Yard Care

[Pipe Line]

My neighbor has evergreens lining his back yard and the grass around them is immaculate. Don’t think he does anything special to it but he does have the trees trimmed to be 3-4 feet above the ground and has 4-5 feet diameter of mulch around each tree.

View attachment 59365

Damn. The grass everywhere around it looks fantastic too. Probably part of it. I'm doing something wrong lol

 

[Pipe Line]

Used to have evergreen, pine trees...you are correct, too much acidity in the soil under the tree. I agree with Hugh...mulch the shit out of it or the understory plants (whatever those are).

My cousin's wife's dad owns a lawn care company and he said broad mulch underneath the trees may be the best option to look better.

 

[Pipe Line]

I would just mulch under them and/or plant some understory plants if they're limbed up enough.

I'm told that may be the best strategy. Thank you.

 

[Pipe Line]

I'll post a couple photos here shortly for context.

 

[Pipe Line]

 

[Scott Hall]

Damn. The grass everywhere around it looks fantastic too. Probably part of it. I'm doing something wrong lol

I copied him 3 years ago and my lawn is just about caught up to him. We both use sunco which I think is 6 times a year program plus aerate/overseed in the fall. I also dethatched last year and that has helped tremendously.

 

[Pipe Line]

I copied him 3 years ago and my lawn is just about caught up to him. We both use sunco which I think is 6 times a year program plus aerate/overseed in the fall. I also dethatched last year and that has helped tremendously.

Is that somewhere I can pick up the fertilizer or I pay and they come to me? I'll be totally honest, I've been doing it basically on my own the last two years from Grass Pad and I've really enjoyed it. Grass Pad has done great now that the sprinkler system has fully kicked in and the terrain from install has fully settled, I think I just need to master the water schedule compared to the time of year part now.

 

[Toe]

View attachment 59387

Hard to tell from the pic, but those look more like fir or spruce? Needles look too short to be pine.

But anyway, yeah, scratch my insufficient sunlight comment - those don't look to be casting much shade. Looks like you might have some erosion issues there, like some of the topsoil has washed away. That could contribute to grasses having difficulty taking root, especially with the competition from tree roots.

There's various things you could try planting in that area, but by far the easiest would be just to mulch it and call it good. Try taking a string trimmer and scalp as much of the existing grass/weeds as you can without damaging the tree roots, then put down like a 4-5" layer of mulch. Bagged mulch will work if it's all that's available, but remember that it doesn't cover nearly as much as it looks like it will, so buy plenty.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

Yard still looks the same as always, but here's a pic of Bob the Cat taking a nap by my outer gate doors

 

[Pipe Line]

Hard to tell from the pic, but those look more like fir or spruce? Needles look too short to be pine.

But anyway, yeah, scratch my insufficient sunlight comment - those don't look to be casting much shade. Looks like you might have some erosion issues there, like some of the topsoil has washed away. That could contribute to grasses having difficulty taking root, especially with the competition from tree roots.

There's various things you could try planting in that area, but by far the easiest would be just to mulch it and call it good. Try taking a string trimmer and scalp as much of the existing grass/weeds as you can without damaging the tree roots, then put down like a 4-5" layer of mulch. Bagged mulch will work if it's all that's available, but remember that it doesn't cover nearly as much as it looks like it will, so buy plenty.

10/4. I'm going to go with soil erosion as a couple of the back yard trees have roots that are close to the tree popping up outta the ground above the mulch, combined with root competition, so that makes sense. I'll probably go with the mulch idea in the spring time. That sedge weed shit grows along the sidewalk where it ends up being just dirt and it drives me insane. Maybe I can prevent that with shredding the top soil and doing mulch.

 

[Scott Hall]

Is that somewhere I can pick up the fertilizer or I pay and they come to me? I'll be totally honest, I've been doing it basically on my own the last two years from Grass Pad and I've really enjoyed it. Grass Pad has done great now that the sprinkler system has fully kicked in and the terrain from install has fully settled, I think I just need to master the water schedule compared to the time of year part now.

I don’t think so. I enjoyed trying to do it myself but I wasn’t nearly as good at it as the professionals, I also don’t have the time anymore.

 

[Dr.DrakeRamoray]

Probably posted already, but I took over a yard with a bad crab grass problem. Any tips? Don’t think they did much for the lawn. Going to likely start the grass pad program in the spring

 

[Pipe Line]

I don’t think so. I enjoyed trying to do it myself but I wasn’t nearly as good at it as the professionals, I also don’t have the time anymore.

I would say that I'm certainly starting to have to literally carve out time to make this stuff happen, rather than a few years ago. My uncle is a big "pay the professional" guy and my father in law is a big "I'll do it myself" guy so like any son in law I try to impress the father in law with what I'm doing while taking shit from my uncle for not just paying someone to do it at the next level lol

 

[Pipe Line]

Probably posted already, but I took over a yard with a bad crab grass problem. Any tips? Don’t think they did much for the lawn. Going to likely start the grass pad program in the spring

Q4 in my sprayer has done wonders for me with crabgrass.

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Probably posted already, but I took over a yard with a bad crab grass problem. Any tips? Don’t think they did much for the lawn. Going to likely start the grass pad program in the spring

Your pre-emergent is going to make it difficult to start new grass in the spring.

I had a crabgrass infestation this year, and I did a shorter mowing, then a dethatching a couple weeks ago. That pulled out and thinned out a decent amount of the crabgrass. You can also take the weed whacker to further shorten areas that are completely covered with it. I then did an overseeding/fill-in seeding in the balder areas with regular watering, and have gotten good growth throughout. It's not perfect by any means, but much fuller & in a much better place to to fertilize for the winter, then start a program in the spring.

 

[Jim14510]

Yard still looks the same as always, but here's a pic of Bob the Cat taking a nap by my outer gate doors

View attachment 59390

Is Bob actually a wild bobcat sleeping in your yard? I don't think I've ever seen that.

 

[SlumpBuster]

Anyone have some good recs for pest control? I get a TON of bugs in my back yard. We're a block away from a lake and my front yard slopes to my back yard so it kind of stays pretty damp. I spray it with some bug killer stuff every couple months, but that doesn't seem to do enough.

We almost don't use it anymore because the bugs are so bad.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

Is Bob actually a wild bobcat sleeping in your yard? I don't think I've ever seen that.

Yep, Bob roams the neighborhood. He's usually hunting bunnies.

That was the first time I saw him sleeping on cam. He was there for about an hour.

He's a bad ass motherfucker

 

[David Webb]

Good time to dethatch and aerate? What else I need to do?

I do wanna improve my soil.
Contractor who did my driveway used shitty dirt planning on composting the f out it. (Small yard barely big enough for cornhole)

Add some type of organic material when aerating to your lawn.

Anyone have some good recs for pest control? I get a TON of bugs in my back yard. We're a block away from a lake and my front yard slopes to my back yard so it kind of stays pretty damp. I spray it with some bug killer stuff every couple months, but that doesn't seem to do enough.

We almost don't use it anymore because the bugs are so bad.

Bifenthrin

 

[Toe]

Probably posted already, but I took over a yard with a bad crab grass problem. Any tips?

First off, try to figure out if what you're dealing with is actual crabgrass or one of the many other grassy weeds. That will help you figure out what you need. An ID app like Seek or ObsIdentify can help with that, although it might need to be somewhat grown out in order to work.