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Lawn maintenance

GrouchoM

GrouchoM

The secret phrase is cigars! ! !
Joined
Mar 3, 2016
Messages
173
Hi all,

I just wanted to ask a yard maintenance question. I live in Houston, Tx and with the change of season, my grass is starting to grow slowly. I decided I wanted to put something down to help stimulate growth to have a healthier yard and provide some nutrients to the topsoil. My grass is green and I've seen little new growth, but there are a feel hard patches. I don't have a underground watering system, it's just me and a garden hose. Sorry, I didn't include pictures, but I didn't think it was necessary, since I only want to add some more actual care to the lawn soil itself (also having issues uploading any photos due to apparently using up my 50mb of allowed memory on the site).

I went to home depot but when I asked for fertilizer they directed me to the garden department and I found bags of mulch, garden soil, compost, hummus and manure, weed and feed, fill dirt and topsoil.

So, before you say google it. I'd rather ask here because Google doesn't provide years of trial and error (experience) on this topic. My goal is again to do more than the lawn mowing, trimming hedges, and watering. I'd like to actually attend to the grass and soil, but nothing that requires a lot of maintenance, but more than that's been done over the years. So, any suggestions on what to purchase to put down would be appreciated?

Also, if you have any additional lawn maintenance and landscaping tips I'd love to hear those. I'm a one man crew, so I need practical, simple and efficient ideas. I don't want to be that neighbor with brown grass with patches of dirt, ant mounds and weeds.

Also, never saw a bag at home depot that said just plain old "fertilizer". I'm just curious that they still make it and I just didn't see it.


Thanks in advance

-Groucho
 
Do you know what type of grass you have?

You can get pretty complex with lawn stuff. They love to sell you magic potions.

See if you have a local county or cooperative extension for gardening. They typically are very willing to help. Sometimes, they can be a little too "natural" or "purist" which can translate into a hell of a lot more work. Ask for options vice one solution.

Aerating the soil is always a win. Watering some creeping turfs is sometimes the magic bullet keeping the plant healthy, and choking out invasive species.
 
GrouchoM said:
I don't want to be that neighbor with brown grass with patches of dirt, ant mounds and weeds.
Click to expand...

That's just about every lawn here in California, due to water conservation requirements from the so called "drought".

Have you tried going to a garden specialty store? I've always gotten great advice on plants from those places, since that's all they do.
 
No idea on the grass type. I will ask my neighbors what they have. I'm in Texas and just want the basic on fertilizing the lawn, so as to assist it, not to kill it. The advance stuff will be welcomed down the road. But, I'm very interested in the "local county or cooperative extension for gardening" @MadMonk since I am considering planting a garden in the future. My buddy who got me started on cigars started one and has yields some nice produce (sadly he lives on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere).
 
I thought you were a college kid, do you own your house or live in rental property, or with your folks or something?
 
You more than likley have a St. Augustine lawn. Unless it's been overrun by Bermuda grass from being cut too short and drought conditions.

Randy Lemmon is THE MAN for southern lawns. Ace Hardware carries his recommended Nitro-Phos products.
http://www.randylemmon.com/lawns/fertilize.html
 
Without testing the soil, I wouldn't add lime or gypsum unless you know you have alkali or clay soil. One of the best things you can do for your soil is to aerate then spread a 1/4" to 1/2 of fine compost on top. The organic matter helps balance your soil and boosts the numbers of microorganisms within he soil. When you do that, it's also a great time to throw some seed down.

As Doc said, manure is good too, just make sure it's been properly composted first. Otherwise it can cause lots of problems and can be a health risk.

Quick release fertilizers like Scott's or Best work great, but they can cause a huge problems with disease/fungus if applied improperly. And they do not condition the soil whatsoever.
 
Puros Locos said:
Without testing the soil, I wouldn't add lime or gypsum unless you know you have alkali or clay soil. One of the best things you can do for your soil is to aerate then spread a 1/4" to 1/2 of fine compost on top. The organic matter helps balance your soil and boosts the numbers of microorganisms within he soil. When you do that, it's also a great time to throw some seed down.

As Doc said, manure is good too, just make sure it's been properly composted first. Otherwise it can cause lots of problems and can be a health risk.

Quick release fertilizers like Scott's or Best work great, but they can cause a huge problems with disease/fungus if applied improperly. And they do not condition the soil whatsoever.
Click to expand...

No doubt aeration and top dressed compost is phenomenal.

I need to do it in my yard, but I doubt I have the motivation to do it myself
 
golfgar said:
I thought you were a college kid, do you own your house or live in rental property, or with your folks or something?
Click to expand...
Its my mom's house. I moved back after her health declined.
 
Texas is a two-fertilizer climate (I'm down on the Corpus Christi bay). In the fall, as soon as it starts to cool, a winter "feeder" and as soon after Valentine's Day as it begins to warm a bit, a weed and feed. (Edit: landscapers swear by Scott's down here) Cut your grass every week when it's growing, every other when it's not, but not too short during the summer. St. Augustine will out-compete weeds if you give it half a chance.

~Boar
 
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