If you purchased the Yard Mastery Soil Testing Kit from me or the Yard Mastery site (or the app) then this is for you. Important - Beginners Especially - Download this Guide That guide details the strategy behind setting up a lawn care plan based on your soil test results. It will also help you understand how important the basics are so you can get those in line ALONG WITH your soil test results and fertilizing strategy. Get the Guide Here   I also made a video showing you how to gather your samples and send off your soil for results. View that here.         ..read more

We often get questions about rain before and after lawn applications. Here are my thoughts. First let’s set things in context: Home lawn care doesn’t take place in a controlled environment. It’s not like engineering or physics. It’s variable and unpredictable. That is what adds to the challenge! The weather always wins. It’s undefeated. So when it comes to rain and your lawn applications, it’s up to you to put in the time to do the research (like you are doing right now) and make the best educated decision you can. Use common sense. I trust you here, and so you can trust yourself. Soil Moist ..read more

Image for Southern Lawns can be found at most big box stores and in my opinion, it’s the best store bought weed killer available to homeowners. I call it “Image Purple Top” because there are a couple formulations available but it’s the one with the purple cap that I recommend most. In fact, Image for Southern Lawns is the very same weed killer that lawn professionals use, just under a different name (Avenue South Herbicide). Here is an extensive blog post about Post Emergent Weed Control where I wrote about it and a corresponding video (Weed Control with RESULTS // Poor Man's Avenue Sout ..read more

Large Patch Lawn Fungus For those of you with St Augustine grass and zoysia, large patch fungus is starting to rage through lawns. In the early stages it will have an orange cast to it, sometimes pink. The patches will be irregular in the lawn as it typically follows the flow of water. Here’s the thing: I DO NOT recommend you apply fungicides. In fact, applying fungicides to a lawn this time of year can actually make the recovery slower. Think about this: Your lawn is already growing slowly. You are probably only mowing every 7-10 days. That’ is because our lawns need a lot of sunlight to gr ..read more

Recognition Herbicide with Fusilade2 Herbicide - Results Bermuda grass and St Augustine grass are two warm season turf types that don’t mix. St Augustine has fat, juicy blades that stand up stiff and tall. When you mow it, it’s recommended to mow it as tall as your mower will go. Bermuda grass on the other hand, looks better when mowed very low, down to 1” if you can get it there and its grass blades are thin and soft. These two grasses by themselves make incredibly nice lawns. Bermuda Grass Lawns Bermuda grass is aggressive with rhizomes and stolons and can heal from almost any injury. If ..read more

Nitrogen drives the bus. If you want a green lawn, you will want to include nitrogen in your fertilizer. It’s the first number you see when you see those 3 numbers on the bag. In the case of Milorganite, it’s a 6-4-0 which means it is 6% nitrogen. When you look into the bag at those little black and gray pellets, 6% of everything there is nitrogen. Watch this video to see the math, the application and the results from the “Florida Milorganite Rate” https://youtu.be/YeXCSYEzdaA Why does this matter? It matters because the 6% refers to the concentration. If you need to give your lawn a good d ..read more

It’s officially summer my friends, the longest days of the year are right now. And for those of you with warm season turf, this is the time when you can make the most progress in your lawn. That’s right - summer is the VERY best time to get started. Warm Season Lawns The warm season grasses: Bermuda, Zoysia, Centipede, St Augustine and Bahia - they love the long sunny days. These grass types are bread to spread and they need all the sunlight they can get to fuel their growth. Photosynthesis is the process and it’s your job as a lawn owner to give your turf everything it needs to maximize that ..read more

We are well past the easy times of spring when lawns all looked good just from the rain and mild temps. Many of you have been through the last week where temps were hot and dry and your lawn got it’s first taste of the long summer ahead. I’m talking mostly to those of you with cool season lawns right now. Over-bye-da Chicago land area, you guys were hit with heat and dry days back to back to back that sent your lawns into immediate dormancy in many cases. Here is a photo of the “Speed Castle” lawn in Munster, IN, June 6. It’s completely checked out during the hot spell, even in the shaded sp ..read more

What can you do to get rid of broadleaf weeds in your cool season lawn heading from spring into summer? Here are some common ones I’m seeing and some information on how to get rid of them. Keep in mind, it’s much easier to kill off young, newly emerged weeds. Once they get mature, even the “strongest” chems will not work on mature plants. Mowing often is a great way to keep weeds from maturing - and it’s chemical-free, so keep that in mind. (the larger weeds pictured here are from the lawn of an AirBnB I’m staying at in Merrillville, IN and the lawn is a complete salad bar) BroadLeaf Plantai ..read more

It’s mid-March, the clocks have sprung forward and sunset is well after 7:30PM now. I am already taking advantage of the additional yard time after work, getting some much needed pruning done. The days are longer too, almost up to a full 12 hours of day length! The more sunlight available means the more your grass can grab it for photosynthesis. That’s a trigger for it to wake up and start growing. Longer days also mean the soil is heating up and that is what drives our strategy for pre-emergents to stop crab grass. Soil temperatures tell us when to apply prodiamine. If you have not already ..read more