kandyflip445

I'm jealous. Nice write up.

__________________
My 240 vBgarage

WIKID S4TEEN

How the hell you get rid of gophers?!?!?!?!
WITHOUT traps!!
I have little ones (kids)

__________________
Rock wha U jock and don't talk if U ain't got!!

Phlip

I would personally call an exterminator.
I would eventually lose my patience and being an "ants with a sledgehammer" personality, control of them would involve explosives.

__________________
And I write too!

S14DB

I have found the Mammoth Smoke bombs sold at the local fireworks shack to work well on burrowing rodents. Get it started and toss it in the hole. Let it cook for a few seconds then cover the hole. You'll see the smoke start coming out the other holes and then they will usually make a break for it. Then fill in the other holes.

For moles I trained the cat to dig them up. Gets a treat for everyone he digs up. It was funny to watch him work the backyard. Walks around, stops, then starts digging furiously. Then you see a mole go flying in the air and him chasing after. Brings it back to a hard surface and it is disposed of and he gets a treat.

__________________
Comments should be taken as Opinions not as Statements of Fact

SILEIGHTY_DET

tape a hose to the end of the exhaust on your car and stick the other end of the hose in the hole . let your car run for a half hour . rodent problem fixed .

Phlip

Now what if he actually wants his grass to grow?

__________________
And I write too!

TheWolf

Congrats on the Kid... that's a good one...

__________________
Eye on the Prize

ManoNegra

weather is starting to get warm again
and I started working on my lawn so I figured
it was time to give an update to what I have been up to
lawn wise since my last post in this thread.

I did my learning/experimentation on parents lawn.
Front lawn:






Backyard:
at planting




a few months after


recently:


What I have learned:
- This is back-breaking donkey work. FML
- Don't buy pieces of grass from stores. It's fucking highway robbery.
Find a nursery that carries the sod/plugs, it's way cheaper (if going with a grass that needs sod like I did).
- rent a tiller or hire someone do till the yard.
- cut sod into small ~3" square chucks and plant 1 foot or less.
Otherwise, be ready for a long wait.
- Plant grass in March or May.
I worked late in the Summer into early Fall and the
St. Aggy stopped growing once it started getting cold.
Which leads to weeds in early January in the spots that are still bare.
This a royal PITA to deal with.

what I'm doing different/better with what I've learned:
- got a tiller to break up the lawn.
- raked and leveled the ground better.
- looked up major sod distributors and discovered that pricing is way cheaper
that buying shit at local stores, even with delivery charges.

Gotta do a little more raking on some areas of the lawn
then put down fertilizer
and then it'll be time to order sod.
Going with Palmetto St. Augustine since I have a few trees on the lawn and
need a shade resistant grass.
I'll try to get some pics of what I'm currently working on this weekend.

Phlip

As it relates to my yard, see my post above, I will be doing the SAME thing, just less of it. I will weed and feed, then seed/fertilize in the next couple weeks.

Then I will spend the rest of the season simply cutting it

__________________
And I write too!

jarober

There are some good tools available at NC State. http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/ Provides great information regardless of the species you have so it can be good for people all over the U.S. If you really want a nice lawn, you need the right start.

#1. Get a soil test. Soil tests are free to residents of NC at the NCDA in NC. Getting a soil test report will tell you what areas your lawn is weak in like pH, fertilizer, etc.

#2. Pick grass species that is adapted to your region. Try to pick varieties of grass species that have performed well in research trials. While Kentucky 31 has been around for ages and is sold profusely in Home Depot or Lowes, there are much better varieties out that are more heat/drought tolerant, less subject to traffic stress, and provide some resistance against disease (like brown patch for tall fescue). Check out your local university for good, newer varieties. This will often need to be purchased online or at a specialty store but it is worth it.

#3. Once the turf is established, make sure to water deeply and as infrequent as possible as increased leaf wetness promotes disease development. Watering in the early morning can knock down the dew and reduce leaf wetness. Avoid watering in the evening if possible because this will cause the grass to be wet most of the night and increase potential for disease.

I am sure there are many things I am forgetting but you should really start with the soil and move forward. Providing a good growing medium is key. Check out your local university webpage as most states have decent turf programs with support for lawn care.

Good luck

WERDdabuilder

maybe a little late but if youre still having gopher problems i say go with traps.
we put grass in the backyard and couple months later gophers destroyed it. went to home depot and picked up...

end result?

killed about 3 of them in less then a week. havent seen any new mounds since.
you said you have kids and i dont think these will be a problem since you put these inside the gopher tunnels and cover it up with dirt.

here is one side of my backyard that they destroyed the most.



ill be raking up and reseeding this weekend.

__________________

MWH_Photo

Didn't even know this thread existed!

I'm about a weekend away from laying sod in our backyard and everything you said at the end was spot on.

Our backyard is shaded 90% of the day so I'm going with St. Augustine as well. (just using sod instead of plugs)

A few things though.. It will go dormant in the winter as you noted so nothing to worry about there. However, when it starts growing again in early spring (now) you need to de-thatch that shit or you run the risk of it dying off next season.

It has really thick and coarse blades so if too much thatch builds up it cuts off water and air.

Most grasses are good to de-thatch every other year or so, but you really need to watch St. Augustine. You can do it every year if you're not crazy aggressive with the de-thatching. Be sure to fertilize after though because it does stress the grass some.

I'll have to post up our results after we finish. Moved into a foreclosure last summer and the front lawn was in shitty condition, while the backyard was nothing but weeds.

90white240

Poor little gophers :'(

__________________

thrax

Don't hire Bill Murray if you have gopher problems

TheWolf

what do you guys feel about aerating st. augustine grass..

__________________
Eye on the Prize

MWH_Photo

^^

Haven't tried it yet.. Everything seems to suggest de-thatching since it has really thick/coarse blades and can build up really badly.

I went and bought one of those $30 rakes (instead of renting an electric push thing) for de-thatching since I didn't know how much it would actually do.. and holy fucking shit.. It took me 5 hours to do it by hand and my lawn isn't even large.

It still filled up 1.5 big rolling trash barrels with all the dead non-decomposed grass it pulled out.. so it seems like it did something..

I just finished spreading weed and feed so we'll see what it looks like in two weeks.

Looking like I won't get to sod until the weekend after next in the back yard as well.. Haven't gotten a chance to snag a tiller yet..

TheWolf

I thought about dethatching but a couple people I've talked to said aeration was better and "dethatched".

The implement for my lawn tractor is only $200. With the way the price of fertilizer is climbing, I'd take any advantage to keep the grass greener without having to nurse it along..

my yard is 3/4 of an acre.. don't think a rake is going to do it for me...

__________________
Eye on the Prize

Phlip

Milorganite
plus
Coffee Grounds (starbucks will give you theirs for free, even without purchase)

Milorganite is like $14 a bag here and is WILDLY effective, I have a bag in my storage room right now, I am putting it down at the end of the week after I run and grab some seeds. Going with a creeping red fescue/kentucky bluegrass blend this year.

__________________
And I write too!

S14DB

De-thatching and Plug aerating works well on St. Augustine and Bermuda grass. Most grasses that spread via stolons develop a lot of thatch.

__________________
Comments should be taken as Opinions not as Statements of Fact

ManoNegra

cool to hear
a few questions if you don't mind:
what type of St. Augustine are you going with?
I decided on Palmetto since it's got a small blade and,
from everything I've read, is among the most cold resistant varieties
where are you buying yours from?
what are you being quoted?

looking forward to see updates

the st aggy I planted at my parents (pics above) just
turned a blue/orage shade of green and just stopped growing
didn't turn brown or yellow like I expected
it started growing again mid February even though we've gotten morning temps in the 40's during that time
I think that version I planted is Floratam (Lowe's)

yup, same here

did a rough measurement and the yard is ~2500 - 2700 square feet
tilled, removed old grass, rocks and raked the yard this past month
this took longer than I expected working on weekends
I'm going to call the sod farm this week and get an estimate
if the price is cheap enough, I may end up just doing sod instead of plugs

MWH_Photo

Oh wow, our back yard is tiny compared to that.. Pretty sure our front yard is as well!

Half our backyard was paved and covered with a wood awning from the previous owner, and about 1/6 of it has raised flower beds around the perimeter. So there's only 1/3 left that's actual (or going to be) lawn. Only about 650 sq ft..

I can't for the life of me remember which type of St. Augustine it was.. I have to call them back to get it pushed back to next weekend though so I'll be sure to ask again.

I called all of our local nurseries and they all contract out to the same company I'm assuming since the prices were within $0.05 of each other. It's $0.80 a sq ft, but I need about 2-4 cu yd's of compost to till into the soil as well. That's not contracted out so it'll vary depending on which place you go to.

It's about $300 less than what I budgeted so I was able to lay a weed barrier in the raised planters, run a drip irrigation system this past weekend, and get a few cu yd's of mulch to cover it all this weekend.

It's going to feel really nice having it all finished. It's looked like hell for the last 10 months!

TheWolf

Picked up some of that milorganite that you recommended going to spread it tomorrow. While I had the day off, I upgraded my sprinkler heads. What a difference.

The PO before me put in some cheap "toro" DIY home irrigation kit. It's functional but the heads are to high in some spots and there's mixed sprayers with "paw" sprayers. Some of the stops were broken off the paw sprayers so I just went to home depot and was going to get new replacements but found these.

K2 SMARTSET® SPRINKLER - KRain

The K2 Pro's.. God these things are a dream to setup. Adjust flow angle/output, stream pattern, etc..
Let me shoot under some trees that were blocking some areas of my yard from being watered. You can seriously taylor the whole yard to evenly water which is such a relief. At $12 each. They're cheaper than the paw ones with the same range. Never going back from the geared head sprinklers.

Introducing the K2 Pro Rotor Sprinkler - YouTube

__________________
Eye on the Prize

Phlip

Last year's hard work is paying off without me having to do anything but cut the grass...
I had a couple 6-8ft brown spots that are being eaten up by growing grass now. I will do turfbuilder next weekend to kill the inevitable weeds, then Milorganite with some light seeds and then I can only cut all season

__________________
And I write too!

WERDdabuilder

just sprayed my backyard with


hope it kills the weeds/crabgrass thats fucking up my yard.

gopher kill count - 5 in 3 weeks.

__________________

MWH_Photo

Tried that stuff and it didn't do much of anything =/

It killed some of the broad leaf weeds but didn't touch the crabgrass. I had super fucking elite crabgrass though.. Shit was intense and covering 85% of one of my lawns, so maybe that's why..


I don't really have any before photos because the last thing on my mind this past week was to take photos while I was sore as hell working on the yard..

But a bit of an update in the front:

Dethatched the larger front lawn area a couple weekends ago and added turfbuilder to get rid of some of the lingering weeds and to fertalize since the lawn was pretty thin.

As of today this area has grown in pretty thick and it looks great! I still need to pull a few weeds here and there, but that'll be done next weekend. I have a few small 2'x2' thin brown spots so I'll try and re-seed with Milorganite and coffee grounds in those areas.

What kind of a mixture do you use Phlip?

The side yard was over-run with crabgrass and nothing would kill it.. Chemicals, boiling water, pulling it, ect.. I tried everything except smothering it and re-seeding, so I decided to just rip it out and lay down sod. Some of the roots (I'm assuming roots) of the crabgrass were seriously over a foot long.. it was ridiculous.

I took the chance to level the area back out after everything was ripped out as well. Used to be a stupid "S" type mound and valley that would collect way too much water from the neighbors sprinklers.

As for the back yard:

Tilled it, pulled out weeds, tilled it again, and it's almost ready for sod.


Both areas getting sod have about 1.5" of compost laying on top right now, so I just need to till that in tonight and we'll be good to go for sod this Saturday morning!

I decided to go with Marathon I for both the front and the back since the back actually gets more sun than I thought, and in the front it'll match the other lawn the previous PO laid down.

It's super cheap, and I kind of wanted to go with something that would look nicer but such is life I guess..

I'll have photos Saturday after we finish laying down the sod.

Phlip

Mixture for grass seed or weed repellant?

For grass, last year I started with Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue and hated it, so I changed to a creeping red fescue and this unspecified turf blend they had at Southern States. This year, I am mixing the creeping red fescue with a Kentucky Bluegrass and conceding that this may cause me to have to cut my grass in the winter.

For weed repellant, in the early season I used Scotts Turf Builder +2, the “water smart” one, because my county was in and out of drought conditions for the previous 2 summers/winters before last year and I might be legally forbidden from watering my lawn.
You should be able to get this ANYWHERE.

Mid season, I switched to the weed control Southern States sold. Find it here:
SouthernStates.com: Southern States Broadleaf Weed Control with Trimec

The ONLY fertilizer I used for the balance of 2011 after the Scotts was Milorganite, along with coffee grounds strewn about the yard whenever I had time to stop and get what Starbucks would give me. I didn’t need to dethatch, never needed to till or sod anything, I was able to fix whatever bare spots I had by simply seeding and proper care.

__________________
And I write too!

MWH_Photo

Sorry, was kind of a random question out of place.

I thought you were mixing the Milorganite with the coffee grounds, but it sounds like you're actually spreading the Milorganite then dropping coffee grounds over it.

I've never used the stuff before so I wasn't sure..

I used the same Turf Builder it looks like, (all the water we get down here has been "Re-treated" so it's $$$) so I'll give the Milorganite a shot while re-seeding the brown spots next weekend.

Thanks!

Phlip

Actually a bit of both.
Milorganite has no salt in it, like most other fertilizers DO, so there is no such thing as "too much," so I have been seen mixing it with coffee grounds, spreading it on its own and then following it with coffee grounds. I spread Milorganite 3 times last year and did it once each way.

__________________
And I write too!

ManoNegra

I talked to the sod farm this week
And they tell me that their St Aggy is still dormant
Will try again in two weeks
Meanwhile I can see weeds starting to spring up again
On the feont lawn. Sigh

Chaluska

i am cursed with poison ivy in my flower bed

I have manually removed it by hand (pulled a full 80 foot long root structure, which was 3" at its thickets spot) and its already starting to grow back again... its time to get a pick-axe and shovel and go to town i guess...

__________________