• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Lawn Care Thread

We live across the street from a floodplain (McMullen Creek) and the lower part of my yard is in it too. Constantly wet down there during the winter, although I don't have any trouble growing grass in most of it. Any suggestions on plants that would soak up water? (In Charlotte.)
 
awaken said:
I needlessly toiled and wasted money using big box store products. Things really started working when I went to Southern Season (SS). Brought in a lunch bag of soil for testing. They told me exactly what to get and when to apply it. And it worked - and endured!

Living in NC, our soil is acidic so lime needs to be regularly applied. Again SS will tell you how much and when. Now is the time to get pre-emergent down (bought from SS) to stop the weeds head start on the grass. Get some weed killer down to kill what has already come up. Re-apply pre-emergent in May. Prep soil around Labor Day (lime, fertilizer, etc). Plant grass in October. SS has special grades of grass from NC State (bronze, silver, gold) that is pricey but worth it. All grass, no filler, no weeds (yes, big box store seed does contain weeds - "oops, how'd that get in there; now you need some weed killer, right this way...."). I bought SS gold. I think it was $100-$120 for a 50 lb sack. It was great. I also bought different seed for shady areas - Wyatt Quarles Shady Nook. Been happy with it.

I had a neighbor sod his yard with zoysia and I'm thankful it is encroaching in my yard. He actually lets me get sprigs from his yard to plant into mine. As it spreads, I keep sprigging it into new areas of my yard. Encouraging his zoysia is my long term plan. Fescue from SS was my last attempt to grow grass until zoysia spreads. Zoysia is a slow spreader relative to Bermuda, and it likes the sun/hates the shade. It stops right on the shadow my house makes on the front yard. So I'll take zoysia in the sunny areas and Shady Nook in the shady areas.

I guess what I am saying about zoysia is you can get a single pallet and use it for sprigging. It will take a while, but if you have more time than money.... My zoysia grows about 4-5 ft/year.

Oh, and onions thrive in acidic soil. Lime will actually get rid of them for you.
Click to expand...

Do you mean Southern States? I thought Southern Season sold like pecan logs and fancy grits.

I've been a battle with my HOA for years because my front yard is a big hill that gets blasted by the sun with zero shade in the summer. Fescue sod dropped dead every single year even with constant irrigation so I finally threw down Bermuda, which has taken just fine. But the HOA classifies it as a weed and not grass (and it has spread to my slightly-pissed neighbor's yard, but fuck him), so they keep telling me to burn it all. But fuck off, it is green and stays alive and looks generally like grass. Would they rather have that or dead grass and dirt?
 
DeacDiggler said:
We live across the street from a floodplain (McMullen Creek) and the lower part of my yard is in it too. Constantly wet down there during the winter, although I don't have any trouble growing grass in most of it. Any suggestions on plants that would soak up water? (In Charlotte.)
Click to expand...

 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
Do you mean Southern States? I thought Southern Season sold like pecan logs and fancy grits.

I've been a battle with my HOA for years because my front yard is a big hill that gets blasted by the sun with zero shade in the summer. Fescue sod dropped dead every single year even with constant irrigation so I finally threw down Bermuda, which has taken just fine. But the HOA classifies it as a weed and not grass (and it has spread to my slightly-pissed neighbor's yard, but fuck him), so they keep telling me to burn it all. But fuck off, it is green and stays alive and looks generally like grass. Would they rather have that or dead grass and dirt?
Click to expand...

Ha Ha, I do mean Southern States. My bad. Walking into Southern Season with a bag of dirt and grass advice would be funny. Thanks for catching that.

My mother has the opposite story re Bermuda. She moved to a community that has free lawn care - ideal for the elderly. When they bought the home, it had a nice dense fescue yard. Since then, Bermuda has crept in and she does not like it. She asked the grounds crew about it and they think it came from them mowing the golf course and it coming over on the lawn mowers. She wants the HOA to kill off the Bermuda and replace it with fescue like it was. The HOA was not inclined to oblige her.

Whether Bermuda is a weed, reminds me of the saying that "there are no weeds, just flowers out of place" which sounds like something Bob Ross would say while painting. I am not a particular fan of Bermuda because you cannot manage it. It will grow everywhere: in landscaping, over curbs, over driveways, etc. So for me Bermuda quickly becomes "grass out of place," but I can appreciate your POV and that of my mom's HOA.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
I've been a battle with my HOA for years because my front yard is a big hill that gets blasted by the sun with zero shade in the summer. Fescue sod dropped dead every single year even with constant irrigation so I finally threw down Bermuda, which has taken just fine. But the HOA classifies it as a weed and not grass (and it has spread to my slightly-pissed neighbor's yard, but fuck him), so they keep telling me to burn it all. But fuck off, it is green and stays alive and looks generally like grass. Would they rather have that or dead grass and dirt?
Click to expand...

The HOA at our new home requires Bermuda. I'd much prefer to put down Zoysia, but that ain't gonna fly. I've never had Bermuda in any house I've ever lived in... I think I'll like the fact that it spreads like crazy. I get much more annoyed by bare spots than having to keep grass out of other beds.

Zoysia is great, but it takes a while to fill bare spots.

I can't believe I am posting about grass.
 
My dad did the sprigs/plugs method with some high quality Bermuda by “borrowing” trimmings from a heap at a golf course maintenance shed over a period of a couple years. That’s my goal with the trash Bermuda patch in my front yard - would be nice if it spread faster.
 
Living in a neighborhood where they dictate what kind of grass you can grow sounds like goddamn communist Russia to me.
 
Is it surprising to anyone that 2&2 is in a dispute with his HOA ?
 
For real, I may live encircled by meth labs and moonshine stills, but nobody has ever told me what type of grass that I can grow in my yard. That seems soul-crushing to me.
 
Don't make lawncare harder than it needs to be. Weed and feed in the spring, seed in the fall, water as needed. Also, raise your mowing deck up to a minimum of 3" if you have fescue, so the sun doesn't burn it up.
 
Yeah, it is weird.

Our current house is very close to Buckhead, but there are no HOAs and all of the houses look very different (except for the carbon-copied white farmhouse-style houses everybody is building right now). Our next door neighbors are definite meth lab suspects, but the house across the street just listed for $1.3mil. There is no consistency.

Our new house is in a swim/tennis (TENNIS!) community, but we're a single street of 15 houses separated from everyone else. It's a different builder, so the houses look very different, but the HOA rules are the same (and seemingly strict).
 
skinnydeac said:
Don't make lawncare harder than it needs to be. Weed and feed in the spring, seed in the fall, water as needed. Also, raise your mowing deck up to a minimum of 3" if you have fescue, so the sun doesn't burn it up.
Click to expand...

My thing is I want to be able to start enjoying (read, not be embarrassed) about my lawn ASAP. Which is why I'm leaning towards professional help. Needed to address this last late summer/fall when we first bought the place.
 
tigerswood said:
My thing is I want to be able to start enjoying (read, not be embarrassed) about my lawn ASAP. Which is why I'm leaning towards professional help. Needed to address this last late summer/fall when we first bought the place.
Click to expand...

Get rid of wild onions/garlic. Weed killer or hand removal, depending on how many.
Get rid of broadleaf weeds. Use lawn weed killer.
Put down pre-emrgent crabgrass killer
Mow evenly at 3-4 inches.
Worry about the mixed grasses later.

If the shade is as bad as the moss would indicate, you may need to live with multiple types of grass. Some for sun, some for shade.
 
I agree with Deaconblue above, but will add lime will take care of your wild onions for you (clover, too). Way less work than digging them up, which I used to do. I've been told pigs will root them up and eat them, so if you have access to pigs and don't mind them digging up your yard, that is an option.

Pre-emergent lasts 3 months, so my schedule is Feb and May. It should wear off by grass planting season in Sept-Oct. Pre-emergent is on my to-do list now. Whenever I go to the store, I buy a bag of the concentrated lime (put down 1 bag instead of 3).

If you have a concern about ticks (bc you have a dog or children that play in yard), Wondercide is a good product.
 
Rent some goats. They’ll clear that land in no time and give you a blank canvas.

Or get a lot of Roundup and go Chemical Ali. Hippie neighbors won’t like it, but you also won’t have goat turds all over your yard either.
 
Chill22 said:
Rent some goats. They’ll clear that land in no time and give you a blank canvas.

Or get a lot of Roundup and go Chemical Ali. Hippie neighbors won’t like it, but you also won’t have goat turds all over your yard either.
Click to expand...

Roundup and its cousins have the nasty habit of killing grass as well as weeds. So be very careful where you spray that stuff. However, it can be used in controlled spot application to get rid of wild garlic/onions. Cut them first. Glyphosphate absorbs better in the cut surfaces of the leaves.
 
How the fuck anyone could prefer Bermuda or Zoysia relative to fescue is beyond me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top