28
To keep things simple (mainly for my benefit), lets go with:
Total lawn area, 1500ft2
Healthy lawn area, 300ft2
Dead lawn area, 1200ft2
Therefore you have an area of 20% "healthy" lawn remaining.
Depending on what you read and from where it comes, it's "generally" said it is worth the time and effort to repair a lawn that has 50% to 66.6% healthy lawn ...
28
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.
21
That is annual bluegrass, Poa annua. It grows in lawns during the spring (and/or fall, depending on climate) and causes some very nice lawns to thin out, as it grows very thick and chokes out the lawn grass. The problem with removing it is that this is a grass itself, so you cannot kill it with selective weed killer. This site gives good information on the ...
19
There are several ways of removing these dandelions from your lawn:
If you have a cool-season lawn and are happy to take the chemical route, you could use a selective weedkiller containing 2,4-D or MCPP, such as Trimec, Speedzone or Momentum, which are best applied in mid-spring or early fall
You could hand-weed using this tool which has received excellent ...
16
Personally, I hate weed whackers. They're terrible at my house: the places I need to weed are either next to plants that can't get whacked, or they're next to wire fencing that chews through tons of string, or they're next to rocks that chew through tons of string.
My preferred tool for getting in next to the fences, lilies, and trees is a pair of manual ...
16
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 ...
15
I've seen this many times in new subdivisions. The worst was a house with heavy clay soil where a year after the builder left you could still roll up the grass. As you have found grass finds it hard to get roots into a compacted clay subsoil.
I assume that you are not able to remove the existing grass and add two to six inches of topsoil. That would ...
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 ...
14
First let me say, I'm no expert when it comes to sharpening lawnmower blades, I've done it on the odd occasion -- only on rotary mower blades, never on cylinder or reel mower blades.
I do sharpen my own hand-tools, things like wood chisels, plane blades, etc and use sharpening stones to do those, but when it comes to lawnmower blades I've personally found ...
14
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 ...
13
This may seem odd, but it has worked for me. Place the dog's feces in the hole they dug, then cover it back up. You may have to do this many times if they continually dig there holes in different places. At some point your dog will dig in a hole that you have covered up once before. At this point they will be disgusted by what they find and will learn to ...
13
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 ...
12
Credit for this answer goes to my mum.
When we (wife and I) moved into our current home 4 years ago, the front and back lawns were covered in dandelions (and other broadleaf weeds). I didn't want to go the herbicide route, and after speaking with my mum, she said the only way to truly get rid of (control) dandelions is to hand remove them (important: you ...
12
I think the recommendation is to wait until it is dry. As well as clogging problems, you can damage the grass - although this latter issue isn't a problem for a heterogeneous low quality "lawn" such as mine!
Raising the blades will reduce the amount of cuttings produced - so this will reduce clogging.
Also, have you considered leaving it on the lawn as ...
12
As a former landscaper my favorite quote to clients was "You can have it fast, good or cheap. Pick two." In this situation I see a few solutions:
rent a Bobcat with a toothed bucket and remove all the grass and bumps to a dump bin. Apply six inches of topsoil mix, gently compact and sow grass seed or sod. That's fast and good.
top dress spring and fall to a ...
12
Yes, paint will get beat up and you'll likely end up in a never ending cycle of repainting.
Instead, I'd look into using an concrete acid stain. These are the stains that people use on concrete floors and concrete counter tops and the like.
Note that there are two types of stains...true acid stains, that will etch into the concrete, and then there's the ...
11
I don't think there is a solution to "helping the lawn recover" because in this case it is completely dead. There's no way to have a permanent (air-blocking and sun-blocking for more than 1-2 days) structure on top of lawn co-exist with living lawn. So we're not talking recovery but somehow mitigating the appearance of dead lawn, or avoiding having it die at ...
11
It depends how big they are. For small bumps a roller is very effective, but for larger humps you may need to try one of the following:
cut the turf up, peel it back, take out sufficient soil (this is relatively easy to get close to flat...not so easy to get exactly right)
take the turf off entirely, flatten all the soil and re-lay the turf (bigger job, but ...
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 ...
10
In the absence of a better answer, here's what I do on my walk-behind 24" "flat blade" / vertical-axis mower:
Before doing anything else, remove the wire from the spark plug. You don't want it to start accidentally.
Wear heavy gloves.
Turn the machine on its side. Gas tank up, so it doesn't leak. (Ideally, the tank is empty when I do this.)
Wedge a board ...
10
Yes, if they get matted down - just like covering the grass with anything else would - by reducing sunlight and air circulation.
Less importantly, leaves will compete with the grass for nitrogen - they consume it in decaying.
Oak leaves are especially bad because they're acidic.
Some folks have good results with shredding leaves and leaving them on. ...
10
The label for this product does not recommend applying grass seed until four weeks after the last application.
Once this waiting period is up buy or acquire:
a big bag of grass seed suitable for the light and soil in your lawn
enough compost or top soil to cover the sparse areas to a depth of 1/4" to 1/2"
Then
Use a rake to open up the soil.
Apply grass ...
10
You've basically described what I have in my lawn and fields, except that I have blackberry instead of thistle.
What I use:
For my lawn I use a self-propelled walk-behind Toro purchased from a big box store several years ago. The blade is in horrible shape (I should replace it), but I sharpen it with an angle grinder a few times a year and it keeps doing ...
10
Weed Eater is the brand name of the first string trimmers. These days, people use Weed Eater and trimmer interchangeably the same way most people call facial tissue Kleenex (even though Kleenex is only one brand of facial tissue) or they say then need to Xerox something (even though Xerox is only a brand of copier).
As for insights into what to look for - ...
10
We own a tool that looks just like the one on the right here:
I used it just last week - it's good for goldenrod, raspberries, oregano and the like. After a round with this the mower can handle it. Instructions for using it are at the American Trails site, among other places. We own a gas powered trimmer, but this is actually quicker (and lighter and ...
10
As with most horticultural type questions, there's no simple yes or no answer to this. If you leave the cuttings, then nutrients are returned to the soil, drought resistance is improved, moss is inhibited and you are saved the task of taking the clippings away.
But there are disadvantages - if the turf is weedy, then you're likely to increase the number of ...
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
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 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 ...
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