The Home Ownership Thread

[double00]

What is the SF consensus on having a company manage the grass fertilizer/chemicals? I'd assume half will say lawns are evil and the other half would say go for it? We do not have an irrigation system if that makes any difference and not planning to add one since our yard is basically a couple inches of dirt and grass on rocks.

without irrigation seems tricky . it sounds like the scenario is already less-than-ideal

 

[otc]

What is the SF consensus on having a company manage the grass fertilizer/chemicals? I'd assume half will say lawns are evil and the other half would say go for it? We do not have an irrigation system if that makes any difference and not planning to add one since our yard is basically a couple inches of dirt and grass on rocks.

Get a quote from Weed Man or something and see?

If the price is reasonable and you are ok with the services/chemical choices, it seems like a no brainier. You don’t have to handle the chemicals, don’t need to have the spray/spread tools, don’t have to decide which products your lawn needs, don’t have to source them or apply them…

And some areas don’t really need irrigation to do decent.

 

[venividivicibj]

Should I have planted 1 of them with grass seed and created my own little sod farm to harvest plugs from?

Is it that easy to make your own sod/plugs? I’m doing my backyard grass in stages so this would be helpful

 

[otc]

I think so?

You can grow it in trays too.

Although I realized trying to mow it and keep it maintained in a raised bed would be a pain. So maybe. I didn’t really miss out.

 

[jbarwick]

Spoke with a friend last night who is big into his yard and he said he even pays someone since things always come up throughout the year and it kind of needs regular on schedule maintenance.

 

[brokencycle]

Spoke with a friend last night who is big into his yard and he said he even pays someone since things always come up throughout the year and it kind of needs regular on schedule maintenance.

I don't recall where you are. When I lived in Minnesota, maintenance was easy once we killed the lawn and started over. Mow once every week or two. Fertilize 3-4x a year and that's it. I never aerated or dethatched or anything.

Here in NC, we don't have a lawn at all. It is all landscaped with flower, shrubs, and trees. That we just hire someone for. All they need to do is some trimming and clean up. I get out once in awhile and rake the pine needles off the dirt path which I find relaxing.

 

[jbarwick]

I don't recall where you are. When I lived in Minnesota, maintenance was easy once we killed the lawn and started over. Mow once every week or two. Fertilize 3-4x a year and that's it. I never aerated or dethatched or anything.

Here in NC, we don't have a lawn at all. It is all landscaped with flower, shrubs, and trees. That we just hire someone for. All they need to do is some trimming and clean up. I get out once in awhile and rake the pine needles off the dirt path which I find relaxing.

Nashville. We have an acre and HOA so no non-lawn is possible.

 

[otc]

Nashville. We have an acre and HOA so no non-lawn is possible.

How much of that is lawn?

My new lawn is 4500 sqft of grass (which is a big step up from the like 2k I had before) and I think that's getting to be the borderline level of doing care myself besides mowing.

I guess a broadcast spreader can be pretty quick still although the layout makes it kind of annoying for trying to get even coverage and not throw a bunch of product into the landscaping/hardscaping. But trying to spray it all with a chemical sprayer takes just long enough that I don't want to do it. Even if I stepped up to something like a battery backpack sprayer, its just a lot of walking around to get full coverage, especially since I prefer to go overboard and don a bunch of PPE.

 

[otc]

When I lived in Minnesota, maintenance was easy once we killed the lawn and started over. Mow once every week or two. Fertilize 3-4x a year and that's it. I never aerated or dethatched or anything.

Yeah, I think my parents did even less than that in minneapolis (fertilizer? what fertilizer?). I think they had it aerated once during my childhood. I certainly don't remember them ever doing anything like overseeding. No irrigation other than occasionally putting out a sprinkler in the summer if it was absolutely necessary.

It was a perfectly functional lawn. May not have had perfect uniform coverage/color, always had some clover patches, it was perfectly fine for kids to run around on or whatever and it didn't look bad or stick out like a sore thumb even if a couple houses on the block had services.

Was kinda annoying when they were here visiting. They've very much swung to the "lawns are dumb" side of things and more and more area is being taken over by non-lawn. I think they were rolling their eyes at my lawn efforts and making lots of comments and suggestions like more big trees and rock gardens.

It was like...come on guys. You had a lawn when I was a kid and it was nice. Running through the grass barefoot having squirt gun fights with the neighbor kids, etc. That's what I want to have for my kid. Now you're retired and like tending to gardens...but that's not where I'm at (and non-lawn landscaping can take a lot of time and effort too!).
And also, you live somewhere where the lawn basically takes care of itself other than mowing. We have different soil conditions, run a bit different mix of grass breeds, have different weather (very dry summers, but fairly plentiful irrigation water from snowmelt)...I don't have to do a lot of work, but I have to put in more effort if I want a lawn to be decent.

 

[jbarwick]

How much of that is lawn?

My new lawn is 4500 sqft of grass (which is a big step up from the like 2k I had before) and I think that's getting to be the borderline level of doing care myself besides mowing.

I guess a broadcast spreader can be pretty quick still although the layout makes it kind of annoying for trying to get even coverage and not throw a bunch of product into the landscaping/hardscaping. But trying to spray it all with a chemical sprayer takes just long enough that I don't want to do it. Even if I stepped up to something like a battery backpack sprayer, its just a lot of walking around to get full coverage, especially since I prefer to go overboard and don a bunch of PPE.

The majority is lawn if not covered by my house or pine straw. Not ingesting a bunch of chemicals multiple times a year is worth the price of admission.

 

[Numbernine]

I grew up across the street from several acres of undeveloped native woodlands. We didn't need no stinkin' lawns.
But we had one anyway and I cut that damn thing every week from early spring thru early winter.

 

[imatlas]

I was raised to believe that lawns are evil. We still had one, but that's what we said. Like @Numbernine it was my job to mow that fu(ker.

The idea of hiring someone to drive a big ass truck over and dump a bunch of chemicals on my yard is just one more argument that they are, in fact, evil.

 

[Numbernine]

Full disclosure I do have a patch of @ 600 sq ft of weedy Bermuda I water and fertilize with grey water from my shower for my dogs to crap and pee on.

 

[sugarbutch]

The house I grew up in had a pretty big lawn. My dad made some cursory efforts to make it nice, but, ultimately, he didn't (and doesn't) really care that much about having a nice patch of grass. I had to mow it when I was a teenager, and I had pretty bad hay fever. That sucked.

We mostly rode our bmx bikes, and our house wasn't the house where all the kids would go to play football or whatever, so it went unused 99% of the time. As I've mentioned several times, I am happy to own a house without a single blade of grass for me to maintain.

 

[otc]

I’m of the mind that if it is there, I’m gonna take care of it.

I’m not looking to expand how much I have and if I had a large property, no way in hell would I be buying a riding mower and trying to keep a pristine 20k square feet…I’d be looking for alternatives for all but like 5k.

If I went back to living in a high rise with no grass, that’d be ok too.