Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

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thenamelesspoet
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Joined: May 5th, 2021, 1:37 pm
Location: CT
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Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

Post by thenamelesspoet » May 5th, 2021, 3:09 pm

Hello All, newbie here. I purchased my house in early 2019 and then did a soil test in October of that year. Seeing the PH being below 5 (yikes) I put down lime (about 50 lbs per 1,000 sqF) then and 2x in 2020. I did the front and back separately (about 8,000 SqF in the front and 15k in the back (tho I have an additional 5k now that i have cleared some crap out of the back.)

At that time (2019) the PH was 4.9 in the front yard and 4.5 in the back yard. The back yard gets relatively minimal sun and has a large grove of white pine's at one end. Fast forward to this year and it is up to 5.5 in the front and 5.4 in the back. Still way too low, but going in the correct direction! I also see that my overall "N-P-K" is pretty poor as well, but that is not surprising, the neighbor said the previous owner pretty much just mowed when needed and that is it.

My question is, do I put down the same amount 3x this year, to get it to around 6.5-7 next season. I know putting down 100lbs per 1k sqF is not ideal because of runoff, and its oversaturating the lawn all at once with it. I also have questions on how to fertilize it naturally, with bone meal and things like that. I don't want to use liquid "chemicals" I would much rather do it more naturally with Bone meal/Potash/etc. Not a hippie by any means, but I'd like to not be dumping chemicals if you know what I mean. I also have a well so I'd also rather not drink them lol

My lawn currently is probably 1/3-1/2 Moss (especially in the back that's probably 2/3 moss) which I wanted to take care of last year, but we had a bad drought (and our hand dug well dried up, so we had to have a deep well dug) so I didn't want to "waste" the water since we kept running out. I did thatch/de-thatch it last year and this year and holy cow a lot came out. I also put down raw milk as an experiment last year, and I only did 1/2 the lawn... well until we stopped getting water, it really did seem to help which was quite interesting, but research has shown it does with crops, so why not right lol

Anyway, looking forward to having a lush beautiful lawn over the next couple years, so thanks ahead of time with the help!

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MorpheusPA
Posts: 18129
Joined: March 5th, 2009, 7:32 pm
Location: Zone 6 (Eastern PA)
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Re: Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

Post by MorpheusPA » May 5th, 2021, 3:44 pm

First, if the soil test was from Logan Labs, post it and let us read it.

If it wasn't from Logan Labs...get one from Logan Labs. It'll give exact ratios of everything with very precise numbers that enable myself (or another soil test reader) to give you very exacting advice on what to do. And no, none of us are associated with Logan, it's just the best lab we've found and the one we're used to reading. You can look at other soil tests to see how we read them.

It sounds, offhand, like you're on the right track overall, but a one point rise over that time period and a half-moss lawn is pretty slow and we can do a lot better. We'll be targeting a...OK I hate pH numbers because they don't mean anything overall, but in this case I'll break my own rules and use one :-) We'll be targeting a pH of around 6.4, by which I mean the appropriate calcium, magnesium, and potassium levels. Which means using the correct types of limestone, plus other chemicals, to balance the soil.

At 100#/K...I already can tell you're not using the right limestone, but we need the test to get the exact numbers and best chemical balances. Otherwise we're shooting blind and doing that on a soil is a recipe for disaster.

If it's any consolation, I started in the same state--it's called a collapsed soil. It's fixable. Nowadays I have the best lawn and flower gardens in the neighborhood, and, I'd argue, possibly competitive in the entire city. Not that I'm looking or worrying about such things, of course...

thenamelesspoet
Posts: 2
Joined: May 5th, 2021, 1:37 pm
Location: CT
Grass Type: I don't know
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Level: Not Specified

Re: Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

Post by thenamelesspoet » May 5th, 2021, 4:59 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
May 5th, 2021, 3:44 pm
First, if the soil test was from Logan Labs, post it and let us read it.

If it wasn't from Logan Labs...get one from Logan Labs. It'll give exact ratios of everything with very precise numbers that enable myself (or another soil test reader) to give you very exacting advice on what to do. And no, none of us are associated with Logan, it's just the best lab we've found and the one we're used to reading. You can look at other soil tests to see how we read them.

It sounds, offhand, like you're on the right track overall, but a one point rise over that time period and a half-moss lawn is pretty slow and we can do a lot better. We'll be targeting a...OK I hate pH numbers because they don't mean anything overall, but in this case I'll break my own rules and use one :-) We'll be targeting a pH of around 6.4, by which I mean the appropriate calcium, magnesium, and potassium levels. Which means using the correct types of limestone, plus other chemicals, to balance the soil.

At 100#/K...I already can tell you're not using the right limestone, but we need the test to get the exact numbers and best chemical balances. Otherwise we're shooting blind and doing that on a soil is a recipe for disaster.

If it's any consolation, I started in the same state--it's called a collapsed soil. It's fixable. Nowadays I have the best lawn and flower gardens in the neighborhood, and, I'd argue, possibly competitive in the entire city. Not that I'm looking or worrying about such things, of course...
I got it from UCONN the state college. Ill get what I have and post it.

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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: Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

Post by andy10917 » May 5th, 2021, 5:50 pm

Save yourself some time - we;re not going to interpret a test from another lab. Please see the details at the top of the Soils & Compost forum

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MorpheusPA
Posts: 18129
Joined: March 5th, 2009, 7:32 pm
Location: Zone 6 (Eastern PA)
Grass Type: Elite KBG
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Advanced

Re: Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

Post by MorpheusPA » May 5th, 2021, 8:48 pm

It sounds harsh, but it's because we'd have to learn the particulars of every lab. That's...challenging...and we're volunteers with our own lives and responsibilities. Not to mention that many labs' tests are less than reliable in and of themselves.

Right now, I'm balancing life...and trying to plant 2,000 square feet of gardens for the season.


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Dchall_San_Antonio
Posts: 3339
Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
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Re: Help me not be the neighborhood (and paint my lawn green)

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » May 14th, 2021, 12:20 pm

Not that I'm looking or worrying about such things, of course...
But if this was a competition, he's just sayin'... :wave:

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