Things Experienced Lawn Owners Do That Novices Don't...

[andy10917]

Note: this posting is placed in the Cool-Season Forum, but most of the points apply also to Warm-Season owners too...

If you read the Forums carefully, you'll find patterns and trends that are handled differently by "Experienced/Advanced" ATY members, and less-experienced members. Understanding those differences and trying to emulate the practices of the more experienced members is a BIG step in the growth of the Novice or "Some Experience" member.

Let's point out some of the differences:

The experienced/advanced members fight the battles before the visual evidence that problems are arising occurs. Good examples of this are Poa Annua and crabgrass control. Poa Annua wars are fought successfully in September, and crabgrass wars are fought and won in April. Both are fought by using pre-emergents long before there is any evidence that a war will be needed. Calmly and with little effort and few resources, the experienced/advanced member puts the war in the rearview mirror. This results in a lower demands for time and money, as well as frustration of "now what?" perceptions. Turf_Toes is my favorite example of this -- he sometimes says "lawn care doesn't take a ton of effort" in posts and conversations.

Now, that doesn't mean that he runs around making posts that all is great if you can just crowd out weeds - you have to get there first. And that brings out the next subject (and it's by far the toughest decision to make): time management and giving up already-lost wars.

I roll my eyes (and I'm sure others do too) when I read posts and threads about fighting wars against already-present crabgrass in late August and September. If you put in time and resources/$$$$$ then and win in 6-7 weeks, you beat the natural end of the crabgrass season by a massive 2 weeks. Really? Is that worth the effort? In the meantime, your efforts and resources were used up, and you didn't get the Pre-M down to control the Poa Annua that will rear its head next April. You're always fighting wars that aren't with the odds! Yes, it's disconcerting that you want to make the lawn look better RIGHT NOW, but giving up a single battle to switch to winning the winnable war is smarter. Think that over!

Being proactive and preventative instead of reactive and stressed has a surprising side-effect -- it turns lawn work from a series of frustrating chores into an enjoyable hobby.

So, what's the point of this posting/thread? It's that you want to read what the most-experienced members do, and why they're calmer about things. With July almost upon us, we move to maintaining and preserving our wins, and start to think about what the Fall Push will focus on, and what we'll need to prepare for. I try to periodically post what I call "Heads-Up" posts, which look out 3-4 weeks and try to give you time to plan, instead of always being in scramble mode.

If you take one thing away from reading this post, it's this: look forward and think about what one thing you could do as we move toward the later season that buys you the ability to switch from already-lost battles to becoming proactive and ahead of the curve. Mentally commit to not get distracted by drawing down your time/money to the things that deliver short-term results and focus your time on the longer-term proactive efforts. You'll find that the draw goes down on you far faster than you'd think!

[turf_toes]

I’d add that folks new to this hobby should forget about “miracles in a bag.”

It doesn’t work that way.

Proper planning makes lawn care easy. Instead of dumping a bunch of (fill in the blank) on your lawn, thinking it is going to result in your mind’s perfect lawn. Spend that effort on developing a plan.

Ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. That shouldn’t be a macro view (a perfect yard). Specifically, what specific problem are you trying to solve.

Then deal with that. That might lead eventually to a renovation. But it might not.

But the best advice I have is to stop thinking that dumping some product is going to result in a perfect lawn.

[andy10917]

+100. I was planning to add that as a follow-on as the conversation developed, but you're right on the money. Many people that ask me how I get the lawn dark and thick think I have found the Holy Grail of fertilizers (aka, Miracle In A Bag), and they're angry that I won't spill the beans on its name. I tell them that most of the things I use come in plain brown paper bags. When Members here ask "what do you think of this new XYZ fertilizer?", my real reaction is generally "it looks like fertilizer". In 45 years of doing this stuff, I have found exactly ONE nutrient that even comes close to causing a remarkable response (member's side note: don't even bother to ask me what it is - that's a clear marker that you're in search of the Holy Grail solution).

[EddieN26]

+100. I was planning to add that as a follow-on as the conversation developed, but you're right on the money. Many people that ask me how I get the lawn dark and thick think I have found the Holy Grail of fertilizers (aka, Miracle In A Bag), and they're angry that I won't spill the beans on its name. I tell them that most of the things I use come in plain brown paper bags. When Members here ask "what do you think of this new XYZ fertilizer?", my real reaction is generally "it looks like fertilizer". In 45 years of doing this stuff, I have found exactly ONE nutrient that even comes close to causing a remarkable response (member's side note: don't even bother to ask me what it is - that's a clear marker that you're in search of the Holy Grail solution).

I have 2 guesses, nitrogen or iron?!

I've only been studying up lawn care since last May and can honestly say I started out as part of the inexperienced crowd seeking the miracle product, UNTIL I stumbled upon ATY while google searching the next best thing for the perfect lawn. I've learned a wealth of knowledge here, and most importantly that there's nothing more productive than having a plan as TT and Andy mentioned. My lawn had a MAJOR crabgrass outbreak last year, and not knowing any better I spent the better part of spring and summer buying and applying herbicides to eradicate it instead of planning and preventing it in the first place. The KBG severely thinned and almost died out as a result from the harsh heat coupled with the chemicals. Proactive beats reactive any day of the week, and is considerably less stressful indeed.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I think people go through stages of development:

Cut the grass occasionally
Look for miracle in a bag
Try a lawn service
Decide lawn service isn't meeting expectations and attempt DIY
Get serious about spending time on it and flail about for a bit
Seek out successfully maintained lawn info directly from managers
Attempt to apply their calendar based rules and programs
Figure out the nature and cycle of things and develop that green thumb
Work in cooperation with mother nature
Experiment and tweak

[northeastlawn]

I know I am guilty of expecting a reno to be a miracle that solves all problems, I have learned the hard way that it takes multiple growing seasons to get where some of the lawns are on here. The perfect lawn doesn't come the next year.

This year I could push it and apply tenacity again for the POA Annua that seems to be making a come back, but its going to be in the 80's, It will probably also hurt the KBG. I am probably better off just stretching the watering out until the KBG needs it. I'll try and let the summer kill the POA. Maybe this is the year the POA doesn't make it through summer for me.

Worse case I apply my pre-M in Aug and Oct, and try starting the Tenacity after Memorial day next year. Its going to take a lot more than one year to rid my yard of the POA and the KBG to fill in everywhere I would like.

[zhotster]

I remember when I first started with this forum (and prior to this forum at the old place) how much I thought I knew. I was so wrong! My first real project was a reno, read a lot on how to do it, did a soil test an went through the expert timelines. What I didn't do is factor in the fact I'm up north and planted my reno in Sept. Did I learn the hard way and had to re-do it 3 years later! Now, I come here to look for the hints that Andy and others provide here make sure I do the ones that apply to my lawn. My lawn isn't perfect, but it has very few weeds and is the nicest in my neighborhood. It's not hard at all and is really maintenance free as stated above. It's so much easier to listen to the experts here and heed the advice. This place has made it EASY to do and I'm eager to look here nearly every day.

[llO0DQLE]

Idk..I just read the articles here and applied the basics and voila! Nice lawn. lol really it seems to be that simple to me. Proper mowing, watering and fertilizing. Most have KBG, feed it ~6-8lbs N/M per year including winterizer, use as much organic sources, pre M at the start of the year (if not renovating, I do one app of Prodiamine for the whole year, or maybe worst case, split it into 2 apps), Serenade for preventative biofungicide, BLSC and KH regularly, Triangle Approach to weeds... easy enough. Follow your soil remediation plan if you got a soil test. Idk, maybe I'm just lucky to have decent soil and mild weather that I don't have too many fungal issues and most weeds I see in my part of the world are eradicated by 2,4-D.

[Green]

I've noticed a lot of uninformed or novice people do things like unsytematically take the cutting height down in Summer instead of up, or if they're substitute mowing for someone, they don't utilize the original height, but cut low. They also mow when it's 90s and sunny. This type of thing is almost guaranteed to result in browning, thinning, and crabgrass encroachment, even if everything else was done well up to that point in time.

[andy10917]

idk..I just read the articles here and applied the basics and voila! Nice lawn. lol really it seems to be that simple to me. Proper mowing, watering and fertilizing. Most have KBG, feed it ~6-8lbs N/M per year including winterizer, use as much organic sources, pre M at the start of the year (if not renovating, I do one app of Prodiamine for the whole year, or maybe worst case, split it into 2 apps), Serenade for preventative biofungicide, BLSC and KH regularly, Triangle Approach to weeds... easy enough. Follow your soil remediation plan if you got a soil test. Idk, maybe I'm just lucky to have decent soil and mild weather that I don't have too many fungal issues and most weeds I see in my part of the world are eradicated by 2,4-D.

That's as close to a perfect one-paragraph synopsis of what it takes to get to the 90% level as I've ever read. Awesome!

I'm asking for your permission to steal that paragraph (with credit to you) and reuse it a lot.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

idk..I just read the articles here and applied the basics and voila! Nice lawn. lol really it seems to be that simple to me. Proper mowing, watering and fertilizing. Most have KBG, feed it ~6-8lbs N/M per year including winterizer, use as much organic sources, pre M at the start of the year (if not renovating, I do one app of Prodiamine for the whole year, or maybe worst case, split it into 2 apps), Serenade for preventative biofungicide, BLSC and KH regularly, Triangle Approach to weeds... easy enough. Follow your soil remediation plan if you got a soil test. Idk, maybe I'm just lucky to have decent soil and mild weather that I don't have too many fungal issues and most weeds I see in my part of the world are eradicated by 2,4-D.

That's as close to a perfect one-paragraph synopsis of what it takes to get to the 90% level as I've ever read. Awesome!

+1 - that's really good, llO0DQLE

Too easy to overcomplicate this stuff

[ronfitch]

Idk..I just read the articles here and applied the basics and voila! Nice lawn. lol really it seems to be that simple to me. Proper mowing, watering and fertilizing. Most have KBG, feed it ~6-8lbs N/M per year including winterizer, use as much organic sources, pre M at the start of the year (if not renovating, I do one app of Prodiamine for the whole year, or maybe worst case, split it into 2 apps), Serenade for preventative biofungicide, BLSC and KH regularly, Triangle Approach to weeds... easy enough. Follow your soil remediation plan if you got a soil test. Idk, maybe I'm just lucky to have decent soil and mild weather that I don't have too many fungal issues and most weeds I see in my part of the world are eradicated by 2,4-D.

Read the articles ... slow it down there, buddy. Let's not get fancy.

[bpgreen]

I should have read more before posting to the other thread.

[llO0DQLE]

idk..I just read the articles here and applied the basics and voila! Nice lawn. lol really it seems to be that simple to me. Proper mowing, watering and fertilizing. Most have KBG, feed it ~6-8lbs N/M per year including winterizer, use as much organic sources, pre M at the start of the year (if not renovating, I do one app of Prodiamine for the whole year, or maybe worst case, split it into 2 apps), Serenade for preventative biofungicide, BLSC and KH regularly, Triangle Approach to weeds... easy enough. Follow your soil remediation plan if you got a soil test. Idk, maybe I'm just lucky to have decent soil and mild weather that I don't have too many fungal issues and most weeds I see in my part of the world are eradicated by 2,4-D.

That's as close to a perfect one-paragraph synopsis of what it takes to get to the 90% level as I've ever read. Awesome!

I'm asking for your permission to steal that paragraph (with credit to you) and reuse it a lot.

Sheesh Andy, you're making me blush. Steal away, I only learned all of the above from you and the rest of the gang here anyway...

[llO0DQLE]

[/quote]

+1 - that's really good, llO0DQLE

Too easy to overcomplicate this stuff

Thanks HLG!

Read the articles ... slow it down there, buddy. Let's not get fancy.

lol