most behind lawn

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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s1mpl3k1d
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Joined: January 13th, 2009, 8:04 am
Location: zone 5a Northwest, IL
Grass Type: KGB Emblem, Midnight II entire lawn
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most behind lawn

Post by s1mpl3k1d » May 17th, 2009, 10:30 pm

Good evening folks. I walked around the neighborhood to check out my neighbor's lawns. All their lawns are already really thick. However, mine, it's the ugliest now. I don't want to work on my flower bed anymore because when someone passes by, they always ask me my lawn looks like stressed/dead. LOL. I'm not sure why I still have so many dead blades and the dead blades are even really close to each other. The picture does not do justice. But trust me, it's very crunchy when I walk on it. Aeration doesn't seem to help. Cracked corn did help the birds. Every hour of every day, it's impossible that I won't see tons of birds eating at my lawn. At least when I walk close to them(10-15' away), they don't fly anymore.

Do I have to rake it? I don't recall seeing my neighbor rake theirs.

Anyways, here is the pic taken I think 2 days ago.

Image

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andy10917
Posts: 29739
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 10:48 pm
Location: NY (Lower Hudson Valley)
Grass Type: Emblem KBG (Front); Blueberry KBG Monostand (Back)
Lawn Size: 1 acre-2 acre
Level: Advanced

Re: most behind lawn

Post by andy10917 » May 17th, 2009, 11:37 pm

Did you try some Milorganite over the Cracked Corn to keep the birds away? I found that the birds stayed away for 7-10 days when I put down Milorganite. I wasn't even trying to keep them away - I was hoping for some effect against deer (it works for 2-3 weeks) and squirrels (doesn't work).

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s1mpl3k1d
Posts: 1472
Joined: January 13th, 2009, 8:04 am
Location: zone 5a Northwest, IL
Grass Type: KGB Emblem, Midnight II entire lawn
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by s1mpl3k1d » May 18th, 2009, 4:10 am

Nope, I didn't apply milorganite. So looks like the cracked corn I applied never became useful for my lawn. :)

Thanks.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » May 18th, 2009, 9:23 am

When did you put out the corn?

Attracting birds is not a bad thing at all. They prefer insects to corn, so you may have other things going on that are slowing down the grass. And you might not have the problems the other lawns might have later in the year because your yard is free of insects. Plus, birds have the shortest digestive system there is. If nothing else you are getting the full benefit of having bird poop applied with even coverage. I read a book by a Virginia farmer who insists that even if the owls swooped up every one of his free range chickens, he would buy more. They do the job of livestock parasite control (ticks, intestinal worms, ants, and flies) and fertilizing that he could never afford to do. He keeps one chicken per head of livestock.

How often do you water in the bird poop?

eriocaulon
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Joined: January 15th, 2009, 8:45 pm
Location: NE Ohio
Grass Type: KBG(midnight/moonlight), TTTF (summerlawn), RSBG (Winterplex, SabreIII)
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by eriocaulon » May 20th, 2009, 4:45 pm

I have never gotten good greenup with cracked corn and think it takes much longer than, say, soybean meal to kick in. I know it has been said that NPK doesn't matter with organics, but the protein content really does correlate to greenup. Putting down soybean meal or milorganite at 15-20lb/1000sqft--the effect is not subtle. the same amount with cracked corn and even 4 weeks out, I am scratching my head and maybe can convince myself of some difference. Still, if the soil biology is improved by using it, great. But I am not sure I would call it fertilizer.


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s1mpl3k1d
Posts: 1472
Joined: January 13th, 2009, 8:04 am
Location: zone 5a Northwest, IL
Grass Type: KGB Emblem, Midnight II entire lawn
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by s1mpl3k1d » May 20th, 2009, 8:01 pm

The best time I saw my lawn was the time I applied corn gluten meal. I think it was early March 2007. Late April, the density improved. Late April, I applied corn meal followed by AACT on May 15. Around June, it was really thick. Then now, looks like my scalping last year affected the lawn. It's still not looking good. My fault! :)

eriocaulon
Posts: 2256
Joined: January 15th, 2009, 8:45 pm
Location: NE Ohio
Grass Type: KBG(midnight/moonlight), TTTF (summerlawn), RSBG (Winterplex, SabreIII)
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by eriocaulon » May 20th, 2009, 8:17 pm

It looks like you still have a lot of dead material left over from winter. Did you even get a spring flush of growth? Did you apply winterizer late fall? I think your neighbors' lawns are what you should be having right now.

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s1mpl3k1d
Posts: 1472
Joined: January 13th, 2009, 8:04 am
Location: zone 5a Northwest, IL
Grass Type: KGB Emblem, Midnight II entire lawn
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by s1mpl3k1d » May 20th, 2009, 8:46 pm

I did not apply any fertilizer last fall. No flush of growth. Yes, there are tons of dead grass. Not sure why it's still there.

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Abyss
Posts: 750
Joined: April 1st, 2009, 3:31 am
Location: Just outside Philly
Grass Type: Midnight II and Northstar out back
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by Abyss » May 20th, 2009, 9:01 pm

It looks like your lawn really hasnt woken up yet. How many other times have your neighbors mowed you think?

You might want to get some turfbuilder down if they have a couple cuts in and then water it in. It looks like its waking up around the sidewalk.

If you have any turfbuilder or similar fertilizer on hand, try taking a handful of it and spreading it out in an area and water it in, and see how it reacts within the next week.

What are your day and night temps there over the last month? Have your neighbors fertilized? It looks like you have a good base of grass there, you just gotta get it to grow.

rcnaylor
Posts: 1114
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by rcnaylor » May 22nd, 2009, 11:55 pm

I did not apply any fertilizer last fall.
My guess is that is the answer to your question. Most studies recommend most of the fertilizer for cool season grasses be put on in the fall. I put an application out in Sep, Oct and then a final application right after the first hard freeze of urea.

I put one app out in the spring, in general.

In particular, I think the last app of urea helps immensely with winter color retention and spring green up.

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s1mpl3k1d
Posts: 1472
Joined: January 13th, 2009, 8:04 am
Location: zone 5a Northwest, IL
Grass Type: KGB Emblem, Midnight II entire lawn
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: most behind lawn

Post by s1mpl3k1d » May 25th, 2009, 5:30 am

ok, I'm going to go chemical fert for now. Hopefully, it will wake up but I think it will. I noticed that grass in parkway is better now but not the part close to my front porch. I guess, another reason why the lanw near front porch is so dead is because I walk on it like 30 to 50 times a day. I water all the perennial plants which I grew from seed. I still have tons of plants to transplant and tons of seeds to direct sow. Most of the grass blades are flat in the ground. Oh, it's been 2 weeks now and we still haven't seen any rain. I tested my lawn with screwdriver and I wasn't even able to go beyond 1" deep. I really had a very tough time the other day taken some soil samples.

The picture I posted above is actually better than today. :(

Anyways, I'm really targeting to renovate the front this year.

rcnaylor
Posts: 1114
Joined: January 17th, 2009, 12:38 am
Location: Texas Panhandle
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Re: most behind lawn

Post by rcnaylor » May 25th, 2009, 8:32 am

In my experience, chemical fertilizers contribute to a compaction problem over time. i.e. where you walk. A healthy soil full of organisms and some organic matter hold water better and allows for a softer, springier soil. A chemical fertilizer will green you up faster, but, like the old commercial said: pay me now or pay me later.

Either way, good luck.

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