It's possible that you have a warm season grass and your neighbors have cool season grasses. Zoysia grass has been marketed as a "magic" solution and many people planted it in areas where it has a very short growing season. In NJ, it will survive the winter, but it will be brown in the fall, winter and spring while other grasses are green. If you've got zoysia, the only way to "fix" it is to wait until it's growing well and kill it, probably using something like glyphosate (brand name Roundup is the best known). Then in late summer/early fall, after the heat of summer, plant a new lawn using cool season grass. If you've got a cool season lawn and it's going dormant during winter, you probably need to fertilize with 1 lb of actual N per 1000 sq ft in the fall, after the top growth has stopped, but while the grass is still green.

Skoot, I donÂt know how long it would last or if it does much of anything to be honest. This all came about a few years ago when my Son was in college they burned a sample of Nitron A 35 in a gas chromatograph to see what was in it. Turns out to be water, beer, soap (mild like baby shampoo or bath), and a common enzyme found in human saliva, papaya seed, and the yucca plant (meat tenderizer ADOLFÂs) No I wouldnÂt use it in sandy soils since the product is made for heavy clay soils. It is suppose to soften them up and make them absorb water better. Same thing any surfactant will do. No it wonÂt hurt soil microbes as long as you donÂt over do it like anything else. The beer and enzymes will feed microbes. Problem could be the shampoo if you used the wrong kind or too much. No I donÂt use it, I have rich sandy loam yard. My personal thought is it wonÂt do any harm. On the other hand I do not know or claim it would do any good. Only thing I do use once in a while is use a potion like Jerry Baker published of using ammonia and a lemon scented soap to hose end spray around the patio plants and surfaces before a party of guest like a BBQ. Seems to run the bugs off, makes things smell fresh, and puts a shine on the potted plants and ivy growing. I originally posted this a couple of years back because I seen a lot of folks buying the Nitron A 35 product, and knew how to make your own for pennies rather than buying for dollars. If you have ever had the product it smells, looks, and taste like dilutted soapy beer. That is what it is.

I love Jerry Baker and all of his crazy tips and tonics! He gets that gardening is like life you have to try this and that and see what works best for you. If you need gardening and/or life to be an exact recipe for your happiness and success you need to go back to chemicals at the gardening store. In any event I'm looking to perk up my hibiscus out on the balcony. Does anyone have Jerry's recipe for houseplant tonic? Many thanks for sharing it if you do.

We use a combination of Nickel Plus and K-Phite. It's working great. We spray with both, using a sticker-spreader we got at Tractor Supply. We also add their blue dye now, because it helps us see where we have missed a spot. It isn't very easy to see through goggles, with sweat pouring down in your eyes. Just avoid spraying any blossoms, unless you are really desperate for a blue daylily. We were advised to spray once a week for 3 weeks, then wait 3 weeks before spraying again. I've only sprayed once this fall, since it has been raining off and on ever since. Occasionally, I will have a plant that shows sign of rust, but nothing like it was before I started using the nickel. I wouldn't use anything else. Well, let me take that back. I am going to try some Actinovate on just a few isolated and unimportant plants to see how it works. The only thing I don't like is having to don all that protective gear, but I wouldn't have it otherwise. I'm very cautious. We use goggles, a special pesticide mask we bought at Lowes, chemical gloves (also at Lowe's), rubber boots and a yellow rain slicker. My hubby and our yardman refuse to put on a garbage bag drawstring skirt, but if I'm doing the spraying, I wear that, too. I'll have to get my hubby to take a picture of me in that fancy outfit so everyone can get a good laugh. When the weather is warm, we get very sweaty in all that garb! We start very early in the morning while it is still cool. We have a big tank sprayer on wheels we pull behind our riding lawn mower. It runs on the lawn mower battery. We got an extra length of hose so we can cover more territory. One of us drives the lawn mower while the other sprays. I could do it by myself, but it takes longer to have to keep stopping to move the mower ahead. We wash the tank out thoroughly after spraying and run clear water through the wand when we have finished. Aren't you cold climate people lucky??? Nancy