Zero turn advice

So, what's your opinion of the lawn care companies like tru-green and scotts? @guffey24
I had a local company out of Greensboro, Growing Green, spray my yard at the old house. It turned out really nice. I always found I had a hard time getting stuff on the lawn when it needed to be. I'm thinking about doing it again.
 
justjeepin86 said:
So, what's your opinion of the lawn care companies like tru-green and scotts? @guffey24
I had a local company out of Greensboro, Growing Green, spray my yard at the old house. It turned out really nice. I always found I had a hard time getting stuff on the lawn when it needed to be. I'm thinking about doing it again.
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20 years ago I started an internship with Tru-green, I stayed for about three weeks, one day I refused to go out and spread high nitrogen fertilizer on fescue in the middle of the summer, it causes disease, so then they can go out and spray fungicide and charge the customer

I quit that job the next day

The bigger companies like tru-green, Scotts, Brickman, Valley Crest, are all about the numbers, they could care less about you as a customer, they loose 1000 customers and gain 1000 customers in a month

I recommend if you not going to do your own lawn to hire local, do your research, there are a ton of good local companies that do great work, beware of your good ole boys that used to fertilize daddy's garden, or farm, ask them where they buy there stuff, find out what they are using and do your own research about the materials, a good reputable lawn care company wont hide anything from a customer
 
guffey24 said:
20 years ago I started an internship with Tru-green, I stayed for about three weeks, one day I refused to go out and spread high nitrogen fertilizer on fescue in the middle of the summer, it causes disease, so then they can go out and spray fungicide and charge the customer
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This is exactly what happened to my neighbor. I think it was Scott's. But the guy kept coming out every two weeks and juicing the yard. I told him they shouldn't be putting anything on it. Couple weeks later, the guy is back out there trying to sell him fungicide for all the brown spot that had bloomed.
 
guffey24 said:
Its really not that hard to grow a nice lawn, first you need to know what your growing in, I see alot of new subdivisons that have terrible grass and always will for several reasons, the grading companys come in a remove all the top soil and leaves the homeowner trying to grow grass in hard pan, it doesnt work
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That is what happened with our yard. We built our house on the top of a hill, and 6ft of dirt had to be chopped off the top in order for it to fit where we wanted. The dirt around the house is not typical red clay. It is some kind of sandy dirt. It was so hard I couldn’t push a shovel any deeper than 2-3” even by jumping on it with both feet. The grader had a hard time getting it down that far and digging the footers because the dirt was so hard. We originally moved in at the end of Nov in 2013. It immediately turned cold and I had to forget about planting grass that fall. I aerated and seeded in the spring, but most of it died by the end of August. Last fall I made three trips with my truck and trailer to the city dump for compost, and spread a 2-3” thick layer on top of the front yard. I then made three passes with my tiller in three different directions mixing it all in to a depth of about 6-8”. The grass germinated the quickest I have ever seen, and looked great. It looks awesome now too, but I’m worried about how it is going to hold up this summer.
 
drkelly said:
That is what happened with our yard. We built our house on the top of a hill, and 6ft of dirt had to be chopped off the top in order for it to fit where we wanted. The dirt around the house is not typical red clay. It is some kind of sandy dirt. It was so hard I couldn’t push a shovel any deeper than 2-3” even by jumping on it with both feet. The grader had a hard time getting it down that far and digging the footers because the dirt was so hard. We originally moved in at the end of Nov in 2013. It immediately turned cold and I had to forget about planting grass that fall. I aerated and seeded in the spring, but most of it died by the end of August. Last fall I made three trips with my truck and trailer to the city dump for compost, and spread a 2-3” thick layer on top of the front yard. I then made three passes with my tiller in three different directions mixing it all in to a depth of about 6-8”. The grass germinated the quickest I have ever seen, and looked great. It looks awesome now too, but I’m worried about how it is going to hold up this summer.
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Sounds like my situation. The idiot who did the grading (me :D) scraped off all the topsoil down to concrete hard clay with rocks in it. 2 season of planting and watching the grass die, I finally bit the bullet last fall and brought in 3 dumptruck loads of topsoil and put down a 3" thick layer. Planted, watered, let it grow. Looks great now, we'll see how it looks in July/August. I think the biggest factor will be watering it.
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I got this from a coworker who has a great lookin lawn. I started following this plan a couple of months ago. He said it takes about three years to transform a bad yard that has a lot of weeds and mixed crappy grass.


Tall Fescue Maintenance Schedule for established lawns in the North Carolina Piedmont region.
Between September 15th and October 1st:
  • Aerate and overseed
  • Use a blend of tall fescue cultivars at 4 pounds per thousand square feet. Keep the seedbed moist to ensure good germination.
  • Mow to 2 1/2 to 3 inches in height when needed.
Between October 1st and October 31st:
  • Fertilize using a complete nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (N-P-K) turf-grade fertilizer (12-4-8 or 16-4-8)if you’re on a tight budget 10-10-10 is okay 13-13-13 is better.
  • Check for white grubs in October; fall is the ideal time to control white grubs.
Between November 15th and December 15th
Best time to put down Lime, if needed
  • Fertilize (12-4-8 or 16-4-8) if you’re on a tight budget 10-10-10 is okay 13-13-13 is better
Between February 1st and February 15th
  • Apply a Crabgrass preventer (pre-emergent) and fertilizer. Or a Crabgrass preventer with fertilizer in it. Sta-green brand at Lowes is okay.
  • Mow before grass gets taller than 5 inches.
Between March 15th and April 15th
(About the time the dogwoods bloom)
  • Apply broadleaf herbicides to control dandelions and other weeds if necessary.
(“Spectracide Lawn Weed Killer Plus Crabgrass” works well with a hose end sprayer, or the kind that you attach the hose right to the bottle.)
  • Mow at 3 inches.
  • DO NOT fertilize tall fescue after March 15.
Between May 1st and May 15th
(or as late as early June)
  • Apply crab grass preventer (pre-emergent) to control crabgrass NO FERTILIZER
Between May 15th and September 15th
  • Raise mower height to 3 ½ to 4 inches.
  • DO NOT fertilize tall fescue at this time.
  • Avoid the use of herbicides at this time.
  • Irrigate when needed
This information was modified slightly from the NC state university website:
For more info see:
http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/Maintenance_Calendars.aspx#000017
 
drkelly said:
I got this from a coworker who has a great lookin lawn. I started following this plan a couple of months ago. He said it takes about three years to transform a bad yard that has a lot of weeds and mixed crappy grass.


Tall Fescue Maintenance Schedule for established lawns in the North Carolina Piedmont region.
Between September 15th and October 1st:
  • Aerate and overseed
  • Use a blend of tall fescue cultivars at 4 pounds per thousand square feet. Keep the seedbed moist to ensure good germination.
  • Mow to 2 1/2 to 3 inches in height when needed.
Between October 1st and October 31st:
  • Fertilize using a complete nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (N-P-K) turf-grade fertilizer (12-4-8 or 16-4-8)if you’re on a tight budget 10-10-10 is okay 13-13-13 is better.
  • Check for white grubs in October; fall is the ideal time to control white grubs.
Between November 15th and December 15th
Best time to put down Lime, if needed
  • Fertilize (12-4-8 or 16-4-8) if you’re on a tight budget 10-10-10 is okay 13-13-13 is better
Between February 1st and February 15th
  • Apply a Crabgrass preventer (pre-emergent) and fertilizer. Or a Crabgrass preventer with fertilizer in it. Sta-green brand at Lowes is okay.
  • Mow before grass gets taller than 5 inches.
Between March 15th and April 15th
(About the time the dogwoods bloom)
  • Apply broadleaf herbicides to control dandelions and other weeds if necessary.
(“Spectracide Lawn Weed Killer Plus Crabgrass” works well with a hose end sprayer, or the kind that you attach the hose right to the bottle.)
  • Mow at 3 inches.
  • DO NOT fertilize tall fescue after March 15.
Between May 1st and May 15th
(or as late as early June)
  • Apply crab grass preventer (pre-emergent) to control crabgrass NO FERTILIZER
Between May 15th and September 15th
  • Raise mower height to 3 ½ to 4 inches.
  • DO NOT fertilize tall fescue at this time.
  • Avoid the use of herbicides at this time.
  • Irrigate when needed
This information was modified slightly from the NC state university website:
For more info see:
http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/Maintenance_Calendars.aspx#000017
Click to expand...

Turffiles is a great resource
 
Ron said:
I have no idea how youve gone 9 years without replacing belts (deck drive and tractor drive belt), spindles or blades...but I am positive your yard is MUCH nicer tha mine.
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Apparently I bragged on my old mower too much, LOL. I started noticing a vibration from the mowing deck recently. The spindle bearings on the LHS are shot and the blade is wobbling around a bit. I found the whole spindle assembly on 'repairclinic.com' though for $30.
 
Yeah, spindle assemblies are cheap and easy to fix. The ones for my mower are even available through Amazon Prime.
 
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