Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. ------------------ Okay it's me now. Looks like too watering too frequently. At this time of year once a week might be too often. I'd be looking at every 14 days or more. Don't feel the soil to determine the watering. Watch for the grass to dry out. If it is not drying out, then wait. Your soil should be dry and hard for many days before you water again. Your lawn is either fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, or both. With that location and the proximity of the shade, any Kentucky bluegrass will die out. That is a fescue area because of the wall blocking half the day's sunlight. With that in mind you should be raising your mowing height all the way to the top. The reel mower is not great for mowing high. Good for mowing low but that's not your grass. Do not seed this time of year. If you need seed, wait until late August. You cannot have grubs yet. The grubs show up several weeks after the June bugs swarm your porch light. If you don't have any June bugs, then you can't have any grubs. That's not a universal truth but it is fairly useful for most people. And on that line of thought, please don't try to prevent problems you think you might have. Wait until you have the problem. The fungus problem is pretty apparent. I have a suggestion if you are interested in an organic solution. tiemco will disagree based wisely on his experience. My experience is 180 degrees opposite to his. This time I'll wait for him to suggest something.

You see the other guy's thread on sod that was just laid in his yard? 50% of the grass looks dead in his pictures and he's liable to get weeds too. If it looks like those pictures hold off until the sod is the same price as equal amount of top soil if you happen to need top soil too in case the sod fails. I saw sod for 0.54 cent per sq ft on the internet. It was Marathon III Fescue. Then there is this thread that says sod can be had for $0.14, $0.88, or $2.00 if you install yourself. http://www.city-data.com/forum/houston/559217-how-much-does-cost-sod-your-2.html Honestly the prices mentioned in that thread seem so reasonable for a suburban / urban sized yard why buy bad sod. Of course the thread's from 2009 so raise the prices somewhat. You don't mention a price but a typical bag of top soil goes for $3.50 for 3 cu ft so laid out as soil in sod you'd get, as a very rough estimate, 12 sq ft of sod = 3 cu ft of top soil. So for 12 sq ft of sod for $3.50 is what I'd pay for it. Of course if it's a big box store if it dies you can roll it up & return it if you save the receipt but that is more work than laying it. Heck it may already be cheaper, top soil in big box stores isn't cheap that's for sure. Here is a link that might be useful: Self Installed sod costs.

Sure. Shampoo is a surfactant like the professional sports complexes use only cheaper. The application rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. You can apply with any hose end sprayer. Measure your area and put the specified amount of shampoo into the sprayer. Fill the bottle with water, set the dial for any setting, spray the stuff until the bottle is empty trying to get it evenly disbursed over the whole area. Follow that up with 1/2 to 1 inch of irrigation or rain to wash it down deep. Shampoo works by allowing water to go deeper into the soil. Deep water cools the soil and keeps it a more consistent temperature for longer. This creates the perfect environment to grow the beneficial fungi which soften your soil. Give it 3 weeks and it should become very soft when it is moist and firm up again between weekly watering.

Sod is, typically, made up of only one type of grass. A lawn, OTOH, typically requires a combination of grass types to do well all over. Some grass types do better in the sun, some in the shade, etc. If the lazy patch doesn't begin to grow, you may want to put some seed down on that spot which may grow better there. This is typical for lawns. My front lawn was sodded with a variety of Kentucky Bluegrass. However, the sun's heat in the high summer killed the sod alongside my concrete drive. So, I had to reseed that area with a grass variety which could stand up to more heat. Before you do anything, however, ... check to see what grass types are RECOMMENDED for a LAWN in your area. The last thing you want to do is to plant grass seed ... which does not go well with what is already sodded. I've had this issue, as well. Sodded grass was short (slow-growing) and dark green ... while the grass I seeded was tall (fast-growing) and lighter green. I, ultimately, had to KILL all of the non-matching grass in that area ... and restart from scratch. Very discouraging ...