# Lawn Neighbor Sam's Journal



## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

🎙_Thanks TLF, moderators, founders, and members of this inspiring platform. I've taken on many tasks and projects because of this website. I'm excited for the future and loving the journey. Really happy I found The Lawn Forum._

*Goals*​_<6 Months_
• Take all trees along left side of lot down (after winter)
• Dig out 12 inches deep where trees used to be and fill up with quality soil to promote new grass in place
• Aerate entire lot in spring after trees are down, newseed, overseed, and fertilize
• Get rid of all brown dead patches across lot and grow lush deep dark green throughout
• Train new HOC 2.5"
• Mow for the first time
• Change blade, oil, and gas, on Lawn-Boy (10641)
• Level any uneven areas of lot
_...more goals to come_

_1 Year_
• Vacate old alley with the city and expand left side lawn into newly acquired square footage
_...more goals to come_

_1-3 Years_
• Buy neighbors house behind us and expand house, lawn, and lot to an additional 5,000 sq ft
• Buy another house with at least 2-3 acres in another town and dominate that town
_...more goals to come_


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Reserved

*Before & After Success*​


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Reserved


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Reserved


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Reserved


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

Why are you waiting until after winter to take the trees down? Tree services would be happy to get the business in the winter, and if you're looking to trim up anything else on the property structurally, winter is a _much_ healthier time to do it for those trees.

It doesn't really matter when you fell a tree, though high demand might equal higher prices. When you trim a tree, winter is the best time for shaping it structurally, and summer is the best time to identify and prune dead out of trees. Spring is the worst time to prune living trees (assuming you'll bundle some of that into the felling).


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

samjonester said:


> Why are you waiting until after winter to take the trees down? Tree services would be happy to get the business in the winter, and if you're looking to trim up anything else on the property structurally, winter is a _much_ healthier time to do it for those trees.
> 
> It doesn't really matter when you fell a tree, though high demand might equal higher prices. When you trim a tree, winter is the best time for shaping it structurally, and summer is the best time to identify and prune dead out of trees. Spring is the worst time to prune living trees (assuming you'll bundle some of that into the felling).


Wow I never knew that. Thanks for letting me know. We picked after winter just because of other priorities we have. But you mentioned they can chop during winter? We may do that if the snow isn't too bad


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

> other priorities


It's amazing the way life eats into our lawncare and landscaping budgets! :lol:

If the ground is frozen hard, then you won't be able to get the stumps ground (if that's something your doing), but other than that it can be done whenever.

If the funds are already allocated elsewhere this winter, I would wait until summer. You'll have to stare at the bare ground for less time while you wait for fall seeding time.


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

You've got a beautiful house BTW, you'll be very happy when you open up the property a bit. Trees are nice, but can easily dominate a suburban lot IMO. I was very happy to get rid of one last February and double my usable backyard space.


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

samjonester said:


> If the ground is frozen hard, then you won't be able to get the stumps ground (if that's something your doing)


Yeah the company we are using said they'll be grinding the stumps out too


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

samjonester said:


> You've got a beautiful house BTW, you'll be very happy when you open up the property a bit. Trees are nice, but can easily dominate a suburban lot IMO. I was very happy to get rid of one last February and double my usable backyard space.


Thanks man I'm excited! They're taking not only a good amount of space up and offering way too much shade, but they're also not even at the end of the lot which makes the land opposite of them (further left) pretty much useless! I gotta check your tree removal out is it in your journal?


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

LawnNeighborSam said:


> samjonester said:
> 
> 
> > You've got a beautiful house BTW, you'll be very happy when you open up the property a bit. Trees are nice, but can easily dominate a suburban lot IMO. I was very happy to get rid of one last February and double my usable backyard space.
> ...


Unfortunately, I wasn't on TLF when I took it down :/


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Sam, your property already looks neat and well-kept. Did you plant the Midnight yourself, or did you just happen to move in to a house that had an elite bluegrass? :mrgreen:



LawnNeighborSam said:


> Buy neighbors house behind us and expand house, lawn, and lot to an additional 5,000 sq ft
> • Buy another house with at least 2-3 acres in another town and dominate that town
> ...more goals to come


I've also thought about buying the 1/2 acre lot behind my house--mostly because I want more area to mow. I didn't buy it, though. Over time I have come to be thankful of that because of the extra time and financial commitment the extra property would involve.

Empty lots still tempt me very much, though. No houses. No fences. No gardens. No trees. Just grass and mowing patterns limited only by the capacity for imagination. :thumbup:


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

social port said:


> Sam, your property already looks neat and well-kept. Did you plant the Midnight yourself, or did you just happen to move in to a house that had an elite bluegrass?


Thanks man I was really happy with the builder and still keep in touch with him regularly. He did a beautiful job on the outside and inside of the house. They graded the lot really well and I think used KBG sod. I just overseeded with midnight KBG earlier this month.


social port said:


> I've also thought about buying the 1/2 acre lot behind my house--mostly because I want more area to mow. I didn't buy it, though. Over time I have come to be thankful of that because of the extra time and financial commitment the extra property would involve.


I'm doing it because we have a very small backyard and large front and side yards. To even things out and have us not right up against our neighbor


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

samjonester said:


> LawnNeighborSam said:
> 
> 
> > I gotta check your tree removal out is it in your journal?
> ...


All good - do you have grass now in its place? How'd it grow? Any problems? Did you have the stump grinded out


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

I did grind the stump, then tried to seed in the spring, and between washouts, weed pressure, and summer heat, the area got overtaken with crabgrass. The tree was in my back yard, and that crabgrass takeover was a main contributor in my decision to kill everything and reno this fall.

I have a feeling that grinding the stump didnt go deep enough. It was a huge maple with a 36" diameter stump. I will probably have issues with the spot during our hot dry July. I'm planning on going heavy with Milo in that spot for a few years. I want to give the decomposing wood extra Nitrogen and promote the microbial breakdown.

Even if it's a struggle to keep grass there, I'm still glad I did it because I have a lot more usable yard for the kids.

I circled the area where the tree was in a shot from my reno journal today. Next summer will be the test for that section of grass! I'll add a better photo of it to my journal next time I take pictures.


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Mowed for the first time today!!! I love mowing!!! And used this awesome manual edger my neighbor gave me


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Couldn't wait to get back out there today. Mowed again - man I love this so fun



I think we'll be canceling our company. He's gonna come Wednesday and be like who did you hire haha


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Looks awesome! Stripes look great. What are you using?

Have you been spoon feeding nitrogen?


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

Harts said:


> Looks awesome! Stripes look great. What are you using?
> 
> Have you been spoon feeding nitrogen?


Thanks so much @Harts!! I love this dude. I'm using my Lawn-Boy (Model 10641) and a technique I learned from watching the @LawnCareNut on YouTube. It's the double fats striping method. You end up making like 3 passes by the time you move over to the next strip.

I'll try to explain, bear with these directions lol. It's basically up once for your first stripe, then start coming down the next line with a little overlap of your first up, and then when it's time to go up again you go next to the first up but over the furthest wheel track overlap and then come back around to start the second, and then finally you come up one final time up the first line but in between both up's.

There was one up (slightly to the right) then another up (slightly to the left) and then a final up (in between both of those). All the meanwhile you are creating the stripes to the left and right of those simultaneously

I know that sounded confusing as heck - it took me two mowing days to get it right, but I'll try to find the video. It's where Allyn leaves his camera running the entire time for an uncut edit lawn stripping video.

And I'm new here so sorry I don't know what spoon feeding nitrogen means if you can please explain? I just threw two bags of milorganite down about 3-4 weeks ago when I over seeded with some Midnight KBG. And I mow on the setting in between the lowest and highest on my mower. There's like 7-8 height tabs I choose from I just went in the middle


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## LawnNeighborSam (Aug 14, 2018)

After today's mow



Cheers 🍻


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

That explanation is perfect. I typically mow single/double stripes. Are you using a lawn roller attached to your mower?

Check the the Fall N blitz thread. In a nutshell, now is the best time to feed your lawn nitrogen. You want a fast release source - Urea is the most popular and cheapest.

Basically you want to give you lawn 1lb of nitrogen per rolling month until your grass stops growing - for you and me, that will be sometime around the end of this month to beginning of Nov. There are two ways you can do this:

0.25 lb of N every week (1lb of N over 4 weeks)
or
0.5 lb N bi weekley (also 1lb N over 4 weeks)

Your lawn will love the nitrogen this time of year and you should experience a quicker green up next Spring.

Here is the thread


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Yes, I agree that looks awesome. Keep up the good work



LawnNeighborSam said:


> ... a technique I learned from watching the @LawnCareNut on YouTube. It's the double fats striping method. You end up making like 3 passes by the time you move over to the next strip.
> 
> I'll try to explain, bear with these directions lol. ...


Even though I've watched the video before, that description is as confusing as can be! 

If anybody wants to try the double fats striping method, they should just watch the video, linked below.


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