Fertilizing my lawn for initial spring application

[somecyguy]

Anyone have any luck with Trugreen at all?

Very pushy with questionable results in my opinion. I have an issue with them though because they laid down a grub treatment without my authorization and then wanted $300 from me. After I dropped them, they hounded me for almost 2 years to come back. They must hire thousands of sales people.

 

[brianhos]

When do you guys thatch your lawn? Have I missed my spring window?

I just did it this last weekend... Looks like crap now, but hopefully we get some rain over the next few days and it perks back up.

 

[crawfy54]

I thatched, aerated, and over seeded yesterday. Lawn looks like it went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson

 

[RLD4ISU]

Anyone have any luck with Trugreen at all?

No. Used them last year. Hubby told them not to bother coming back for the fall application. We won't use them again.

Neighbor down the block fertilized once in the spring & again in the fall with your basic Menards/Home Depot brand and had one of the best (if not the best) yards in the neighborhood.

Our yard looked way better than next door's, though. They also use Trugreen, but would wait 1-2 weeks between mowing.

 

[JM4CY]

Anyone have any luck with Trugreen at all?

I’m a firm believer that with not much work, using Menards or the like products, doing your homework on when to put it down and finding a neighbor that has a dethatcher/aerator is the way to go. Significantly Cheaper and much better results. What you think you will get and what actually happens with those companies are two very different things.

 

[RustShack]

I’m a firm believer that with not much work, using Menards or the like products, doing your homework on when to put it down and finding a neighbor that has a dethatcher/aerator is the way to go. Significantly Cheaper and much better results. What you think you will get and what actually happens with those companies are two very different things.

Some of my neighbors rent an aerator and split the cost two or three ways depending on how many neighbors want to use it.

 

[somecyguy]

I’m a firm believer that with not much work, using Menards or the like products, doing your homework on when to put it down and finding a neighbor that has a dethatcher/aerator is the way to go. Significantly Cheaper and much better results. What you think you will get and what actually happens with those companies are two very different things.

What really cracked me up was watching all the lawn companies out applying product to people's lawn in March when the ground was still partially frozen. They have more customers than employees available to properly serve them, so you get poorly timed applications.

 

[RedlineSi]

There seems to be a lot of smart people here regarding lawns so I guess I'll ask here.

We have a new house that we moved into the end of Nov. They put in the sod in Oct, ran the irrigation system, and winterized it. They came back last week to get it set up for summer, but now it's literally running every day, and I thought that was over kill. I know the sod is still "new" but should I continue with that schedule or run it every other day?

Thanks!

 

[BillyClone]

There seems to be a lot of smart people here regarding lawns so I guess I'll ask here.

We have a new house that we moved into the end of Nov. They put in the sod in Oct, ran the irrigation system, and winterized it. They came back last week to get it set up for summer, but now it's literally running every day, and I thought that was over kill. I know the sod is still "new" but should I continue with that schedule or run it every other day?

Thanks!

I moved into a new construction house 4 years ago during the month of June and had to deal with a newly sodded lawn.

I always made sure the lawn received at least 1.5 inches of water each week. I don't have an irrigation system so I tracked rainfall with a rain gauge and supplemented with hose-and-sprinklers. In the heat of summer I was usually watering 1/2 inch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I mowed tall - 3.5 to 4 inches.

Applied Starter fertilizer in early April
Aerated and crabgrass preventer in late April
Milorganite in late May, early July, and mid-August
Grub preventer in mid-June
Mid-September was aerate, overseed, Starter Fertilizer, and Milorganite
Late October was Milorganite

Repeated all of this for 2 full years and have been pretty happy with the results.

After the 2 years, I don't water like that anymore and I don't aerate in the spring. I mow a little shorter (2.5-3 inches) but otherwise I still follow this same script.

 

[brianhos]

There seems to be a lot of smart people here regarding lawns so I guess I'll ask here.

We have a new house that we moved into the end of Nov. They put in the sod in Oct, ran the irrigation system, and winterized it. They came back last week to get it set up for summer, but now it's literally running every day, and I thought that was over kill. I know the sod is still "new" but should I continue with that schedule or run it every other day?

Thanks!

After the first winter you will want to slow that down to water longer only once or twice a week. I got my sod in Aug, and left the irrigation for a the first few weeks, and then started slowing it down. The next spring I was only doing twice a week unless it rained, then I cancelled one of them.

So Yes, change the frequency, learn how to program it yourself, it's actually pretty easy. Just youtube the irrigation controller and someone will walk you through how to change it. Also learn how to replace the sprinkler heads, it will save you tons of $$ down the road. I have rainbird and lowes sells everything for those systems.

 

[alarson]

After the first winter you will want to slow that down to water longer only once or twice a week. I got my sod in Aug, and left the irrigation for a the first few weeks, and then started slowing it down. The next spring I was only doing twice a week unless it rained, then I cancelled one of them.

So Yes, change the frequency, learn how to program it yourself, it's actually pretty easy. Just youtube the irrigation controller and someone will walk you through how to change it. Also learn how to replace the sprinkler heads, it will save you tons of $$ down the road. I have rainbird and lowes sells everything for those systems.

Reams sprinkler supply off 100th in urbandale is another good option.

Also, another good option can be a smart sprinkler controller. I have a rachio that adjusts its schedule based on what the weather has been and the estimated soil moisture based on that

 

[RedlineSi]

Yeah its a smart system. We have a gauge on the roof that is tied into the system.

I already set it up for every other day, but I will probably walk that back to twice a week, for a bit longer than the 15-25 mins they set it up as.