Lawn freaks

No one has talked about aerating. For lawns, at least here in the NE, the soils gets compacted. I always wondered why guys aren't doing that with T&M plots like in a lawn? Aerating just pokes some holes in the soil which gives the roots a place to go along with letting the water and other nutrients get down to the roots.
I aerate my plots every year with cereal grains and or brassica.
 
No one has talked about aerating. For lawns, at least here in the NE, the soils gets compacted. I always wondered why guys aren't doing that with T&M plots like in a lawn? Aerating just pokes some holes in the soil which gives the roots a place to go along with letting the water and other nutrients get down to the roots.

Yes, and if you get one of those "plugging machines" from a rental company ... you gonna get 2 weeks of cardio exercise from doing the front yard! :emoji_relaxed:
Reminds me of trying to run on concrete in baseball spikes!
 
Creeping Charlie is becoming enemy #1. I hate that stuff. I wish my chickens would eat it. I can kill all the other broadleafs but that one seems to keeep rearing its ugly head. Heck I wish the deer would eat it. Speaking of deer in the yard, I'm thinking about doing a 1/2 acre plot of hostas.:emoji_scream:
 
peaking of deer in the yard, I'm thinking about doing a 1/2 acre plot of hostas.:emoji_scream:

They'd never make it. The hostas
 
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The best 4-5 weeks of my lawn is when the late July to early August drought sets in and everything dies .... :emoji_wink:
 
Speaking of hostas - and please don't laugh at this - there is a giant hosta called Empress Wu (claimed to be worlds largest) that I want to plant and cage for the summer; then, in late september, remove the cage and let the deer feast on it (hostas die back and have to be cut off at ground level). I'd put a small 8-10-inch high cage around the base of the plant so deer couldn't dig the roots out. Under present circumstances, if you prefer to avoid plants with oriental-sounding names, a second option is Big Daddy hosta (suggested 2'+ high and up to 4'+ wide (about half of Ms Wu).1589508956119.png
1589508352910.png world's largest hosta .... 4-5' tall and 6-8' wide (claims made by seller)
These are shade loving plants that also love water.
 

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I have rushes in my lawn. They are extremely hard to manage. Dandelions and most other things get zapped with 2,4-D in June, but the rushes persist until you dig them out. I don't go after the clover because the chickens eat it. For amendments, I use crushed egg shells, urine, powdered charcoal, and water from boiling rusty nails. Then I use normal fertilizer on the parts that still need it. Aeration is important here, but I can't find a reasonable way to do it regularly.
 
Many many many years ago I made a aeration tool. It was a coring spike welded to a metal shaft. I would walk around the yard and poke holes in it for a few minutes a day and get the yard done in a week or two. It was therapeutic. The second year I did it I had a huge crop of weeds pop up afterwards... that was my first lesson in soil disturbance! It was one of the early lessons that swayed me towards Throw-n-Mow only in my plots.
 
I have rushes in my lawn. They are extremely hard to manage. Dandelions and most other things get zapped with 2,4-D in June, but the rushes persist until you dig them out. I don't go after the clover because the chickens eat it. For amendments, I use crushed egg shells, urine, powdered charcoal, and water from boiling rusty nails. Then I use normal fertilizer on the parts that still need it. Aeration is important here, but I can't find a reasonable way to do it regularly.
You have chickens but use chemicals and fertilizer? We have free range chickens and we eat a lot of eggs so I don’t spray or fertilize. You can tell. I was actually thinking of adding clover to my lawn.
 
I was just thinking about the correlation between food plots and grass yesterday as I was top dressing/leveling my yard. Had a load 8 yards of dirt delivered to raise up an area that had sunk over the years around a retaining wall. Got that done, and had more left over than intended. Now filling in every un even area across my 3/4 acre of grass one wheel barrow at at time. Already de-thatched, next step aeration and over-seeding and fertilizing!
 

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I'm the neighbor that lawn freaks hate: the guy with a dandelion refuge that mows when he gets around to it. I'm in a little development surrounded by retirees. They all use the same lawn chemical service. The one neighbor mows 2-3 times for every time I mow. In addition to dandelions, I got lots of creeping charlie, plantain and nutsedge in the back yard along with everything else I don't recognize. The front lawn has a big thick patch of grass that stays brown until mid summer and then greens up in the summer when the neighbor's turn brown. I had planned to hire someone to mow the lawn this year but since I'll be working from home for at least the next 18 months, lawn mowing will be some needed exercise. If the lawn starts looking real nice, it means I'm getting ready to sell.
 
Yes, I love my Creeping Charlie lawn. It brings me great satisfaction.
 
Lawn???? If I killed the "weeds" I wouldn't have a lawn! Best my lawn ever looked was when we pumped out the septic....Eeeeeewwww! I live out in the country on a dead end road....so nobody sees it anyway! I also prefer to use gly vs running a line trimmer.....wife hates it.

I care so little about my lawn that in the fall when I am busy hunting that I mow it with a bush-hog.....the wife hates that too!
 
What, no yard pics? I figured this thread would be full of beuatiful yards.

Okay, okay....here is a picture of my beautiful yard......

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You have chickens but use chemicals and fertilizer? We have free range chickens and we eat a lot of eggs so I don’t spray or fertilize. You can tell. I was actually thinking of adding clover to my lawn.

I only have two chickens, and I got them recently. I don't get any eggs from them yet, and they only have access to the lawn when I let them. The lawn is actually for the dog, and the orchard is for the chickens, but they are sharing for the time being.
 
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I only have two chickens, and I got them recently. I don't get any eggs from them yet, and they only have access to the lawn when I let them. The lawn is actually for the dog, and the orchard is for the chickens, but they are sharing for the time being.
I wasn’t judging just curious. I would love to take better care of the lawn but we have a dozen chickens that spend all day in the lawn. Maybe something organic or a combination of grass and clover.
 
They love clover, and so do the bumble bees.
 
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