This is a picture of an Elite KBG lawn along side the standard contractor grade KBG lawns. The picture was taken April 11. It appears that the lawn has come out of dormancy earlier than the rest but the owner, MorpheusPA, says it was only dormant for a few weeks in the winter. This lawn gets a Logan Labs test quite often to tune up the micro nutrients in the soil. This lawn also received very heavy doses of Milorganite and soybean meal on a weekly basis for the previous growing season (or was it two growing seasons). In any case you can clearly see the difference it makes having the right grass and giving it intense care. This year Morph is backing way off on the intensity of fertilizing. MorpheusPA is a member here but is much more active on another Internet lawn forum. That was your motivational image. You can get the same results, I believe. You have to want them enough to do some extra work. If you decide to renovate, please do not topdress with anything permanent like topsoil or sand UNLESS you have a poor drainage situation. You probably do not. The habit of topdressing a homeowner lawn is a leading cause of me coming out to your home and taking pictures which will ultimately use to mock you. For example, here's one now... This owner has been topdressing "1/4 inch every year" and he's a very old guy. Rather than having a lawn which is mostly level with the surrounding concrete, he's had to build a barrier around the edges to contain the excess topsoil. While it is good to have a little bit of a crown in the middle of the yard, this is ridiculous! I should mention that I'm only talking about the mound in the hell strip. The original homes were built up on those pads to keep them out of flood waters which have since been contained with a local dam. But anyway don't topdress. It is not needed. If you choose to use compost, the way to test it for doneness is to smell it. It should smell very fresh like a forest floor after a spring rain. It should also not have any recognizable chunks in it. Good compost is screened down to 1/4 inch. The best is double screened. If you want to get started now (not a bad idea), you can apply the Milorganite and/or rabbit chow any time without interfering with the TruGreen apps. They all work independently of each other. You might find soybean meal to be less expensive than Rabbit Chow. By the way you should be mowing about 3 inches high - no lower. In the deep heat you can let it go to 4.

Don't like Wal-Mart, huh? That's a very good comment. Tell you what. I'll go back and price parts at a couple other places and make a table of the various prices. In the mean time, I'll tell you why that website seems to plug Wal-Mart. Because everyone has access to Wal-Mart. If you want to design something that everyone could make, then you have to specify parts that are available to everyone. If we specified a certain brand of aquarium pump that was only available at Fish-O-Rama, well, who lives near one of those? Picking Wal-Mart was a very conscious decision. Certainly you can you go elsewhere to get parts if you don't like Wal-Mart. The prices will be different, but that's why you go elsewhere. I got my pump at Petsmart and bucket and tubing at Lowe's.

Greyentropy asks: "Does anyone have any thoughts to why a shallow tea brewed in a rain storm would not have sufficient oxygen to keep the micro herd alive?" This topic has been discussed to the N-th degree all over the Internet. There are members on this forum that have stated a good stir with a stick every now and then is enough for good aeration; and then comes the shop-vac idea (with photos) that takes ideas to a different level. I do wonder what kind of fungal strand count survives after all that violent air time suspension after each explosion of air bubbles. My understanding is that one wants to dislodge the fungus from the compost gently to allow the strands to remain intact, but then I am still in the learning mode and may be getting taught something that I have not considered before. Time will tell on this one, for sure. Your idea was kicked around about five (5) years ago on another forum that I know of. The final verdict was that no amount of air was going to be adequate to keep the biomass alive no matter how much air is infused into the tea. It was from that discussion that I came to the conclusion that larger air bubbles are good for the tea (for what that is worth) than smaller bubbles. As time has gone by many new discoveries have come to pass. IMO, the most important is the danger in using animal manure based compost used in tea making with molasses added could breed e-coli bacteria. Needless to say the flame from that fire is still hot. Your idea of using a large (wider) container sounds like something I will try to see what happens. I will admit that my opinion is that biomass has nothing to do with the dynamic results of using compost tea. The link below will take you to the before mentioned thread, there may be something said that could be of use as you journey on this still exciting subject. I trust this may be of some help in some small way Blutranes Here is a link that might be useful: Compost Tea Brewers

It is possible I never would have figured that out. So, Patsy is right, you realized something many people never would have. One of my dogs figured out how to slide the door up on my compost bin the other day. Now three of the dogs know how to do it. Luckily there is a ledge above the door, which is now topped with two bricks. Will they be smart enough to figure out if they push the bricks off, they can open the door and raid the compost? I hope not! Lorna