What do I do? I need advice from people who know lawns!

6 years ago

To start off, I live in western washington in a townhouse. Its been mentioned that our soil is very poor quality in our neighborhood. My sprinkler system wasn't

working when it should so i tried watering with my hose as needed. Our lawn is also maintained through a company hired by our HOA. That being said, we can still take charge in trying to better our lawn. This is what i tried to do and regret it very much.

My lawn always looked very faded, and had small patches of yellow grass and dirt. So after some research, i purchased Scott's Turf Builder Lawn Food. I applied as instructed, once a week evenly across lawn. I saw great improvement! Grass was greener and stronger, but the yellow patches remained. So i just emphasized the yellow patches.

Then, we got hit with random 90 weather for one weekend. I saw that my grass went from 20% yellow to 80%! My lawn looks horrible! I then tried to add iron with Pennington Ironite Liquid Lawn and Garden Spray 7-0-1 with 1% Iron Ready- To- Spray on my lawn, making sure to follow instructions, (I didn't want to turn my lawn black). I did this 3 days ago and see no changes taking place since.

Now, admittedly, I'm very impatient. I know I need to wait at least 11 days or so, and that's what I'm doing, but I'm worried that it won't work. Now that i have irrigation system working properly, will my grass slowly revive or am i screwed? I have until September to get it looking, at least, better than this.

Comments (7)

dchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
I don't understand what's going on in your first picture. Why is the lower left part of the grass dead with a fringe of really green?

Are you sure you applied Turf Builder once a week? Where did you read to do that? Generally one dose of fertilizer in late May will last the entire summer until Labor Day.

What is your watering schedule? General yellowing can easily happen from daily watering. For your area one deep watering every 2-3 weeks should be fine unless you get rain. Then skip the next irrigation date. Deep watering means 1 inch all at one time.

Do you have to have the HOA lawn company caring for the lawn or is it optional or is it just one that they recommended? If you can take the entire thing over you and your wallet will be happier...once you know what you're doing. We can teach you what to do, but lets start out slowly and let stuff sink in. Answer the questions and let that watering advice soak in (heh, heh).
kdafluke
Original Author
6 years ago
On the back of the bag of the turf builder, it said to do it once a week for 4 weeks. And it shows what the grass should be doing in each week. I got to application 3 and everything was fine. I stopped it there because then the heat came and turned everything yellow.

In the picture, i applied turf builder to that area. It was great until it turned 90 and above for the weekend and it all turned yellow except for that one really green edge. I applied it there because the rest of that grass belongs to my neighbor.

The watering schedule is sun, tues, and thursday at 6am for 10 minutes. The sprinklers are set up to cover the whole area that is my yard in the frpnt and back, so I can get an inch of water with those in 10 minutes. According to the landscaping company. But that just started this past sunday. A month ago i would do a spray with the hose every other day. I dont know how much i watered, but i would skip a few days after a rainy day. Maybe I watered too much. (-.-)

The HOA landscapers are not optional for my neighborhood sadly. So i cannot control the mowing aspect of my lawn care, but I can control the water system and everything else.
Related Discussions
Verticillium Wilt??? What do I do now? New gardener needs advice!
Q
Comments (20)
I occassionally have this issue because we have a lot of humidity and it affects all my plants, not just tomatoes, like you. I regularly use fungicide until I start seeing fruit on my plants and then I regularly spray a milk/water mixture (concentration 1:1) on my entire garden. nothing can "cure" it, but I've been told the milk keeps the spores from affecting the unaffected leaves. Basically the point is to just control it so that my plants can grow ahead of it....if that makes sense. I also discovered I have a calcium deficiency in my garden so I make sure to add eggs to my compost and I add bone meal at the time of planting.....after starting to do that a couple of years ago, the healthier plants can help keep the spores at bay.....I can't move my garden and can only do so much rotation, so I have resigned myself to accept that humidity is going to be my worst friend....but at least the last couple of years my garden has been producing well and I don't get frustrated with all the hard work and nothing to show for it.
...See More
what do I need to know/do for cable/fios/wireless network?
Q
Comments (2)
CAT5 is simply a designation for a kind of wire typically used for computer networks. I don't know about FIOS but AT&T's Uverse can also use it to transmit a signal for television. COAX is a type of wire used for television transmission exclusively. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have COAX run to every room you're likely to have a television in and CAT5 to every room you are likely to have a television and/or a computer. Wireless networking (for computers) is just that - no wires. It's often called WiFi (pronounced Y-fi). The obvious advantage is that you don't have to run wires anywhere. The disadvantage is that it's often not quite as fast as a wired network. WiFi is less secure than a hard wired network and susceptible to interference.
...See More
I think I know what I need to do.
Q
Comments (13)
I have had the BEST weekend people!! I tried a whole different approach. I tried bringing up the subject of his crazy ex wife and his son's very agressive behavior but after a very nice day where we were both relaxed and content. For once, he LISTENED to me! Yay! We came up with some strategies for dealing with some of the issues that have been upsetting our family. I know it's small steps but I feel very encouraged! Plus, I made a comment before our combined birthday party for our 6 and 2 year old this weekend, that everytime we have a party, I feel very ignored by him. Like I don't exist to him and it's not because he's running around being host- because I AM! The whole party- he was so attentive to me, like asking if I needed a drink, getting me my plate of food and bringing it over, taking the baby without being asked, telling me to sit and relax, etc. I don't want to forget all that we need to work on however I feel that this weekend has refreshed us. :)
...See More
Advice on aerating lawn - should I hire? Can I do it? Should I buy?
Q
Comments (37)
morpheouspa. Gloves down here for a moment. What claims are you referring to that I have made about mechanical aeration? Granted, I do claim that there are purposes for which the employment of mechanical aeration can be useful and it irritates me to no end that people peremptorily discount mechanical aeration as being without any use. (in the past couple of months, I've seen were you have suggested? that plug aeration might be an aid in pursuing some outcome.) Are you saying that I have advocated mechanical aeration as a necessary continued lawn care practice? (Do you advocate the application of a surfactant as a necessary continuing lawn care practice?) Is it necessary to spam this site with links to hundreds of university turf programs that recommend home owner lawn aeration not only as a continuing lawn care practice, but for the prevention of disease, thatch LDS etc.? For what purpose? They are just conclusory statements, No more valid than anything you or anyone else can produce. What you linked to, rather than belittle you, look at the facts: First some of what they call aeration is plowing (bad for me) but anyway I counted 13 studies and of those, the majority showed some improvement to crop yield, none showed a decline. They do,make a conclusory statement that aeration will cause increased weeds. OK fine. Based on what? No ancillary evidence even? Did they atleast credit dchall for the quote or maybe daniel? So even though your site actually supports that aeration results in slightly greater % crop production than non aeration, I say irrelevant and useless for any support for either of us. This argument has been going on forever, but if you take the time to understand and observe, there are logical conclusions you can come to and when applied either work or don't. If X then Y, put it to the test, and if it repeats, then continue, whether it is surfacants, aeration, corn meal or Bayer. So recommend on your experience and give your rational when challenged. Caveat emptor. My goal for my lawn, and for those I give advice to, is to obtain a turf that in the shortest time possible will only require mowing, watering and fertilization. I endeavor to employ the least expensive, least labor intensive, but most effective methods for a healthy turf AND soil and those are the ones I promote. My questions were for the reader and therefor need no response from you . I will no longer joust this windmill with you or anyone else, but I will call out anyone who "make [an unsupportable} claim... or [spew} any other blatant lie"
...See More
Don Zebowitch
6 years ago
I may stand corrected...but I wouldn't feed once a week even with Milorganite. That was really on the label? It looks like you burned your grass from overfeeding, plain and simple. Watering too much wouldn't do that. (But you are watering too much)
Don Zebowitch
6 years ago
As far as what to do...I think you need to rip out and start over if your HOA allows it. That grass isn't coming back.
dchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
Here is a link to the label for the Scotts product you used. I can't find the part about using it every week. I can find the part about using it 4x per year, but not 4x per month.

So anyway, that's what grass looks like when it dies from too much chemical fertilizer. You can see on the fringe what it should look like (dark green). Had you used an organic product every week, it would not have died. We've had people here who tried to overdose with organics by applying twice the rate of two different materials every week and it just got green.

What to do now? Water it like it was a lawn (deep and infrequent) and in about a month you could mow it all out and try seeding again. Apparently in Western WA you can get away with seeding any time of the growing season (except for those few days when it gets into the 90s).
Don Zebowitch
6 years ago
Yeah I see the label now and how you misinterpreted. I'm so sorry. You need to reseed or at least attempt an overseed. That stinks, but you'll be ok very soon. Yard looks small and manageable. We've got your back!!!!
kdafluke
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you so much for your help. I truly do appreciate it. I figured that it wasnt coming back. I will wait until it gets cooler in August to reseed before my HOA does inspection. Any advice with that? I know I have frescue grass... (at least i think i do). And particular products you would recommend?

What do I do? I need advice from people who know lawns!

Comments (7)

dchall_san_antonio

kdafluke
Original Author

Related Discussions

Don Zebowitch

Don Zebowitch

dchall_san_antonio

Don Zebowitch

kdafluke
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

What do I do? I need advice from people who know lawns!

Comments (7)

dchall_san_antonio

kdaflukeOriginal Author

Related Discussions

Don Zebowitch

Don Zebowitch

dchall_san_antonio

Don Zebowitch

kdaflukeOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

kdafluke
Original Author

kdafluke
Original Author