I shoveled the snow on Tuesday before I had to go out of town. We only got about 4 inches of accumulation on the cement, so it probably would have melted if I had left it, but since I was going out of town, I didn't want to risk sticking my wife with the chore.

It's good to see the enthusiasm. Just wait until the grass starts growing . . .

I saw your response to the KBG question and thought I'd welcome you aboard.

Hi, King of Green. Welcome aboard!

I saw that GaryCinChicago joined. Welcome, Gary.

Welcome aboard!

I've never used Step 1. I used weed and feed products years ago, but haven't used them in a long time. I saw in the other post that you're considering going organic. I'll give you organic and synthetic approaches to the weeds. Weed and feed products aren't really as effective as many think they are....

First off, welcome. I've been using mostly organic lawncare on my lawn and I've seen definite improvements. I have clay soil that doesn't absorb water well, or perhaps I should say it didn't absorb water well. I've been fertilizing mostly with used coffee grounds (UCG) from Starbucks for the past fe...

Good to see you here!

Welcome, Quirky!

Welcome, Lou!

Thanks for the info. Since I don't have St Augustine, it doesn't have any direct benefit for me, but I was curious about it.

David--I found some old posts you made on GW in 2007 saying that you were going to water in December and January to see if that would keep your lawn green through the winter. I don't remember seeing you post anything saying whether it worked or not.

Did it work?

Thanks for the kudos everybody.

I think the natives are finally taking over the lawn. I made the mistake of trying to overseed into the existing lawn instead of killing and replacing. The problem with that is that there were large sections of the lawn without enough native grass so I still had to water the lawn to keep the KBG/TTT...

Starbucks has a corporate policy to make their used coffee grounds (UCG) available for free to anybody who wants them. This only applies to the stand alone stores, not the ones in places like bookstores airports, etc. Some stores don't save them if nobody is picking them up because they start to sme...

Bernest--Nearly all cool season grasses do best when they are mowed high. The trick to ensuring that your mower doesn't bog down is to cut no more than 1/3 of the height when you cut. So if you're cutting to 3 inches, cut it when the grass is no more than 4.5 inches high. Letting your grass grow tal...

Welcome!

Core aerating involves removing small circular cores from the lawn. Its main purpose is to loosen the soil and allow air to get in, but it can also be used to have more soil exposed for seeding. If your lawn is small enough, you can use a Turf Hound and do it manually. Some people rent the machines ...

Fall is a better time to seed in Chicago than spring. You'll get more weed germination in the spring, and you'll also give the new grass less time to establish before the heat of the summer kicks in. Spring seeding will still work, but it won't be as successful as fall seeding would have been. If yo...