Lawn care thread

[jipped genes]

So my friends, it is almost that time again. Tell me your fav brands of lawn equipment, fertilizer you have had the best luck with, ect.

I have St Augustine in the shaded front and Bermuda on the south side of my house in back. Any ferts that are good for both or should I buy a separate bag for each? Do you go weed and feed or use separate product?

I sold my personal pace toro last year, great mower but heavy and I just want a basic mower, engine, deck and blade. So I have a 6.75 hp craftsman. Not as high quality as the toro but I do not have the room for 2 mowers.

I have 2 string trimmers, a 2 stroke echo curve shaft and a 4 stroke cub cadet curve shaft. The echo is lighter but the Cub uses regular gas so it is a wash.

Homelite blower. I will say the motor has lasted 5 seasons but damn I have replaced every gas line on the thing as well as gas cap gasket, primer bulb and the gas tank itself that cracked. I would recommend a different brand.

OK for all you lawn rangers. Lets here what you got and discuss your tips and secrets for a purty lawn.

[Yohimbe]

Re: Lawn care thread

Man I'm definitely going to be paying attention to this thread lol. I'm getting all serious about my lawn this year and I've got quite a bit to learn. We're coming into that time of year right now, so I'm about to start researching and getting on top of my lawn game.

[Dzone]

Re: Lawn care thread

2 summers ago, I bought the Craftsman pro series riding lawn mower. I had problems with it. So I called Sears and said they would be delivering me a replacement mower. Sears delivers the new mower and doesnt pick up the one that was having problems. I call Sears and ask "When are you going to pick up this mower that doesnt work?" They never picked it up and that was in 2016. Sooo now I have an extra Sears Pro series riding mower, $3,500 . Sears never came and picked it up so I guess its mine now LOL

[jipped genes]

Re: Lawn care thread

Sweet Dzone!!!!!!!!!!! That is a win. I have had 2 craftsman and 2 toro lawn mowers. not one of them has ever stopped working. My toro I bought in 1981 still ran when I sold it. The drive system clutch was bad and they did not make parts for it. the second toro my dad gave me as he stopped mowing his 3/4 acre lawn (77 years old) with a push mower. the first craftsman was the cheapest model and only 3 hp. I am happy with the 6.75 hp mower. I mowed yesterday for the first time. stored empty. gassed up and second pull it started. Oil change on on my equipment next week.

yohimbe, check online for when a good time to fertilize is. it is pretty much now for us in north Texas. I have found bargain cheapo ferts work but not well. spend the extra $6-7 a bag and get a good brand like scotts or vigoro

I know a lot of folk want only organic stuff on their lawn, i tried organic fert last year and battled pest all year. back to scotts bonus s for me. I did some research and organic ferts can actually increase pests. Just follow the directions and do not OVER fertilize.

Anyway i am stoked this year, I am going to have a great yard.

[Dzone]

Re: Lawn care thread

Thats good to know about the fertilizers. Im thinking its about time to throw down some weed and feed. I am waiting till we have a snow coming and then put down fertilizer right before. Snows melt here in about a day. Pertty soon Im going to be rottotlling and planting grass seed. I wonder if that buffalo grass is worth all the money. That stuff is mega expensive

[apbt549]

Re: Lawn care thread

ok guys I am going to blow your mind.. I have a ride on fertilizer spreader made by LT RICH. my yard looks like a golf course. I have a very good friend in the business and everyone messes with me about my yard asking me if my friend takes care of it.. nope I do it all. I have an acre of st augstine is why I have a ride on spreader pushing a spreader thru that thick ass grass will kick your ass..my lawn mower I have is a scag 54" zero turn I got this thing back in 1999 and it looks like brand new bc I take care of my stuff. all of the other stuff I have is all stihl..you need help with southern grass let me know..

[apbt549]

Re: Lawn care thread

So my friends, it is almost that time again. Tell me your fav brands of lawn equipment, fertilizer you have had the best luck with, ect.

I have St Augustine in the shaded front and Bermuda on the south side of my house in back. Any ferts that are good for both or should I buy a separate bag for each? Do you go weed and feed or use separate product?

I sold my personal pace toro last year, great mower but heavy and I just want a basic mower, engine, deck and blade. So I have a 6.75 hp craftsman. Not as high quality as the toro but I do not have the room for 2 mowers.

I have 2 string trimmers, a 2 stroke echo curve shaft and a 4 stroke cub cadet curve shaft. The echo is lighter but the Cub uses regular gas so it is a wash.

Homelite blower. I will say the motor has lasted 5 seasons but damn I have replaced every gas line on the thing as well as gas cap gasket, primer bulb and the gas tank itself that cracked. I would recommend a different brand.

OK for all you lawn rangers. Lets here what you got and discuss your tips and secrets for a purty lawn.

look around and see if there is a lesco or site one store around you they have better fertilizer then home depot or lowes. better yet see if there is a fertilizer house around who make fertilizer like winn field solutions or southern ag or helena. I don't know where you are at so its hard for me to point you. I get all of my fert of winn field or southern ag. stay away form fert mixed with herbicide they don't work that well better off spraying herbicide out of a sprayer back pack or what have you.. those places will also have herbicide like Celsius is safe for both your turf types and will get most of the weeds for nut sedge use certainty.. believe it or not milorganite is great stuff cant burn the yard with that stuff either..

as far as your 2 stroke stuff only use ethanol free gas. those fuel systems don't like that ethanol type gas...

[Yohimbe]

Re: Lawn care thread

yohimbe, check online for when a good time to fertilize is. it is pretty much now for us in north Texas. I have found bargain cheapo ferts work but not well. spend the extra $6-7 a bag and get a good brand like scotts or vigoro

Awesome, thanks for the tip brotha! I'm going fertilizer shopping this weekend lol. Last year I kept up with mowing and keeping everything looking nice, but my front yard had a ton of weeds. I think it was crab grass that totally invaded one side. At least that's what the picture looked like when I researched it. Gonna try and get a handle on that early this year.

I wish I had St. Augustine. I love the way it looks, but my entire front yard is pretty much bermuda. (Plus the damn crab grass everywhere)

[jipped genes]

Re: Lawn care thread

Dzone, don't waste your money on weed and feed if it is still snowing. you have to catch it growing to kill it. if weeds are dormant then it will not work.

apbt, we do not have a lesco here. I called a buddy who's dad works at a farm and yard equipment place he recommended espoma ferts, $$$$$ expensive. I think I will stick with scotts as I know it works if I cannot go to lesco. skag stuff is bulletproof. I worked a a small city parks department when I was 15. I road a skag mower and it ran 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for the whole summer (that is when I was there but the full times parks guys ran it the rest of the time) and it was OLD. Never a prob with it.

yohimbe, crabgrass is a *****, you have to put out a pre-emergent like MSMA. there are also turf builder/crabgrass preventers you can buy. timing is KEY with these and directions must be followed to a "T" I spray with MSMA it normally prevents about 3/4 of the crabgrass I would normally have. I should probably apply 2X but it hurts my st augustine.

[apbt549]

Re: Lawn care thread

you can also spray out barricade for crabgrass.. when I was done building my house I had the whole acre sodded talk about a bill. it was full of crabgrass then over winter down here in south fla it got cold enough and the crab grass died off and then I sprayed barricade and that took care of that issue. I spray it every 4 to 5 months..

[jipped genes]

Re: Lawn care thread

you can also spray out barricade for crabgrass.. when I was done building my house I had the whole acre sodded talk about a bill. it was full of crabgrass then over winter down here in south fla it got cold enough and the crab grass died off and then I sprayed barricade and that took care of that issue. I spray it every 4 to 5 months..

OK, that sounds like good stuff!

[apbt549]

Re: Lawn care thread

scotts fertilizer is good stuff just over priced..