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14th Lawn and Garden Thread P Allen Smith 2024


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12 hours ago, backedgeapproaching said:

Honestly going with Scotts or Pennington isn't going to be that much cheaper I don't think.  You could probably use a "contractors mix" for the cheapest option from Tractor Supply or somewhere like that, but you are going to get a lot of weed seeds and undesirable stuff in there.  If you don't care about that really then maybe go that way. 

Otherwise price out Jonathan Green versus the Big Box store stuff and see what that actual cost difference is.

Also looks pretty Steiny moving forward, seems like you have a big yard so would be hard to keep the stuff watered. 

 

True. JG is reliable. I had issues controlling crabgrass this season with their crab preventer but the black beauty is worth it. 
 

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1 hour ago, moneypitmike said:

getting too old to mow?

My philosophy is the less I need to mow the better.

Less time, less harmful, and more diversity in mt landscape.  

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Re:  crabgrass - I put down corn gluten in the spring as a pre-emergent and to build better organic matter in the soil.  That and with an aerated and overseer last fall my lawn is the best it's ever been.  Still plenty of clover and dandelion but very little crabgrass, which is ideal (for me...and earth).

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1 hour ago, tunafish said:

Right? 

Imagine sinking hundreds of hours of work, thought, and dollars into something that's basic function is the same regardless of its look and makeup?  And, in aggregate, has a definitively negative impact on the environment/climate?

Whackos indeed.

Imagine enjoying working on the lawn and taking pride in your accomplishments. 

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3 hours ago, dendrite said:

No. I think lawns are dumb and useless. 

Nice places to toss the football with your kids.  However, one could do that on our "lawn", which is only ~50% turfgrass but green and level.  We've lost about 20% of our 1/10-acre lawn, as it's mostly shaded out beneath the 3 apple trees and the 2-foot-tall fir I transplanted 26 years ago is now 40 feet tall with a 20-foot branch spread near the base.

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1 hour ago, SJonesWX said:

Imagine enjoying working on the lawn and taking pride in your accomplishments. 

I never said you couldn't.  What does working on the lawn entail?  Mowing it and pounding it with chemicals 3x a year?

You can have pride in your landscape, including lawn, without having an entire (or even partial) yard full of monochrome grass.

That's how we operate.  We bought the house in 2017, just under 1/2 acre, entirely lawn - 0 landscaping.  The mission for us was to turn as much of that lawn into plant-able space as possible.  The lawn offers nothing tangible in return; plant-able space does.

Over the last 7 years we've reduced the lawn from roughly 14,000 square feet down to >3k.  The rest is a massive garden (really a food forest at this point) and landscaped with shrubs/trees/flowers.  The UMaine cooperative extension has us as a tour stop for their master gardener program each year.  Plenty of pride here.

What's left of the lawn is a mixture of grass and weeds.  The only interventions have been (1) nematodes 2x because the beetles were getting to the plants (2) overseed and aerate last fall to loosen some of the soil compaction so there's more diversity (3)corn gluten this year, which was intended for the rest of the space for soil health.  We had leftover so to the lawn it went.

 

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1 hour ago, SJonesWX said:

Imagine enjoying working on the lawn and taking pride in your accomplishments. 

Yeah that’s fine if you’re really into it. I take pride going pesticide free and growing native plants and grasses for the insects and pollinators and pulling out most of the invasives. 

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7 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

A benefit of Global Warming  or do I have to be politically correct and say climate change. First winter of me not hitting 0F.  Our peach tree is loaded with delicious fruit.  So much!  

Peaches.jpg

My tree looked like that earlier in the year but the squirrel's ate every damn one of them, I was ready to make peach wine this winter, but I got nothing.

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12 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

I'll do that next year, I have a large colony of squirrels living in my area this year, I've seen as many as six at one time. They can have the nuts but leave my fruit alone.

I’ve got same thing but about 10-12 of them . Just digging hell out of lawn with this massive acorn crop this year . It’s very triggering 

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3 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

You going to try netting or some other idea.? My tree's small or I'd put a metal cone around the trunk, but they can jump 5-6 feet so won't work with mine. Maybe try a spray of odors they hate? I don't know, I like Kevins net idea but may need a backup.

Pellet gun.

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2 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

You going to try netting or some other idea.? My tree's small or I'd put a metal cone around the trunk, but they can jump 5-6 feet so won't work with mine. Maybe try a spray of odors they hate? I don't know, I like Kevins net idea but may need a backup.

Haven’t thought about it. The peaches on that tree suck anyway. I only get fruit set about once every 5 years. 

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On 9/5/2024 at 1:34 PM, tunafish said:

Right? 

Imagine sinking hundreds of hours of work, thought, and dollars into something that's basic function is the same regardless of its look and makeup?  And, in aggregate, has a definitively negative impact on the environment/climate?

Whackos indeed.

And why keep your house painted when you can just sit on your ass and watch football? 

Dollars to donuts, if you're trying to sell your house you'll mow the lawn.

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1 hour ago, tunafish said:

Ha, I didn't say the alternative was to sit around and do nothing.  Nor did I say I don't mow the lawn.  

Our lawn looks decent after a mowing and is fine for grandkid play time, though some would be horrified by the clover, crabgrass, etc. component.
 

Pellet gun.

That's our medicine for squirrels robbing the bird feeders.  Half charge of the Crossman is just enough to sting the critters without even knocking off some hair.

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