DIY lawn care tips from the average homeowner for the average homeowner looking to fix an ugly lawn or maintain a nice one. Whether you're a beginner or experienced, you'll learn ways to have the best yard on the block without spending a lot of money.
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I'm a husband and dad who loves his family and his lawn. Gotta care for and manage a budget for both.
I've always defaulted to the mow, edge, then blow method. But just looking at how amazing your lawn looks, I might have to try your technique! Thank you once again for another helpful video!
OK, so I have a question I’m on my yard every other day looks really good. You can imagine a flat top haircut perfectly flat and then all of a sudden you have a looks like a runner or something that’ll pop up and you can easily pull it out. It’s over it’s not flat. Do you know what that’s from? I have Bermuda.
Hmm. Hard to say. Could be anything. Maybe a bird or something pulled some up. I have little things like that happen from time to time. Don’t know why. Thanks for watching.
Yes, I have since planted 38 plants in a portion of this mulch and haven't changed my process. I do pick most weeds to begin with, but will use a herbicide on the most stubborn. I just make sure to be careful around plants and make sure I don't get overspray on them. Thanks for watching.
If the lawn isn't too long, I mow first then weed wack then edge then blow. I edge last before blowing because I cut the lawn 3 times in three different directions so I'm running over the edge a lot and flatting it down. I like the crispest edges.
For whatever reason, they don't sell the Orange top Spectracide where i am located which has the quinclorac. But they do sell the BioAdvanced with quinclorac - not really sure why. I have a ton of yellow nutsedge, so i may have to do a 1-2 punch with the yellow top Spectracide and the BioAdvanced. Love your channel!
@@BudgetLawns that's what I thought too, but then I can easily find BioAdvanced and it has quinclorac, so I'm not sure the reasoning. Oh well, I will make due with what I've got!
If you have a smaller lawn then, yes, the Spectracide with the orange top is definitely the way to go. I usually keep a bottle of the concentrate and keep a gallon mixed up in a 1 gallon pump sprayer. I'll walk the lawn every couple of weeks and spot spray. I have used the premixed sprayer bottle before, but I found that I prefer the hand pump sprayer better. I have found that the Spectracide will handle the vast majority of the weeds I get in my Bermuda grass in Georgia. I will occasionally add in some Image Kills Nutsedge in the Spring if I start seeing some Poa. But, as you say, pre-emergent is the key to preventing weeds before they appear. Because the Spectracide has 4 active ingredients, I don't really have to worry about identifying every single weed. It will take care of pretty much everything I see (except Poa and Dallis Grass). The Spectracide isn't super concentrated (5 oz per gallon of water), but it is pretty cheap ($10/40 oz). I'll add in a splash of surfactant and maybe a bit of blue dye and I'm good to go. There are plenty of super concentrated, and much more expensive, products out there, but I don't go through even 1 bottle of Spectracide per year. So why would I buy something that's $100 and makes 100 gallons? I'd never use it all!
Appreciate the honesty - i have a very small front yard and a powered reel mower might not be the. I’ll stick to my Franken-Fiskars battery electric reel mower for now
Lol, I just checked your page early Sunday morning to see when the last time you posted. I used to own a lake house and we’d go up on weekends- moles drove me crazy they’d have several tunnels and I’d try smoothing them out - it took for ever… had them at our present house but they disappeared thank goodness - hope you and your family are well!
Perfect timing! They can certainly be a pain in the you know what. We are doing great. Thank you. Hope the same for you and yours! Appreciate ya as always!
thanks for the video Travis. You brought up some good points. I’ve tried trapping before with no luck but think I’m going to give it a shot again. Certainly aggravating especially when they are in the lawn. Like you said I’m not much on insecticide for grubs. Especially when their main diet is earth worms not white grubs.
You bet. Hope this helps. I'd definitely give it another shot. You got this! 👊 And you're right about the grubs. That's a common misconception. They really like the earthworms, so grubs are only part of the equation. Appreciate you!
What are the downsides of having moles in your yard or garden beds? Same with armadillos and other critters? My house backs up into a green belt. I’ve seen scat in my yard that I know isn’t my dogs. But I don’t see much impact or damage from whatever’s visiting. 🤷🏻♂️
If there's no damage, I wouldn't worry about it. Moles will leave raised tunnels that can damage turf or mulch making it bumpy and a potential trip hazard. Armadillos will dig holes everywhere...not fun. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching.
Thanks man! I guess I should have called that one a juniper bed 😆😆. There are some nepetas up on the hill. Bees and butterflies a plenty. I’ll get more in there at some point. Saving up some money 💰 after putting those 38 in the ground. Had to get some erosion control with those in first.
@@BudgetLawns Your landscaping is beautiful! It looks like it has all come together at this point. I’m a flower person. I can never have enough flowers for the garden. Annual flowers are my favorite. I get color all summer long. It’s a lot of work though planting every year but the results speak for themselves.
I'm a few years ahead of you and just want to give you a heads up... It's going to be something until we draw our last breath. Press on in the good work sir 👍
Perfect timing. Saw evident of a mole in my yard last week for the first time. I immediately set up a spike trap and got one. Have had it set up since with no success. Hoping it was just the one. Have significant damage to my fescue lawn in 2 areas about 40 yards apart. Runs are now yellow thru the lawn
Nice! Yeah, I’d bet that was the only one. For now at least. I always take my trap out once I get one then wait to see if new runs appear. Appreciate ya watching and sharing!
Gentlemen witness the final stage of lawn care neglect syndrome- acceptance that your lawn sucks and that we’re the bad guys for wanting to take care of it
I just fertilized my lawn for the first time in about 10 years, today. My first time myself at all, had true green the first couple of years of my married life and mowing myself, due to my work schedule, and due to some helth issues with my wife and then a child coming along and that child having some medical issues, we had been using we decided to forgo true green and hire a lawn guy to mow and edge, over the years weve gone through 4 different lawn guys, each getting worse with quality and ability to show up when scheduled, decided to go back to doing it myself mid way through this summer, got a great deal on an HRX217KVA and some Milwaukee OPE and now that I am doing that and seeing the neglected state od my lawn, I am going down the rabbit hole, thankfully your channel is a sane voice
Sorry to hear about your struggles. Good luck taking care of the lawn. I hope you enjoy it. Glad you’re finding help here on the channel. Thanks for watching.
My ten year old Craftsman mower has taller wheels on the rear. I've been setting the notches to the same settings on both rear and front. The deck was always pitched forward. Rears were about half an inch higher. Grass would always get kicked out by the rear right wheel, leaving a trail of grass. I've always wondered if something wasn't right. After seeing this video, I set the fronts higher so the deck is more level. I can't wait to see if this solves my problem. Thanks!
He is right, commitment. I love my reel mower. So far, so good. I just gotta' get up early when the sun comes up to mow otherwise when it's hot outside, I won''t do it because the wokr-out is too much for hot hot weather.
I will follow your advice on leaving the crabbgrass alone. I started to "take care" of my lawn 2 months ago and made the rookie mistake of over watering now I have crabbgrass on my bed. Will wait it September and pre emergent. Thanks
His slopes also dont have anything in the way like yours does. I too HATE mowing my slope in my front yard. I finally gave in and did a robot mower in the backyard. I just weedeat the edges and call it done. You might look into that for the backyard? I have the orion x7 and it seems to do a fantastic job so far at 1.2" on my emerald zoysia. You have some really difficult issues with those walls though.
I don’t use any weed killer in the first year. Most annual grasses like that need non selective herbicides that are not safe on turf grass. Pre emergent will help prevent it.
