2023: What Did You Do On Your Lawn Today (Cool Season)

[Masbustelo]

I haven't mowed in six weeks. I think we've had 1/4 inch of rain. It's interesting, the grass hasn't grown, but it has shot up seed heads. It looks really bad, but this is how I'm riding this thing out. My neighbors are shaving theirs, some are really burning up. I planted clover in mine last week for my bees.

[R2k]

Cut, put down 18 lbs of elemental sulfur in my backyard, and watered for half-inch today...at least the front yards. Back and side yards will get watered tomorrow. Low 70's and cloudy day. Nice day.

[zhotster]

I mowed last night and watered this morning. I've definitely made the decision to not let the lawn go dormant. I have a yellowish spot in the front lawn near the driveway I need to figure out all I know it's not dog pee.

[fun4me2]

I can't even remember the last time we had any rain.
Only needed to mow every 10 days.
It's been cold. Morning in the 40's days 50's and low 60's.
Air quality has been awful all week. Thank you Canada.
Yesterday torrential rain with hail storm. About .05 rain.
Tomorrow in the 80's.
Apparrently wet most of next week.
Plan on mowing later today.
Here's the picture of the hail. My whole yard was covered with it. Bizarre!

[DevilDawg81]

Mowed the lawn and then sprayed baby shampoo @ 2 oz per 1k sq ft ahead of some much needed rain tomorrow.

[bumpy lawn]

Been hot & dry here in S Mn. So dry I've only been mowing once a week.
Saturday was spent watering. My water pressure/hose/sprinkler set up puts out 1/8" per 1/4 hr so two hours minimum per move starting at 430am. Today was mow day yield was 12 HRX bags of clippings(slightly less than the 14 last Sunday). I'm on the top setting and the yard is nice compared to the rest of the neighborhood. I use the clippings around the plants which I'm told is tacky but the plants and birds love it. I do too as I don't have weeds in the beds.
Thankfully cooler weather this week (gimme rain too please?)

[R2k]

Dropped elemental sulfur on the front/side lawns today at 3 lbs per 1k.

Glad to have finally gotten some rain. I bought a $6 rain gauge so I actually know what's happening. About 0.7" over the last couple of days - nice and gentle. Cut some zucchini and squash from the garden too.

[bpgreen]

Dropped elemental sulfur on the front/side lawns today at 3 lbs per 1k.

Glad to have finally gotten some rain. I bought a $6 rain gauge so I actually know what's happening. About 0.7" over the last couple of days - nice and gentle. Cut some zucchini and squash from the garden too.

Have you used sulfur in the past? If so, did you have good results? I've read that surface application of sulfur doesn't do much good on cool season lawns because it off gases before it can do much good.

I've used it in limited amounts to try to keep a silver maple from becoming a yellow maple (iron chlorosis die to high pH). But I've always folded holes around the drip line for a targeted application.

[R2k]

Have you used sulfur in the past? If so, did you have good results? I've read that surface application of sulfur doesn't do much good on cool season lawns because it off gases before it can do much good.

I have no prior experience and I am no soil expert. Since the fall of 2022, I've done multiple things that have a potential pH-lowering effect (ammonium sulfate, iron sulfate, and elemental sulfur). The results are inconclusive so far (soil tested in early fall '22, and May '23).

This is my first warm season giving elemental sulfur a shot, which is ideal timing for the bacteria that process elemental sulfur to work. I've read that ES surface apps don't work, so that is the expectation. I'll be soil testing again at the end of summer and in the fall to confirm if the pH is drifting down or not.

My expectation is that if my pH lowers from elemental sulfur, it'll be temporary as it's not addressing the root cause of my high pH. I suspect my elevated pH is a result of high magnesium levels, which I'm experimenting with separately for a lasting solution.

Further details are in my 2023 soil testing thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27407

[bpgreen]

Thanks. I'll be watching what happens. Good luck!

[R2k]

Thanks, bpgreen!

I got out and cut today. Ground feels nice and soft from the last couple of days of rain. I better get out and check the squash and zucchini!

[Riverpilot]

Basically been doing nothing for the last month except watering the lawn and mowing every 1.5 to 2 weeks. We are in severe drought conditions and it doesn't look good for rain in the next month forecast.

.18" of rain in June.. the majority of lawns around me are already crispy and things are looking to become worse.

[Aether]

Mulch mowed. Dormancy starting to show in the areas that normally go through it every year.

[bumpy lawn]

Watered. Supposedly will rain this evening/early morning up to .3". We all know how that works out. If it actually happens it should all soak in at least. Pretty sure with the upcoming heat I will not be mowing this week. It doesn't appear to need it anyway.

[Marinegrunt]

Basically been doing nothing for the last month except watering the lawn and mowing every 1.5 to 2 weeks. We are in severe drought conditions and it doesn't look good for rain in the next month forecast.

.18" of rain in June.. the majority of lawns around me are already crispy and things are looking to become worse.

We had a little rain last Sunday over here between Peoria and Bloomington but not much. It sure has been dry.

[R2k]

Cut/edged today.

Letting the lawn come out of regulation (uneven application in May). It's evening out, but probably be another week of waiting before I can re-apply trinexapac-ethyl. After thinking about it, better to let the lawn entirely come out of regulation evenly and then re-apply vs spot spraying the unregulated stuff (wack-a-mole and would still produce uneven growth rates everywhere).

Sprayed Kelp Help a few days ago and sprayed SLS today as we have some rain coming tonight. First time applying the SLS solution to the soil. Looking forward to using it more.

[DevilDawg81]

Weed eated, mowed and then sprayed fungicide

[edslawn]

Weed eated, mowed and then sprayed fungicide

"Weed eated"

[ruth_mi]

Found a little Sun Joe chipper for $20 on Marketplace and ran a bag of pine pellets through it, then spread (18 lbs/k). I’ve tried mowing over pellets before they got wet, but my little battery mower didn’t chop them up and they made piles that were hard to unclump. This seems to have worked great – we’ll see what happens when they get wet.

I’ll try it on the cracked corn next – had so many corn seedlings last time I dropped cc – they grew a lot faster than the grass, so even though I was cutting every four days, my lawn looked a mess. After they survived a few cuts, I started pulling them.

Cut after dropping the pine pellets – for now staying at 3.5” HOC. In the last week, I also did my second kelp help app then a few days later my first humic acid app.

Decided I’ll probably water through the summer and not let it go dormant. This is its third summer and I should have taken better care of it the first two years. I'm learning. Too many thin spots and too much oxalis despite prodiamine in April and WBG CCO. (WBG worked, but I keep getting more.)

Walked the dog around the neighborhood instead of our usual walk in the woods and realized almost every single lawn in my sub looks terrible. It was a tough June. Not thrilled with where mine is, but not sure I’d trade with anyone.

[Aether]

Mulch mowed and pulled some weeds.