# Lawnboy 25's 2020 Lawn Care Journal



## Lawnboy25 (Aug 31, 2019)

Hey everyone. So its early April and spring is here in my neck of the woods. This will be my first "published" full-season Lawn Care Journal, so please feel free to make comments and or suggestions as you see fit. Cheers!

March 27, 2020

Lengthy walk around my property today inspecting for winter damage etc. Removed several smaller tree branches and twigs I discovered multiple holes dug up by skunks? who seem to have been looking for grubs. I didn't think grubs were active until later in the summer. I also have a VOLE issue/infestation. Multiple runways leading to burrows and into gardens cover the front garden area and part of the front yard, and also same conditions present in the back yard. I purchased mousetraps and baited with peanut butter, however my first attempts didn't yield any success. I will keep trying.

March 28, 2020

Today I walked around the property and took approximately 2 dozen soil temperature readings using a digital meat thermometer. Temps ranged between 43F and 46F. I also did a little raking using my thatch rake. I will get the de-thatcher out of the shed and use it when the ground dries up a little more. We received some rain over the last several days and I want that to dry up a little before stressing out the ground too much.

April 1, 2020

April Fool's Day. Kinda hard to believe, or maybe not, but my old JD garden tractor started up on the first attempt today after i put in fresh gasoline. Last year it took me half an hour to get it started. I let it run for 15 mins then shut it down and cleaned it up a little, and filled the tires with air. My neighbour has offered to let me use his lawn roller, so I may just do that tomorrow. I need to do a little more work on my tow-behind de-thatcher and aerator this week, and get some other maintenance (spark plug and oil change, blade sharpening and lubrication) completed before cutting starts soon. I also took multiple soil temperature readings today and they have improved to 49F to 51F in various locations around my property.

April 2, 2020

Today was a great day. Sunny with a nice breeze. I think we got up to 14C here today. So today I managed to get my entire lawn de-thatched. I made 1 pass, then another at a 90 degree angle to get more thatch out of the grass. It worked pretty well. Tomorrow I will sweep it all up and dispose of it. I also got my Lawnboy push mower cleaned up, changed spark plug, cleaned oil filter and switched out the mulch system for the rear bag system. Bought new gas and it started up right away. Still need to sharpen the blade, but have time for that.

April 3, 2020

Took multiple soil temps today. Range from 51F to 57F.

April 7, 2020

Used large steel roller filled with water to attempt to flatten out some of the bumps on the front yard. No real improvement as the ground was likely too dry.

Began and completed lawn aeration today. First, located and marked all irrigation sprinkler heads so I wouldn't run over them with core aerator. Used a crisscross pattern to get the most number of cores as possible. Afterwards, I took a screwdriver and dug out several of the sprinkler heads that were semi-buried by grass and soil. Gleaned up garden tractor afterwards.


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