F...Cutting grass

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by cpayne5

Here's a man who knows how it's done. Good work on the two stroke. I've got one of the last two strokes Lawn Boy made. Gotta love 'em. The smoke keeps the bugs away.

I didnt have time to take a pic of mine, but its a Snapper with a Wisconsin Robin 2-Stoke. Its really sweet. Looks kinda like this:

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

I didnt have time to take a pic of mine, but its a Snapper with a Wisconsin Robin 2-Stoke. Its really sweet. Looks kinda like this:

This is what I have...


I found it on Craigslist and paid $60 for it a couple years back. Awesome deal.

Nice looking yard. As big as my yard is, I would go broke if I tried to make mine look like that.

[skinsguy]

As long as I don't have to push mow the entire yard, I don't mind mowing either. I love working out in the yard. I'm inside at a desk all freakin' week. It's nice to get out and get some fresh air.

[mlmpetert]

Here is some great info on weeds commonly found in grasses for those in the mid Alantic. And sorry i dont have a link, just have it saved in an old email.

Weeds Information

Bittercress

Bittercress has unique foliage that makes it is easy to identify among other containerweeds. The leaflets on the foliage have a club shape, evident here on even small seedlings. Leaves of bittercress seedlings are often simple, while leaves that develop later are generally compound.

Buttonweed

Virginia buttonweed is a prostrate-growing perennial with branching hairy stems. The leaves are elongated, lance-shaped and grow opposite one another on the stems and are joined by a membrane. Virginia buttonweed prefers moist, wet conditions. The tubular flowers of Virginia buttonweed are white to purplish, and grow in the leaf axis along the stem. Flowers resemble four-pointed stars. Virginia buttonweed spreads by seed and plant segments.

Chickweed

Common chickweed, a winter annual, is a low-growing, succulent weed that often spreads out in extensive mats. It may survive summer in shady, cool areas that offer sufficient moisture and occurs year-round along the California coast. Seed leaves have prominent midveins and are about four times as long as broad, tapering to a point at the tip. True leaves are broader, opposite, and yellow green. Chickweed mats may cover a large area. Stems are trailing, weak, and slender, with a line of hairs down the side. Mature leaves are ovate and opposite on the stem. Flowers are small but showy with five deeply cut white petals.

Clover

White clover is a perennial with trifoliate leaves, stems that root at the nodes, and white flowers. Leaves are composed of 3 leaflets (trifoliate). Each leaflet is egg-shaped, widest at the apex, 1/2 to 1 1/4 inches long, and has an indentation at the apex. Leaflets usually have a lighter green or white 'V-shaped' marking close to their base and a slightly toothed margin. Each trifoliate leaf occurs on a 1-3 inch petiole. Flowers occur on flower stalks (peduncles) that arise from the leaf axils. Each rounded flower head is round or globular in outline, approximately 1/2 to 1 1/4 inches long, and consists of 20-40 individual white flowers.

Dandelion

The dandelion has a thick tap root, dark brown, almost black on the outside though white and milky within. The long jagged leaves rise directly, radiating from it to form a rosette lying close upon the ground. The shining, purplish flower-stalks rise straight from the root, are leafless, smooth and hollow and bear single heads of flowers. Dandelion seeds are carried away by the wind and travel like tiny parachutes. A strong wind can carry the seeds miles away from the parent plant.

Henbit

Henbit is a winter annual with square stems and pink-purple flowers, reaching 16 inches in height. Its leaves are opposite, reaching 5 inches in length, circular to heart-shaped, with hairs on the upper leaf surfaces and along the veins of the lower surface. Leaf margins have rounded teeth. Stems root at the lower nodes, are square in cross section and are covered with downward-pointing hairs. Flowers are pink to purple in color and are fused into a tube approximately 2/3 inch long.

Lespedeza

Lespedeza is a prostrate, freely-branched summer annual with inconspicuous purplish flowers forming mats 15 to 18 inches in diameter. Found throughout the southeast. Lespedeza has a strong, firm taproot. Its leaves consist of 3 oblong leaflets (trifoliolate), 1/2 to 3/4 inch long and 1/3 to 1/2 as wide, obtuse at apex, narrowed at the base. The stems are also firm and woody.

Oxalis

A perennial with trifoliate leaves and yellow flowers. Its leaves are arranged alternately along the stem, long-petiolated, and divided into 3 heart-shaped leaflets. Leaf margins are smooth but fringed with hairs. The stems are green to pink, weak, branched at base. The flowers occur in clusters that arise from long stalks at the leaf axils. Individual flowers consist of 5 yellow petals. The roots are long, slender rhizomes occur with a fibrous root system.

[mlmpetert]

Plantain

Plantain is a perennial. It grows in a basal rosette with broad oval leaves. Its roots are fibrous with a strong taproot. Its leaves are smooth or slightly hairy, oval to elliptic, with a waxy surface and veins that are parallel to the margins. Margins are untoothed and sometimes wavy. Flowers produced on unbranched stalks (scapes) that arise from the rosette. Flowering stems are 5-15 inches long, clustered with small flowers that have whitish petals and bracts surrounding the flowers.

Speedwell

Speedwell is a winter annual that germinates in mid-fall. Speedwells have a short tap root to fibrous root systems and branching upright stems. The lower leaves are near round with toothed margins. The upper leaves are more pointed. The plant is covered with fine hairs. Corn Speedwell flowers are small and white to blue in color. The flowers are found in the leaf axis and the seed develops into a distinctive heart shape.

Spotted Spurge

Spotted spurge is a summer annual. While similar to prostate spurge, there are several subtle differences in the two varieties. Spotted spurge has a more erect growth habit than prostrate spurge. Its leaves are small and oblong shaped with an irregular red to purple spot in the center. The leaves that grow opposite on the stem. Spurge contains a milky sap in the stem. The flower of spotted spurge is small and green in color. It germinates in mid spring and flowers from June to September.

Wild Geranium

Wild geranium, also called Carolina geranium, is a semi-erect winter annual. The erect stems are branching and covered with hair. The alternate leaves are on long petioles and are divided into segmented leaflets which are blunt toothed. The flowers have 5 white to pink petals and form in clusters. The seed forms in a fruit capsule that forms a "storks bill".

Wild Onion - Wild Garlic

Wild onion and wild garlic are both winter perennials. The leaves are waxy, upright and needle shaped growing 8-12 inches long. The leaves of wild garlic are hollow and round and have a strong odor. The leaves of wild onion are solid and flat and appear directly from the bulb. Both plants grow from underground bulbs. The membrane-coated bulbs of wild garlic are flattened on one side and have bulblets. Wild onion bulbs are white inside with a strong odor and are covered with a fibrous, scaly coat. The white to light green flowers of wild garlic develop on short stems above aerial bulbs. Wild onion does not have a stem; white to pink flowers with six elliptical segments. Both wild onion and wild garlic spread by bulbs, seed and bulblets. Both plants flower from April through June.

Wild Violet

Wild violet is a winter perennial, growing 2 - 5 inches tall. It can have a tap root or a fibrous root system, and also can produce rooting stolons and rhizomes. The leaves can vary but usually are heart shaped, on long petioles with scalloped to shallow rounded margins. The flowers of wild violet range from white to blue to purple and appear from March to June. Wild violetflowers are pansy-like with three lower petals and two lateral petals on long single flower stalks.

[Hog1]

Damn Two stoke LB will last forever.......outlast the EPA

[mlmpetert]

As promised a pic of my front yard i took this morning.

As you can see my grass is far from perfect but the lower right corner is one of the worst spots (if not the worst). I also didnt have time to edge or anything else last night. Besides the edges there are very little weeds.

I do the bare minium in keeping it like this. I mow high (the higest or second highest) and i put down Preen. I also mow the nice parts first and shitty parts last. I dont water and i dont bag. It will dry up a little bit during the summer, but will come back very strong each time we get a few days of rain. Ill leave it a little too long during the winter but it ends up staying green throughout the season.

[mlmpetert]

Another tip is to only plant grass in the early Fall (late August to late September). Its a waste of time, money and effort to try and grow grass in the Spring. Sure it will take off initially, but if you live south of New York 85% of it is gonna die during the Summer. Also you should only put down fertalizer in the Fall or early Winter. Preen or any other pre-emergent in the Spring and Fall. Stay inside during the Summer.

Having a fescue lawn without a sprinkler system south of NY doesnt have to be hard as shit.

I will also add that at this point last year everyone seemed to have nicer looking grass in the Richmond area (my shit was defintely nicer). I dont know whats going on this year but weeds seem a whole lot worse.

[firstdown]

What weeds? Looks Great!!!!!!!!!!! Nice looking house an yard and I can tell you take pride in your home.

[Monkeydad]

What's going on with those wheels? Looks cool.


Gassed up the mower last night, started right up after winter vacation...always nice. Then, I let my wife mow for the first time this year. Yard looks great.

Taking your advice, mlmpetert...and raised the deck height a little to "mow high". Your grass looks incredible.

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted by Monkeydad

What's going on with those wheels? Looks cool.


Gassed up the mower last night, started right up after winter vacation...always nice. Then, I let my wife mow for the first time this year. Yard looks great.

Taking your advice, mlmpetert...and raised the deck height a little to "mow high". Your grass looks incredible.

Lawn Boys have traditionally had staggered wheels. It's just their thing. Allows you to get into corners and also keeps the center of the deck from scalping the turf.

[firstdown]

Where I'm living now (rental) the yard is nothing but weeds and it drives me nuts. I'm moving in three weeks so I'll just have to cut weeds for a few more times.

[mlmpetert]

Thank you guys very much. I thought people were going to be critical. Like everyone, I like things that look well maintained and neat, but what I really pride myself on is simplicity and ease. Ive read a lot and talked to a couple people about nice grass. Having perfect grass in the mid-alantic is expensive as shit or a tireless effort. Having grass that regularly looks really good; although, is very possible. Since ive gotten complements Ill share what ive done to get my grass looking like this.

When I first moved in I had very average grass. Just like everyone else’s lawn, I had an average amount of weeds that would come and go, or come and stay. In early summer of 2010, on the advice of a retired grass cutter that I sold my broken mower to, I stated mowing high. Since then ive read a lot of stuff and have talked to a couple other people. Heres what I do and what can be done by anyone to have nicer grass. Ill start it off based off of the season we are in right now. Also this is for fescue or cool seasons grasses only.

Now:
Figure out what type of grass you mostly have (fescue, bermuda (warm season), or blue grass (if you have blue grass your lawn probably already looks amazing, stop reading here).
Cut on the highest or second highest setting you have
Look, youre not gonna have to cut that much more, youre really not, I promise. Its just gonna be hard if you end up missing a cut because you wont be able to go any higher.
Put down a granule (bag and spreader) weed control/killer that also has a pre-emergent/weed preventer/crab grass/grassy weed preventer in it. You really just want the weed stuff not the weed and feed (fertilizer), but if you can’t find it, weed and feed is better than nothing.

Summer:
Mow even higher if youre not already mowing at the highest for some reason. Try and cut only before it rains or when you absolutely have to.

Fall:
Keep cutting high
By October you should get a sense as to how bad your grass really is or if its worth trying to keep nice, if it needs a complete renovation, or if you just really don’t care
If it turns out you have something worth working with put down some weed and feed between September up until mid-November.

Winter:
Stay warm

Next year:
As soon as you start seeing these daffodils poking up through the ground (late January to early February in Richmond); It’s the most important time of the year.
Get off the couch, put on a sweatshirt and lay down some pre-emergent asap!!!!
If you have some weed and feed left over go ahead if you really want to, but just know youre going to have to cut more.
Put down some more pre-emergent about 2-4 months later once everything is blooming (like right now)
Be careful with your second application of pre-emergent, as you really don’t want to use a fertilizer here. Giving your grass fertilizer before Summer can burn it out if you don’t get enough rain.
Your lawn should probably look 10x better than it did this time last year (today….)
Keep mowing high and it will look even better come Fall

Going forward:
2 doses of pre emergent (1 in the winter/spring, the other in mid to late spring)
Weed and feed in the fall (September to mid-November)
Cut high

Notes:
Pre-emergents are often only called “crab grass preventer”. I always get the cheapest one or Preen because I like Preen's other stuff.
I only mulch, I don’t bag. Mulching is supposed to give you pretty much all the fertilizer you need, and why Im resistant to use the weed and “feed” stuff.
Ive never watered. There are gonna be times during the summer you think you just wasted any extra time, money and effort your put into your yard. Don’t worry it will come back even stronger.
I try and cut the good spots first. You don’t want to be spreading weeds from the front to back or vice versa.
I don’t think ive ever mixed the weed and feed, pre emergent or anything else correctly before. All it takes is one mosquito bite and you too will say f’it to trying to guess the sq footage of your lawn, what the dial numbers on your spreader mean, and how youre supposed to calculate the spread. I think I end up staying conservative most of the time and putting less down than the instructions indicate though. I adjust over bad/good parts too, or when I feel like it. Im purely guessing on the application a lot of times. The most important thing is that you get it down at the CORRECT time (or at least Im guess that’s what matters the most…..).


Extras:
Last fall I actually over-seeded my lawn as I wanted to introduce some different fescues and hybrid bluegrasses into the yard to have better summer drought hardiness and to help it choke out weeds. But I promise, my grass looks worse because of it right now (there are a lot of things you do to grass that make it look worse before it looks better, or so im told…..). And if I could go back in time I wouldn’t have over-seeded, as I think it was overkill and went against my theme of simplicity and ease. If anyone has any questions about over-seeding and any leasons I leaned Id be happy to answer.

Double Bonus:
Articles to get you excited about grass:
SULIS - Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series: U of MN.
Inventor cultivates no-mow, easy-grow grass | Fox News
New blend of tall fescue and hybrid bluegrass gets good research report from Virginia Tech - dailypress.com
Preen Lawn Weed Control Plus Crabgrass Preventer | Preen.com

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

Thank you guys very much. I thought people were going to be critical. Like everyone, I like things that look well maintained and neat, but what I really pride myself on is simplicity and ease. Ive read a lot and talked to a couple people about nice grass. Having perfect grass in the mid-alantic is expensive as shit or a tireless effort. Having grass that regularly looks really good; although, is very possible. Since ive gotten complements Ill share what ive done to get my grass looking like this.

When I first moved in I had very average grass. Just like everyone else’s lawn, I had an average amount of weeds that would come and go, or come and stay. In early summer of 2010, on the advice of a retired grass cutter that I sold my broken mower to, I stated mowing high. Since then ive read a lot of stuff and have talked to a couple other people. Heres what I do and what can be done by anyone to have nicer grass. Ill start it off based off of the season we are in right now. Also this is for fescue or cool seasons grasses only.

Now:
Figure out what type of grass you mostly have (fescue, bermuda (warm season), or blue grass (if you have blue grass your lawn probably already looks amazing, stop reading here).
Cut on the highest or second highest setting you have
Look, youre not gonna have to cut that much more, youre really not, I promise. Its just gonna be hard if you end up missing a cut because you wont be able to go any higher.
Put down a granule (bag and spreader) weed control/killer that also has a pre-emergent/weed preventer/crab grass/grassy weed preventer in it. You really just want the weed stuff not the weed and feed (fertilizer), but if you can’t find it, weed and feed is better than nothing.

Summer:
Mow even higher if youre not already mowing at the highest for some reason. Try and cut only before it rains or when you absolutely have to.

Fall:
Keep cutting high
By October you should get a sense as to how bad your grass really is or if its worth trying to keep nice, if it needs a complete renovation, or if you just really don’t care
If it turns out you have something worth working with put down some weed and feed between September up until mid-November.

Winter:
Stay warm

Next year:
As soon as you start seeing these daffodils poking up through the ground (late January to early February in Richmond); It’s the most important time of the year.
Get off the couch, put on a sweatshirt and lay down some pre-emergent asap!!!!
If you have some weed and feed left over go ahead if you really want to, but just know youre going to have to cut more.
Put down some more pre-emergent about 2-4 months later once everything is blooming (like right now)
Be careful with your second application of pre-emergent, as you really don’t want to use a fertilizer here. Giving your grass fertilizer before Summer can burn it out if you don’t get enough rain.
Your lawn should probably look 10x better than it did this time last year (today….)
Keep mowing high and it will look even better come Fall

Going forward:
2 doses of pre emergent (1 in the winter/spring, the other in mid to late spring)
Weed and feed in the fall (September to mid-November)
Cut high

Notes:
Pre-emergents are often only called “crab grass preventer”. I always get the cheapest one or Preen because I like Preen's other stuff.
I only mulch, I don’t bag. Mulching is supposed to give you pretty much all the fertilizer you need, and why Im resistant to use the weed and “feed” stuff.
Ive never watered. There are gonna be times during the summer you think you just wasted any extra time, money and effort your put into your yard. Don’t worry it will come back even stronger.
I try and cut the good spots first. You don’t want to be spreading weeds from the front to back or vice versa.
I don’t think ive ever mixed the weed and feed, pre emergent or anything else correctly before. All it takes is one mosquito bite and you too will say f’it to trying to guess the sq footage of your lawn, what the dial numbers on your spreader mean, and how youre supposed to calculate the spread. I think I end up staying conservative most of the time and putting less down than the instructions indicate though. I adjust over bad/good parts too, or when I feel like it. Im purely guessing on the application a lot of times. The most important thing is that you get it down at the CORRECT time (or at least Im guess that’s what matters the most…..).


Extras:
Last fall I actually over-seeded my lawn as I wanted to introduce some different fescues and hybrid bluegrasses into the yard to have better summer drought hardiness and to help it choke out weeds. But I promise, my grass looks worse because of it right now (there are a lot of things you do to grass that make it look worse before it looks better, or so im told…..). And if I could go back in time I wouldn’t have over-seeded, as I think it was overkill and went against my theme of simplicity and ease. If anyone has any questions about over-seeding and any leasons I leaned Id be happy to answer.

Double Bonus:
Articles to get you excited about grass:
SULIS - Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series: U of MN.
Inventor cultivates no-mow, easy-grow grass | Fox News
New blend of tall fescue and hybrid bluegrass gets good research report from Virginia Tech - dailypress.com
Preen Lawn Weed Control Plus Crabgrass Preventer | Preen.com

So I have been following this to the T.

What does everyone think of my yard so far?

https://twitter.com/SuperSkin1/statu...206978/photo/1

[RedskinRat]

Originally Posted by mredskins

So I have been following this to the T.

What does everyone think of my yard so far?

https://twitter.com/SuperSkin1/statu...206978/photo/1

Too subtle.