Fixing other people's mistakes

[HamonsLandscape]

I signed on a new customer today for fertilization and weed control.

He was looking for someone to do the work for him because he had been messing things up trying to do it on his own. The most obvious think he has done is he has nice even brown stripes in his yard -- obviously from misuse of a badly aligned drop spreader.

Now --- How do I fix it? I have seen where you have darker shades of green because of overlap, but not brown stripes? Is this from overdose on the nitrogen do you think?

If so -- How doI make it go away. I'm going to be aerating a the beginning of March. IF I add more fertilizer that will just make it worse right? Do I need to reseed? I definitely want to fix it fast -- I don't want people thinking this is what "I" do to yards when they see me working

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Jeff Hamons
Hamons Custom Landscaping
Overladn park, KS

[excel25]

What type of grass , did you ask him what he put down??
How bout a soil sample?

[HamonsLandscape]

His lawn is primarily Bluegrass. He ovseeded it last year. He said he used a Scott's Starter Fertilizer and then a winterizer -- about 4 or 5 weeks apart.

I have collected a soil sample and that should be back soon. I wonder if I should of sampled only the burned portions? WOuld this have given me important data?



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Jeff Hamons
Hamons Custom Landscaping
Overland Park, KS

[Green in Idaho]

Compare the distance of the stripes to the width of the wheels on his mower...and the instensity of the dead streaks. I've seen homeowners run their mower tires through gas on the driveway and then of course mow the turf. Also really hot black mower wheels can burn an already stressed lawn.

Starter and winterizer fert are low in N and not so likely to burn. I would consider what else might have done the damage. Could be fert --could be something else. IF fert, watering the hell out the area disipates the N to allow for new growth and fill in. N precipitates more quickly than P & K so that's one way to reduce the toxic level.

Or just like a bad haircut, it'll grow back... take a picture of it now though and use it for a marketing later...if the owner is cool about it:

Kmart spreader $49.99
Bag of Fertilizer $19.00
Your neighbors laughing at you every weekend... priceless.- Should've called Hamons.

Mark
mark@idahoaccounting.com

[GreenQuest Lawn]

Does it look like this?

This was a lawn that I picked up last spring, I was about to fert it, which you can see it needed it, it was a new lawn that was overwatered and in desprate need on some nito.

Anyway someone, the week before I took it over, came in and fertilized it, only problem was they did the wrong yard, and did a pi$$ poor job at that.

My fix was to first run the small push spreader in the dull areas (light green/brown areas), this helped ALOT, then about three weeks later I put on an evenly distributed light application of fert. We also kept the sprinklers on high to speed up our results. After about 3-4 weeks it looked good again.

[HamonsLandscape]

His yard looks very much like that -- except thankfully the brown parts were less than the green parts. He doesn't have an irrigation system -- but I will try to get him to water some more.

My plan is - to aerate and overseed the lawn very soon and then fertilize with a low dose of high P starter. Then -- wait a couple weeks and fertilize again with a low N fertilizer and try to get it looking nice again.

GREEN: loved your ad idea -- it's so true.


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Jeff Hamons
Hamons Custom Landscaping
Overladn Park, KS

[Green in Idaho]

That photo is a classic!

Todd,
Could you please e-mail me a copy to use in my community education class (w/ yopur permission)? I do one class on native and organic lawn care, and then a separate one titled Landscapes- the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I think you can guess where that one fits.

Mark
mark@idahoaccounting.com

[GreenQuest Lawn]

Mark,

Picture has been sent, go ahead and show what happens when you do not apply fert the right way.