Yeah, I'd expect to mow at least a couple times a week. I'd also expect to need to water more than I do now but I'm not sure how much more, I'd still be watering less than my neighbors on both sides of me. One waters twice a day and the other three times a day. We've talked about it, they haven't dialed it back still... They have brown spots despite watering that much which is why they are reluctant to lower the frequency.
Let's Talk Lawns
- Thread starter UT410
- Start date
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
RockChucker
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Highland
I've driven past Connor Ward's house in Garden City a few times. His yard is ridiculous. Pretty amazing. Actually how I found him on Youtube...my wife's cousin recognized his house when we drove by and got super excited saying the guy had a Youtube channel.
He has an advantage up in Garden City that we don't have here in the greater Salt Lake area. It's pretty rare that it hits 90 degrees up there. 6000 ft elevation is definitely an advantage...
I cut my grass long, and it still struggles in the heat (partially due to the crappy species I'm sure). I've accepted that my yard will never be a prize yard. I'd rather spend that time doing other things with the family or working on projects in the garage.
He has an advantage up in Garden City that we don't have here in the greater Salt Lake area. It's pretty rare that it hits 90 degrees up there. 6000 ft elevation is definitely an advantage...
I cut my grass long, and it still struggles in the heat (partially due to the crappy species I'm sure). I've accepted that my yard will never be a prize yard. I'd rather spend that time doing other things with the family or working on projects in the garage.
SLC97SR5
IDIesel
- Location
- Davis County
No, I'm not that dedicated. 😁
Connor's yard is a beauty but it is a ton of work and he is constantly maintaining it. That's not a bad thing, no different than any other hobby but for my location it doesn't seem super responsible in regards to water use and we're on unmetered secondary.
I could totally get into it though.
Also, we're gone nearly every weekend and it would bother me coming home and feeling obligated to make the yard look perfect again...I kinda do that as is, not perfect but presentable.
Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
So backing up a little... Sand was mentioned. Is this just to help hold moisture? or is there some other reason behind this? and how much are we talking?
I'm not 100% on it but I believe that they use sand for a few reasons. For leveling because it's easy to add a bit at a time to bring everything up. It's easy to drag and sweep into the crown of the grass and it also happens to be nutrient neutral which means it won't affect your soil pH one way or another.
Another thing they do is heavily core aerate. That gets oxygen to the roots and helps with compaction. They will typically aerate then add sand to fill in the core holes. This again aids keeping those passages available for air to get down but another thing is that the sand drains water pretty good. My understanding is that it helps get water deeper which the roots then grow further to get to.
I think it's typical to expect grass roots to be 3 or 4 inches deeps. One of these guys posted pictures of cores they took that showed roots 8-10" deep which is bonkers.
All in all, the deeper the roots the better it'll fair when it's not getting as much water or it gets hot outside.
How much sand? Just a little bit at a time. Little enough that the grass can grow through it in a couple weeks. You gotta do this for several years, little by little, to get things flat. I think Connor says he gets 15-16 tons a load, he also has 20k sqft to spread it out in. For us normal people with normal ish size yards I'd expect we'd go through a lot less each season.
Another thing they do is heavily core aerate. That gets oxygen to the roots and helps with compaction. They will typically aerate then add sand to fill in the core holes. This again aids keeping those passages available for air to get down but another thing is that the sand drains water pretty good. My understanding is that it helps get water deeper which the roots then grow further to get to.
I think it's typical to expect grass roots to be 3 or 4 inches deeps. One of these guys posted pictures of cores they took that showed roots 8-10" deep which is bonkers.
All in all, the deeper the roots the better it'll fair when it's not getting as much water or it gets hot outside.
How much sand? Just a little bit at a time. Little enough that the grass can grow through it in a couple weeks. You gotta do this for several years, little by little, to get things flat. I think Connor says he gets 15-16 tons a load, he also has 20k sqft to spread it out in. For us normal people with normal ish size yards I'd expect we'd go through a lot less each season.
I mowed my front yard to 2" this afternoon and my back yard to 1.75". Both chunked a little and I'm thinking it would have been better to mow Sunday or even Saturday than go those extra days to today. Last week I mowed Monday and Thursday. I'm going to shoot for Wednesday this week and see how it goes at the same heights.
After the kiddo's go down for the night I'm going to drop another half pound of nitrogen per 1000 sqft via urea. This'll be my 2nd week doing that in an attempt to fill in the gaps and push the back to actually look good.
After the kiddo's go down for the night I'm going to drop another half pound of nitrogen per 1000 sqft via urea. This'll be my 2nd week doing that in an attempt to fill in the gaps and push the back to actually look good.
My sun joe dethatcher/scarifier came this last week and I decided to take it for a spin this morning. I had read the scarifier is easier on the grass so I put that cartridge in. The blades are like straight tiller blades. I had seen pictures so I kind of knew what to expect but wondered how it would go with my fairly new lawn.
It pulled a lot of stuff up.
I raked the front and then bagged it but when I moved to the back I decided to use the mower as a vacuum which worked well. When we did the sod in the back I noticed there were a bunch of little rocks on top of the grass. I've picked them up as I've seen them but running the scarifier pulled up a billion more. I had to constantly stop to pick them up. I threw the rocks over the fence and also dumped the detritus over the fence into the vacant lot. I did two passes with the scarifier and am pretty pleased with it's performance.
It's looking pretty good. After cutting the last couple times to 1.25" in the back all the dips and holes are more apparent but I've got a plan for those.
Ive also found a greens mower to purchase that looks decent and is the right price. I've talked to the guy about it and he showed me the finer points on it last night but he needed to do a couple things to it so I'll be picking it up in a couple days. It's stupid but I'm excited.
It pulled a lot of stuff up.
I raked the front and then bagged it but when I moved to the back I decided to use the mower as a vacuum which worked well. When we did the sod in the back I noticed there were a bunch of little rocks on top of the grass. I've picked them up as I've seen them but running the scarifier pulled up a billion more. I had to constantly stop to pick them up. I threw the rocks over the fence and also dumped the detritus over the fence into the vacant lot. I did two passes with the scarifier and am pretty pleased with it's performance.
It's looking pretty good. After cutting the last couple times to 1.25" in the back all the dips and holes are more apparent but I've got a plan for those.
Ive also found a greens mower to purchase that looks decent and is the right price. I've talked to the guy about it and he showed me the finer points on it last night but he needed to do a couple things to it so I'll be picking it up in a couple days. It's stupid but I'm excited.
I picked up the greens mower and tried my hardest to ruin my lawn today. Depending on the angle it seems like I accomplished it. Front and back lawns are down to .75". It's rough.
The back isn't actually too bad but the front is wrecked. I think from here the plan is going to be getting some sand to level out what I can then water and fertilize it and hope it comes back. I may end up throwing down some seed but we'll see. The internet assures me it should look quite a bit better in a couple weeks. I hope so.
The back isn't actually too bad but the front is wrecked. I think from here the plan is going to be getting some sand to level out what I can then water and fertilize it and hope it comes back. I may end up throwing down some seed but we'll see. The internet assures me it should look quite a bit better in a couple weeks. I hope so.
ID Bronco
Registered User
- Location
- Idaho Falls, ID
Seriously though, all the "guys" I know that have their wives mow the lawn aren't very manly at all.
She does it because she likes it, always has. She came out twice while I was doing it and said to leave it for her.
For me, a chance to be in the garage instead of mowing the lawn has always been no-brainer. I know a few of the guys you speak of and well, that’s not me. Not that I can prove that nor am I even interested enough to do so...
ID Bronco
Registered User
- Location
- Idaho Falls, ID
You have scored my friend! I'm probably a little jealous, I had to have kids to get out of mowing the lawn.
I like a nice looking lawn, mow it different directions and such, but my life is too short to get ocd on it. And it's like an acre of grass, that makes it less manageable. I like seeing all of your nice lawn pictures.
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
Hard to come by!
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
The front is looking pretty rough still. I got 2 tons of sand before labor day to start leveling it out but only got about half spread and ran out of yard time. The back is looking decent though and I decided to do some single double stripes last night.
I've still been applying 1 lb per 1000 sqft urea each week and on Tuesday dissolved the urea in water and sprayed it. I added "Quick Green Iron" as well per label (2-4 oz per 1000 sqft) and since I've never sprayed something that needed to be done kind of precisely added blue dye pattern indicator. Basically its just fancy food coloring that shows where you've sprayed so you don't miss or over apply to areas and magically disappears in a day or two. I bought a 4 gallon battery powered backpack sprayer and really liked how that worked out and plan to spray what I can down the road rather than use the dry pellets. The iron really darkened up the lawn quick and I was really impressed with it. So far I've bought all this fertilizer and spray equipment from the Salt Lake IFA store.
I ordered a drag mat and lawn level rake and hope to get the rest of the sand down and leveled in the front this next week. I decided to put the sand down heavy in spots to quicken the process and seed where its needed so that (weather for seeding) is driving me to get it down sooner rather than later. Its just been tough to juggle outside projects with the 3 month old kid and giving the wife the help she needs. I'll try and get some pictures of the front to show where its at.
I've still been applying 1 lb per 1000 sqft urea each week and on Tuesday dissolved the urea in water and sprayed it. I added "Quick Green Iron" as well per label (2-4 oz per 1000 sqft) and since I've never sprayed something that needed to be done kind of precisely added blue dye pattern indicator. Basically its just fancy food coloring that shows where you've sprayed so you don't miss or over apply to areas and magically disappears in a day or two. I bought a 4 gallon battery powered backpack sprayer and really liked how that worked out and plan to spray what I can down the road rather than use the dry pellets. The iron really darkened up the lawn quick and I was really impressed with it. So far I've bought all this fertilizer and spray equipment from the Salt Lake IFA store.
I ordered a drag mat and lawn level rake and hope to get the rest of the sand down and leveled in the front this next week. I decided to put the sand down heavy in spots to quicken the process and seed where its needed so that (weather for seeding) is driving me to get it down sooner rather than later. Its just been tough to juggle outside projects with the 3 month old kid and giving the wife the help she needs. I'll try and get some pictures of the front to show where its at.