After paying TruGreen and Scott’s lawn services (at different times) to treat our lawn with unknown substances, and not being satisfied, I figured I’d try my hand at my own lawn care – here is a program referred to me by a friend. I started it in the Winter/Spring of 2015 – let’s see how it goes.
February 1 (no later):
Spread corn gluten meal. For my yard, ~4000 sq ft, I use two bags. It needs to be wet down in order to “stick”, so I run my sprinkler test pattern (1 minute per station) twice.
(Update – previously, I did this in late-February, but in the Spring the yard was still very weedy, so I figured doing it earlier in the year would be better. We’ll see how this goes.)
Two weeks later (no sooner):
Spread fertilizer.
For my yard, I use one 25-lb bag.Spread Ladybug Brand 8-2-4 fertilizer.
Update: my store no longer carries Ladybug fertilizer, so I used what their new recommendation is, Good Natured 10-1-1 Natural Poultry Fertilizer. One 40-lb bag covers my ~4000 sq ft yard.
Spray with Foilar Spray. This is a concoction mixed in the sprayer bottle: 8 oz of Ladybug Brand John’s Recipe and 2 oz Agrispon. Since this is too thick to be sprayed easily out of the nozzle of the bottle I have, I dilute it by filling the rest of the 16 oz spray bottle with water.
May (15th?):
Spray with Foilar Spray.
July (15th?):
Spread Fertilizer.
Spray with Foilar Spray.
September (15th?):
Spray with Foilar Spray.
Spread corn gluten meal.
(Update – previously, I did this in mid-October, but in the Spring the yard was still very weedy, so I figured doing it earlier in the year would be better, and doing so was recommended by someone at the store who seemed to know what she was talking about. We’ll see how this goes.)
Late October – Early November:
Spread fertilizer.
Spray with Foilar Spray.