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10/28/2014 1:35:19 PM

How long can I store grass seed? I bought a 50 lb bag of fescue about a month ago and haven't had time to seed my yard. Now I think it's too late and thought I would save it till spring. Will it still be good, do I need to keep it from freezing?

11/1/2014 8:51:00 AM

make sure to keep it high and dry. Had some mice find there way to my bag.

11/1/2014 11:48:39 AM

Unless you plan on watering all summer, saving it for spring is a bigger waste than spreading now and hoping. Just save it for next fall. Keep it high and dry as ^ said, and on something mice can't climb. Seed will stay viable for a few years. The germination rate will drop some but not that bad if it's decent seed and not already old.

11/1/2014 6:37:21 PM

When are you all planning on doing fertilization and pre-emergent ?

2/26/2015 10:50:37 PM

i use a meat thermometer and go by soil temp

[Edited on February 26, 2015 at 10:53 PM. Reason : for pre-emergent, that is]

2/26/2015 10:53:05 PM

lol ok. what temp are you looking for?

2/26/2015 10:53:48 PM

crabgrass germinates when soil temp is 55 deg F for a few days. you want to watch the soil temps about 1" deep first thing in the morning and try to anticipate when it will be 55 for a few days in a row. if you put it down right, pre-emergent will form a "barrier" that will last a couple weeks, so the trick is to make that window overlap with the crabgrass germination. it's not like you just walk out one morning, stick the thermometer in the ground, it reads XX deg F and you start spreading the pre-emergent. temps are going to vary around your yard, near concrete, in shady areas, etc. you have to guess at it. there's also the approach that there's not really a bad time to put down pre-emergent in early spring. some folks do it two or three times.

2/26/2015 11:03:29 PM

I guess my problem is the only pre-emergent I have is mixed with fertilizer, so I can't go 3 rounds of it.

I'm going to give your method a shot. Thx.

2/26/2015 11:07:32 PM

i buy a granular pre-emergent by itself

2/26/2015 11:10:42 PM

for fescue, fertilize now (well, after the snow melts - great time since the soil is very moist).

certainly fertlize by mid-march.

pre-emergent soon as well too (you can do it by soil temp per^, but it's really a crapshoot). From what I'm told, the pre-emergent will last a good while in the soil (I don't know how you can guess which day to deploy pre-emergent. soil temps may not be steadily above 55 until midspring in some years!). If someone has a pre-emergent they like, please post. I haven't found one.

[Edited on February 27, 2015 at 9:13 AM. Reason : .]

2/27/2015 9:10:23 AM

Scotts Halts seemed to do a decent job

2/27/2015 9:20:12 AM

ok thanks; i'm assuming that's available at lowes/etc

2/27/2015 9:38:48 AM

yes

2/27/2015 9:56:50 AM

FYI, Scotts Halts is available from Amazon Prime at the same price they charge at Home Depot (actually $.04 per bag cheaper). I just went ahead and ordered my 8 bags.

Also, they changed the formula for Bonus S from atrazine to metsulfuron. I guess this was to make it ok for bermuda, but I haven't had any issue with the old atrazine formula on my bermuda anyway. My backyard is half centipede and half bermuda and I didn't really care if it killed the bermuda, but the old formula made it look great.


[Edited on March 1, 2015 at 12:35 PM. Reason : dsaf]

3/1/2015 12:32:00 PM

I have a lot of clover. What do you suggest to control that? Does Halt work with clover.

3/3/2015 6:21:13 PM

Halt is a pre-emergent. It won't get rid of anything. It only prevents things from germinating.

To kill the clover, but not your grass, you will need a selective herbicide. What you choose depends on what grass you have (need to make sure it won't kill your grass too). I like a weed and feed like Bonus S because it kills the broadleaf weeds and then gives the good grass a boost so it can start filling in the gaps before the weeds return.

The very best weed preventer is a healthy lawn.

3/3/2015 8:20:41 PM

I have 4 medium-size pine trees that are still bent at about a 60* angle from the ice; the rest are back to normal or close enough... I guess I'll try to rope them up and pull them back straight?

3/4/2015 11:57:17 AM

60* to ground, or bent 60* from their normal position?

3/5/2015 9:00:19 AM

from their normal position. during the ice storm, they were bent all the way over, touching the ground. These are probably about 20-25' tall.

3/5/2015 10:06:34 AM

they're pine trees ... just cut them up and call it good.

3/5/2015 5:21:07 PM

fire pit construction started today

before


after day 1

3/9/2015 6:18:05 PM

so, a fair amount of the area i seeded in the fall got trashed during all the snowmelt and rain and now it's completely bare after some construction

i actually won't be done for another 2 weeks or so...what can i plant to have grass this spring/summer? anything (except sod)?

3/9/2015 6:40:08 PM

haha, I know the feeling.

get the cheapest shitbag of contractor's mix/rye you can find, water it well. hope it lasts till fall. to improve your odds, you can water it during the summer too...

*make sure the contractor's mix doesn't include warm-season grasses if you don't want them. I know these mixes used to be kept separate, but I've been told that the state requires a warm-season grass if using certain blends.

[Edited on March 10, 2015 at 9:29 AM. Reason : .]

3/10/2015 9:28:42 AM

closer

3/10/2015 7:54:54 PM

got my pre-emergent down on sunday

3/10/2015 8:56:51 PM

hoping it's complete tomorrow but skeptical



the pathway has more variety of color in it but the rocks are covered in sand/dirt

3/12/2015 8:33:43 PM

^looking good. I really want to do something like that.

3/13/2015 11:14:57 AM

paver patio and fire pit is on my list, but i need gutters and all the exterior trim on the house to be painted first

3/14/2015 2:28:22 PM

Anyone handled any drainage related projects? Basically, one side of the house between my house and the neighbor's house doesn't get much direct sunlight and is sloped in such a way that whenever it rains it stays damp for 2-3 days. Not a huge problem, that side of the house doesn't get much traffic yet - mainly when I take out the trash - but any thoughts/recommendations?

3/15/2015 11:51:43 AM

french drain, sock pipe, etc. (assuming you have a ditch or somewhere to send the water)

3/15/2015 2:07:04 PM

Got some Scotts Halt down today...hopefully not too late. Going to follow with a Scotts fertilizer/weed kill in a few weeks just to make sure I figure early-mid spring is better for fertilization than late spring, right?

3/15/2015 4:47:03 PM

just remember that weed and feed won't do anything for crabgrass

i think you were a little late on getting the pre-emergent down, but it will still help.

3/15/2015 6:04:06 PM

4^yep, french drain to daylight.
^^yep
^true. I already have some broadleafs in my backyard

Speaking of such, I normally wait a good while between pre- and post-emergent; though I don't think I've ever seen anything official on a waiting period. My only concern would be stress young turf (last fall's seeding). Any input? Any highly recommended post-emergents? Or just find the least expensive 2-4,D concentrate you can ? I've been using Bayer Advanced, though I've thought about changing to spectricide as it technically should treat 3x more area per 32 oz container. Though some reviews point to spectricide being weak/weaker, so maybe it's a wash.
(bayer is 3.5 oz : 1 gal; spectricide is 1 oz : 1 gal; so unless there's a chemical difference, spectricide would be less potent)

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 8:46 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 8:46 AM. Reason : .]

3/16/2015 8:45:25 AM

I use Bonus S, but I don't have a sprayer trailer, so I'm limited to granules. Works great, though.

3/16/2015 9:41:12 AM

really close to being done now

3/18/2015 8:52:37 AM

firepit is done - seating is arriving today - nothing special - just some adirondack chairs



also tested the outdoor theater which worked out well - broke it in with jurrasic park (wife's choice) - having people over for the NCSU game on Friday - won't be quite dark enough right at the start but within 15 minutes in to the game it'll be nice

3/25/2015 12:55:48 PM

If we lose, you can never watch a game on it again.

3/25/2015 1:01:12 PM

OmarBadu, looks great.

What did you use to trench out the pathways? is that crusher run or sifted granite? what material are the edgers? do you have dimensions of the fire pit and patio?

3/25/2015 6:58:06 PM

i paid someone to do it but i know the basics

they used a bobcat to do the trenching - the pathway is a mixed type of rock from the chattahoochee - i'm not sure of the material of the pavers but i've replaced a few of them with some solar powered LED bricks like in the link below

the firepit is about 4' in diameter and about 20" high - the patio is about 20' in diameter


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EA2T06O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3/26/2015 8:36:45 AM

the base is crush and run thats been tamped and possibly rained on a little.

3/26/2015 8:53:35 AM

Anyone got any suggestions for how to mow a hill without fearing for your life? I've got a hill that's got about a 30-40 degree grade, about 8-9' tall. Been using a regular gas push mower to do it for the past couple of years, but I've almost rolled an ankle more times than I can count.

Self propelled RWD or AWD mower?

Reel mower?

5/10/2015 6:51:54 PM

5/10/2015 6:58:03 PM

I have also considered robot mowers. Too 'spensive.

5/10/2015 8:08:52 PM

We have a crew at work that comes out and mows our dams with some of those Spider mowers. Awesome machines.

5/10/2015 8:21:07 PM

Nick,

http://www.toro.com/en-us/golf/mowers/specialty/pages/default.aspx

http://eastmanind.com/eastmancommercial/HOVERMOWER/tabid/187/Default.aspx

Hover mowers are expensive, but awesome.

5/11/2015 11:00:13 AM

^ you da man!


What do the blades look like? Are the essentially string trimmers?


oh nmind i see the underside in the second link

[Edited on May 11, 2015 at 6:55 PM. Reason : good lookin out]




fuck me they're $800+

that'll take some convincing... could hire a lawn service for 3 seasons out of the year for that. I don't know that we'll be in this house long enough to justify that kind of cost for a mower.

[Edited on May 11, 2015 at 7:19 PM. Reason : gah damn]

5/11/2015 6:55:11 PM

would an all wheel drive mower not do the trick?

http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-150cc-ohv-briggs-strattongold-series-engine-22inch/p-07137088000P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3



[Edited on May 11, 2015 at 7:49 PM. Reason : http://homeguides.sfgate.com/mow-grade-45-55-degrees-54832.html]

5/11/2015 7:47:15 PM

AWD may *have* to do the trick.

Just looking at hover mowers has given me the idea that it would be the ideal solution. Sucks because I see they're pretty common (and much cheaper) in the UK, but most of them are electric and there'd be no point in getting one shipped.

It's not like it's a huge swath of my yard, it's literally one corner of a quarter acre, probably about 400-500 sq ft total of the whole yard. i was trying to do it as cheaply as possible

5/11/2015 8:00:16 PM

Hover mowers bring up some awful memories mowing edges around ponds on a golf course in my college summers.

5/11/2015 8:22:13 PM