How to Fix a Patchy, Weedy Lawn | This Old House 

😂😂

And got the woman working her butt off, bet she wasn’t expecting all that either lol

I bet she was expecting some handymen to show up, rip up her lawn, level it, and roll out brand new sod. She ends up with a lawn covered in dirt and seed. XD Sorry. Khaaam-powsst.

(Roger I said no golf course) Take it up again Roger...😳😂😂😂

@@forevergogo it's cheaper than sod and there's less to go wrong. I've done some lawn renovations like that but more lawns don't require the dethatching part

Or sooo bad that they clipped that part :)

😂😂😂

Old comment, but you should look up the one where he trims the ladie's hedge bushes, and her look of disappointment when he is done. She does not believe him that it will grow beautiful. A few months later she sends him a follow up picture of how amazing it looks. Too funny.

@@parvez2103 They probably thatched it

lol!

Perfect comment! Gonna say all this stuff is super expensive

Fertilizer is basically salts. So, I’m sure she’d appreciate it.

This was deep 😅

😂

It all started from an argument over his name pronunciation... "It's Rojah!!"

Yea especially down by the waak.

best comment thus far

Can't forget the scripted questions

Melon Seed lmao

W. J. Lmfao

Yes there is definitely a script! Lolololol

Hilarious!

Too funny Knight Knight is funny 😁

Who the frick are Roger and Mary?

Any writing assignment by any kid ever

I agree

Ben Davies Would seeing someone elses lawn make you that excited? Grass is not that exciting.

***** grass is very exciting to see after having a bald headed lawn. Don't shoot I have no knowledge on growing a lawn. I'm from a city where everyone walks on the grass. Are bear traps legal?

Well it just kind of kills the point of the video if we can't see the outcome. I actually fix the patches in my yard with seeding and spreading fertilizer. My grass is now thicker and fuller.

I Challenge You can hunt bear.

Legend says they're still waiting for the grass to grow...

@@Tubeytime It'll be done after the Paint dry's. Keep watching. Let me know how that goes you need 3 coats of paint and sand between coats, I actully did that once OMG that room walls are like butter, the wall surface is like glass smooth.

shes hot

As a gardener, I can tell you that her lawn will look great with enough watering, depends on where you live, you may want to adjust the length of your grass as well.

@The Horny Vegan's Little Brother well she didn't want a golf course

Passed by your house the other day. Looking great!

Thanks I’m going to try on my lawn too

How did you get access to all of this machinery? Did you purchase it? Or did you hire someone to do it?

@@MrsSanctified84home improvement stores rent them out.

I actually started looking for real comments about doing it. 😂 I was getting a little worried I was just going to spend a ton of money and end up with 💩.

@Becky Simpson - Did it work? If so is it beautiful and how long did it take before you saw results?

Typical 'pnw ener' Boooo

Yeah

+Tou Xiong they got married.

+Softyet Hard LOL

+Tou Xiong I'm thinking that all was not well with this lawn at a later date. If it had been picture perfect then clip #2 would have been right behind clip #1. 18 Months later and no follow up clip. Draw your own conclusions old boy.

I agree with English-Ash. The problem is that growing lawn without herbicide is not a do and forget project. She would have had to be out their for a few hours daily pulling weeds that came through the soil. Very few people have that type of patients. Therefore more than not it fails.

lol that is hilarious!

😂

I'd bet he's a Patriot's fan! New England resident for sure.

Lol

"What's going on down by the wok?"

What cracks me up is people seem to think that Roger is a lawn pro....so many issues with this video and his misinformation. I got the impression he was following a script more than he actually knew what he was doing.

@@troy5292what we’re the biggest mistakes

@@singerpour6946 Most of this is covered in my response a couple down from here from 3 years ago. It starts with "Raking the lawn..." If you're going to plant cool season grass, you may want to look into Barenbrug's RPR or Regenerating Perennial Ryegrass. Rye has always been a single seed equals a single plant, but Barenbrug (and a few others) have been able to get Ryegrass to spread laterally. Kentucky Bluegrass is probably the most desired cool season grass because of how if looks and spreads laterally. I did a 600 sq. ft. test bed of the cheapest Ryegrass I could find on Amazon and mixed in Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass (KBG) and it filled in fast. My soil test in my backyard where I did this was horrible. Potassium was really low which helps grass stay healthy, and the pH was extremely low, about 5.3, and it should be 6 to 6.8, which means the grass cannot easily take up the nutrients that are in the soil. Even handicapped like that, it filled in great. The first shoots of grass from the Rye appeared at 50 hours after I applied water, and 30 hours later 90% or more of the test bed was covered in new Rye shoots that were a couple inches high. I was mowing at 2 weeks. KBG takes longer to germinate (most grasses do), but I started seeing shoots of grass at about 8-10 days. The KBG established fairly well last year, but it is filled in thick now. Midnight KBG was the darkest KBG out there at the time I bought the seed several years ago, but now they have "After Midnight" KBG which is a little darker and withstands turf diseases better. It's a dwarf grass, but you'd have to talk to the grower to get more info. I'm better at Zoysia than cool season grasses. I think the grower is Outside Pride. If you live further south, Zoysia is typically the best grass. I've seen so many professional lawn care professionals in the south say they have Zoysia themselves, or they wish they had the conditions to grow Zoysia. Zoysia is the most shade resistant warm season grass, and Zoysia (and maybe some other warm season grasses) only require about half the nitrogen of cool season grasses. One bonus a lot of people overlook is Mesotrione or the brand name Tenacity. Pre-emergent herbicides kill grass seed in the germination process which is how nice lawns keep out 99% of the weeds each spring and fall. However, Mesotrione acts as a pre-emergent for a great number of weeds, but it doesn't effect Ryegrass or KBG, so you can spray the Mesotrione a few days after seeding and it will kill most weed seeds and active weeds that would compete for water and nutrients with your new seed. It only acts as a pre-emergent for 3 weeks, and you can't reapply until 30 days later, so you only have a week of no protection, where other grasses just have to allow weeds to grow until post emergent herbicides can be used. Often you'll see bags like Roger had which contain multiple types of seed. They do this because one or more of the types of grass should fill in most places. Some do better in shade, some are better when there is no rain or irrigation, and KBG will spread and fill in voids, which is great because once you kill a weed, you wno't have to put down new grass seed. Your spring or fall pre-emergent should block most weeds, and the KBG will spread itself and fill in the voids on it's own.

@@singerpour6946 There are plenty. If you look below for my comments, there's too many to retype.

Excellent point my friend!

Would it just be more cost effective to remove the old sod and buying sod and laying it down.:?

+Robert A probably not. really, if you want to do it right, use the right tools. granted, with small area such as that, you could get away with manual tools, and of course you can buy smaller sized products. Remember, he's a contractor, and tv personality, so he has access to the bulk contractor stuff.

Well said.

Best comment here!

Matthew Weiler lmao

3:07 where the aerator pulls her shoulder out of socket!

LOL I SAW THAT 2😄

lmfao

She's definitely scared of that contraption he is making her operate.

Staaaarting ya mower in the middle of the yaaaad

Blaine Bugaski lmao. I was searching for this comment. Bugged me too!

Yeah a saw Mary wheelspin as Well! I bet she mowed the neighbours boarders! Classic

Vanessa Draper lmao. "Roger that, Roger. "

Lol, was thinking the same. It all sounds so scripted.

Vanessa Draper Lmao scripted af. Or maybe Old white southern people just talk like that

Vanessa Draper 😂😂😂

lol

exactly. good point

It did work, guarantee it. the camera crew is not going to wait around for a month for everything to germinate and grow to what you would expect anyways.

@@charlesbaldo the camera crew don't need to wait there :))) what's wrong with you? A picture with the result is not big deal

Because it’s roger.. all you need to know

@@PJJ196 I've got plenty of knowledge and I don't doubt he knows what Roger is talking about, but he glazed over a lot of information, and had some of it confused or flat out wrong. For instance, the 9-3-4 fertilizer isn't 9 parts nitrogen, 3 parts phosphorus and 4 parts potassium. If that was the case, a 100 pound bag of 9-3-4 fertilizer would be 56.25 pounds of nitrogen, 18.75 pounds of phosphorus, and 25 pounds of potassium with no room for filler or binding materials. That is not the case. These are percentages, so the real amounts of 9-3-4 in a 100 pound bag would be 9 pounds of nitrogen, 3 pounds of phosphorus, and 4 pounds of potassium. Different turf types require different amounts of these nutrients. I have Zoysia, and I typically put down a 16-4-8 mix and put down about 2-3 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft. That may seem low, but Zoysia has low nitrogen requirements and too much will result in a very thatch heavy lawn. The mix of grass seed isn't explained well either. Mixes like this are created like this because it is a general mix for multiple types of soil and various amounts of sunlight. One type of seed may thrive in the amount of sunlight she has, where others will not, so out of the mix, something should grow well and thrive, and the others may not. it is a shotgun approach. I hope for her sake that the Kentucky Bluegrass thrives as it spreads via rhizomes which are special roots that run just underneath the surface of the soil and pop up new growth every inch or so. As other types of grass seed die off and weeds are killed, the KBG will spread into these areas and take over. With a proper pre-emergent program (prodiamine is excellent), it will prevent most new annual weeds from successfully germinating, and allow the KBG to keep taking over, if that is the winning seed in that lawn. Soil pH has a lot to do with this too, and he never mentioned anything about the micro-nutrients. The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the macro-nutrients, but the micro's do a lot too. Iron helps produce a deep and healthy looking green in the lawn, and is the most popular with lawn care. There are many others, some being boron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and so on. This is a rough start at best for a great looking lawn. Doing core aeration is great, but it also pulls up and exposes weed seeds that haven't had enough sunlight to germinate and start growing, but now they will. She will have a whole new batch of weed problems, but a proper post-emergent herbicide plan will take care of these in a few treatments. I'd suspect this lawn to thrive and look amazing after 12-18 months to have a weed free and thick lawn. As far as cool season grass, which is what was in the mix mostly, KBG is the hands down favorite, where with warm season grasses, Zoysia is the best.

To all the grass seeds: May the odds ever be in your favor!

🤣

Lol!! Silly Willy

.Tim c my_digital l

4 in

what an odd comment

problem is the seeds need some exposure, if you throw compost directly on the seed you'll still have to rake to blend it or else the seeds will be smothered. The compost went down first to enrich the soil and the seed is lightly mixed with the compost. You also have to take into account that they aerated the lawn, so you can't change the order of what goes down the holes that were created.

I can tell you what happened....running that dethatcher and the aerator released thousands of weed seeds that produced even more weeds in her lawn.

*You got that right.* It would be so easy for the show to have her send them pictures and show them.

letitburnification personally I'd of sprayed a selective herbicide a couple of weeks prior to this work. your right dethatching will spread the weed

letitburnification unless you spray those weeds directly with a weed killer and pull out the rest of the weeds you missed two weeks before you begin the whole process of de thatching and aerating the site you plan on re seeding. You would also have to make sure you buy the correct fertilizer and I don't know what the hell im talking about... John Cena!!!!

They forgot to mention they have to de weed and reseed a few times.

or rent the tools (that you will only need once) from a hardware store for a fraction of the price.

Ah, so this is where it all started

Omfg dying 😂😂😂😂

MrFixBroken Remember when the hosts were Norm Abram and Steve Thomas? Those were the days!

I know, right? No background on which seed should thrive best in her lawn. Roger just threw a mixed bag on the lawn to cover all bases, because he didn't know which grass type would be best. If he did, he would have brought a single type of seed that would thrive in those conditions. Mixed bags like that are designed to allow one to thrive, and the amount of sunlight and soil pH will pick which. the other seeds will live a while, but eventually thin and die off. Hopefully the Kentucky Bluegrass wins out. It self replicates via rhizomes and will fill in the empty gaps over time. Rye...beautiful grass, but perennial Rye only lives 4-6 years, after which if you are not over seeding, you'll be right back to a weed filled lawn. Rye is the least expensive type of grass seed, which is why a brand new home has a nice lawn, and several years later it is a weed filled mess. Just another way that contractors make the most buck at the expense of the homeowner. I'm sure if they explained things to a home owner when they start working on the lawn, most would pick Zoysia or Kentucky Bluegrass depending on where they live. Rye is the least expensive and it germinates and shows growth the fastest, so people think all is well. Then a few years down the line their lawn is typically trash and they have no clue why.

WH Photography me too

Roger that, Roger

I can't unhear this now. lol

And dont call me shirley

Roger, Roger

Totally get that, but you only have to do the initial steps once as that sets the foundation for the lawn. The rest should be maintenance (i.e. typical grass cutting)

This is old he's not doing better. TOH recycles their shows.

+mayway Was it Gary ? No, Larry.

That's Roger Cook from This Old House.

Ugh Adam , you are spoiling our little joke here dude..

John cena

mister sandstorm. forgot his first name, tho

***** yes! there are starter fertilizers however I don't recommend ever applying fertilizer to grass seed. out of 100% of seed only 45 - 49% even germinate and that's only if the seed is kept wet for 2 weeks. .if you over fertilize them numbers will drop significantly if any even germinate at all.

***** np at all! when you use seed you have to keep on doing it over and over again.. over seed every 3 weeks till the lawn thickens up. once the seed becomes a seedling and sprouts above the soil we use triple 19-19-19 .

+Jeff Wright Thoughts on the 'spike sandals' that are supposed to help aerate the lawn by walking on it?

Deacon Ray sure why not. it won't do what an aerator will do. aerator goes at least 2 inches down brings cores to the top and makes bigger holes. while spike sandals go down about a half inch at most, don't bring cores to the top and make much smaller holes.on some lawns the spike wouldn't even make it to the soil. however the idea is that the soil gets compacted from being walked on. anything you can do to help air and water get to where it needs to go is a good thing.

SoTiredInMi not to familiar with aerators, but which brand and make would recommended?

You just don't want the seed to dry out in the sun, so once in the morning and once more maybe around 1. Do this in the fall when the sun is not too intense. I think you water like this for 2-3 weeks.

Lol I know right. they have another video with an electric mower, they use hearing protection too. Lols

@@JammyPirate probably uses ear protection while driving

I just like listening to music while I mow the lawn, so I wear headphones with noise cancelling. It's pretty amazing.

It’s been 8 years, prob all mulch now.

I like that, though, because Mary had a lot of white flower clover in her lawn. And Roger took most of it out. I too wonder, though, what the lawn looked like a week or two after this. I bet it looked great. Thanks, Roger.

I died 3 minutes in

Dead

Rodger that