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Looking for someone who can:
1.) Visually inspect and diagnose yard issues
2.) Take soil samples and analyze if needed
3.) Recommend appropriate lawn care products
4.) Recommend a yearround maintenance routine
I am not looking for TruGreen or Johnny-out-of-work who wants to mow grass for $. I am located near Chatfield Reservoir.
Any product from Richlawn will be good for your yard. Colorado soil is mostly clay. You need ammonia to break it down (cow manure) sold in bags at home depot for less than 2 bucks. You can put it on up to 1 inch thick. It will take several years of work to get a nice lawn. I put the ironite down once a month even through the winter.
Ace guy also turned me on to "Colorados Own" fertilizer. More irons and phosphates and what not. Lawn looks much better when I remember to fertilize.
Both of the above.
Any dead spots/splotches may be grubs. Milky Spore will take care of that.
A little more info. CO's Own has a year round plan. Look at the second number (of the three). It's Phosphorous. That's for deep healthy roots. National brands will have a "0" (thanks CA). Start with the Lawn Food. If there are weeds, apply the Weed And Feed when the weeds sprout. There is a winterizing application also.
The advice given did not fall on deaf ears. I also picked up many bags of Earthgro Steer Manure Blend. Thanks. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...dff94ba355.jpg
Thanks for all the specifics everyone, I'm going to go copy Kidicarus right now.
My lawn this year is looking a lot better this year after being pretty beetle average. I still have some spots I'm seeing how reseed ing went.
But for the rest the big changes I made were no more letting the trimmings stay thinking they would refertilize. Always bag. I got a thatch rake (get something powered, omg my back), and did 4-5 passes. You'd be shocked how much one pulls up. I've now laid a bag of weed feed that I'm unsure how well it's working. But after 2 weeks of picking dandelions on sight, I hadn't seen any in a while. I've also done a bag of richlawn and several bags of topsoil in some of the areas that seemed to be more clay or thin before hitting roots.
It's not show condition but it's a richer even green. Will see how it plays thru high summer.
I usually go with cheaper route.
I used revive and working out okay, except some area that I accidentally had laundry detergent spilled.
I bought about 28 of 1 Gallon liquid revive for $7 each and did some retail arbritrage 20 of it. Gave away 5 as a gift to friends.
I kept 3.
Currently running about $41.99 at walmart now.
My advice is buy all clearance during winter. This will make yard/lawn budget easily under $100/yr
Soil in Colorado is bad. The cowmanure will break down the clay and the grass clippings. It will take some time but you can have a nice yard.
Organic material like compost is always good for enhancing the soil in CO. I've had really good luck with this stuff: Permagreen Mushroom Compost Blend
Top dressing the grass works really well. Trees love the stuff.
Do you guys recommend going with sod or seed?
I've tried seed two or three times in my back yard and it's never taken, but I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to trying to have a decent yard.
I did put some sod down in the front yard where I took out a concrete sidewalk, and that seems to be doing ok.
If I'm starting from basically nothing, what's that process look like? Till up the soil, put down fertilizer and ironite, then sod on top?
What about long term care? What do you do once a week/month/etc?
Sod. Much quicker to the end result and just easier IMO, particularly with how dry it is here.
Make sure you have a good sprinkler setup, including a good timer with settings to accomodate new seed/sod (love my Rachio 3 smart timer BTW).
Prep is extremely important:
http://youtu.be/l27MOjVr42I
I use Fiske Brothers Yardworks for the aeration and fertilization schedule. They let me know when it's time so I don't have to worry about it. I just water it and mow it.
Sod is much easier than seed.
Seed works great when cooler (mar- may, oct) and rainy season.
A plug for Richlawn Turf Food and Premium Lawn Seed. My results:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0ec440c0dd.jpg
That looks nice.
Looks good.[emoji106]