30
You don't want water-retaining soil sitting against the building because this causes damp problems. Creating a porous soakaway like this will mean any water sinks to a lower level than would cause any harm to the building.
18
Moss is just fine in your compost! Moss is one of the great opportunists in the plant world. Moss is not hurting your lawn. The presence of moss is telling us your lawn is not vigorous enough, you are watering too often and too shallowly, you are probably mowing too short and you've possibly got shade involved.
The cool thing about moss is that if there ...
16
Perhaps I missed something in the other answers. The one and only reason is because of SPLASHING. Rain over the gutter, a hard sideways rain will splash mud/soil onto the siding. Not good for siding as the mud tends to hold moisture too long and can cause rot as well as a dirty 'skirt' on your siding.
The gravel, drain rock, cobble or even the lava ...
15
I suspect the guidance came from a time of reel mowers, which do actually push the blades of grass over in the same direction. (I use a reel mower to maintain our acre and a half.) As you've pointed out, with a rotary mower there is a lot more randomness involved.
That said, if you mowed your lawn with the exact same path every time, you would probably ...
15
That is Mock Strawberry, Duchesnea indica. The fruits are edible, but rather tasteless. This is a common weed in much of the United States. Look for small, strawberry-like plants in your lawn, with long stolons connecting the individual crowns. These plants have five petaled yellow flowers. See comparison photos:
13
I use a lawnmower with a bagger. The blades chop the leaves and reduce the volume by up to 80%. The finely shredded leaves are great mulch for plant or vegetable beds.
I cut my grass low in the fall as we get a lot of snow and this reduces the chance of snow mould. You may have to adjust your cutting height depending on the amount of leaves.
This ...
11
Theory says that changing up the mowing pattern will keep the grass from always bending in the same direction.
Another reason I've heard stated is that it keeps wheel ruts from forming.
I might buy the latter but the former's probably not a real problem. Grass tends to want to grow where it wants to grow, generally upward towards the sun. Maybe running ...
11
I believe I have gathered enough information that an answer is now available.
Three main variables determine the direction roots grow: Gravity, light, and water. These are called gravitropism, phototropism, and hydrotropism.
Phototropism is simply that the roots grow away from the light. I wouldn't think light extends much below the surface, so this ...
10
If grass is too long when you take a reel mower to it, it just folds over. This is made even worse when it is thick. After making sure the blades are sharp, you will probably just need to take multiple passes at it.
We own two reel mowers and the way we know we need to sharpen one is when the same grass responds like that on one mower and normally on ...
10
Agree with itsmatt's final solution, but there is another option. Because the fence is too close to the grass, you could excavate a narrow trench beneath, part fill with bedding mortar mix (about 1-2 inches deep, made with 4 parts sharp sand, 2 parts soft sand and l part cement) and then lay pavers in a row,or maybe 2 rows, so that the fence is sitting on ...
10
If you consult the manual, you find that the part the line comes out of comes apart to expose a bobbin inside of the housing.
You need to find out what the recommended diameter of the line is for the trimmer and get a spool of replacement line.
Hand rewind the bobbin in the proper direction, usually they have an arrow on them to tell you this. Poke the ...
10
Sure! You can reseed that. Wait till the ground is going to stay drained.Grass will germinate and grow fast in wet conditions, but then if you walk through, or mow, it will lie down and rot.
Because there is loose soil there already, when you're ready to reseed you could simply
Rake over the area briskly to looses the top layer of soil, even it out, and ...
10
Dormant Overseeding! Read about it. Do it. I live in Ohio and the freeze thaw cycle that heaves the ground up and down pulls the seed down into it for great soil contact. Followed by wet springs... bingo. I overseed just before Christmas every year and my suburban lawn is the envy of the neighborhood.
I don't think the seed will germinate until ...
10
Good quality topsoil is probably best, preferably with some organic or humus rich composted materials added (composted animal manures, leaf mould, spent mushroom compost, garden compost, anything like that), though the latter component should only be added if you're not growing root crops like carrots, which will fork badly in manured or very rich soil.
...
10
There is no one "right way" to create and maintain a crisp lawn edge.
When I was much younger than I am now, I did exactly what you are doing, except I used a flat spade to cut the edge and a trowel to clean it up. I did do one thing differently: I removed all grass cut from the edge from the garden, after knocking the soil off - it tends to root ...
9
That's a pretty prolific plant. You should have no trouble propagating it from cuttings, but… you have to select the right growth stage to cut from.
You should only root from the newer (but not too new) growth. The best time is late spring to early summer when the newer growth is just starting to become woody. Cut sections of about 6-12" and strip ...
9
There are a less and less ways to do this fast since the 2009 ban on using pesticides in Ontario. Your goal is get your lawn to grow roots faster than the three different species of grubs can eat them.
nematodes can provide some control but are fussy to apply and should be reapplied yearly. Best recommended way to apply is:
applied with a hose end sprayer....
9
The clover (assuming white clover) is spreading on its own because, most likely, the soil is low on nitrogen, which favors the clover instead of the grass. Clover can fix nitrogen from the air, so it thrives in the low-N soil where other things have a hard time competing with it.
According to this: Do legumes provide nitrogen to their companions? Clover ...
9
ground prep is crucial for a new lawn. I assume sod was used in the front for appearance and cost, but the new lawn in the back was a starter blanket for lack of "street view" and return on the cost. Nothing beats sod. Period. I worked installs for landscape construction for nearly 7 years and the ROI on the sod was a bit more upfront for less hassle & ...
9
With only a 1/3 of an acre of land I personally would aerate it myself, many rental shops allow you to rent a machine for a day for less than $100.
Stay away from the "aeration shoes" though as they only poke a hole into the ground and then compact the soil more. The trick is to remove a plug of sod so that air and water can penetrate.
The machine you are ...
9
I let the grass grow a little higher than usual for a week or two before the leaves fall, set the mower on the highest setting and mow twice at that setting. This mulches the leaves in place. I do this for subsequent weeks, progressively lowering the blade. By the time I am ready to use the bagger a lot of the material is composted on the lawn; since ...
9
Microclover (Trifolium repens var.pirouette) is a selection from the original white clover (Trifolium repens). It was bred and selected for its much smaller leaves, lower height, much less aggressive invasive tendencies, non clumping habit and its reluctance to produce flowers; flowering is undesirable in lawn clover, particularly where there are children. ...
9
My guesses are that it just looks a lot neater and also prevents weeds from growing near the foundation. If weeds and their roots are allowed to grow there you would have to be constantly digging them out, and roots are already hard enough to get out of the ground without having to dig near or under that area.
Another reason, I think, would be because it is ...
8
Trimming along a wooden (or chain link!) fence is tough and tears up the wood undoubtedly. You can certainly try to do it more slowly and angle the string down toward the ground. That might help but there are a lot of variables here - the ground height, the movement of your arms, the amount of grass and where it is located, etc. - and that's only going to ...
8
Not sure where you're from but in the USA you can send a soil sample to your local university extension office and for a nominal fee they will give you a report on the soil that you can use to improve it for your intended purpose. Two key things to look for is the existing organic matter content and cation exchange capacity. This is always a good thing to do ...
8
I planted Palestine Strawberry clover in my yard (Phoenix, AZ) this past fall. My clover seems extraordinarily resilient so far (with the exception of falling prey to our local quail population). Considering clover is considered a difficult-to-remove lawn pest by many, I don't expect you'll have too much trouble getting them established.
When I sowed mine, ...
8
I always dethatch first. That will create a clearer path for the other equipment, and make it a lot easier for the slicer overseeder.
As for the other two, I like to run the aerator first, to avoid disturbing newly sown seed. It can be done either way, and both ways I've noticed seed falling into the aerator holes, where it will not germinate. That doesn't ...
8
If you are in a place that's so consistently cold that it occurs to you to set up a backyard skating rink that means it gets really cold throughout the winter. What the ice and plastic has done is insulated the grass below from the wind and colder temperature. It may seem counter intuitive but the ice was actually helping keep the cold wind from lowering the ...
8
I think you'd be better off (less TOTAL work) just filling in the holes gradually. Put 1/4" of soil in the deepest parts. Level it out with a fairly small rake (back of an actual rakehead or short board.) Wait for growth. Add 1/4" of soil, rake/level with a longer board/rakehead. Wait for growth. Add another 1/4", rake/level with an even longer board. Wait ...
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