Complements from a stranger

[Hammbone81]

We've been in our current house for 4yrs. Bought a new construction spec house. All the top soil was stripped and sod was placed on very sandy calcareous "soil".

Through lots of input from folks here, and a lot of diligent hard work, the lawn has turned around and looking pretty good.

A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, a random stranger made this post on our city's local committee Facebook page:



↑ the address he listed is my address.

...a few days later, my neighbor who places on a men's golf league at the local country club, told me that the greens keeper approached him and said "You're going to need to step up your game. I drove by your place last night and you're neighbor's (me) lawn is kicking your a$$. His lawn is nicer than the country club's."

I looked this guy up. He runs a lawn care service! So I guess that feels "extra good?" that a lawn care service guy called me out.

For my success, I have the folks here to thank! I specifically want to shout out to Morph and Andy for all of the great advice and putting up with my silly questions and me trying to over-Engineer everything I do!

[bpgreen]

Nice!

[edslawn]

That's an awesome story! Thanks for sharing it. (and congrats on the great lawn)

[Masbustelo]

Congrats as well. Also thanks to Morph and Andy. I was out mowing last week and someone stopped to complement me .

[MorpheusPA]

Very nice! And you're welcome! But you didn't pay Lawn Tax with a photo of what they're staring at!

[Hammbone81]

Very nice! And you're welcome! But you didn't pay Lawn Tax with a photo of what they're staring at!

Haha, that's fair. Here are a few photos to ponder:

(Note: When we moved here in 2018, our soil ph=8.4, OM=0.83%, N, P, K, and micros were non-existent.)

This photo is from about when the compliment was made around 5/10.


These are from this morning 5/27/22 (My lawn is in it's spring shedding phase and I hate it).




I am pretty happy with where it's at. It is not perfect and there are a few things I'm still working on.
1) I have what I think is foxtail trying to grow in places (it's rampant in the empty lots around our neighborhood and was once in our lot).
-Tenacity goes down in the morning.
2) I'm still building OM / carbon in the soil and always will be.
3) With the ph so high, getting and keeping color is challenging since the grass won't take up chelated iron (Milo does nothing). Right now, the color is all from nitrogen. Mostly urea from November. I did put down SBM around 5/10 and 19-19-19 on 5/23.
4) I worked with my local feed mill and they've custom grinded (ground?) some cracked corn in smaller pieces so I don't get little plants. SCORE!

[edslawn]

Very nice! And you're welcome! But you didn't pay Lawn Tax with a photo of what they're staring at!

Haha, that's fair. Here are a few photos to ponder:

(Note: When we moved here in 2018, our soil ph=8.4, OM=0.83%, N, P, K, and micros were non-existent.)

This photo is from about when the compliment was made around 5/10.


These are from this morning 5/27/22 (My lawn is in it's spring shedding phase and I hate it).




I am pretty happy with where it's at. It is not perfect and there are a few things I'm still working on.
1) I have what I think is foxtail trying to grow in places (it's rampant in the empty lots around our neighborhood and was once in our lot).
-Tenacity goes down in the morning.
2) I'm still building OM / carbon in the soil and always will be.
3) With the ph so high, getting and keeping color is challenging since the grass won't take up chelated iron (Milo does nothing). Right now, the color is all from nitrogen. Mostly urea from November. I did put down SBM around 5/10 and 19-19-19 on 5/23.
4) I worked with my local feed mill and they've custom grinded (ground?) some cracked corn in smaller pieces so I don't get little plants. SCORE!

Holy crap.. that's spectacular!

[DevilDawg81]

Congrats, it looks great!

[bpgreen]

I like that last picture where the lot line is clearly visible.

[MorpheusPA]

Oh, yeah, that spring shedding is really taking a terrible toll on your property. Just awful. Rip the whole thing out and start over because, yuck. Intolerable.

That's pretty spectacular.

[PSU4ME]

Looks great. Love community compliments especially from the mail people as they see they all!

[fun4me2]

Hammbone81 Wow! Just Wow!! Nice work

[Hammbone81]

Thanks everyone for the compliments!

Here are photos from a couple nights ago, taken mid-mow.





It's funny. Neighbors are now trying to step up their game. 4 of them have purchased sidewalk edgers now. TruGreen showed up across the street Tuesday afternoon. A couple guys are mowing diagonally now. All recent changes since the FB post.

[edslawn]

Thanks everyone for the compliments!

Here are photos from a couple nights ago, taken mid-mow.





It's funny. Neighbors are now trying to step up their game. 4 of them have purchased sidewalk edgers now. TruGreen showed up across the street Tuesday afternoon. A couple guys are mowing diagonally now. All recent changes since the FB post.

Oh now you're just showing off

[gryd]

Thanks everyone for the compliments!

Here are photos from a couple nights ago, taken mid-mow.





It's funny. Neighbors are now trying to step up their game. 4 of them have purchased sidewalk edgers now. TruGreen showed up across the street Tuesday afternoon. A couple guys are mowing diagonally now. All recent changes since the FB post.

Very nice! Keep up the great work. What cultivars of KBG did you use?

[Hammbone81]

[quote=gryd post_id=351306 time=1654374425
Very nice! Keep up the great work. What cultivars of KBG did you use?
[/quote]

Nothing fancy.

Blue Chip, Blue Devil, and Blue Coat

The builder had sod put down before we got here, so I had nothing to do with the selection. I did have an issue year 1 (2018) and needed to reseed. Through a series of phone calls I was able to figure out where the sod came from. The sod farm would not sell me the seed but they told me where they bought it from and I was able to get some.

[ronfitch]

That’s fantastic.

I was just thinking about Eastern Iowa soil tonight was I mowed. In Cedar Falls and the surrounding area, you had to dig deep to get through the lush, black soil.

[Hammbone81]

That’s fantastic.

I was just thinking about Eastern Iowa soil tonight was I mowed. In Cedar Falls and the surrounding area, you had to dig deep to get through the lush, black soil.

God forgot to put that rich black soil in Solon! We have very poor soil here! I'm less that 5mi from the Cedar River one direction and the Iowa River the other, not sure if being close to two rivers is why, or what's going on. Our soil is very sandy and calcareous (think desert). Ph=8.4. OM<1%. I grew up in SE Iowa - that was rich black soil. Not here. It's weird.

[ronfitch]

That’s fantastic.

I was just thinking about Eastern Iowa soil tonight was I mowed. In Cedar Falls and the surrounding area, you had to dig deep to get through the lush, black soil.

God forgot to put that rich black soil in Solon! We have very poor soil here! I'm less that 5mi from the Cedar River one direction and the Iowa River the other, not sure if being close to two rivers is why, or what's going on. Our soil is very sandy and calcareous (think desert). Ph=8.4. OM<1%. I grew up in SE Iowa - that was rich black soil. Not here. It's weird.

'Sup with that? I recall the stuff up around Mason City as being rich and dark several inches (feet in some cases, when I bothered to dig that deep) as well. As kids, we were always told that the rich soil was the result of glacial fill.

[Hammbone81]

'Sup with that? I recall the stuff up around Mason City as being rich and dark several inches (feet in some cases, when I bothered to dig that deep) as well. As kids, we were always told that the rich soil was the result of glacial fill.

Same here, growing up in SE Iowa and was always told we have the best soil in the world. Not in Solon. It's weird. I assumed I'd be good anywhere in Iowa. Nope.