late fall
Grubex grub killer granules. End of May or early June

This kept my lawn looking pretty good for 25 years.
A few years ago I had a Crab Grass invasion, so, I had to add Weed control/Crab Grass killer liquid in early spring.

I try to keep the chemicals to a minimum. Particularly when my kids still lived at home. If some weeds pop up I either pull them manually or spot treat only the affected area.

 

[Finklejag]

I spread lime in the fall and that keeps the moss growth to a minimum here in the PNW. I then use Scotts fertilizer in the spring. My grass dies in the summer and returns green when the rain returns in September or October. I don’t have a sprinkler system.

 

[alarmguy]

Fertilizer applied min 4 times a year.

Second application has crabgrass preventer.
One or two of the applications has high phosphate obtainable as "Starter Fertilizer"
Rarely need weed control but if I do, I now just buy a bottle of season long weed preventer and killer, hook it to the garden hose and spray. I think it's made by Bayer.

I used to do lime but no longer, as it was really not done right by me, one should really to a PH test when using lime. Up north I used to do the test but not since moving south. The areas of the south I am in is a brutal clay soil and typically alkaline all by itself..

 

[ZZman]

I find Menards 4 step program to be cost effective and it works great. I started with Scott years ago but it is significantly more expensive than the Menards brand.

Just my $0.02

It is more expensive but I think it is a more uniform product and gets better results.

 

[JohnnyG]

Mostly just water, but here in FL it's almost a necessity to have a lawn service. The services here use mostly broadleaf weed killers, insecticides, and iron. Very little nitrogen is needed, and the services are restriced on how much and what type they can use. Being near the intracoastal waterway they must use a very slow release nitrogen, IF they choose to use it at all.