Sprinkler turn on

[stenz]

Good advice John. I give it ago early to mid may.

[gnihcraes]

already need to mow over here. Stupid grass.

I wait until mid May, or if it keeps raining, wait until the grass looks like it needs the water. It was late june last year when I decided it was time. Then had to shut it all down in 2 months.

[TEAMRICO]

I started mine last weekend.
Grass is starting to get greener already. My lawn rival got head start on me. Game on!

[Jer]

Mine has been on for over a month. I've mowed three times already and fed twice.

Here's my lawn on this day last year (I didn't take another photo this year but it looks about the same right now) when I took a photo to post to Facebook with the line: "Attention neighbors: it's April & you already lost Lawn Wars 2015. Better luck in 2016"

The front with my neighbor's postage stamp for comparison purpose:



The back but harder to see the neighbor's back yard for comparison:



...they didn't fare much better this year either.

[Dave_L]

Ive been very tempted to fire them up. I finally have a house that has sprinklers front and back and everything on a drip. I want to have a lush green lawn all summer for once.

[Jer]

You really don't even need to do blowouts in Colorado (even though I used to do blowouts as a side gig years ago). It doesn't freeze deep enough to burst lines (if they're buried deep enough which isn't all that deep in Colorado) and only occasionally will you have to replace a cracked head and that's like a $5 fix & a 2min process in most instances. I keep an eye on the upcoming weather and if it's going to get below freezing I turn off the sprinkler supply valve in the basement, open up the little drain valve and then open the check balls on the backflow siphon and let the water drain from it. Worse case scenario you break a vaccum breaker and the parts are about $30 at Home Depot w/o any coupons and you can change them out in about 5min time. Other than that, I don't do blowouts or turn ons because mine are basically on year round. It gets VERY dry in Colorado in the winter and it's wise to give your yard a good drink a few times in the winter too when we get those long periods of dry, windy weather to keep things happy.

[Guylee]

My neighbors' yards are green year round.

Same with my parents' and their grass has been dead for years! Amazing what some green paint can do!

[Irving]

My neighbor's lawn looks like Jer's, even in December. He puts a lot of iron in the lawn, but that's all I really know.

[Jer]

My neighbor's lawn looks like Jer's, even in December. He puts a lot of iron in the lawn, but that's all I really know.

Yeah, Iron is the key. Don't waste your money on high-dollar Scott's and other brands that are high in nitrogen have lots of filler labeled 'weed control' but don't offer enough of what our Colorado soil needs: iron.

I get Green-N-Grow at our local Co-op off of Mulberry & I25. It's only $20 a bag and lasts me quite a long time. It's higher in iron so you want to sweep your walks, drives and patios after application or you'll get rust spots but other than that I love this stuff. Costs a fraction of what the big name brands do at the big box stores plus I use less because it works better. The closer you are to the mountains the more iron your lawn likely needs. When you get proper feeding you'll use less water too. Careful with this stuff though, if you get it on too heavy you'll have to mow every 2-3 days so I suggest a light application and then a week or two later another light one until you get the dosage right.

If you're lawn is healthy enough weed control will be a none issue because the healthy grass will choke out the weeds naturally. I spot treat dandelions (having neighbors upwind who don't care about their lawn sucks) with Weed-B-Gone and weeds in rock beds either get Round-Up or pulled by hand. I end up spraying probably one dandelion per week at most on average. Get your lawn healthy and you won't have to deal with weeds. Crab grass is the most challenging thing I face along the front sidewalk edge because of neighbors upwind and uphill coupled with the fact that that sidewalk is south-facing so that section of soil dries out quicker than the rest making it difficult to keep as healthy as the rest of my yard.

When it comes to lawns, I don't mess around.

[Jer]

Here's the stuff I use with the analysis which has the iron at 5% when I think most are like 0.01-0.25% or so.



If you're really into it you can get a soil analysis done and find out exactly what you need and then add that in the way of fertilizer but if you live in Colorado I can almost guarantee your soil is iron deficient. The closer to the mountains you are the worse it is. I miss the rich, black, loamy soil I had in Nebraska where my fertilizer needs for a lawn were next to nothing. Here you can water 45min per day thinking your lawn is dry & still now get a green lawn when it likely just needs a little bit of iron to perk things up.