The 2020 Lesco & Lawn Thread

[Baroclinic Zone]

Ok folks, I got a tree out back that makes these “flowers”, early Spring, every year.  Flower is about 1” long.  What is the tree?  It’s currently about 15’ tall and has grown from a seed that must have blown there.

[Baroclinic Zone]

And we have a nasty outbreak of Hairy Bittercress around the yard.  This shit sprouts up in February and is dropping seeds before you even know you have it.  The seed pods explode at the slightest touch when they are mature and the cycle begins all over.  Looks like this.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Planted my small hydrangeas last week.... had a hard freeze last night and they completed wilted, are they dead, or will they rebound?

[S&P]

10 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Planted my small hydrangeas last week.... had a hard freeze last night and they completed wilted, are they dead, or will they rebound?

If it was established it’d be fine, not having Rooted Yet it’ll be sketchy, depends if the freeze killed the live membranes, could be you just lost the leaves and not the plant.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

5 minutes ago, S&P said:

If it was established it’d be fine, not having Rooted Yet it’ll be sketchy, depends if the freeze killed the live membranes, could be you just lost the leaves and not the plant.

Yeah.... the whole thing literally was wilted on the ground... leaves were almost like a blackish color. Weird 

[PowderBeard]

The Scotts Starter with Weed Prevent is working wonders. All the crab grass and dandelions are coming up white and dead. Even turning the clover and chickweed yellow so I'm assuming it will be dead soon. Going to over seed again in a couple weeks when soil is more consistently in the upper 50/low 60 range. Still a rookie but the more and more I read the more and more I realize the issues with Scotts grass seeds. 50% seed and 50% coating. Trying some Jonathan Green with a similar fescue/rye/bluegrass blend. 

[backedgeapproaching]

Did a little haircut today of front lawn, not much came off, but wanted to fire up tractor. Timely fall fert app helping with green up. Shady side of lawn still waking up a bit slower.

 

[backedgeapproaching]

On 4/8/2020 at 7:32 AM, moneypitmike said:

Sorry for the dumb questions here.....

I want to overseed my lawn.  I know I need to rake it.  Do I put down fertilize a couple days before I seed?  Same time as seeding?  After seeding?

 

Should I use a starter fertilizer even though it's already established?

 

Thanks for the help!

I personally would hold off on the fert if you are overseeding into an established lawn, the fert will jump start the existing grass and thicken it and make it grow more quickly out competing the young grass seedling for sunlight, moisture etc. It will also make you mow more often and greater likelyhood to trample young seedlings.

 Would wait a couple weeks until the new grass seed emerges and is 1 or 2 inches maybe. Grass seed doesn't need any fert to grow initially, but obviously its helpful once its tillering and getting a larger root system established. 

[S&P]

On 4/15/2020 at 5:35 PM, backedgeapproaching said:

Did a little haircut today of front lawn, not much came off, but wanted to fire up tractor. Timely fall fert app helping with green up. Shady side of lawn still waking up a bit slower.

 

Nice shady side still slow starting down here as well

[Lava Rock]

Back to looking at how to deal with last summers disaster

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

I’m having a hard time with my acidic and rocky soil. Seems like my lime applications do nothing and even though it looks fine during the growing season with my monthly trugreen applications, it’s almost like a fake look...covering up pimples with makeup. 

 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milorganite-32-lbs-Slow-Release-Nitrogen-Fertilizer-100539618/308888983
 

any thoughts on this? 

[Baroclinic Zone]

3 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milorganite-32-lbs-Slow-Release-Nitrogen-Fertilizer-100539618/308888983
 

any thoughts on this? 

Nothing wrong with that.  It’s processed poop from Milwaukee 

[backedgeapproaching]

4 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milorganite-32-lbs-Slow-Release-Nitrogen-Fertilizer-100539618/308888983
 

any thoughts on this? 

I've used it a good amount over the years, good thing is you can apply at any time of year, even mid summer which you wouldn't want to do with synthetic fert. Its a little cost prohibitive for me now with 1.5 acres of grass but if I had a smaller yard I would definitely look at as an option. Has some iron in there too to help with darkening and better grass color.

[backedgeapproaching]

For you guys in SE MA I would check out this place. I'm not sure if they sell it in stores, but pretty sure you can buy it direct from them and pick it up in Quincy. $3.50 a bag and pretty similar to what Milorganite is. 

http://www.baystatefertilizer.com/

[Supernovice]

Just had new sod and a sprinkler system put in for my front yard- it's small.  Obviously it's pretty cold which I'm not happy about but...other than watering- anything i should be doing for the sod? i've only been watering once a day because it's been so wet- things still seem pretty soggy.

[PowderBeard]

2 hours ago, Supernovice said:

Just had new sod and a sprinkler system put in for my front yard- it's small.  Obviously it's pretty cold which I'm not happy about but...other than watering- anything i should be doing for the sod? i've only been watering once a day because it's been so wet- things still seem pretty soggy.

Nice! Only issues I have seen with sod is when it goes from growing in a ton of direct sun to being placed in/around more shady areas. Probably through down some milo or 10-10-10/light fert around Memorial Day (or 5-6 weeks after it was laid down). 

[Supernovice]

14 minutes ago, PowderBeard said:

Nice! Only issues I have seen with sod is when it goes from growing in a ton of direct sun to being placed in/around more shady areas. Probably through down some milo or 10-10-10/light fert around Memorial Day (or 5-6 weeks after it was laid down). 

Thanks- the lawn faces east so sun in the morning and then its gets the house shadow as the sun moves across the sky.

Ok- thanks for the tip.  My wife is petrified it's not going to take- so I can't screw this up- haha

[OceanStWx]

Lots of work to do in the yard, and no childcare to offer me the time to do it. Just threw 5 yards of loam around the yard while my son napped this past week (mostly to raise the level of the yard to our new patio).

But I did notice while pulling some obvious weed/crab grass that I have grubs, at least in the esplanade between sidewalk and street. Definitely approaching 10 per square foot. I've noticed  a lot of blue jay and robin activity in the yard this spring so far and I'm wondering if that's what they are trying to get after. No I may need to deal with those before it starts to really kill the lawn. So far I don't have any obvious dead patches, but I don't want it to come to that.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

First mow today.... yard was all sand last year and we’ve had limited resources, especially recently. It’s a work in progress but it’s coming along

[HoarfrostHubb]

9 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

Lots of work to do in the yard, and no childcare to offer me the time to do it. Just threw 5 yards of loam around the yard while my son napped this past week (mostly to raise the level of the yard to our new patio).

But I did notice while pulling some obvious weed/crab grass that I have grubs, at least in the esplanade between sidewalk and street. Definitely approaching 10 per square foot. I've noticed  a lot of blue jay and robin activity in the yard this spring so far and I'm wondering if that's what they are trying to get after. No I may need to deal with those before it starts to really kill the lawn. So far I don't have any obvious dead patches, but I don't want it to come to that.

Milky spore time?

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Home Depot has 40lb bags of top soil type mix for like $1.90. I bought like 30 bags and have been mixing the soil with seed in my wheelbarrow and patching spots in the yard. Works awesome.

[dendrite]

Anyone hot an ID on this weed? My chickens eat it like it’s crack. It looks like a clover, but it appears to be something else. The stems from the previous season are fairly hard/woody. The leaves almost have a fleshy feel about them...somewhere between a clover feel and a sedum feel.

 

[dendrite]

Black medic maybe?

[Baroclinic Zone]

Yeah, quite possibly.  I have some sporadic areas of that but it never gets that large.

[S&P]

11 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Milky spore time?

Meh tried it and it didn’t work, takes time to established so you will lose lawn in the process,only thing that’s worked for me is lesco’s merit

[dendrite]

45 minutes ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

Yeah, quite possibly.  I have some sporadic areas of that but it never gets that large.

I had a load of top soil I never used last year next to my run and all of that started growing in it. Looks like it only propagates via seed so it must’ve been in the soil to begin with. Great.

Although from what I’m reading it is easy to win the battle with if and when I ever want to. It’s a legume like clover so it’s a nitrogen fixer. I was just really surprised how much the chickens loved it when they tried it. Their reaction may be neck and neck number 1 with plantain on the weed list.

[OceanStWx]

11 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Milky spore time?

Since I'm not seeing any dead patches in the main part of the lawn yet, I'm wondering if they are mostly in the esplanade. I think I may try nematodes late this summer and try and deal with next season's crop of grubs then. 

[Lava Rock]

Lots of work to do in the yard, and no childcare to offer me the time to do it. Just threw 5 yards of loam around the yard while my son napped this past week (mostly to raise the level of the yard to our new patio).
But I did notice while pulling some obvious weed/crab grass that I have grubs, at least in the esplanade between sidewalk and street. Definitely approaching 10 per square foot. I've noticed  a lot of blue jay and robin activity in the yard this spring so far and I'm wondering if that's what they are trying to get after. No I may need to deal with those before it starts to really kill the lawn. So far I don't have any obvious dead patches, but I don't want it to come to that.

I've not seen grubs in our lawn, but I treated for them anyways yesterday. Can't let the rest of the lawn get killed. Chinchbugs is the other likely culprit. Turkeys have digging a lot around the yard which suggests grubs, but every time I check I dont see any.

[Lava Rock]

Home Depot has 40lb bags of top soil type mix for like $1.90. I bought like 30 bags and have been mixing the soil with seed in my wheelbarrow and patching spots in the yard. Works awesome.

Think it'll patch this?