Yard freaks

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by tim99ws6

I generally dethatch every other year. I do it in the fall, as I prefer not to stress the shit out of my yard in spring or especially summer. I also only seed in the fall, to get maximum % survival out of it.

Really, I think 90% of it is having an irrigation system. Without it, all the cool tools, aeration, dethatchers, etc, are just fighting a losing battle.

For dethatching, I will say it seems to help the grass jump better in the spring than the year I dont do it. My fall process:

-Cut LOW(I typically cut 2x a week at 4", and fall cut at around 2ish"
-Dethatch creating a freaking mess in my yard(the first year I did this in my new-to-me home 4 years ago my neighbors thought I was CRAZY)

-Then rather than rake, I do single spray passes pushing the grasses off the yard(yea, I might not get 95% of it off the yard, but I get a good 75% IMO)

-Run irrigation, then immediately plug-aerate

-Overseed with Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue.

That's my script. Works for me and my yard. But, we are all just dad-bodding our way through this thing haha.

I would recommend switching away from Kentucky 31. That's actually a contractors mix that is full of annual grasses. Also usually has a high load of weed seeds and even noxious weeds. You might have a SiteOne near you, they'll hook you up with excellent seed and for likely less cost. I agree about the irrigation, love mine and the customers that have them. Wife was thrilled last year when I put all of her planters and hanging basket hooked in too. Now they don't die a month later

[tim99ws6]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

I would recommend switching away from Kentucky 31. That's actually a contractors mix that is full of annual grasses. Also usually has a high load of weed seeds and even noxious weeds. You might have a SiteOne near you, they'll hook you up with excellent seed and for likely less cost. I agree about the irrigation, love mine and the customers that have them. Wife was thrilled last year when I put all of her planters and hanging basket hooked in too. Now they don't die a month later

I'm extremely content with my yard. haha.

[roastbeef]

Post your backyard quarantine happy hour pics! Lol we've been killing beers with the dogs every day.

[lsturbointeg]

what an experience going to Home Depot during this Covid19. it's like almost going to a hospital or something lol. anyways, picked up 70 bags of Scott's premium black mulch and 6 bags of compost. i dug out some areas of ornamental grass that we decided we no longer wanted which left big holes after they were removed so i'll fill those in with the compost. i was gonna have them deliver it but they wanted $79 i said no thanks! so far the lawn has greened up pretty good. stripes are coming along but as that grass gets thicker and denser it should really pop as the season goes by. very happy with what i see now after overseeding in the Fall. that's the first time i ever overseeded

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

what an experience going to Home Depot during this Covid19. it's like almost going to a hospital or something lol. anyways, picked up 70 bags of Scott's premium black mulch and 6 bags of compost. i dug out some areas of ornamental grass that we decided we no longer wanted which left big holes after they were removed so i'll fill those in with the compost. i was gonna have them deliver it but they wanted $79 i said no thanks! so far the lawn has greened up pretty good. stripes are coming along but as that grass gets thicker and denser it should really pop as the season goes by. very happy with what i see now after overseeding in the Fall. that's the first time i ever overseeded

Is Scott's the way to go? We just put in Vigoro red. Supposedly has a 12 month color guarantee, but I put it in just last Sunday and I'm already seeing spots that are fading quick. I've got two more beds at the front of the house that I'm going to do and am considering Scott's since this Vigoro is a joke.

[Yapakanichi]

Yards are looking nice everyone!

So I raised the height on my mower this year. As the season here begins to warm up fully I'm looking forward to beginning to mow the yard every few days.

Now to tackle the yard drainage issues this year I think. A lot of standing water everywhere in the back.

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by Yapakanichi

Yards are looking nice everyone!

So I raised the height on my mower this year. As the season here begins to warm up fully I'm looking forward to beginning to mow the yard every few days.

Now to tackle the yard drainage issues this year I think. A lot of standing water everywhere in the back.

What's your tactic? Level the yard? French drain?

[Yapakanichi]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

What's your tactic? Level the yard? French drain?

Good question, no idea lol. Maybe hire someone who does it for a living lol.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Is Scott's the way to go? We just put in Vigoro red. Supposedly has a 12 month color guarantee, but I put it in just last Sunday and I'm already seeing spots that are fading quick. I've got two more beds at the front of the house that I'm going to do and am considering Scott's since this Vigoro is a joke.

i've tried every mulch out there lol. pretty much whatever's on sale! but, my first year i used Scott's premium mulch and had great results. does not hold color for a year that's guaranteed! holds for about a few months and that's it! but it still stays a darker color than the other brands that i've tried which turns grayish. the Vigoro to me wasn't dark enough. more faded black if anything. color stayed that way for about 1 month than if faded and got lighter throughout the season. now Scott's does have another grade of mulch but it's like $4+ a bag. i might try that out next year in one flower bed and see how it does.


the Lowe's premium mulch that sells for like $2 is junk. holy moly it had stuff in it that shouldn't be in there. i found mold or coul've been fungus, plastic, fiberboard, painted wood, rocks, rusty nails, and other debris! i would never buy that product again!


this is sold at Walmart for $1.97 so not bad but the color was not black. it was more of a faded black color. didn't find all the debris in the mulch like i did with the Lowes brand


last year i gave Menards a try and their mulch sold for $1.97. didn't like it as the color was sooooo faded. but because i picked up 70 bags i didn't want to go through the hassle of returning them.

so this year i went back to Home Depot and picked up the Scott's. but they're $3.33 a bag but if you buy 30+ you can get them for $3 a bag.

[spazzyfry123]

Scott's = ~$2.00/ft³
Vigoro = $1.50/ft³

If Scott's can retain its color worth a damn, that's worth the extra 33% in cost for me.

Now in other news, I had a gutter company come out that was highly recommended per the Google since we just bought the house and moved here from Atlanta. I needed the roof cleaned off and the gutters cleaned. Guess what? Oscar just walked around on my roof for 45 minutes with a backpack leaf blower and knocked not only what was on the roof, but also cleaned out the entire gutter system with a damn leaf blower. No tarp on the ground. No digging out the gutters. Just hit it with 150 mph wind and blast it to the ground. My brand new mulch bed is now more black than the red I put down just Sunday. My other beds (which I was planning on ripping apart and remulching this weekend, so not AS big of a deal, but still) are completely filled. I've got about a 4 foot radius of JUNK that surrounds the whole house with some piles about 10 inches thick (previous owners obviously haven't done this in a while). Oscar tells me that I would need to pay him more to clean it up and that my suggestion of laying down a tarp wasn't included in his work order. I'm not a happy man right now... And my friends ask why I don't have a yard company do my work.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Scott's = ~$2.00/ft³
Vigoro = $1.50/ft³

If Scott's can retain its color worth a damn, that's worth the extra 33% in cost for me.

Now in other news, I had a gutter company come out that was highly recommended per the Google since we just bought the house and moved here from Atlanta. I needed the roof cleaned off and the gutters cleaned. Guess what? Oscar just walked around on my roof for 45 minutes with a backpack leaf blower and knocked not only what was on the roof, but also cleaned out the entire gutter system with a damn leaf blower. No tarp on the ground. No digging out the gutters. Just hit it with 150 mph wind and blast it to the ground. My brand new mulch bed is now more black than the red I put down just Sunday. My other beds (which I was planning on ripping apart and remulching this weekend, so not AS big of a deal, but still) are completely filled. I've got about a 4 foot radius of JUNK that surrounds the whole house with some piles about 10 inches thick (previous owners obviously haven't done this in a while). Oscar tells me that I would need to pay him more to clean it up and that my suggestion of laying down a tarp wasn't included in his work order. I'm not a happy man right now... And my friends ask why I don't have a yard company do my work.

lol well that sucks! are you going to redo the mulch now? might as well go black! i clean out my gutters every Spring and if you do it year after year it shouldn't be a bad of job. sounds like the previous owners never did them

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

lol well that sucks! are you going to redo the mulch now? might as well go black! i clean out my gutters every Spring and if you do it year after year it shouldn't be a bad of job. sounds like the previous owners never did them

Yeah previous owners really didn’t do much. It’s only about 3 years old and it was new construction for them.

I’m not redoing the mulch, but I’m waiting on the manager to be here on site to discuss. My yard went from “damn that looks good” to “damn dude” in the matter of an hour. Sucks because I do everything myself that I can, but we just moved here and my ladders are in storage in Atlanta. Waiting for quarantine to lift so I can pick up; figured it better to spend the money on someone to take care of it real quick than to buy a duplicate ladder.

A before and after of the mulching I just did included.

[Rmtt]

^ Dude.....that sucks. That guy was an ass it sounds like.

[RickFLM4]

I’ve had my roof cleaned many times and gutter cleaned a couple. When cleaning the roof with chemicals, most good companies cover landscape closest to the house (other than trees) to avoid burning plants. One went so far as to put bags on the end of each downspout to catch what came out. But they were 2-3x the price of anyone else and I‘ve never seen anyone cover the mulch, grass or ground with tarp. We get leaves and grass clippings in the mulch beds all the time naturally so I never worried about it.

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

I’ve had my roof cleaned many times and gutter cleaned a couple. When cleaning the roof with chemicals, most good companies cover landscape closest to the house (other than trees) to avoid burning plants. One went so far as to put bags on the end of each downspout to catch what came out. But they were 2-3x the price of anyone else and I‘ve never seen anyone cover the mulch, grass or ground with tarp. We get leaves and grass clippings in the mulch beds all the time naturally so I never worried about it.

Well that's why I'm frustrated. I chose these guys because they came highly reviewed on Google and they laid out their process for gutter cleaning.

Step one of their process: "Laying down tarps in locations to catch heavily soiled debris."

Additional steps that are listed that never happened...
"Scoop debris from inside of gutters" - He just stuffed his leaf blower into the gutters while walking on the roof and launched it all on the ground
"Check for clogged downspouts"
"Rinse gutters" - Water was never hooked up; the only tool was a leaf blower

I'm just ranting at this point. I effectively paid these guys to throw crap on my yard.

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by Rmtt

^ Dude.....that sucks. That guy was an ass it sounds like.

I'm convinced the company just grabbed some guy off of Craigslist or something. This guy didn't seem like this is something he did; he showed up with a leaf blower and a ladder.

[lsturbointeg]

oh damn what a big mess!!! hopefully they take care of the mess

[Ngilbe36]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Yeah previous owners really didn’t do much. It’s only about 3 years old and it was new construction for them.

I’m not redoing the mulch, but I’m waiting on the manager to be here on site to discuss. My yard went from “damn that looks good” to “damn dude” in the matter of an hour. Sucks because I do everything myself that I can, but we just moved here and my ladders are in storage in Atlanta. Waiting for quarantine to lift so I can pick up; figured it better to spend the money on someone to take care of it real quick than to buy a duplicate ladder.

A before and after of the mulching I just did included.

Free compost!

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by Ngilbe36

Free compost!

Glass half full guy!

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Ngilbe36

Free compost!

so as long as it doesn't have any fungus or mold

[Yapakanichi]

Is the first picture from Before you mulched or is that after you mulched and after the gutter guy?

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by Yapakanichi

Is the first picture from Before you mulched or is that after you mulched and after the gutter guy?

Funny you have to ask. Attachments didn't come in the right order. The second picture is what it looked like after I did my mulching a couple days ago. The first picture is what it looks like right now after the gutter guy came through and threw all the crap over it.

Good news is the Japanese Maple ended up getting saved from the work I did a few days ago. Now I just gotta get the gutter guys to clean up their mess... Thing only had a couple leaves prior. Edit: not sure why it's coming in sideways.