F...Cutting grass

Where I'm living now (rental) the yard is nothing but weeds and it drives me nuts. I'm moving in three weeks so I'll just have to cut weeds for a few more times.

Thank you guys very much. I thought people were going to be critical. Like everyone, I like things that look well maintained and neat, but what I really pride myself on is simplicity and ease. Ive read a lot and talked to a couple people about nice grass. Having perfect grass in the mid-alantic is expensive as shit or a tireless effort. Having grass that regularly looks really good; although, is very possible. Since ive gotten complements Ill share what ive done to get my grass looking like this.

When I first moved in I had very average grass. Just like everyone else’s lawn, I had an average amount of weeds that would come and go, or come and stay. In early summer of 2010, on the advice of a retired grass cutter that I sold my broken mower to, I stated mowing high. Since then ive read a lot of stuff and have talked to a couple other people. Heres what I do and what can be done by anyone to have nicer grass. Ill start it off based off of the season we are in right now. Also this is for fescue or cool seasons grasses only.

Now:
Figure out what type of grass you mostly have (fescue, bermuda (warm season), or blue grass (if you have blue grass your lawn probably already looks amazing, stop reading here).
Cut on the highest or second highest setting you have
Look, youre not gonna have to cut that much more, youre really not, I promise. Its just gonna be hard if you end up missing a cut because you wont be able to go any higher.
Put down a granule (bag and spreader) weed control/killer that also has a pre-emergent/weed preventer/crab grass/grassy weed preventer in it. You really just want the weed stuff not the weed and feed (fertilizer), but if you can’t find it, weed and feed is better than nothing.

Summer:
Mow even higher if youre not already mowing at the highest for some reason. Try and cut only before it rains or when you absolutely have to.

Fall:
Keep cutting high
By October you should get a sense as to how bad your grass really is or if its worth trying to keep nice, if it needs a complete renovation, or if you just really don’t care
If it turns out you have something worth working with put down some weed and feed between September up until mid-November.

Winter:
Stay warm

Next year:
As soon as you start seeing these daffodils (http://www.stephenmorrisauthor.com/daffodil-the-flower-of-march/)poking up through the ground (late January to early February in Richmond); It’s the most important time of the year.
Get off the couch, put on a sweatshirt and lay down some pre-emergent asap!!!!
If you have some weed and feed left over go ahead if you really want to, but just know youre going to have to cut more.
Put down some more pre-emergent about 2-4 months later once everything is blooming (like right now)
Be careful with your second application of pre-emergent, as you really don’t want to use a fertilizer here. Giving your grass fertilizer before Summer can burn it out if you don’t get enough rain.
Your lawn should probably look 10x better than it did this time last year (today….)
Keep mowing high and it will look even better come Fall

Going forward:
2 doses of pre emergent (1 in the winter/spring, the other in mid to late spring)
Weed and feed in the fall (September to mid-November)
Cut high

Notes:
Pre-emergents are often only called “crab grass preventer”. I always get the cheapest one or Preen because I like Preen's other stuff.
I only mulch, I don’t bag. Mulching is supposed to give you pretty much all the fertilizer you need, and why Im resistant to use the weed and “feed” stuff.
Ive never watered. There are gonna be times during the summer you think you just wasted any extra time, money and effort your put into your yard. Don’t worry it will come back even stronger.
I try and cut the good spots first. You don’t want to be spreading weeds from the front to back or vice versa.
I don’t think ive ever mixed the weed and feed, pre emergent or anything else correctly before. All it takes is one mosquito bite and you too will say f’it to trying to guess the sq footage of your lawn, what the dial numbers on your spreader mean, and how youre supposed to calculate the spread. I think I end up staying conservative most of the time and putting less down than the instructions indicate though. I adjust over bad/good parts too, or when I feel like it. Im purely guessing on the application a lot of times. The most important thing is that you get it down at the CORRECT time (or at least Im guess that’s what matters the most…..).


Extras:
Last fall I actually over-seeded my lawn as I wanted to introduce some different fescues and hybrid bluegrasses into the yard to have better summer drought hardiness and to help it choke out weeds. But I promise, my grass looks worse because of it right now (there are a lot of things you do to grass that make it look worse before it looks better, or so im told…..). And if I could go back in time I wouldn’t have over-seeded, as I think it was overkill and went against my theme of simplicity and ease. If anyone has any questions about over-seeding and any leasons I leaned Id be happy to answer.

Double Bonus:
Articles to get you excited about grass:
SULIS - Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series: U of MN. (http://www.sustland.umn.edu/maint/ts-selecting-cool-season.htm)
Inventor cultivates no-mow, easy-grow grass | Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/09/08/inventor-cultivates-no-mow-easy-grow-grass/)
New blend of tall fescue and hybrid bluegrass gets good research report from Virginia Tech - dailypress.com (http://www.dailypress.com/features/family/home-garden/outdoors/diggin-in-blog/dp-new-blend-of-tall-fescue-and-hybrid-bluegrass-gets-good-research-report-from-virginia-tech-20120805,0,6396034.story)
Preen Lawn Weed Control Plus Crabgrass Preventer | Preen.com (http://www.preen.com/products/preen-lawn-weed-control-plus-crabgrass-preventer)

@ Cpayne - that thing is sweet!

Awesome advice...I'm going to make the wife follow it to a T.


I'm seriously lucky...she loves mowing for the exercise and break from the kids. All I have to do is start the mower for her and off she goes...we have almost half an acre.

The only time I've had to mow was when she's pregnant...I take over then.

I will add if you have a female dog don't waste your time and money on a ton grass care. The bitch will burn your grass to the ground.

Drs Foster and Smith has treats (and tablets) that will save your lawn. I've used them and they work. It neutralizes the pH balance in the urine or something like that.

Easier to treat the dog from the inside than fix the lawn afterwards.

Drs Foster and Smith has treats (and tablets) that will save your lawn. I've used them and they work. It neutralizes the pH balance in the urine or something like that.

Easier to treat the dog from the inside than fix the lawn afterwards.

Tried all that doesn't work with my Boarder Collie. She pees in one place all the time so that probably doesn't help either.

What's going on with those wheels? Looks cool.


Gassed up the mower last night, started right up after winter vacation...always nice. Then, I let my wife mow for the first time this year. Yard looks great.

Taking your advice, mlmpetert...and raised the deck height a little to "mow high". Your grass looks incredible.

Lawn Boys have traditionally had staggered wheels. It's just their thing. Allows you to get into corners and also keeps the center of the deck from scalping the turf.

Interesting. Plus, it's green, my favorite color.


Might have to look into those when my Troy-Bilt dies. It's only about 8 years old though.

Interesting. Plus, it's green, my favorite color.


Might have to look into those when my Troy-Bilt dies. It's only about 8 years old though.

They don't make them anymore. They continued to make 4 stroke ones after the EPA essentially forced the 2 stroke ones out of the US. Four stroke sales weren't that great (Lawn Boy had built their name on the two strokes), and they eventually went with a traditional wheels-at-the-corners setup to reduce costs. You can still find both the 4 and two stroke staggered deck models on Craigslist.