Tell us about your experiences helping neighbors

[Cole]

I have a neighbor that has a pull behind thatcher he bought. Lawn is sparse grass and tons of weeds.

Zero hope to tell him it’s making things worse.

I've used a pull behind "dethatcher" (the rake kind) on my lawn every spring for the last few years. Before that, in my first home I would rake by hand. The idea was to lift up and clear out the dead grass and it always seemed to help the lawn out from my perspective. I only do this once a year, but is this something that isn't recommended around here? I've never heard anyone say this isn't good for your lawn. On the contrary to your neighbor, my lawn is pretty thick and relatively weed free, but I'm no expert and have plenty to learn.

[schreibdave]

The concern would be that it exposes weed seeds that would otherwise lay dormant. But I do hand rake every spring to clean up the snow mold, matted leaves and areas of dead grass. It shouldn't be necessary more than that though. Sounds like you're doing fine.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Case in point.

My neighbors lawn service has been turning around 180 degrees on their zero turns in my lawn, full speed, on a dime. Every week it adds at least one more softball sized bare spot.

I wasnt going to say anything but Mrs HLG did anyways to our neighbors, who are fantastic people, inwasnt even go to say anything just deal with it.

Word got passed along. Who knows what was commmunicated to their service.

Today i come home and they are cutting. I watch them turn. Now, they slowed down a little, clearly trying to minimize damage, but they literally turn it 180 and actually make the radius even smaller by going slightly backwards with the one wheel too.

Ever so slightly less damage but I will still have to fix it with that approach.

So, case in point where even a "professional" can be told what they are doing to cause damage, still execute it wrong, and then say "but I did what you said". No, you have no idea why your driving habits cause damage or you wouldnt need to be told.

[KBGkicksazz]

This is why both sides of my property are shrub beds.

Makes it easy to line up irrigation heads and provides s physical barrier when mowing etc.

Please it’s aesthetically pleasing.

Case in point.

My neighbors lawn service has been turning around 180 degrees on their zero turns in my lawn, full speed, on a dime. Every week it adds at least one more softball sized bare spot.

I wasnt going to say anything but Mrs HLG did anyways to our neighbors, who are fantastic people, inwasnt even go to say anything just deal with it.

Word got passed along. Who knows what was commmunicated to their service.

Today i come home and they are cutting. I watch them turn. Now, they slowed down a little, clearly trying to minimize damage, but they literally turn it 180 and actually make the radius even smaller by going slightly backwards with the one wheel too.

Ever so slightly less damage but I will still have to fix it with that approach.

So, case in point where even a "professional" can be told what they are doing to cause damage, still execute it wrong, and then say "but I did what you said". No, you have no idea why your driving habits cause damage or you wouldnt need to be told.

[andy10917]

So, case in point where even a "professional" can be told what they are doing to cause damage, still execute it wrong, and then say "but I did what you said". No, you have no idea why your driving habits cause damage or you wouldnt need to be told.

Two words come to mind: "land mines"...

[KnickLeDime]

This came up recently with my neighbor...I told him it's a labor of love. If you dread cutting grass then none of this is for you. Just keep paying.

[KBGkicksazz]

That’s basically it.

Someone that’s passionate about a lawn (or anything) will clearly be known in the conversation.

I had a neighbor ask me, “so what illegal fertiliser are you using to get your lawn to look like that”
It’s one of those jokes that’s not a joke....

This came up recently with my neighbor...I told him it's a labor of love. If you dread cutting grass then none of this is for you. Just keep paying.

[Paul]

99% of people don't want to spend anytime outside, never mind working in the yard. I never see any of my neighbors outside on a nice day. Most have lawn services and the ones that do mow their own grass use tractors that are sized too big for the size of their lawn. None of them trim or blow off their walkways or driveway afterwards. They run their irrigation systems daily even when it's raining and they start early April. I feel like going to their door and asking them what the hell are you doing, but I just mind my own business.

allot of people ask me what the "secret" is, and I simply say, no secret, just hard work and educating yourself on lawn care. They usually laugh and walk away.

I remember when I renovated in 2016, people kept asking why my lawn was dying, and I told them I intentionally killed it for a renovation. They usually reply by saying it was a beautiful lawn to begin with. I tell them it was terrible and full of crap. They just shake their head and walked away.

With this hobby, you either love it or hate it, and most people hate it.

[northeastlawn]

[quote=Paul post_id=334066 time=1559752908 user_id=3972]With this hobby, you either love it or hate it, and most people hate it.
[/quote]

We had our memorial day cook out, it was 14 days post Tenacity treatments and a lot of the KBG still wasn't growing all that much.

I got a lot of how great the lawn looks and what do I use to make it so green. All I was thinking was, the lawn looks terrible, and we need to move this cookout to farther's day next year when the lawn is growing and looks a lot better :-)

[Cole]

I was lucky enough to have a neighbor who kept a very nice lawn in our first home. I was able to learn a lot from him, but it also made me want to have a nice lawn too. It took me 6 years, but i transformed a crap lawn into something i was proud of. If it wasn't for my neighbor, I'm not sure if I would've really ever gotten into it the way I have now.

When he moved out I was able to pass that advice on to the new owner. He was nice, but didn't care to put the time and energy into it like we did. When we moved again, having neighbors with nice lawns was on my checklist, now I can talk lawns with them too (although not like here, after about 20 minutes I can see eyes starting to glaze over), but at least they care and I'm lucky that it doesn't sound like they're going anywhere anytime soon.

Old house before and after pics. Knowing what I know now, I would've probably started with a renovation.

Before


After

[jskierko]

I have a neighbor that has a pull behind thatcher he bought. Lawn is sparse grass and tons of weeds.

Zero hope to tell him it’s making things worse.

I've told my neighbor for 2 years directly across the street from us to raise his HOC and not bag. Every other week (re: not 1/3 rule) I see him out there mowing down to 2" and bagging it all.

This used to be me... loved the look of a short lawn, grew up working on a golf course and thought I could have a fairway lawn without the work, equipment, and necessities to maintain it. Still a work in progress to fill in bare areas and crowd out weeds.

[KBGkicksazz]

Short lawn is doable with kbg. But requires consistency in mowing, proper irrigation, proper feeding.

It’s the guy who mows short in the middle of summer with no irrigation that doesn’t work.

I have a neighbor that has a pull behind thatcher he bought. Lawn is sparse grass and tons of weeds.

Zero hope to tell him it’s making things worse.

I've told my neighbor for 2 years directly across the street from us to raise his HOC and not bag. Every other week (re: not 1/3 rule) I see him out there mowing down to 2" and bagging it all.

This used to be me... loved the look of a short lawn, grew up working on a golf course and thought I could have a fairway lawn without the work, equipment, and necessities to maintain it. Still a work in progress to fill in bare areas and crowd out weeds.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I was working from home yesterday and my doorbell rang. It was a distant neighbor I had never met, telling me he bought a farm field to build a house on and wanted to know who did my lawn.

I kept it short, told him i test soil figure out what fertilizer I need, and it looks level because I have 1 species of grass that grows evenly, I mow it several times a week, with a golf course mower, and the low cut on thick grass is where the smoothness comes from. The lawn is level but it's not anything more than graded by whoever built the house as i did not level it.

I gave him this site url and hope to see him!

[Green]

I have had a few neighbors start conversations about what they should do with their crappy lawn. I'll give my advice and then they'll say "well the guy at the hardware store says I need weed and feed." To which I usually say "have you been by that guys house? How's his lawn."

When someone says they used weed n feed and it didn't work, or they're considering it, I just say, "yeah, that stuff really isn't all that effective in most cases; there are better options, though." Statements like that usually get people interested and asking questions about why it's not effective, and what works better.

[schreibdave]

I have one neighbor who I turned on to Milorganite. They seem to use it regularly now. Their lawn is the second best in the hood. That one change made a world of difference. I think that is my only success in giving out advice.

[llO0DQLE]

If anybody asks me for tips, I first say you need to cut your lawn every 3 days and water 1-2hrs once a week (we don't get much rain here, except for this year! Been raining everyday for the past 3-4 weeks now). If they are still interested after that, then I go over the basics without getting too complicated.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Yeah, if they don't start with mowing it often enough and watering it well, then they aren't going to put in the time for more!

Honestly we need to keep that in mind for people visiting here, not everyone wants to go crazy, they just want a better lawn. You can have a good looking lawn people admire without having to go to the nth degree.

[bpgreen]

Yeah, if they don't start with mowing it often enough and watering it well, then they aren't going to put in the time for more!

Honestly we need to keep that in mind for people visiting here, not everyone wants to go crazy, they just want a better lawn. You can have a good looking lawn people admire without having to go to the nth degree.

I know that most of the advice sought and given here is for the hard core lawn fanatics, but I'm almost on the opposite extreme. I aim for an acceptable lawn with the least input possible.

Interestingly, with my native grasses and once-a-month watering, my lawn is better than many lawns in my neighborhood (unless you dislike clover, which I planted on purpose). There's one guy who did a reno (with sod). But other than that, mine is as good as most and better than many.

There are a lot of relatively simple things that can be done to have a northern mix lawn that is above average:

• Mow high, and often enough that you don't remove more than 1/3 of the blade
• Mulch mow
• Water infrequently and deeply
• The most important fertilization is late fall/early winter (after top growth stops, but while the grass is still green) high nitrogen application
• If you stay on top of weeds, hand pulling works. Unless thins are really out of control, spot spraying can help get to a point where hand pulling works (since I have non traditional grasses and clover, I have to be careful with herbicides)

If you do those things, your lawn will be better than most lawns. Not the elite lawns here, but my approach to lawn care is bsaically benign neglect, and I've had neighbors ask for advice.

[ken-n-nancy]

... I aim for an acceptable lawn with the least input possible.

There are a lot of relatively simple things that can be done to have a northern mix lawn that is above average:

• Mow high, and often enough that you don't remove more than 1/3 of the blade
• Mulch mow
• Water infrequently and deeply
• The most important fertilization is late fall/early winter (after top growth stops, but while the grass is still green) high nitrogen application
• If you stay on top of weeds, hand pulling works. Unless thins are really out of control, spot spraying can help get to a point where hand pulling works (since I have non traditional grasses and clover, I have to be careful with herbicides)

If you do those things, your lawn will be better than most lawns. Not the elite lawns here, but my approach to lawn care is bsaically benign neglect, and I've had neighbors ask for advice.

Great list of recommendations for "relatively simple things that can be done to have a northern mix lawn that is above average!"

[turf_toes]

+1 BPGreen.

Lawncare doesn’t have to be hard to have a great-looking lawn.

I also agree that folks should think about the person’s goals before posting advice. Suggesting a renovation should way down on the initial suggestion look. Most folks just want to get rid of their Dandelions.