[PlanetBeen]

I'm going to try this.

I've been posting in my other (long) thread as I've been trying to figure out what in the world I am doing.

First (Long!) Post - Introduction and Lots Of Questions....

Hello all. I've only been around here a few days reading but have been trying to figure things out all year! I have an overwhelming amount of information and the thought trying to put things in a post has been stressing me into putting it off. But... Here goes! Brace yourselves. This is...

www.thelawnforum.com

For now, I'll just post that today, after sitting around and procrastinating, I went outside and tested a few things with my sprayer. First off I put 2 gallons in and tried dragging it around on it's new little cart. Seemed ok, but the same 'fatigue' I'd get dragging a suitcase around the airport. Not sure how long I'd last with 4 gallons in there!

Fedex delivered my AIXR 11004 nozzle so I popped it in and tried some test sprays. 2 gallons in the sprayer, pulled it around one of my 1000sq ft test areas and then measured the leftover. Did it twice and both times used more than a gallon.

Then I decided to finally see just how heavy 4 gallons would be. That was when I discovered that my "gallon" wasn't accurate. Tried pouring in 4 gallons according to my measuring bucket and it overflowed the tank. Nice.

Do over. Grabbed my 4 cup measuring cup, re measured and re marked my original bucket. Here I thought I had found something nifty when I found a bucket that had nice marks on it for 1/1.5/2/2.5 but they were off. So instead I went back to using my sharpie marked bucket which has now been double checked and neatly re-marked.

So....I put 4 actual gallons of water in the sprayer, put it up on a table and wiggled into it. OMG that is heavy. I will need to work up to that. I went ahead and sprayed another one of my many 1000sqft areas and this time used 164oz (1.28gallon)

Too much. I need to do it again since my first 2 tests weren't accurate due to the incorrect bucket I used.

I had other yard things I wanted to do today so I stopped for the day before I got myself more discouraged.

I ended up doing some edging in the front yard and along the sidewalk. I cut a small area in front and the front "driveway" section. I really want to spray the weeds. I should upload a picture but it's embarassing.

I need to get the sprayer figured out so I can get my (now late) prodiamine down and speedzone the heck out of these freaking weeds.

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Let's see, other fun times to mention, I currently have to jumpstart my zero turn mower to start it. Hopefully my husband will get that figured out at some point soon. It got a new battery last year so something else must be going on. Thankfully he's a mechanic and can figure it out... if I can just get him to do it. For now I have his pretty awesome portable jumpstart thingy (the technical term) to use as needed.

Just as I was finishing up for the day (Because it was pretty much dark) the handle snapped off my weedeater. So that was fun. Found out the handle on the edger I bought was the same part so I swapped it out later. I am not using the edger anyway.

Today was my mom's birthday but instead of going out this weekend as planned, she got covid! So.... that's another thing.

My health challenged cat makes me crazy by deciding not to eat much off and on...just enough so I can never really relax and not worry about him.

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In the meantime the weather is pretty darn warm for February thereby pretty much ruining my chances of catching the crabgrass before it starts germinating.

My other thread has all my pictures from this past summer and my (lack of) progress this past week where I tried desperately to get granular prodiamine down this past wednesday and failed spectacularly.

I can't give up because I can't stand the yard being a mess and I love when it looks good. So I'll just keep going until I get it.

I wish I could have just paid someone to get some pre emergent down since it was time sensitive and my lack of learning has made me miss the prime time but I guess this just means I'll be learning how to kill crabgrass this year.

I'll probably add some pictures tomorrow.

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Tomorrow's plan, well that starts with tonight..

Stay up too late. Worry about the cat. Sleep half of the day. Drag myself off the couch (where I sleep with the cat because I'm insane)

Ask Alexa what the weather is to try to motivate myself to get started before sunset...

GO OUTSIDE

Cut the grass (mostly weeds growing). Front and back. Try to decide if I'm going to cut straight instead of diagonal to give myself some lines to follow for spraying.

Maybe weed the fence bushes flowerbed. Probably a picture of that in my original post. 117' of glorious fun.

Or, maybe redo the mulch circles around my corner trees/bushes since theyre messy with all the weeds.

Try to research and find out how careful I need to be spraying around my bushes with the speedzone. Looks like theyre all listed as "tolerant" on the Prodiamine label so I just need to figure out how dangerous the speedzone is around them.

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In other news...

Just woke the cat up and he ate 22 pieces! Good. Now keep eating so I can sleep tonight. Already had his subcutaneous fluid for today. All that is left is tonight's pill, my phone alarm keeps going off to remind me of that.

No exercising tonight. Yard work was enough. I don't feel like worrying about weight watchers tonight. I used 2342398743 points today but my arby's food was delicous. So... I'll get ready for bed (couch) - hours early! Then watch my nightly episode of 24. I wonder what else I'll do to drag it out and end up going to bed after 5am.... Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Now, I think I'll end this super long post. It's a journal so I guess it can be long. No one has to read it but if you want to be entertained by my insanity, I'm here for you!

 

[PlanetBeen]

Wait a minute... How could I have posted this whole thing and forgotten to mention.....

This morning... The neighbor whose property backs up to the front corner of mine had someone over to do some sort of work either on his fence or some tree / weed trimming or something...

They pulled into my driveway.... Drove across MY LAWN, and backed their TRUCK AND TRAILER into MY LAWN behind his fence.

I found this when I decided to check one of my front yard cameras to see if the weather looked inviting as I was trying to motivate myself off the couch.

It did not help my motivation.

This kind of stuff is why I made a flowerbed all the way down my front side property line at my previous house.

Dude. Why?

sigh

 

[PlanetBeen]

Today's update :

(Tuesday 2/21)

Last night just about when I was going to attempt to sleep I started to get a sore throat. Yay. I'm doing my best to convince myself it's just the weather and the yard work affecting me. That's probably not true but whatever...

Got myself outside today pretty early (for me lately) and got started on the yard work around 230. Push mower around all the "special" back yard areas. Quick jump start of the zero turn and started with the back yard.

Those weeds are insane! They kept clogging my bagger. Had to stop 3 or 4 times to unclog. The stuff looks like finely ground broccoli florets after the mower gets it. And it's so heavy! Like 100 lbs of pesto. lol

I think this was the first time since seeding that I have used the zero turn in the back yard. I've been doing the whole thing with the push mower the few times it's been done. The zero turn must be set maybe 1/2 inch lower than the mower. (still.. It's at 3.5" so not exactly short) but that made quite a difference in shaving down those stupid weeds. I must say I am impressed with it's suction / bagging performance. That makes me happy since I definitely don't want to chop all that mess and drop it all back down as weed mulch.

Anyway, I moved on to finish the rest of the front yard. I even did push mower and weed eater in the ditch. I had considered skipping this step but as usual I decided to just... Do it all.

Cut front and back yard in straight lines in the shorter direction to see if the tire lines will last until I spray to help as guidelines. I really prefer cutting on the diagonal. It's just prettier to me but once in a while I can do something differently if I need to.

My throat is still bothering me and I'm "tired". I hope I'll feel better tomorrow. So far at least I don't feel worse.

The SpeedZone says to wait 2 days after mowing (not sure why this is..?) so I guess nothing will be done with that until Thursday or Friday. Still no rain in the forecast until Saturday so hopefully I can get the prodiamine done.

It was stupid windy today. I can't imagine I would have been able to spray anything in that. It will probably be a miracle if I get a non windy day. Here's to praying for miracles!

I did get to clean up the mulch on half of the corner bushes but I'm not sure what point there really is. I am about 90% sure I need to turn the whole corner into a flowerbed so I can maintain it more easily. Too many circles to edge and small areas to go around with the push mower. I just need to figure out how many millions of bags of mulch I'll need.

Hey... Here's a fun one... My husband.. The mechanic... Just left his main job of almost 15 years at a dealership to work full time at his former second job... A local nursery.

I do kinda have the hookup for mulch... I wish they did lawn maintenance! LOL

On the positive side... They do irrigation! I would absolutely love to have a well hooked up to sprinkler system! Wouldn't that make life easier?

Enough for tonight. I'm attempting to go to bed "early" again. Tomorrow's plan... More yard stuff.

Maybe more sprayer tests... If this sore throat / tiredness goes away.


Here's a few after mowing pics. Nasty nasty weeds. But all the dark green is my happy fescue.

Tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode! 😂

 

[bindijeet]

Wait a minute... How could I have posted this whole thing and forgotten to mention.....

This morning... The neighbor whose property backs up to the front corner of mine had someone over to do some sort of work either on his fence or some tree / weed trimming or something...

They pulled into my driveway.... Drove across MY LAWN, and backed their TRUCK AND TRAILER into MY LAWN behind his fence.

I found this when I decided to check one of my front yard cameras to see if the weather looked inviting as I was trying to motivate myself off the couch.

It did not help my motivation.

This kind of stuff is why I made a flowerbed all the way down my front side property line at my previous house.

View attachment 5974

Dude. Why?

sigh

Some people think that there isn’t any problem if they drive on the lawn. Did you ask him about this situation? He could try it again in future

 

[PlanetBeen]

Some people think that there isn’t any problem if they drive on the lawn. Did you ask him about this situation? He could try it again in future

My husband was going to go talk to him but hasn't yet...

They also did it last year when he had what I think may have been the same person replace his deck.

Hopefully if we just ask nicely they won't do it anymore. We'll see...

 

[PlanetBeen]

Wednesday update...

Still continuing with the beautiful weather. Mid 70s and windy again today.

I pulled weeds in one of the front flowerbeds (no pics) and gathered up all the pots of dead annuals that were around the front porch and flowerbeds. I ended up with almost 20 of them. I dump them every year and save the dirt. I very rarely have to buy potting soil.

I started on the fence flowerbed. The front side by the gate was the worst for weeds so I started there. What a hot mess! Note all the weeds in the "lawn". More in the supposed lawn than in the flowerbed!

Once I got around the corner to the long sidewalk section of the flowerbed the weeds weren't as bad. Most of my time on that long part is being spent mixing up the mulch. I got about 1/3 of the way done and shouldn't have a problem finishing it tomorrow.

The bushes look happy and that makes me happy. The loropetalums are starting to get their flowers. I also checked the 2 trees I planted in the front yard in the fall. The weeping willow has a few leaves coming in and the red maple has a few bud things showing up too. I have a redbud tree that I haven't planted yet and that has some buds too! Happy to see they've survived the winter and are hopefully going to do ok.

Tomorrow's plan is to finish weeding the long flowerbed, try to section off the back yard somehow to help with spraying and practice spraying.

Tomorrow I'll attempt the same test, 2 gallons aixr tip, 1000 sq ft with water, but I'm going to try turning the pump pressure down a bit and see if that'll get me that 1 gallon / 1000k I'm aiming for.

The dial on the sprayer doesn't have marks so I'm planning to use some tape to mark the dial position since there's no point in testing a different setting if I can't reliably replicate it.

I'm also going to grab some cardboard and see how it feels to try to shield the bushes from any overspray. I don't think I need to worry about the Prodiamine but the SpeedZone is definitely going to be a potential issue when I get near those bushes and trees in the back corner. I think when it comes time for that I'm going to use the aixr tip even though I have the xr11004 l tip since it's almost never "calm" here as far as wind goes.

My husband got a price for a yard of mulch from where he works. Cheaper than the bags I usually buy and that stupid corner will need at least that much in order for me to fill in between the bushes / trees and fence. That will be a big project. I'll run out of nice unseasonably warm weather before I get to it.

 

[PlanetBeen]

Today was a very discouraging day. To be honest, I don't even feel like posting but I will and I'll type too much.

Went to bed early last night. (for me) Got up early today. (for me)

I was really looking forward to enjoying the near record temps and getting things done outside. Mid 80s today which is crazy.

I was outside by 130. Again attempting to figure out my sprayer. Desperately trying to get it right. Desperately trying to be somewhere near accurate. Desperately trying to get the same result more that one time in a row.

I spent hours. Measuring. Walking. Spraying. Measuring. Walking. Spraying.

I started counting how many "rows" I walked, then after the first 2 tests I measured my area to see how many it should have been. (for 20 inch rows across x feet)

I thought I had been using too much water so I had decided I was going to try lowering the pump pressure to see if it helped.

Lower pressure first test = 166 oz. (38 too much) - 20 rows
Raise pressure = 148os (20 too much) - 17 rows

Decided I better measure how many rows I should be walking in that section. - oops I guess my rows were too narrow.

Grabbed some flags and marked that section with a flag every 20 inches just to show myself how narrow or wide it needed to be.

The first test after adding those flags

120 oz (8 too little) 13 rows

Ok much better.

Can't replicate without flags every 20 inches. Can't put 23198279019172397 flags across my entire yard. Boy if it was a smaller yard I'd totally do it.

So, how to keep track and keep my rows the same?

I remembered someone mentioning the ski pole method where you carry a pole with you and stab it to mark your next row, and always have one pole at either end that you move as you go to mark your rows.

Spent at least 30 minutes trying to find 2 stabby things. Previous home owners left lots of stuff, one thing they left was a pokey trash picker thing. I was in luck, it would stab in and stay standing. Couldn't find anything else. Ended up taping nails to a tomato stake. Worked until it didn't.

So, first test with "ski poles" not spraying, just walking a measured section to see how many rows I'd end up with. Success! 16 rows in a place that measured out 15.6.

I thought it was success until I tried it with water.

112 oz (16 too little)

Ok, so I know my coverage is correct, but I'm still not using enough water so... try to slow down.

Played with my metronome to try to figure out what speed I had been walking (maybe 110bpm) then slowed it down a bit.

100 bpm + ski poles + correct number of rows = 128oz exactly!

I was so excited! I finally did it!

Same thing again,

100bpm + ski poles + same section = 124 oz ( 4 too little close enough!)

Yay! 2 times with similar results! Now lets do it in different marked section!

100bpm + ski poles + different section = 111 oz (17 too little)

At this point, I don't even know. Was I short a row? I dont remember now. That was the end of it for today. Completely defeated. It was already after 430. Less than 1.5 hrs til sunset and I really wanted to work on the flowerbed weeding. I hadn't had lunch yet.

So I gave up. I had lunch and headed to the long fence flowerbed for more weeding. I got that almost done. Would have been able to finish it before dark if I hadn't wasted all day on useless sprayer tests.

After dark I started playing with my stabby poles again. No sprayer. Just walking back and forth in my yard, in the dark. Endless rows. Trying to get better at walking the correct amount of rows for a given area. At one point I tried hammering some nails into an old broken down broom handle. (that was after my taped nails tomato stake failed) It worked, until it didn't.

Finally broke down and found my hiking poles. Grabbed one and gave it a good jab. It's not that pointy but I can stab it in, and it stays upright. So now I have stabby poles. One trash picker, one hiking pole.

Then I wasted another hour or 2 measuring out sections in the back yard (in the dark) so that when I finally put 2 gallons of water in the sprayer with 2 k worth of "chemical" I can get a few tries where I have an idea of when I should be running out.

All in all, It felt like a very wasted day. I haven't actually sprayed anything but water. Weeds are out of control, crabgrass is germinating. Guess it doesn't matter anyway since the rain that is in the forecast for Saturday is only .25 inch and I have no other way of getting .5 inches of water on my lawn to 'activate' the prodiamine anyway.

Oh yeah, it was insanely windy this morning, and stupid windy most of the day. It was much better after dark. I was very tempted to try spraying in the dark. Probably couldn't be much worse.

Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe I won't bother.

It'll probably be too windy again anyway.

I'll throw in a picture of my one perfect gallon, my 20 inch flags and a stabby thing or 2.

I can't imagine anyone bothering to read all this but if you stayed til the end, thanks for reading.

I am feeling alone and hopeless at this point. Kind of wishing I had just stuck to my stupid janky spreader and scotts turf builder.

Ugh....ok...the Geo.. I can explain. That was the first car I bought with my own money and as much as my husband hates it... I don't want to part with it. Kudos to him for managing to keep it running all this time. (especially since he's a Ford guy).
That other monstrosity is a car he bought to use the frame in a truck build he's been wanting to do forever. Our "good" cars are parked in front. lol

 

[wiltonlawn]

Sounds like you are getting there. If you have a 21" push mower that will leave a nice track to follow, even a couple days after mowing.You can also double up the carrier volume and go in two different directions to spread your coverage.

 

[PlanetBeen]

Sounds like you are getting there. If you have a 21" push mower that will leave a nice track to follow, even a couple days after mowing.You can also double up the carrier volume and go in two different directions to spread your coverage.

My push mower is not self propelled and therefore using it for the whole lawn (29,800 sq feet) is torture and takes hours. I'm planning to get a self propelled mower very soon. I have one, but it's at my former neighbor's house (where I moved from last year) because I still drive there every week to cut her grass. (a whole other story)

I did cut the grass on Tuesday 2/21 with my 42" zero turn in hopes that I'd be able to use those tracks as a guide. I even cut it in a different direction than normal. (I think I mentioned it somewhere around here.) Unfortunately, the tracks don't really show anymore since it's taken so long to figure out what I'm doing. No time for a second cut because one of the things I wanted to spray was the SpeedZone which says wait 2 days after mowing to spray, which of course ends up making the tire tracks not show as much.

Anyway, I just decided to go for it. I haven't been in the mood to post. My last post was Thursday 2/23. I wanted to give up but Friday 2/24 I went outside and did 3 more tests.

First test I tried slowing down and found out that wasn't needed at all so first test was a bust.
Second test, used a little more than a gallon but within 10%.
Third test, used a little less than a gallon but also within 10%.

I decided I was ready to spray. Of course it was too late and windy to start anything.

I skipped Saturday 2/25 since it rained most of the day and was cold. I started working on my bills instead. Due to my ridiculous procrastinating I hadn't done anything with my bill spreadsheet since December 8. No idea how much money we have...but 3 days later I'm almost done so I'll know soon...

Yesterday, Sunday 2/26, I finally started. First I got out the newly delivered digital scale only to realize I didn't really buy the right thing. So I grabbed my nice kitchen scale instead. Used a piece of plastic wrap on it for a little protection, and a clorox wipe after.

Measured out the Prodiamine for my 2 gallons, mixed it up and started. On Thursday I had marked out a bunch of areas that added up to 2000sq feet so I had at least 4 "test" areas ready when I started. My husband got home while I was spraying and when I ran out of marked areas, he helped me measure out a few more.

Everything seemed to go well. For the most part I ran out when I should or very close to it and only had a couple of times where I had a little left.

I finally got Prodiamine down in the back yard, the sidewalk strip, the long fence flowerbed strip and the "stepping stones/gate" section. Those areas come to about 13,000 square feet. I only carried 2 gallons at a time except the last section was 3000 sq feet so I used 3 gallons that time. I actually ran out a little early on the very last section so I did one extra gallon and finished up my section and sprayed a few small unmeasured areas around the bushes in the back yard corner.

Today, Monday 2/27 I planned to do the front yard but the weather was a little cooler, the neighbor's landscaper was driving on my lawn again and I didn't feel like measuring anything else so I decided to wait until tomorrow. Then I felt "lazy" so instead I decided to SpeedZone the back yard.

I did all the same sections in the same order as I did on Sunday, only this time with SpeedZone. Didn't take as long this time since I have a little bit of a routine going now for the refilling. It's time consuming to stop and mix and fill but better than killing myself carrying too much or getting confused trying to mix too much. What takes the longest is fighting with the stupid screw on lid for my sprayer. One of the main complaints about it in reviews. It's definitely a pain in the neck.

So as of today, Monday 2/27, The whole back yard, sidewalk strip, long flowerbed sidewalk strip and stepping stone/gate section are "finished". Pre and Post Emergent done.

I am praying that I didn't mess anything up. I did grab a large cardboard piece to use to spray around the bushes and trees with the SpeedZone. It would be so nice if I did it "right" and I can watch a majority of the weeds die.

We got a little rain tonight. I'm hoping and praying that the SpeedZone had time to do its thing before that came through. Next rain is forecast for Wednesday night into Thursday. Hopefully that will be enough to water in the Prodiamine. I'm way too late on that anyway so I'm honestly not sure if it's going to do very much.

Plan for tomorrow:

Measure out sections in the front yard for guidelines. I need to split it up because I don't think I can keep straight lines if I try to walk the whole distance and the 2000 sq ft sections are helping me to make sure I stay on track.

Mix Prodiamine & SpeedZone and spray the rest of everything.

Enjoy the warmer weather. Tomorrow is supposed to be mid 70s.

There's the long 3 day update.

If any weeds start dying....I'll post some pictures.

For now, here's a picture of the neighbors driving on my grass again. (This afternoon my husband officially asked the neighbor to please tell them not to drive on our lawn anymore.)

 

[PlanetBeen]

Tuesday 2/28

Got myself up and outside to measure, flag and spray the front yard. It took forever to measure and mark off sections. I feel like I need the reference points to make sure I am staying on target at least while I'm still getting used to spraying. Marked 2000 sq ft sections for most of the front and front driveway side yard. Started with "exact" measurements for the bigger areas and towards the end when the sections got smaller and weirder I went with estimates. Still measuring but not trying to figure out rounded and slanted type areas.

All in all it went pretty well. Other than looking like a maniac out there with my ruler and blue red and green flags all over the place, I felt like I did good. I still have no idea if anything I am doing is going to work.

Today I mixed 2 gallons at a time again but this time I put both my 1.1oz/1000sq ft SpeedZone (2.2 per tank refill) and my 0.183oz/1000 sq ft (.37oz per tank refill) in together.

I am sure that with time I'll want to make it "easier" by switching to 4000 sq ft sections and filling the sprayer. It will be hard for me to carry that but I may try it next time.

I hope the SpeedZone works to kill off some of the craziness that is going on as far as weeds are concerned. I know most of the weeds I have a lot of are listed on the label. I am also sure there are things out there that will be left afterwards to deal with...but a majority of what is out there looking obvious and ugly are the stupid weeds I could have prevented with fall pre-emergent had I know that was a thing last fall.

Main crazy take over weeds are, chickweed, corn speedwell and henbit. Of course there's poa annua since I didn't know about fall pre-emergent to prevent that. Then there's some clover and dandelions. On the sidewalk strip and sidewalk/fence flowerbed area there are tons of lovely wild violets. They're actually pretty cute, although I still want them dead! lol There's also a fuchia colored weed that I haven't identified yet. Same sort of color as the henbit flowers but totally different plant. Hopefully the SpeedZone kills it. If not, I'll have to figure out what it is and what to kill it with.

I'm just really nervous about having done all this work and not actually seeing any results. I figure it's about 95% chance I'm too late with the Prodiamine to have caught the crabgrass...which I guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm just hoping I got the SpeedZone right and it kills off some of this mess so I can see my pretty grass again. I see it trying to peek out from under all those weeds. I'll be outside checking every day to see if there are signs of things dying off. The speedwell is already kinda dying on it's own but I want to help it on it's way. I guess it's at the end of it's lifespan since I've just let it thrive and flourish since it popped up at the same time as my fall grass seed.

Anyway, I might add a couple of pictures at some point but I didn't really take any today. My yard is littered with little flags. I meant to take a picture of my "measuring station".

For random reference:

I'm still using my kitchen scale for the Prodiamine. I've got another one to try coming on Friday. Scooping out 1 tablespoon into a plastic Chinese food type container and weighing it which comes up .37/.38.
For the SpeedZone I used an old turkey baster, which I refer to as the "Toilet Baster" because the last time it was used was to get the rest of the water out of the toilets when we remodeled our bathrooms before selling our house. lol So the Toilet Baster has become the SpeedZone retrieval tool. Suck it out of the jug with the Toilet Baster and into the little AccuPour 8oz measuring cup I bought specifically for that.

I make everything complicated so:

First measure out the 2 'chemicals'.
Second, measure out 2 quarts and pour into pink bucket. Dump chemicals into pink bucket.
Pour second 2 quarts of water into pink bucket while also rinsing out the SpeedZone measuring cup.
Use a wooden spoon to stir the now 1 gallon of mix. Pour into sprayer, checking to be sure the Prodiamine is dissolved.
Pour another 2quarts into pink bucket, this time rinsing the sides of the bucket.
Pour final 2 quarts into pink bucket, then pour into sprayer.
Put the (absolute worst ever invented) lid on the sprayer, shake the living daylights out the sprayer just to be sure, then put it up on something so I can put it on and get started.

Then I head off to wherever I left off, grab my "ski poles", turn on my metronome and spray spray spray.

And to think, I have to do this all again in a few months.

Not to mention at some point, I'm going to want to figure out something for fertilizer. Probably going to want to find a liquid version of whatever would be comparable to the scotts stuff I used last year in the spreader. It seemed to make everything happy and green.

I don't think I can handle any fertilizer research right now. I need a break from research and testing.

That's it for today!

Random footnote... I'm starting to wonder if what I thought was fine fescue here and there throughout the lawn might be some type of kbg. I honestly have no idea what that looks like in person. I'm sure I've seen it but didn't know what I was seeing. It's neither here nor there at this point. My main goal right now is just to have green grass of whatever type I have and as close to no weeds as I can possibly get.

 

[PlanetBeen]

Update:

The mystery weed in the sidewalk strip (mostly) is "Common Vetch". Couldn't stand not knowing. Searched a while and couldn't find anything then went outside and pulled one (in the dark) and kept searching. My husband saw vetch come up in one of my searches and said "Check that, we had something like that weed in Texas (where he's from) and they called it Vetch" Mystery solved!

 

[jskierko]

Don't stress too much about having your spraying perfectly calibrated! Just know your square footage (roughly), add the correct amount of product and let it rip. These products all have "acceptable ranges" and very few products you will use require surgical precision. Getting the right amount of carrier and right pace comes with practice and repetition. I use a full 4 gallons for my 4500 sq ft area, I use a full 4 gallons for my 3500 sq ft area, and I use two 4 gallon tanks for my 10k sq ft area. There are still times where I have some volume leftover after walking it off in 2 directions and I literally just walk in a zig-zag pattern around the yard spraying willy-nilly to empty my sprayer.

 

[PlanetBeen]

I am overwhelmed again because I'm trying to figure out how to fertilize. Last year I used scotts turf builder products. This year I'm trying to figure out how to get good results without spending so much on the "big box" stuff on my very large lawn. It worked out well for the Prodiamine and SpeedZone. Replacing the "weed" part of a weed and feed and the "crabgrass control" part of the "with halts" product.

But... What do I use for the "feed" part? Reading around I'm seeing urea and other things, for nitrogen. I've seen lesco mentioned. All the different things about spoon feeding, fast vs slow release, granular vs foliar.

I'd like to give the lawn some "food" similar to the plain ol "scotts turf builder" so it can be green and happy like it seemed to be after fertilizer last year without spending the rest of my life trying to learn the entire internet. :-(

I probably just sound lazy now.

I'm really lost at this point because I'm not even sure what I should be searching for. I saw lesco 46-0-0 referenced but that shows as out of stock or unavailable. I've found other things that seem similar but also seem to be very expensive. If it's just extremely expensive then I'll have to re figure out my plans but if I'm just completely looking at the wrong things and there really is a less expensive way, I'll never know.

I found some liquid fertilizers from different youtube people but those all seem like the equivalent of just buying the turf builder products but with a different brand name (expensive) vs. buying what might be used commercially and therefore may be available in more cost effective quantities to people who know how to use it if they buy it.

Not even sure if I should be spraying it or spreading it. I thought the point of getting the sprayer and learning it was to use it for fertilizer too because it would be more cost effective for a large area. If I still need to be spreading things I'm going to have to try to find the money to get the expensive broadcast spreader and learn how to use that too.

Not sure where I'm going with this. I'm stalled but I figure maybe I still have some time to figure it out although I don't know how.

Update for this week...

I bought a new (used) lawn mower. I spent a lot. I hope it's good. Needed something self propelled. Did a lot of reading and shopping. Narrowed it down... Picked a new one.. Then started checking on used ones. Almost bought a cheap pretty old used one. Decided I didn't want to worry about needing my husband to deal with something older that could have issues. Went back to buying a new one. Then found someone selling a used "new" Toro Super Recycler.

I had looked at those but they're currently $799 new and I just didn't want to spend that much. I had settled on a "regular" recycler that was $499. The guy was asking $550 for the used one. He took $500. Insanity. But whatever. I need it. I hope I can get used to the different self propelled style.

Bought it Monday and used it Tuesday on the former neighbors yard. (yard #3 for me) I am too worn out from typing to "review" it except to say... Wow! I didn't know it could be that easy to mow..

I haven't really mentioned this yet but I have extra yard stress in that I also cut my mom's lawn and... I let my former neighbor talk me in to cutting her lawn years ago. Well, I had hoped when I moved she would let me off the hook but no, I still drive back to my old neighborhood every week to cut the lawn of my former neighbor. (she pays me) I left my mower there when we moved.

My plan now is to get a hitch carrier thing for my car (Ford Edge) so I can bring my new fancy mower all over town and hopefully have a much easier time doing the other 2 lawns so I can hopefully not dread that as much.

But back to my lawn. That is the one I want to care about and I don't know how to pick a fertilizer other than to just spend $100 on a couple of turf builder bags and pull out the scotts drop spreader.

No more typing. My brain hurts.

edit to add...

I needed to vent. I'm stressed and depressed™ (I should turn that into my very own tagline, here...let me add a trademark... ) over fertilizing but seriously, I definitely did not sufficiently express my excitement over my new mower. I get so worried about the negative things that I forget to enjoy something that is positive. I am always hesitant to celebrate spending large amounts of money but I think I did good. The stupid mowers are stupid expensive right now. I haven't bought a lawn mower for probably almost 20 years. (shout out to the wal-mart yardman mower that is still going..) I was going to spend $500 anyway and instead I got the $800 mower.

I might make a separate post about it tomorrow but suffice it to say, it made the job of doing my neighbor's lawn a million times easier that it would have been with my old mower. It was worth the trouble I had to go through to get it up into my car to get it there. I have to get used to the personal pace but I think I will be able to figure it out before too long. The mower is beautiful to me. lol All black so sleek. I love it. It's going to need a name...

 

[PlanetBeen]

So... Hanging around doing some late night shopping therapy... Thinking about the earthway 2600A-Plus that was hanging out in my Amazon "saved for later" list for $191.37 and decided to do another search. I'm a serious Amazon Warehouse enthusiast. If you don't know what that is.. You should! I always check to see what is available used before I buy anything on Amazon.

I searched spreaders and filtered by used and came across an Andersons Yard Star spreader. Did some reading and it appears to be a rebranded Earthway 2150.

The Earthway 2150 looks to be currently selling for $375-$413.
The Andersons Yard Star seems to be $359.88

Amazon Warehouse used - like new - $183.16.

So I bought it.

What do you think?

I'll be broke soon...

 

[PlanetBeen]

Here's some pics....

New spreader... (and Duk-Doy)

The box had a bite taken out of it...

It is in 99.9% undamaged condition. I did find one piece that had a corner chipped off. Where the stabilizer rod goes through the back of the impeller. I may or may not see if Andersons wants to send me another one. I'd guess not since it was Amazon Warehouse that sold and shipped it not The Andersons company itself.

New mower... These pics have my former neighbor's lawn in the background. It's pretty hard not to be depressed about mine when I have to see hers every week...

Maybe I can just rent her yard....

This is Lawn Doctor regular program + fall seeding 2022.

Her front yard has a lot of Bermudagrass mixed in but is still way nicer than mine...

 

[PlanetBeen]

Last week's project was to finally remove the rest of the yucky red mulch from the front garage flowerbed. I had already moved it all from the 2 large front flowerbeds to replace it with cedar mulch. It was all piled up in the one last flowerbed just waiting to be gotten rid of. My mom has an old ditch behind her yard that we've been filling with stuff for many years so... Into the truck and over to the ditch it went!

Here's a couple of before pictures...

I've also been removing and stacking the wall stone things. I don't really like them. All 3 front flowerbeds were a double stack of them which just looked weird to me. Too tall to see the actual flowerbeds behind them. I'm probably taking them all out.

Everything to the left of the downspout drain out.. and beginning a new stack of removed wall stones... Those are just the ones from this section. Next up was to remove the rest of the wall/border from the left front flowerbed.

Here's a before of that one...

I decided I'd like it better if I didn't have anything overhanging the sidewalk. Plus this flowebed stays pretty wet. It gets almost no sun for most of the year. Definitely none in winter. So.... Off with their heads.

 

[PlanetBeen]

Well, looks like it doesn't want me to add 192138362 pictures to every post so... Continuing the front flowerbed edging removal here:

Note it's dark by the time I'm done. I'm almost always working until after dark. Even in the summer when that means 9pm or later. The neighbors probably think I'm nuts. They're right.

Here's the stack o' stones!

That's just the ones from this part of the project. Here's the ones from when I removed the second layer from both front flowerbeds... They're on the other (back yard) side of the fence. This was the continuation of the driveway flowerbed before we put the fence through it.. It was also a double stacked wall filled with transplanted red mulch. I had done this section a couple weeks earlier.

So there you have it. This is what I do when I'm not cutting the grass. Take things apart and stack them. lol

Here's a quick after of the garage side flowerbed where I added a couple of bags of cedar mulch I had in the garage. I have 7 more bags to fix up the front flowerbed but haven't had time to put them in yet... Maybe tomorrow...

Tomorrow's plan: grass cutting. At least the back yard. I'm not sure how much the front has grown but the back definitely has. There was rain and drizzle most of the day today and it's supposed to rain Sunday night into Monday. So if I want to get it done, tomorrow is the day!

Now if only the weather wasn't so disgustingly cold... I need the 60s and 70s back asap!

 

[PlanetBeen]

I'm wondering if this might be a good place to start for some fertilizer... If I want to spray. It's not too expensive for the gallon ($64.99) which covers 25,600 sqft at the lower rate. That would be close enough for me. I could skip spraying the ditch or leave that for last or something.

https://a.co/d/92Mcv7B

No idea if this is "good enough". Someone posted the label and it has:
Total Nitrogen 28%
Urea Nitrogen 7.8%
Slow Release Nitrogen 20.2%

Weeds are dying and I'd like to give the grass a boost to try to fight back in those areas where the weeds were choking it out.

 

[PlanetBeen]

So again I am still wondering what to use for fertilizer. I found that one in my previous post/question but know nothing about it. Normally I'd be looking at the Scotts Turf Builder. I see the ratios on that are 32-0-4. So, do I just look for something comparable? I don't understand this stuff. I am trying to figure out if there is a way to give my fescue nitrogen (So it can grow and be happy?) while it's still spring before the bermuda starts coming in.

I don't know how to get an answer. Maybe I need to just post a separate thread? Maybe I'm asking a stupid question that has no answer? I would like to fertilize my lawn. I would like to do so in the most cost effective manner. I do not have a soil test yet. I would like to feed my lawn something generic asap.

I also see Lesco NOS 46-0-0 which comes in spreadable and sprayable at Site One. So that one I guess is just nitrogen and I think the bigger number means higher concentration.

I am having a very hard time figuring out how much I would need for an application. I haven't found the label yet. Just a generic overview of what NOS is on the SiteOne page. I've seen 1lb / ksqft mentioned. Of course that's active ingredient I think which has nothing to do with the actual weight of the product but needs a different calculation.

Please help. I'm not stupid (Well, I didn't think I was.) but I am lost. I know there is a lot to learn but if I have to wait until I understand all this and can figure it all out for myself my yard will be dead. I hate to miss out on beefing up my pre existing fescue as well as my newly fall overseeded fescue in the spring because I'm going around in circles trying to figure out something I feel like I need a 4 year degree for.

I'm very close to just "wasting" the money and buying the turf builder because I can't figure out how to "make" turf builder myself.

I have a fancy new spreader but I'm not sure I should test it out with something too concentrated since it's my understanding that It could burn if I do it wrong. I am not too keen on milorganite... probably makes me lame but that seems kinda gross.

Currently cold and raining so I guess I'm not doing anything right now anyway.

 

[Green]

Love the new title...glad you adopted it (with some urging). Seriously the best lawn journal title of all time.