***OFFICIAL Lawn and Landscaping Thread***

[loochy]

So, who out there is obsessed with having green grass?

Are you installing a flowerbed and some shrubs?

Do you need a sprinkler system installed?

Do you just want to brag?

Let's talk about lawns in here.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Emancipate that poor young man! Enough is enough!

A) He loves it
B) He's a scout and is working on rank advancement for 2nd class and that requires him do chores, get paid, and save part of it.
C) He offers to mow other people's lawns, for free (true scouting spirit!!!), and if that's the case he's starting with mine (which is paid).

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

A) He loves it
B) He's a scout and is working on rank advancement for 2nd class and that requires him do chores, get paid, and save part of it.
C) He offers to mow other people's lawns, for free (true scouting spirit!!!), and if that's the case he's starting with mine (which is paid).

When he gets to be an Eagle Scout (like me) he will have advanced to the Zen art of natural landscaping more in harmony with his environment.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

A) He loves it
B) He's a scout and is working on rank advancement for 2nd class and that requires him do chores, get paid, and save part of it.
C) He offers to mow other people's lawns, for free (true scouting spirit!!!), and if that's the case he's starting with mine (which is paid).

At least it's self propelled it looks like. My father wasn't that nice!

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by lewdog

At least it's self propelled it looks like. My father wasn't that nice!

It was bought with me in mind. If a meteor hits it and I have to buy a new one, I'll get on of these:




But if he keeps progressing in golf, perhaps one of these (and we make a green in the back yard):

[eDave]

Originally Posted by cdcox

When he gets to be an Eagle Scout (like me) he will have advanced to the Zen art of natural landscaping more in harmony with his environment.

A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent

Never forget (though I might be out of order a bit)

Eagle scout, silver palm.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by eDave

A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent

Never forget (though I might be out of order a bit)

Eagle scout, silver palm.

Awesome. His current goal is to get every merit badge his Eagle Scout brother and I ever got. Like I told him (with a smile), good luck... He's got them planned-out, so it should be fun to watch.

[loochy]

Morning grass:



It's dense:

[Buehler445]

You sons of bitches back east have it easy.

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

My yard is starting to fill in the dead spots. Some of them were the size of small cars.... Buehler_445 Sr hooked me up with some nasty 24D shit... Buehler_445 said mix it strong.. I nuked the **** out of my yard and it is finally coming back around...

You don't blame that shit on me. I can't believe you didn't nuke every broadleaf plant in the state of Oklahoma. Lo-vol means it volatilizes at low temperatures.

Originally Posted by cdcox

I have foregone the monoculture of blue grass or zoysia in favor of a biodiverse community of native species: ground violets, Taraxacum, moss, Toxicodendron radicans, clover, narrow leaf plantain, Digitaria, and an occasional wildflower. Completely natural, my lawn requires no fertilization thereby avoiding nutrient and pesticide contamination of local waterways via runoff as well as greatly reducing the accompanying carbon footprint associated with fertilizer utilization. My lawn care philosophy also requires zero lawn sprinkling since the native species are well adapted to local precipitation patterns. Competition between species in a low nutrient environment also reduces the growth rate of my meadow, and the concominant need for frequent mowing. The economized mowing schedule reduces noise pollution in the neighborhood and saves me dozens of hours per year put to better use. I endorse this approach to any of you.

Outstanding work. I wish I could do it. I've got 2 problems: 1 wife likes grass. 2. I live in the goddamned desert. Native grasses here go dormant when it never ****ing rains and the ET rate turns ridiculous. Accordingly, native grasses get ****ing crushed by aggressively growing weeds. In town it would be field bindweed and Bermuda grass.

As far as maintaining it, watch undergrowth and nutrient cycling. Almost all natural ecosystems had critters graze them. This took care of thatching and nutrient cycling (eat biomass shit out Plant available N-P-K). Me thinks you aren't achieving that in your yard.

As far as what I do in my yard, I can't bring myself to give too much effort on it. Fact is I'm trying to keep 7,000 acres growing and making money. I don't have anything else to give on a expense center that requires all the work when I need to be out doing things to make my big garden profitable.

As a result, here is my strategy with the lawn.
1. Sprinkler system. Installed this bitch and wish I would have done it sooner. Primarily achieves increased water efficacy and coverage.

2. Eliminate flowerbeds next to the house. I ripped these assholes out and ran concrete sloping away from the house. I mean I have a basement. How the **** smart is it to have something that requires me to run water next to My basement? That's asking for trouble. Potted plants look better on the concrete anyway.

3. I don't own sprawling plants. I'm kind of an accountant minded mother****er. I like symmetry hard edges, parallel and perpendicular lines. It's just who I am. My sister has a ****ing mountain of money invested in all these god damned bushes and sprawling ass shit terrible ground cover and she thinks it's awesome. I think it looks terrible. I ****ing hate it.

4. Mow tall. Back to the desert thing. It damages it more to cut it tall. It goes back to water efficacy.

5. Bag the clippings. If you don't they will break down and basically become soil. That raises the height of the yard then over time it raises the height of your yard. And your sprinkler systems don't work and water is running toward your house instead of your street.

A few things about fertilizer. Lawn fertilizer boggles my ****ing mind. Bad. The last time I bought store bought fertilizer I was appalled. The numbers on the bag are Nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium. So 26-0-0 is 26% N, 0% P, 0% K. Now, the shit I was looking at had no phosphorous. And they were touting themselves as environmentally friendly. Thing is that nitrogen is water soluble and phosphorous in phosphoric acid is not after it is applied to the soil. So look at the Mississippi River delta and the problem is nitrogen. Because the cornbelt washes it all out through their tile. Nitrogen (nitrates) get into the water table. The Chesapeake Bay has some phosphate problems but it is because they've washed actual shit (human, poultry Dairy and pig) into the watershed. So yeah. It have no idea how they can pull it off but your lawn needs Phosphorous. Find some way to get it on.

[Just Passin' By]

HOAs - evil warrens of junior Hitlers

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Just Passin' By

HOAs - evil warrens of junior Hitlers

[KCUnited]

I used to live near "beach house" in KC. Essentially, it's an older lady who converted her lawn into a sandbox because she's old, apparently dying, and got tired of mowing. There was a collective in the neighborhood when she did it. Ironically, it sat on the market for a year or so unable to sell.

Now the city is telling her to clean it up or go to jail as neighbors are complaining and the rainfall is washing it onto the sidewalk and street. Pic and auto play video in the link.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending...165929813.html

Georgianna Reid, of Brookside, Mo., has been threatened with jail time and fines if she does not remove the sand in the front yard of her home.


She converted her yard to a sandpit with 160,000 pounds of sand three years ago, for a total of $4,000.

“I would say I’m putting in the largest litter box in the world,” she said.
Reid’s neighbors have complained that her landscaping is affecting property values, and in bad weather, the sand is pouring onto the sidewalk.

She has been given 10 days to remove the sand — or face 180 days in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Reid, who is terminally ill, says she will pay to fix the problem so that she does not spend her last days in prison.
However, she is not going down easy.

“I will take the sand out of the yard, but I’m going to [convert it to] an asphalt yard because I’m still not gonna mow,” she told reporters.

Just goes to show, the grass is not always greener on the other side.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

I used to live near "beach house" in KC. Essentially, it's an older lady who converted her lawn into a sandbox because she's old, apparently dying, and got tired of mowing. There was a collective in the neighborhood when she did it. Ironically, it sat on the market for a year or so unable to sell.

Now the city is telling her to clean it up or go to jail as neighbors are complaining and the rainfall is washing it onto the sidewalk and street. Pic and auto play video in the link.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending...165929813.html

Georgianna Reid, of Brookside, Mo., has been threatened with jail time and fines if she does not remove the sand in the front yard of her home.


She converted her yard to a sandpit with 160,000 pounds of sand three years ago, for a total of $4,000.

“I would say I’m putting in the largest litter box in the world,” she said.
Reid’s neighbors have complained that her landscaping is affecting property values, and in bad weather, the sand is pouring onto the sidewalk.

She has been given 10 days to remove the sand — or face 180 days in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Reid, who is terminally ill, says she will pay to fix the problem so that she does not spend her last days in prison.
However, she is not going down easy.

“I will take the sand out of the yard, but I’m going to [convert it to] an asphalt yard because I’m still not gonna mow,” she told reporters.

Just goes to show, the grass is not always greener on the other side.

She's not super quick on finances huh? The 4k she dropped to put the sand in could have easily paid for a mowing business to landscape for her for quite a few years.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by lewdog

She's not super quick on finances huh? The 4k she dropped to put the sand in could have easily paid for a mowing business to landscape for her for quite a few years.

I lived a handful of blocks away and had no idea there was an elderly, terminally ill lady there or I'd of mowed it for free.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

I lived a handful of blocks away and had no idea there was an elderly, terminally ill lady there or I'd of mowed it for free.

That too. Given the size of city yards, what's an extra half hour for someone who is already mowing their own. Sad a family member didn't find someone to help. Would be good community service for a kid to be doing.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by lewdog

That too. Given the size of city yards, what's an extra half hour for someone who is already mowing their own. Sad a family member didn't find someone to help. Would be good community service for a kid to be doing.

The community could have stepped up before, and didn't. Instead, it got the city/town and involved in something that should be none of its business. And the pricks who've threatened her with jail are the ones who should end up spending the time behind bars.