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5th Annual Lawn/Garden Thread warm season 2014


Damage In Tolland

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As the page has turned from winter to cold spring , and with no more snow outside of chairlifts and mountain tops.. It's time to start thinking about your lawn and landscape.

Too early to apply any fert as of Morch 27th, but you can certainly get out there and blow some leaves out of flower beds, pick up debris and limbs that blew down over the winter and maybe even fire up the mowers and tractors and think about tuning them up. Hopefully the 4-5 inches of rain upcoming this weekend doesn't cause too much soil erosion on still frozen ground.

Heavy heavy grass .

image-1_zps5a8a0d2b.jpg

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responding to the lime question from the old thread. my understanding is you can lime anytime,, even around a feeding. i would ask if you have had a soil test. if your PH is greater than 6.5 then you don't really need it. if it less then yes lime and your application rate will be a function of how much less. getting your Ph to 6.5 and above will allow for max fertilizer efficiency

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I've got to bust out the herbicide this year before the grass greens up. Had tons of crabgrass last year with our newly seeded lawn. I applied some last Fall and it seems to work well, but gotta get the roots before they vegetate.

Crabgrass in an annual weed. You need to apply a  preemergent herbicide  in late spring when the soil warms up to 50-60

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responding to the lime question from the old thread. my understanding is you can lime anytime,, even around a feeding. i would ask if you have had a soil test. if your PH is greater than 6.5 then you don't really need it. if it less then yes lime and your application rate will be a function of how much less. getting your Ph to 6.5 and above will allow for max fertilizer efficiency

I've never tested it...I guess I always assumed it was acidic around these parts.  Anyone test their own soil??

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Crabgrass in an annual weed. You need to apply a  preemergent herbicide  in late spring when the soil warms up to 50-60

Yup, its a fresh start.  I had the same issue with heavy heavy crab in my newly seeded area too last summer, but overseeded in the fall, so it should finally start to look decent this spring...

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Has anyone had their yard hydro seeded? We are considering tearing up a good chunk of area in our yard that has been messed up and never really fixed over the years.

Hydroweed.  Unless you've got irrigation and water the living sh1t out of it, I've never had a good experience.

 

2013 was a new house and basically tried to maintain the previous owners lawn. Learned the hard way that they never treated for grubs even though I was told they did.  At the end of last year, I aerated the piss out of it and in turning off the irrigation discovered I had a busted pipe. The new sections of the lawn the previous owner did, used awful construction soil so I have drainage issues in two sections of lawn.

 

Late spring

 

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My big battle is Japanese Knotwood. You can thank the town of Duxbury for giving out free soil and mulch infested with the stuff.  It grows 10 ft high and is near impossible to kill except with 50% glyphosphate. Get it on your hands and you can watch the tumor grow. I have a 1/2 acre of this stuff.

 

 

20130521_190548_zps9f16bfc3.jpg

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Has anyone had their yard hydro seeded? We are considering tearing up a good chunk of area in our yard that has been messed up and never really fixed over the years.

last fall, i had a septic repair done ,so i had to re-seed about a 1/3 of my yard where the work was done. my contractor was a friend and i told him i didn't want the hydro seed, that i wanted to put my own seed down. he said no problem, i'll just put your seed in the mix and spray it. there were some weeds, but they were minimal. Bottom line , its the seed some contractors use that has the weeds, not the cellulose material itself. so if you can find someone that will let you buy your own high quality seed (i wouldn't think this is not a problem since your paying for the seed out of your own pocket)  and put it in the mix, i would recommend going with the hydro seed method as it will establish quicker. My experience the - the seed emerged in the cellulose in 6-8 days - Its easier to keep it watered as the cellulose material holds the water better and it's applied wet. the lawn then roots in the ground as it matures. i sprayed my lawn Sept 20th last fall and cut it several times before the end of the season last year. Ended up using 75 lbs to cover about 4000-5000 sq ft. they can tell you how much to buy.

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31" of snow otg.  Gonna be a while. 

 

Ok guys lets not go crazy...no wonder long island sound has algae blooms and nitrogen loading problems

 

Yeah, I'll never understand the crazy amounts of time, energy and resourses people pour into their lawns.  I mean, I mow certainly and it's nice to have an open area around the house but I've never onced fertilized, limed, watered or treated ours in any way other than driving around on the tractor mowing with a cold one in the cup holder.  Our soil is very sweet and fertile though with a natural pH of around 6.5 or higher.  So in that sense, it doesn't need much in the way of additives.

 

Each to their own, I suppose...

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As the page has turned from winter to cold spring , and with no more snow outside of chairlifts and mountain tops.. It's time to start thinking about your lawn and landscape.

Too early to apply any fert as of Morch 27th, but you can certainly get out there and blow some leaves out of flower beds, pick up debris and limbs that blew down over the winter and maybe even fire up the mowers and tractors and think about tuning them up. Hopefully the 4-5 inches of rain upcoming this weekend doesn't cause too much soil erosion on still frozen ground.

Heavy heavy grass .

image-1_zps5a8a0d2b.jpg

 

I better wait for the snow to melt first.  While I'm waiting, I'll take down another tree or two before the torrents come in later.

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31" of snow otg. Gonna be a while.

Yeah, I'll never understand the crazy amounts of time, energy and resourses people pour into their lawns. I mean, I mow certainly and it's nice to have an open area around the house but I've never onced fertilized, limed, watered or treated ours in any way other than driving around on the tractor mowing with a cold one in the cup holder. Our soil is very sweet and fertile though with a natural pH of around 6.5 or higher. So in that sense, it doesn't need much in the way of additives.

Each to their own, I suppose...

yup that's exactly what I do, my lawn is some weird sort of meadow grass that I only need to mow 4 times a year, its awesome. Like you said, its expensive too. But it's a hobby for some people so I'm not gong to stop them.

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yup that's exactly what I do, my lawn is some weird sort of meadow grass that I only need to mow 4 times a year, its awesome. Like you said, its expensive too. But it's a hobby for some people so I'm not gong to stop them.

 

Wow, 4 times a year is great.  I do mow about once every 7-10 days depending on rain & general weather but that's it.  We have no neighbors here to impress.  ;)

 

Now gardening is another story.  With an edible outcome, we're much more willing to put time and energy into things.

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Wow, 4 times a year is great.  I do mow about once every 7-10 days depending on rain & general weather but that's it.  We have no neighbors here to impress.  ;)

 

Now gardening is another story.  With an edible outcome, we're much more willing to put time and energy into things.

 

I mow every weekend, if not it can't happen until every other weekend resulting in 1) more mosquitoes, 2) taller knotweed (ftl).  Unfortuanltey, it takes about 4 hours to do the whole thing it takes up a good chunk of the weekend.  At least I don't bother with the clippings.

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I mow every weekend, if not it can't happen until every other weekend resulting in 1) more mosquitoes, 2) taller knotweed (ftl).  Unfortuanltey, it takes about 4 hours to do the whole thing it takes up a good chunk of the weekend.  At least I don't bother with the clippings.

Man these plant species from the Asian subcontinent take over so fast...Eurasian water milfoil, Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet, Asian long horned beetle...

So do you just cut the knotweed down so often that it don't have time to take over your lawn? I have some of that low ground creeping raspberry type bush taking over my lawn, stuff is terrible.

4 hours? sounds like you need a lawn tractor!

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Man these plant species from the Asian subcontinent take over so fast...Eurasian water milfoil, Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet, Asian long horned beetle...

So do you just cut the knotweed down so often that it don't have time to take over your lawn? I have some of that low ground creeping raspberry type bush taking over my lawn, stuff is terrible.

4 hours? sounds like you need a lawn tractor!

 

The only way to truly kill knotweed is to blast it with high % glyophosphate at the stem after you've cut off the stalk. Some people inject the stems.    Knotweed is so bad that if you pull it out at the roots it gets worse. It doubles.

 

They make a few other more specialized chemicals that are not available in the northeast. 

 

In England its such a big problem they have more specialized chemicals. 

 

http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/professional-weed-killers-for-japanese-knotweed/tordon-22k-herbicide-5l.html

 

Here's a popular one that can't be shipped to Mass. 

 

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/battleship-iii-herbicide-25-gallon-p-1502.html

 

 

The Duxbury town dump takes all of the brush from the recycle pile and makes their own free mulch for residents.  Unfortunately the mulch is full of knotweed roots. So there's a sick cycle of people taking home knotweed full mulch, getting a problem in their yard and then cutting it down and taking it back to the dump. The whole town of Duxbury is full of it.  I noticed most of the 3A corridor on roadways has it around here.

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The only way to truly kill knotweed is to blast it with high % glyophosphate at the stem after you've cut off the stalk. Some people inject the stems. Knotweed is so bad that if you pull it out at the roots it gets worse. It doubles.

They make a few other more specialized chemicals that are not available in the northeast.

In England its such a big problem they have more specialized chemicals.

http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/professional-weed-killers-for-japanese-knotweed/tordon-22k-herbicide-5l.html

Here's a popular one that can't be shipped to Mass.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/battleship-iii-herbicide-25-gallon-p-1502.html

The Duxbury town dump takes all of the brush from the recycle pile and makes their own free mulch for residents. Unfortunately the mulch is full of knotweed roots. So there's a sick cycle of people taking home knotweed full mulch, getting a problem in their yard and then cutting it down and taking it back to the dump. The whole town of Duxbury is full of it. I noticed most of the 3A corridor on roadways has it around here.

wow that's messed up. Yeah its amazing how fast it grows, cut it down it grows back in like a week haha. I guess it provides good slope stabilization....one benefit. glyophosphate is that round up?

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