ChemLawn secrets?

Bird · Aug 18, 2004

( if you don't have water either by rain or irrigation, it does not matter what you put or anyone else applies. )

Very true. I mowed 5 lawns yesterday. Mine and my daughter's needed mowing bad, but the other three only barely needed it because they had not been watered. And of course, after mowing, I ran 2 sprinklers the rest of the day on ours.

buckle97 · Aug 18, 2004

...I don't have to mow so often 

I prefer the "natural" look. Growing up in Kansas City, my parents always kept the yard fertilized and watered because, as they said, it had to look as good as the neighbor's lawn. Which meant that I was constantly out there pushing that lawn mower. Now that I have my own place out in the country with no neighbors to impress /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif the only water my lawn gets is from rain or when I spill the dog's water accidentally.

Lawrence

Bob_Skurka · Aug 18, 2004

( I get the exact results that I got from Chemlawn by doing absolutely nothing. The weeds and english ivy still grow and the lawn looks pretty good but not great. I think once or twice a month they would come by put the little sign in my yard, water it lightly and charge me a bunch of money. I know many people who have considered sueing them because they are such a rip off. At least in my area they don't seem to do anything more than a light watering. )

 We used Chemlawn at the office and I discontinued the service before spring of this year. They had been treating the lawn area by the office for about 10 years and it still had weeds and bare spots. I'm not sure that they hurt the lawn, but this year the lawn doesn't seem to be any worse with NOTHING applied to it.

At home I refuse to use any chemicals on the lawn where the dogs play. We almost lost an Akita about 8 years ago when she walked on the lawn that had been treated with Weed & Feed (the spray kind that you hook to the end of your hose). The Vet who treated her said it happens all the time! People put posoin on their lawns and then let their kids & dogs play on it. Apparently every spring the Vet's office gets a rash of posoinings from fertilizer. As we had a 1 year old baby at the time that all occured, we talked to our pediatrition and he said NEVER to use fertilizer if you have kids. He advocated, very strongly and in no uncertain terms, to use organic controls. I admit that I didn't follow his advice completely, but I use chemicals VERY sparingly. I will only use something like Weed & Feed if the dandelines get really bad. And I don't think I've used it more than 3 times in the past decade. I let the grass grow a little longer and that seems to choke out many of the weeds. There are some organic fertilizers that I have used instead of things like Scotts, KGrow, etc. I won't even consider those things anymore.

From what I can tell, lawns that use chemical fertilizers & pest controls tend to have roots closer to the surface and require MORE water to keep them from burning. Also, I have found numerous organic pest controls to kill grubs, get rid of moles, etc that seem to last far longer and are more effective over a long term (although they may take longer to see results) . . . and none of them will make my kid or dogs sick. Just my 2 bits.

slowrev · Aug 18, 2004

Actually I got worse results from Chemlawn than by doing it myself. Chemlawn had been doing my yard in Tampa FL before I boungt the house, so I continued it. Well My Laurel Oak in my front yard died. Called a professional arborist and he said it died from too much atrizine. It is in chemlawn's treatment. I talked to Chemlawn and they said no way we did it. I tole them NO more Chemlawn for me, I can kill my own tree a lot cheaper /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
My lawn also looked better after I started caring for it too.

Bird · Aug 18, 2004

( the only water my lawn gets is from rain or when I spill the dog's water accidentally )

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gifLawrence, when I was living on 10 acres in the country, I was the same way. I kept the "yard" mowed and that was about it. I think I did apply just a little fertilizer twice in the 8 years we were there. But in town, I don't like for a neighbor's "lawn" to look better than mine. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif And of course a nice lawn does add money to the value of a place. The only bad part is the fact that I have to mow a couple of times a week in the spring and at least once a week all summer.

Prefect · Aug 19, 2004

( I should think terminating the service would be more advisable to suing. For some reason everytime I hear that word "suing" I get more and more disgusted with people. /quote]

I agree with you completely. Personally, I just discontinued, but some people let them service their lawns until there was significant damage. Chemlawn had apparently caused grass and trees to die. I don't know how you might prove it in court without a greater expense than you could justify suing them for.

I tend to refer the frivolous litigatory process the hoosier lottery (no offense to those of you in Indiana (completely different kind of hoosier)).

MossRoad · Aug 19, 2004

I have had great results with Chemlawn on our yard( a little over an acre) two years in a row and it didn't cost much at all. As a matter of fact, it was FREE. All the mailboxes are on our side of the road and they've hit our yard instead of the guy across the street twice each fall. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As for what I usually do, I have had great success with Scott's products. They work as advertised when applied according to their directions. I use it on our front lawn only, as I don't like to put anything on the play areas or near the well or garden.

I have a great service story about Scott's that happened recently.

My father in law attempted to calibrate his seven year old Scott's Speedy Green 1000 spreader. He snapped off the plastic calibration screw. I called Scott's 800 number and asked if we could get the little plastic screw. They said they could not give us that and would have to send the entire calibration assembly which consisted of a threaded tube with numbers, the cable, the screw and a clip. They said it was free of charge and two days later it arrived. Unfortunately, it was not the correct part. So I called them again and we went over all the numbers on the spreader. They sent out another assembly free of charge. Two days later it arrived, but was the same incorrect part as they previously sent. I called them again. They apologized again and again and said that for some reason they could not find the correct part for what we had. I offered to send them our bad part to see if they could match it and also offered to send back the two parts that were incorrect. They kept apologizing for the hassle and I kept telling them not to apologize as they were giving excellent customer service. Then the representative told me that her supervisor insisted on sending us a refund for the ENTIRE SPREADER! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I told them that was not necessary but they insisted. On a seven year old spreader! They never asked for a reciept. They never asked how much my father in law paid for it. They said a refund should arrive in five to seven days. Now that is great customer service the way it use to be. A little PR goes a long way. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

BIGUN · Aug 19, 2004

The main ingredients for growing lots of lush green grass are lots of warm weather, sunshine, water, and nitrogen.

Mother Nature has provided everything this year but the nitrogen, so this spring as soon as the Bermuda started to turn green I gave it a healthy dose of 28-8-8. A few weeks later I gave it another dose of 47-0-0. My lawn looks better than any of the neighbors including the one that uses a lawn service. I also started mowing a little higher this year, 3” instead of the 2.5” I mowed at last year.

In my opinion, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, or Home Depot are not the places to buy your fertilizer. I have always found much stronger fertilizer for a much lower price at the Farm & Ranch Feed Store type places, and they load it for you too. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Check them out in your area and see if that’s not the case.

riptides · Aug 20, 2004

A strong root system should be developed before hitting your lawn with something like 47-0-0, IMHO. I would gradually work my way up to something like that over a period of years.

But I agree with you that everything is provided, it is just the timing of it all coming together.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BIGUN · Aug 20, 2004

Mike

Mine is a well established 5 year old lawn. I agree you can quickly overdo it with a strong fertilizer like 47-0-0 but the soil here seems really poor. What clued me in, is last year I put out fertilizer and the grass grew fairly well but was spotty and kind of yellow looking except for a couple of spots where I had spilled a large amount of fertilizer on the ground. In those spots is was very green and healthy looking. So this year it got a much heavier dose. My understanding is you can put out 100 lbs of 47-0-0 or 300 lbs of 15-0-0 and get about the same result. I chose to put out less quantity and less money using the stronger mix. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif