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Thread: How do you care for your lawn?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
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    9,811
    There are companies that will come out and spray paint your lawn or gravel. The house we bought is almost all gravel. Do not use round small gravel. It is hard to roll things. The leaf blower can move it. Make sure they dig out the dirt so the gravel is not above the level of the sidewalks and driveway. Ours slides down to cover the concrete all the time.
    BillD

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    Maryland
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    336
    You might want to look into a fertilizer with slow release nitrogen, Greenview's Fairway is one, once in the spring and fall, Lesco also offers some.

    Regarding the tar and feathering for going back to nature, you might get away with a small save the bees and monarch butterfly garden, then just expand the garden a bit each year.
    Hobbyist woodworker
    Maryland

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    McKean, PA
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    15,574
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    I cut it when needed.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

    My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Lewiston, Idaho
    Posts
    28,490
    I dethatch, fertilize, water using an in the ground sprinkler system and mow as necessary.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  5. #20
    Had to make the choice today, over seed, or weed control. Went with weed control as I will have time to over seed in May. By then weeds would have gone to seed. Front lawn, with exception of wild onions, is mostly moss. Here you fertilize Fescue grass on the holidays, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Valentines day. Used to maintain twice as much lawn. Because we live in a forest, I try to maintain a green buffer around the house for fire protection in case of a forest fire.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Granby, Connecticut - on the Mass border
    Posts
    350
    I am among those trying to get rid of my lawn grass and replace with native plantings. Never applied chemicals or fertilizer. In spring my "lawn" is full of wildflowers, mostly violets and is (IMO) beautiful. . I mow when I absolutely have to because it's getting too high to walk across - mostly just the small front of house area. Backyard areas I let grow while I try to identify the native good stuff and leave it while trying to kill the non-native stuff including lawn grasses. I am trying to slowly get rid of lawn grasses using the cover with cardboard and let suffocate method, with the occasional fit of physical removal, subject to my available energy and strength.

    In case folks don't know, there are many grass-ish-looking plants (mostly sedges) that stay low, don't need fertilizer, can be mowed (or not) if one wishes a time or two a year, look a lot like traditional lawn so as to not upset the neighbors, and can be walked and played on like a traditional lawn. Quite a few websites detail the process for converting over.

    Ken

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,639
    Ken, bravo!!!!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    N. Central Texas
    Posts
    116
    Our lawn is whatever survives mowing. Most of it goes dormant in late summer and is starting to perk up now. The best mowing is the first because the wild onions are going strong and it smells great as they are chopped up. Most of the green right now is onions. When we first bought our property, the grass was 5 ft tall.

    Jim

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,639
    AH...the spring onions...
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    172
    Lawn? What lawn? We moved to a house in the woods twenty years ago. I do rake pine needles from near the house every Spring.

  11. #26
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    Apr 2007
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    New Jersey
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    Thanks for the responses, I like the "I just cut it" option.
    Dennis

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,639
    Quote Originally Posted by dennis thompson View Post
    Thanks for the responses, I like the "I just cut it" option.
    It makes a lot of sense, both in level of effort and financially. The amount of money that some folks spend to maintain their lawn while at the same time supporting what is often non-native vegetation instead of beneficial plantings that help pollinators and beyond is pretty high in some areas! A "yuge" number of things that many folks think of as "weeds" are beneficial plants to wildlife, other plants and even humans. Take the simple dandelion. It's an edible (and delicious) food source for animals including humans, has medicinal properties and is often the first food that honeybees and other pollinators have access to in the early spring after not having anything fresh to eat for months.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kansas City
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    2,645
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    It makes a lot of sense, both in level of effort and financially. The amount of money that some folks spend to maintain their lawn while at the same time supporting what is often non-native vegetation instead of beneficial plantings that help pollinators and beyond is pretty high in some areas! . . .
    Absolutely! I calculated that I spent >$600 last year on lawn care, not counting the water used on newly seeded areas. Then there's the time and equipment needed to mow it to acceptable heights. In other words, I am paying money to make the grass grow faster, so I can then cut it. Yeah, it doesn't make much sense.
    < insert spurious quote here >

  14. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    ...Take the simple dandelion. ...
    An invasive plant to N. America.

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm McLeod View Post
    An invasive plant to N. America.
    It's true they are non-native, but only considered invasive in two US states...Alaska and Oregon. At the Federal level, the plant is not considered an invasive danger and they do serve as an important food source in the ecosystem at this point. Tasty, too.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

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