What would you guys do?

[Victor]

I just aquired a fert/squirt customer who wants me to bring her lawn back to life. She's not worried about the looks of the back yard since there's a tall privacy fence around it. She just wants me to turn her front yard into a good looking lawn (better than the Chemlawn-treated neighbor's lawn).

I already told her that my applications aren't magic wands, in that it will take time to bring her lawn around. I told her that I could definitely bring her lawn around, but it would probably be next year before she starts seeing the kind of results she's looking for.

The front lawn is just shy of 2m. I checked for compaction and that doesn't seem to be a problem. There really aren't any weeds on this lawn either. The lawn is just thin. The lawn hasn't been fertilized for years and it looks like it.

For a small lawn like this, it obviously will be very easy to do pretty much anything to it like topdressing, overseeding, putting down lime, if the soil test says that it's needed.

For starters, I figured I'd do a soil test and see what results come out. I'm wondering what order you guys would do things like, would you put down the early Spring fert/preemergence app now and topdress, then overseed in the fall, or would you recommend top dressing and overseeding it now, so that the new grass will have a chance to grow throughout the year? I figured you'd recommend doing the app now to prevent any crab problems, but thought I'd ask anyway.

Thanks in advance for the help guys.

Vic

 

[James Cormier]

Vic, I would go with your normal fert program and sell core aeration and overseeding come fall.

If the lawn is very thin then you may want to sell slice seeding, but I would still do a late fall core aeration.

If you sell spring sliceseeding ( I hate to, but I always sell a few ) then you should include in your price 2 apps of tupersan, and maybe one acclaim treatment.

 

[TSM]

I'd agree with Cormier. Without knowing specifics like grass types most likely your regular fert program will improve the density of the turf (a decent stand of bluegrass should respond nicely, if its a clump type of turf like rye or fescue, well it wont improve as well as the blue).

When early fall rolls around re-evaluate the 'thickness' with the homeowner. If she feels it isnt what she hoped for then you gonna need to do some seeding.

And yes, aeration whether you seed or not is a great benefit for any lawn.

 

[grassguy_]

As James said, Aerate now and follow what your soil test will tell you. Wouldn't reccomend seeding until fall unless absolutely necessary to do so. Better to have her raise the mower hieght thru the season so the root system can continue to biuld with treatments, then asess the need to seed come mid-late August.