Hey okcdan

17 years ago

I also live in OKC and I'm new to organic lawn care. I saw a pic of your lawn in another thread and it looks great. I have a few questions for you:

I read the FAQ's and I need to apply compost to my yard. I checked the NWS and see we have a chance of storms for a few days starting Saturday evening. I got the impression that the beneficial organisms from the compost need to be soaked (watered gently) into the soil...would a heavy rain wash away my composting work?

Where do you do your shopping for your all your organic lawn care necessities?

If you don't mind, would you share your maintenance schedule with me?

Thanks a bunch

dirt man

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Comments (12)

okcdan
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey dirtman

I have to tell you, unless you've had a chemical spill or recent flood, you have plenty of microbes in the soil. Once you begin feeding them with the protein based feed grains, they will multiply.

When I switched to organic, I too read the FAQ's & decided to topdress my lawn with compost, but if I had it to do over, I wouldn't. The thing is, it's a really tough backbreaking job. It takes a cubic yard of compost for every 1000sqft to apply @ 1/4" to 1/3" and you load it into your wheelbarrow, roll out to the area, shovel it out, then use a rake and/or pushbroom to even it out & knock it off the grassblades down to the soil. It's time consuming too. But really, it just isn't necessary in most cases.

If/when I ever decide to move & begin taking care of a lawn new to me that was previously maintained with chemicals, I'd just start using grains & stop using chemicals. If after 4 to 6 weeks I didn't see any noticable difference, then I'd apply some ACT. But, unless there's some extreme circumstances, I won't ever manually topdress a lawn with compost again :)

Regarding where I buy grains, I've purchased @ Cusack Feed in OKC on I35 just south of south 89th on the east side service road & I've purchased from Meiser's Feed in Norman. Cusack doesn't always have soybean meal in stock so call first. I don't know what part of town you're in, but I talked to another guy who lives on the north side & he went to Bethany Country store....they charge like nearly double what everyone else is charging, so don't go there. Look in the yellow pages under "Feed Dealers" and make a few phone calls for the best price.

Do you have bermudagrass? My maintenance schedule may not be applicable to you if you don't.

Good day, Dan
dirt_man
Original Author
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That's funny, I live about 10 min. from Bethany Country Store...I guess I won't be going there.

My yard is bermudagrass.

Thanks for your help Dan.

Dirt man
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rollerzeke
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hello all.

okcdan has the top shelf lawn. Yeah boy.

I have also been using the soybean meal on my Bermuda. The soybean meal work great, and I will continue to use it.

But, I have also found with my soil if I also apply Hu-More Humalfa (Oklahoma Product) that I get that healthy green Bermuda look.

I don't use a truck load of the Hu-more Humalfa, just playing around with four or five small bags with a broadcast spreader.

My neighbors are still trying to figger out what's up with the heat loving, stays green well into the fall and deep green Bermuda over here.

I still don't understand it, but the earthworms in my lawn just go into overdrive air-rating(sp) my lawn when I apply the Hu-More Humalfa(Oklahoma Product).

http://humalfa.com/

Good day.
randomjoe
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm the one who mentioned the Bethany Country Store. The first time I bought from them the price was just a little higher than other places. Considering I'm just a couple miles away that was okay. But I guess I let slip I was using it on my lawn instead of feeding something. Next time I went to get some it was double! Also, they apparently don't stock much there. Both times I had to wait for them to get it from their supplier (who I suspect is just one of the other local feed stores). I got soybean meal and cottonseed meal from them.

I haven't topdressed my lawn, although so far it isn't anything to shout about. Mostly because I've had pretty spotty care of it to date. Trying to do better this year! But the feeds will have the desired effect over time - it's just definitely not the noticeable greenup you'd get with synthetic. One day you just happen to look down as you walk past and "oh!" :-)

I forgot about it when seeding this year, but I keep hearing the KTOK ad for "CowboyUp" - supposed to be a fescue that's been engineered/bred/whatever for Oklahoma climate. Anyone tried that yet? I may give it a go this fall when doing a proper overseed/reseed.
tmelrose
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey OKCdan, I'm with dirt man, I checked out your pics and I'd like to know your lawn schedule too. I've got bermuda also, but right now mainly weeds. I am extremely new to lawn care. Didn't even know about pre-emergents and was hand picking my weeds. I put down some Milorganite about 2 weeks ago but I think the freezing temps put that out of commission. Should I wait until the grass comes out of dormancy again then retry the soybean meal, or what do you recommend?
okcdan
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OK - here's my routine:

First, let me say that I use no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticedes....at all.

Several weeks ago when we had that early warm spring weather I rented a power dethacher & went deep, making sure the tines were kickin up dirt, to try to remove as much of the top dead stuff as possible. Then I dropped my reel mower cutting height all the way down & scalped the lawn. (I did use the catcher for this & discarded all the dead thatch.) The lawn really looks like crap when you do this, but so what? Everyones lawn is still in dormancy and no one's lawn looks all that good so early in the year. At that time I applied 15lbs/1000sqft soybean meal, then a week or so later I applied 15lbs/1000sqft alfalfa pellets. I ended up mowing a few times, then we had our cold snap which completely stopped the top growth. I've finally mowed again yesterday, mowing at approx 5/8", and I applied my next application of soybean meal (@ 15lbs/1000sqft.) and while my lawn isn't completely out of dormancy yet, it looks better than most folks lawns around here.

For weeds, I only use a weedhound (and cultural practices.) It's really easy in spring when your grass is still mostly all dormant because the only things green are the weeds, so I walk around the yard for an hour or so with my weedhound & the wheelbarrow & pull em all. From that point on, it's just maintenance a few minutes a week, until the grass is completely out of dormancy & growing well. You'll find when the bermuda is real dense & growing so that you need to mow every 2nd or 3rd day that the weeds are choked out well. the trick for most folks is knowing how to get it real dense. The way to do that is with following the ABC's of cultural practices

From this point forward throughout the growing season until fall:

A) I water twice a month, very deeply (irrigate 1 to 1-1/2") if we don't get any help from mother nature. (When mother nature's helpin, I don't get out the sprinklers.) Watering very infrequently keeps shallow rooted weeds from taking hold or being a problem.

B) I mow frequently. I cut it short (5/8") and I mow so that I'm not removing more than 1/3 of the grass blade, once it starts gettin hot & if we have some rain, that could be every 2 days, but usually it's every 3rd day. I don't bag (or catch) my clippings, I don't use the catcher that came with my reel mower, I just let the clippings return right to the lawn. Mowing this frequently is what helps the bermuda thrive & makes the weeds virtually non-existant.

C) I fertilize with soybean meal once a month.

I know it sounds pretty simple, but I learned it all right here in the GardenWeb forums and when ya drive by my house, the lawn speaks for itself.

Randomjoe If you have bermuda & you follow good cultural practices you won't have any need for any overseeding whatsoever. Bermuda repairs itself & fills in very well. I'll show you what I'm talking about with a couple pics. Last year, I built a bed in front of my house. The previous owners just had some ugly pavers & had bricks lining both sides of the sidewalk that leads to the front door. I removed all the bricks, built the bed, then just filled in the trench that was left from removing the bricks. It didn't take very long & the bermuda just came right across & filled it in. After only 5 or 6 weeks it looked as if it was there the whole time. Unless you have issues with shade where bermuda just won't grow, your best bet in our climate is bermuda, it's much more drought tolerant than fescues are.

Check it out:

{{gwi:142318}}

Well, I have some work to do in the garden...later!

Good Day, Dan
lawnkidd
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey Dan I just came back from a trip out in Los Angeles, Ca. and saw a lot of Burmuda Lawns, and I have to say I just love the Density and texture a Burmuda lawn provides. Considering I'm zone 7 as well, but on the East coast, Do you think I would be able to grow and establish a Burmuda lawn from Seed? I Currently Have a mixture of TTTF, KBG, and PRye. I also only use Organics.
rollerzeke
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi okcdan.

Do you core aerate your lawn?

Good day.
garett
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
do you happen to have a picture of your lawn after you dethached and scalped it?
okcdan
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey lawnkidd
Really the first issue is: would you want to try to maintain bermuda there? I know you're considered in zone 7, but I'm not certain of the overall climate there. Here in Oklahoma, most summers I usually see 30+ days worth of 100+ degree days plus enormous numbers of 90+ degree days and that's when the bermuda really thrives. Also, as Quirky would quickly point out, you'll have several months of brown/dormant lawn. Mine goes dormant in November & it's still coming out of dormancy now. My lawn was completely brown/dormant and I didn't have to mow at all during Dec, Jan or Feb, but I did mow a few times last month in March due to some unseasonably warm temps that began to bring my lawn out of dormancy early this year. Your current mix of TTTF, KBG & PR is likely green most all the year & if that's the case, you'd likely be better off staying with it. But, if you really really like the look of bermuda and if you'd be willing to deal with several months of the year where your lawn is brown/dormant, then the next decision is what kind of bermuda to put down. Really, the best varieties are hybrid and only available as sod. If you decide you want bermuda & can afford it, sod would be best. Only common bermuda is available in seed form. There are many different varieties available, check out places like bermudagrass.com for listings. If you choose to seed, then forget everything else you know about seeding (like the best time to seed is in fall) because it doesn't apply to bermudagrass. The seeds germinate when soil temps are above 70 degrees, and it's absolutley fine to seed as soon as it gets hot enough, cuz this stuff thrives in the heat (unlike cool season grasses.)

Hey Rollerzeke
After reading many many times in the lawn care forum that my microherd can do my aerating for me, the answer is no, I don't core aerate. I only do exactly as I described earlier in this thread.

Hey garett
Sorry, regretably, I didn't take any photos when I dethatched and scalped the lawn, and I'd thought about it a few weeks afterwards & thought to myself that I really should've snapped a few pics. It wouldn't have been a big deal, heck, the digital camera's sittin right on the desk!

Good day, Dan
rollerzeke
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hello all.

Thanks for the reply okcdan. My Bermuda lawn has been on the organic program for over four years.

I core aerated my Bermuda in the Spring of 2005 and 2006 and the results were outstanding.

I looked over my lawn this Spring and I noticed the core holes are already everywhere in the lawn!

I have to agree with you and the lawn care forum that my microherd can do my aerating for me.

Thanks again okcdan for the confirmation.

Good day.
lawnkidd
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dan thanks for the info and heads up. I guess in my neigborhood Brown lawns are pretty common considering there are only a few of us who even care what there lawns look like. Our climate here in Md can get very hot and Humid during the summer months (end of May thru End of Sept) plus it doesnt really rain that much.

Its been a few years since I've been to your neck of the woods and remember the heat. How do the Zoysia lawns compare to the Burmuda lawns in your area? That would be another option for me as well.

Hey okcdan

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