I should start taking my soil's temperature. I certainly have plenty of meat thermometers. Science keeps finding microbes which thrive at extreme temperatures, so I would be surprised if the soil did not have some of those. Then the question becomes, are they of any benefit to the plants or the soil...

Also would you mind redoing your location in your profile to elaborate on where SF Valley is? Is it San Fernando Valley in the LA area? I have no idea.

ken-n-nancy, if the leaves are as big as your hand, then yes. When the leaves are the size of your fingernail, that doesn't work. Live oak leaves are not fragile enough to be chopped unless they are held down/captured between something solid and the moving blade. Tall grass is not solid enough to ho...

Based on what you have said, I'm going to assume you are new at this. You're new at lawn care, new to Texas, and/or new to bermuda, but you're new enough that I'm going to give you the bermuda basics. Water deeply and infrequently. Deep means 1 full inch, all at one time. If your soil cannot take it...

My wife and I both got it. She never had any symptoms. I had minor diarrhea for 3 days prior to Thanksgiving. T-Day morning I awoke with severe chills. She got on the phone and found a quick-test lab open 40 miles away. We both tested positive. I did not really feel like driving to the lab, but I fe...

So very sorry to see this. Best wishes to you, BP.

My daughter has inherited my procrastination, but I'm told to expect a Joule sous vide machine any day now.

I did also reply over there. I see you're in San Antonio. Did you get your sod at Milberger's Nursery?

Yes I always like to bring a spot of whimsy to my posts. Here are before and after pictures of the back yard of my current house. Before was taken prior to 2014 when I moved in and after was taken a month ago. Before https://i.postimg.cc/YvVKVFKR/House-in-2011.jpg After https://i.postimg.cc/rDD7Sp0r...

Mine hates the camera...



Not really. He either saw a deer or the UPS truck (driver gives him treats). But anyway, that's 40 pieces of new sod he's running over.

Start mowing high and if that doesn't work, mow lower. My experience with Live Oak leaves is that you have to mow at near the mower's lowest setting to mulch them. Live Oak leaves are about 3/4 inch long, so at the high setting, there's nothing to grab onto.

It would seem like you missed the window to treat the soil and get rid of the weeds. The way you do that is to receive the new soil, water it daily for a week to sprout any weed seeds there are, spray those weeds with Round Up, continue watering daily for another week, and spray any new weeds with R...

It's really hard to tell from those pictures. What is most likely is bermuda invading the zoysia. If you mow the lawn at the mower's highest setting, then you have a chance to minimize the bermuda. Nutgrass is a swamp type plant that thrives only in soggy soil. Technically it is a sedge and not a gr...

Did you inherit this lawn with the house, or did you install it? Because the last picture tells me you have zero drainage on the property. The soil height should be at the level of the surrounding hardscape, not an inch lower. The mold growing on the soil reinforces that there is no drainage. The so...

I've never seen that.
What is your normal watering schedule? How often and for how long do you water?
Have you used any herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide on the lawn recently?
How high/low do you mow?
Have you ever used an organic fertilizer?

(and big shoutout to Dchall_San_Antonio for all of his great advice)

Awww, shucks! You wasted your first post on the forum to say that?

The color of your lawn is the same color of lawns which are overwatered. What is your watering schedule? How often and for how long do you water?

Moumz, are you asking me to repeat the reply I posted several months ago, before your question?

Hope you're still watching for replies here. I have a couple questions. You can use a manual reel mower, but scalping will continue. When you say it is scalping under 2 inches, is the entire yard scalping or is it just in a few spots? If it is just in a few spots, then you need to level the surface ...

One of the things we studied in grad school was the similarities of mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical "spring/mass/damper" systems. Without boring you with the math, what you want is the largest diameter, most rigid pipe you can find. If you can squeeze a piece of pipe with your hands and deform...