# What made you start giving a damn about your lawn?



## ryeguy (Sep 28, 2017)

Topic title says it all. At what point did you start caring for your lawn beyond just mowing or outsourcing the work?


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

We moved into our house at the end of 2014. First year I just mowed it with a zero turn at probably around 3". Second growing season I hired a company to spray my yard, $100 later I decided I could build a sprayer and do it myself and have it pay for itself within a few sprays. While researching how to build a sprayer I was also researching what the correct HOC was for my grass type. I soon bought a 20" manual reel and absolutely loved how much better the grass looked. I've been hooked ever since and just keep upgrading equipment.


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Ha-ha (and ha-ha, again) what a ringer for a thread topic!!! :thumbup:

Verrrrrry simple; being taken by the hand and introduced to a small push mower when I was so small I could only push it by using the mid-way bar (no sh*t, I hadta been in 1st or 2nd grade because by 3rd grade I was doing neighbors for spending money; I guess Social Services 'd be called nowadays but, with 8 people in the family and a Pentagon assignment that had him home less than he was underground, my Dad did the right thing as we lived in a neighborhood where the conditions of a mans yard were as important as the shine on his shoes.)

Man, that was back when gasoline SMELLED LIKE REAL GASOLINE, too! :lol:

Anyway, seeing as to how my first "fix" was about time I learned to tie my own shoelaces, I will carry the one-of-a-kind , only-way-you-can-git-it feeling overwhelming sense of satisfaction of turning around and appreciating a tight, freshly mowed stand of KBG / TTTF to my grave.

Yep, that's it fer me!


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Great thread topic!

Like 440, I was hooked when my dad let me "help" him. I would follow him with my push bubble mower. When I got a little older I would mow for my dad who worked crazy hours. I enjoyed the mowing and the jump in the pool after finishing. I also loved when my dad would come home and say how good it looked. When I got my own house I was hooked and now I am obsessed, although you wouldn't know it by looking at my lawn. :|


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

I have always enjoyed mowing! As a kid, it didn't matter if I was on my Grandmothers Craftman Rider, or behind my Dads Snapper Push Mower!

It was 2010-2011ish when I started to research on Garden Web about lawn care. We moved to a nicer home in 2012. I noticed everyone in the area had their lawn sprayed that spring, it was peer pressure... I knew it was game on!


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

I got tired of mowing weeds. Although I still mow weeds occasionally.


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## TigerinFL (Mar 29, 2018)

started as a very young kid cutting our grass. then got asked by a bunch of the old church ladies if I'd cut their grass? my mom had to take me over there because I wasn't even close to driving age. this was way before self propelled mowers or weed eaters. hell I can remember being on my hands and knees edging along the side walk with nothing but a pair of old rusty grass shears every freaking week!!!

and you best not miss a spot because some of those old ladies were sitting there watching you like a hawk! I think I got a few bucks per lawn.

but it did teach me about having pride in my work and in a crazy way I always liked being able to look at what I had just accomplished.


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## Llano Estacado (Jul 18, 2017)

Just got tired of the grass being too tall all year which led to a murderous spring scalp. So I started researching a little and learned it needed to be cut shorter, which led to realizing I had the wrong type of mower, which led to buying and rebuilding a Trucut reel mower Then came the life changing moment I learned about PGR. Now I'm doing my own chemical apps since I've got the spray rig to do PGR. I'm also now rebuilding my second Trucut. The lawn used to be something something I hated messing with is now more like therapy.


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## chrismar (May 25, 2017)

My wife and I purchased our first house in 2005. It was a 1/2 a duplex. The owner of the other half was the grounds manager. He worked so hard, but he sucked at it. It would look decent in the spring and fall, and turn to garbage during the summer months. It was a lack of water. I tried taking it over, but it resulted in double fert apps and hurt feelings, so I backed off and concentrated on the back yard. Did a full reno in 2008 (who remembers galaxy blend kbg?), mind you at 600 SF it wasn't a huge chore.

We sold that house and bought a new one in 2015. Went from 600 SF of lawn to over 20,000 SF of lawn. Did a full reno of those 20,000+ SF in late summer of 2015. It was A LOT of work. I was determined to not be like my neighbor and work so hard for a sh*tty lawn.

So far, 3 seasons later, I think I've got the hang of it. We'll see how it looks this year if winter ever ends.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

I think my first post in my renovation thread explained it. That and I realized its faster to mow grass than weeds. 😊


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## TulsaFan (May 1, 2017)

I have always cared about how my yard looks. I owned a mower, edger, string trimmer, blower, and hand fertilizer.

However, the turning point for me was last year when I rented a trencher to connect my gutter downspouts underground. I made the split decision to put down meyer zoysia due to little sun on the side of the house (hoping it would do better than my existing common bermuda). Having no experience with Zoysia, I did research and found The Lawn Forum. This site opened my eyes to another level of lawn care. The benchmark set by all of you was something that I didn't know existed. So, the reason I started giving a damn was the fantastic examples of lawns provided by the TLF members.


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## gatormac2112 (Sep 14, 2017)

I have always hated yard work, primarily because I was made to do it when I wanted to be doing something else with my friends. As an adult, I have tried repeatedly to hire someone to do the work of giving me a nice yard....nobody seems capable of doing a good job even when I'm paying a lot of money for it.

I decided I had to do it myself. I actually enjoy doing it now.


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## TC2 (Sep 15, 2017)

I used to be fascinated watching my grandad mow his lawn with a gas powered reel. Loved the way it threw the grass in the catcher.

I finally acquired my own lawn last year and I just wanted it to be good. It also gives me a good excuse to get out! Did a lot of research and had getting a reel in the back of my mind but it was finding this forum that gave me the push needed. It's certainly a beast of a machine in a way that no other mower really matches up to (triplexes excepted  ). Love it!


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## Bunnysarefat (May 4, 2017)

Hank Hill and when I went golfing at Pointe Golf Club on Lookout Mountain in Arizona, I fell in love. The contrast of the desert and Bermuda was amazing. I captured this photo to remember the moment.


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## Thela_cordero51 (Apr 15, 2018)

After years of traveling the states and renting homes with crappy yards I finally own a home and am all about making it look good. It's therapeutic .


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

My daughter asked, "Why don't we have a nice yard? Karleys dad works at the grocery store, they have a nice yard. You're a landscaper!" Challenge accepted!


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

wayneschmagel said:


> My daughter asked, "Why don't we have a nice yard? Karleys dad works at the grocery store, they have a nice yard. You're a landscaper!" Challenge accepted!


Ouch, she's ruthless


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

J_nick said:


> wayneschmagel said:
> 
> 
> > My daughter asked, "Why don't we have a nice yard? Karleys dad works at the grocery store, they have a nice yard. You're a landscaper!" Challenge accepted!
> ...


Most kids are lol :lol: #nofilter


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## kds (Apr 28, 2017)

I wish I had a good, inspiring story, but when I was a kid mowing the lawn, I just liked making stripes.


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## Topcat (Mar 21, 2017)

It is in my DNA. My grandfather owned a landscaping business that focused on KBG Sod installation. My Father worked with my grandfather part time. My father was the original lawn nut. He manicured his lawn and ALWAYS had the best looking lawn on the block. Fast forward a few years. When I bought my first home, I had to make my Dad's lawn look like child's play, so it started, and I've not looked back.


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## Killsocket (Mar 16, 2018)

Growing up in the country as a kid, I mostly cut weeds with a crap lawnmower really low. I didn't care and just did it as a chore. Once I became a home owner in my mid twenties, I still didn't care. I mowed low thinking I might get two weeks out of a cut. Didn't know much about taking care of tools and mowers. Never fertilized. Never watered. Never cared.

Enter some life changes (divorce), and living in some townhomes where I still didn't have to care about lawn care, I finally have a house again last summer. I still didn't know anything. I bought a Ryobi 40V mower. I have too big a yard for that.

So, where did I start giving a damn about my lawn? Good or bad, I was on youtube and saw a Lawn Care Nut video. Not sure how I got to it, but I watched it. And then I watched more. And something clicked. This was before he was into his RGS and $$$ stuff he's into now. Now I am obsessed. And now I am always awaiting Ryan Knorr and grassdaddy videos. I am learning every day and loved what little I did last year (weed control pump spray, aerate, milorganite, and a Lesco fall feeding). I kick myself for not overseeding last year, but I was worried about putting down the wrong seed, so all winter I have been studying for this year.

I think I have a pretty decent plan. And now that we hit 60 degrees, I am chomping at the bit to start my plan this year. I love this stuff. I for sure am a late comer, but better late than never!

Oh yeah. I got a Honda lawn mower from a buddy's dad I will be using for the first time this year. Excited.


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## Cory (Aug 23, 2017)

Grew up on 5 acres, as long as I can remember I have been mowing grass. As an adult I have always kept what I thought was a nice lawn, now I realize it was just a little above average. Bought our current house this time last year, the builder sodded with Bermuda and its the first time I have ever had a lawn with it. All the houses we have owned or rented have had a fescue/bluegrass blend. Our house sat finished for about 10 months before we bought it from the builder and in that time the builder didnt fertilize Or do anything to keep the weeds out of the sod. It was a challenge from the beginning and knowing nothing about Bermuda probably made it worse. I was getting frustrated with my results mid summer last year, started doing some research, stumbled on NC states turf files and TLF, realized I was doing it all wrong and have went all out lawn nut since. Although it hasn't happened yet, the challenge of keeping reel low Bermuda is what pushed me over the edge.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Huge thumbs-up to @ryeguy for a great topic.

I mowed lawns when I was a kid to earn extra money. That's when I learned about working hard, setting goals, and saving money. But mowing was something I didn't really enjoy.
I did have an eye for a well-manicured lawn, though. Back in 2007 or so, I came across a forum where someone was talking about waking up one morning and admiring their stand of bluegrass--only to come across a weed just visible in the distance. At the time I remember thinking, "That's going too far;" I don't even know why I was looking at a lawn forum.

More recently, I've had weedy lawns, but I took a lot of pride in mowing. I thought mowing was the primary way of making one's property look really nice. 
And then I moved into my current house, which is in a neighborhood filled with very impressive lawns. When we moved in, a lot about the house disappointed us. The lawn had been seeded when we moved in. When my wife saw the seed germinate, she was thrilled. Shortly therefore, though, the lawn was filled with weeds.

Then, a lawn service company stopped by to tell my wife that they could fix our lawn over the course of three years. That is what set me in motion: With her disappointments with the rest of the house, I wanted to give my wife something that would make her feel better about our move--and I sure as heck wasn't going to let someone else give her that. I got informed, got busy, and then got hooked.

And it didn't take me three years.


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## Rackhouse Mayor (Sep 4, 2017)

I never had a lawn growing up, and I was jealous of all of my friends that got to mow their parents' grass. Once I bought my first home I had to have the best lawn on the block. Now I'm starting over with the biggest and worst lawn I've ever had, but, challenge accepted.


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## gatormac2112 (Sep 14, 2017)

I will say that this season has been nothing but a bunch of roadblocks, from weather to technical issues to equipment failure, I cannot get out of the starting blocks. It makes me not want to give a damn anymore.


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## wardconnor (Mar 25, 2017)

Owning my own home.


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## Rackhouse Mayor (Sep 4, 2017)

gatormac2112 said:


> I will say that this season has been nothing but a bunch of roadblocks, from weather to technical issues to equipment failure, I cannot get out of the starting blocks. It makes me not want to give a damn anymore.


I know the feeling. Keep at it man. Things have never come easily for me. Perseverance has always been my key to success. Just show up every day and try. It'll come together.


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## zinger565 (Nov 28, 2017)

We bought our first home 2 years ago. I spent the last few summers mowing weeds, dust, and icing my hands after going over the bumpy lawn. @FuzzeWuzze mentioned lawn care on the homebrewing reddit and I fell down the rabbit hole. We have a corner lot on a busy street in a historical neighborhood. Lots of pressure to perform!


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

I grew up on roughly 3,000 acres of ground used to raise registered black Angus cattle. Then I got a summer job at the farm/estate down the road, another 800 acres or so. In addition to our own backyard (we were farm tenants), I mowed the barnyard, and weed-wacked -miles- of fencelines, roadsides, and laneways. My dad did not think a bush hog was necessary since he already had a weedeater and a teenager. :lol:

After I took the job on the estate, I was primarily a groundskeeper, and just mowing, trimming, and bush-hogging would fill up most of my week. Whatever was leftover was spent detailing some pretty nice cars, working the farm, or performing whatever odd-jobs were in need at the time.

Here's a link to the farm/estate, they say 600 acres, pretty sure they aren't counting any of the "satellite" properties (staff housing usually) that were also maintained. Place is for sale, roughly $27M last time I checked.

https://youtu.be/gt9suVZbE7s

I learned a lot about working and putting forth my best effort working for LTF. But I really stated to care about "next level" results after I started working for a pruvate golf course around 2008 or so. Even after I was gainfully employed elsewhere, I still worked the course every chance I got. For therapy, for fun, and perhaps a bit of firewood here and there. (This was in NY).


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

@MasterMech that's utterly ridiculous. The amount of opulence is gorgeous, and it made me think that it might have been someone from the Vanderbilt family that got all that old money to build that place. Where were the private polo grounds?


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## skiwhe (Apr 18, 2017)

kds said:


> I wish I had a good, inspiring story, but when I was a kid mowing the lawn, I just liked making stripes.


I was the same way. I even drew shapes in the lawn with the mower as a kid. I have always enjoyed getting outside and working on the lawn, but I have never had bermuda until we moved into this house in 2013. I felt like I had mastered St. Augustine in the old house and all my STA tricks were doing nothing to my bermuda, so I vowed two years ago to either master bermuda or tear it all out and replant with STA. That's how I found this forum and the LCN on youtube. In the winter of 2016 I read and watched every lawn video (especially bermuda) that I could and last year my bermuda was tamed. It is now the ALPHA LAWN and has become even more of an obession. I still haven't mastered it, but I think that is the beauty of bermuda, there's always something else to do to bring it up another notch.


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## Sinclair (Jul 25, 2017)

We used our house, which we bought in 2015, to host our wedding reception last August, so I had spring and summer to fix the weed filled lawn.

I found LCN on YouTube and watched every video that was relevant to cool season grass.

Now I'm obsessed with having the best lawn on the street and in the town.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Colonel K0rn said:


> @MasterMech that's utterly ridiculous. The amount of opulence is gorgeous, and it made me think that it might have been someone from the Vanderbilt family that got all that old money to build that place. Where were the private polo grounds?


Millbrook is definitely equestrian territory. The property owner is a big name (with old money) indeed, her brother owns the NY Jets.  Unfortunately she passed last June, hence the place is for sale.


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## zinger565 (Nov 28, 2017)

Sinclair said:


> We used our house, which we bought in 2015, to host our wedding reception last August, so I had spring and summer to fix the weed filled lawn.
> 
> I found LCN on YouTube and watched every video that was relevant to cool season grass.
> 
> Now I'm obsessed with having the best lawn on the street and in the town.


Weddings can be great motivators, haha. I too fell down the LCN rabbit hole, and others as well.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

My lawn journey began back in 2004 after recently getting married to TOG and returning back to Fort Bragg after a year in South Korea. I ended up finding a house to rent and after moving in we decided that we need to start taking care of the lawn since it basically represents us and how we live. It also didn't hurt that the other neighbors around us were always out taking care of their own lawns to a certain degree, so I felt like I needed to up my lawn game since I knew nothing about lawns and grew up in the North with Cool Season grasses. I also enjoyed playing golf and always admired the grass at the golf courses I played at.

So, like many of us here Is started out with the Scott's 4 step program since that is what was pushed at the local big box stores. I also bought a few of the lawn care books they sell there by Scott's and a few others. I ended up doing a lot to that rental house as I replaced a lot of the landscaping on my own and was constantly fertilizing and spraying weeds in the lawn and watering it with a hose end sprinkler. I had also created an account on the lawn forum over at Scott's which is where this whole Forum obsession started too  I also created an account on GW but for some reason I was never able to post over there, so I would just read and try to educate myself.

After a year of renting we decided to build/buy our current and first house and I was trying to decide on what kind of grass I wanted but couldn't really decide between KBG and Bermuda. I didn't know at the time that KBG wouldn't fair really well here but I like the ability of it to spread and fill in bare areas. Obviously I ended up going with Bermuda but at the time didn't know about all the different cultivars that were available. I also knew I didn't want Centipede as I have never really liked the look or feel of it. At this time there wasn't a whole lot of information out there about turf grasses for homeowners and most of it seemed geared towards Cool Season grasses for some reason.

We moved into our house in February of 2006 and they laid Bermuda sod that was dormant in the front and seeded a rye/bermuda mix in the back yard. Well, needless to say, once Spring rolled around and the lawn started to green up, the backyard didn't fair so well and was basically a mud pit. So the wife and I decided to sod the backyard and we called the place the builder got the sod from to find out exactly what kind of Bermuda it was and they said it was Tifway 419, so that is what we ordered. Funny thing about the day the sod was being delivered is that while we were waiting for the truck to show up, the Kirby salesman happened to stop by and I was like "I'm having sod delivered here soon so as soon as it gets here I'm leaving to go install it, so you can go ahead with your sales pitch but I'm leaving when it gets here." Well low and behold he was towards the end of the sales pitch trying to get me to buy one of his overpriced machines and I had talked him down quite a bit and the sod showed up and I was like BYE!!!, got to go and left him with the wife . Needless to say we never bought that machine. TOG and I installed the sod that day while she was pregnant with our son and we got about 5K of sod down just as the sun was setting.

So after being on the Scott's forum, some of the members there started another forum called LawnSmarts, so I signed up there and was just trying to absorb as much information as I could to get my lawn as nice as possible. In the beginning I was just using a rotary mower and pounding the bermuda with at least 1 pound of Nitrogen a month and spot spraying weeds. It also seemed like I was always experimenting with something and willing to try anything to get my lawn to the next level. I pretty much stayed this route for several years and still had the best lawn in the neighborhood while mowing at 2-3". After doing some more research, I found out about TruCut reel mowers and what a superior cut they provided and how going lower with bermuda would make it thicker.

During 2009 while deployed in Iraq, I was online looking for more information on TruCut's and bermuda in general and stumbled across Bestlawn.info and saw a lot of familiar faces(avatars) over there and decided to sign up since LawnSmarts was becoming more of a hangout for people to BS than to talk about lawns and answer questions. So I signed up and took another step down the rabbit hole 

While deployed in Iraq I decided I was going to buy a TruCut when I got back which was towards the end of 2009 which is when I bought the mower and had to wait until Spring of 2010 to actually use it. I think this is when I really started to get serious about my lawn and wanted to take it to the next level and I ended up purchasing basically most of the equipment that I currently am using now. I did away with all my corded edger and blower and the Craftsman Weed Eater I had locked up and decided to covert everything over to Stihl which is one of the best decisions I have made as they have lasted me quite a long while with minimal maintenance. While cutting the lawn with a reel mower was great and it gave the lawn a great look it just created more issues as I was getting grain in the lawn which required me start mowing higher towards the end of the season. I knew there had to be a better way and the search continued.

Towards the end of 2014 while I was looking at getting a greens mower with a groomer attachment which I thought would help control the grain in the lawn, I stumbled upon a Baroness greens mower on sale on eBay for $2000 but it was in a pawn shop in FL. There was another member on ATY at the time that was interested in it too but they PM'd me and said go ahead and buy it as they were looking else where or for something a little different. After calling the pawn shop and talking to the owner, I felt pretty good about the purchase and decided to jump in as it was basically Brand New and only had .6 hours on the meter. I also knew that they go for about 5-6 times as much brand new so I was getting a hell of deal. I bought it and it was one of the best purchases I have made for my lawn to date.

This is basically where I am now and still trying to figure everything out but I feel like I'm almost to the point where I can stop experimenting with things and try to get into a maintenance mode sort of and refine my routine. I know this post was VERY long but just thought I should be as thorough as possible so you all will know my journey to how I am where I am in my journey.


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## Txag12 (Apr 22, 2018)

Mine love started with watching the Masters and seeing Augusta National on tv when I was a kid. After being completely amazed by the course and it's beauty I tried to recreate that look with my parents lawn; very unsuccessfully. Went to school got a degree in Agronomy and now love trying new things in my yard.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Txag12 said:


> Mine love started with watching the Masters and seeing Augusta National on tv when I was a kid. After being completely amazed by the course and it's beauty I tried to recreate that look with my parents lawn; very unsuccessfully. Went to school got a degree in Agronomy and now love trying new things in my yard.


With those pictures you posted in another thread, I was thinking it had to have been from a textbook  Glad to have you here.


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## Txag12 (Apr 22, 2018)

Colonel K0rn said:


> Txag12 said:
> 
> 
> > Mine love started with watching the Masters and seeing Augusta National on tv when I was a kid. After being completely amazed by the course and it's beauty I tried to recreate that look with my parents lawn; very unsuccessfully. Went to school got a degree in Agronomy and now love trying new things in my yard.
> ...


Lol. Thanks for having me.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

gatormac2112 said:


> I will say that this season has been nothing but a bunch of roadblocks, from weather to technical issues to equipment failure, I cannot get out of the starting blocks. It makes me not want to give a damn anymore.


The weather kind of sucked the life out of me the last few weeks, but I did notice it's going to be 80F+ starting next week. Plus I know that I'm usually in a great mood after working outside. Cheers to warmer weather. It can't get here soon enough.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

My wife and I bought a house and we wanted the yard to be a useable space for kids and social time with friends.

My yard as a child was a yard of weeds. We knew how to manage a flower bed and grow a garden but couldn't manage a lawn. I was confident I could do better.

I spend a lot of my free time on really nice soccer fields, so I have been spoiled and wondered why I could not make my lawn look the same.

The primary driving factor - pride of ownership. I wanted to turn around a completely overgrown yard into something beautiful through my own sweat equity rather than just applying ink to a checkbook and watching someone else do the work.


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## Jericho574 (May 24, 2017)

Moved into a new neighborhood two years ago. Noticed one home down the street had really short grass and since I love golf, I immediately fell in love. Saw his funny looking mower (mclane 10-blade) and started researching. Found this site and the rest is history.

As a secondary reason to love lawncare, it's because I have young kids (4 and almost 2). I basically had to give up my golfing hobby because it just took too long. I simply swapped out one hobby for another


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## Sam23 (May 2, 2018)

I saw a little house in our neighborhood have a beautiful lawn of St. Augustine. I live in a poorer neighborhood where most people do not care about their lawns so this one really stood out. It made me envious I asked myself "Why can't I do that?"


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