I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn service
to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then what I
could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.

"JonHirschman" wrote:
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then what
I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.

I'm not in love with your choice of vendors, but what the hey. The results
should be as good as, if not better, and if not, free service calls are
offered by all chemical lawncare firms.

Might I suggest a local smaller outfit tho?

"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn service
to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then what
I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you can
do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn, you can
do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and intelligent
mowing. Interested?

"Doug Kanter" wrote:
"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn,
you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and
intelligent mowing. Interested?

Nice advice, Doug. What do you do for a living?

"Steveo" wrote in message
...
"Doug Kanter" wrote:
"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn,
you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and
intelligent mowing. Interested?

Nice advice, Doug. What do you do for a living?

Interesting question. Why do you ask?

"Doug Kanter" wrote:
"Steveo" wrote in message
...
"Doug Kanter" wrote:
"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds,
you can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better
lawn, you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed
and intelligent mowing. Interested?

Nice advice, Doug. What do you do for a living?

Interesting question. Why do you ask?

Well you just broad painted an entire green industry (one that I'm in)
with one paint stroke.

Poison your children and birds?

Makes me wonder what -wonderful- thing you do all day. It obviously
doesn't involve growing grass.

"Doug Kanter" wrote:
Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn,
you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and
intelligent mowing. Interested?

Yes sir Doug, I sure am. Please elaborate.

So far grass seed and mowing has given me weeks, fungus at least once a
year, and grubs. I'm interested in your suggestion, and how they will yield
a better lawn.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then what
I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn,
you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and
intelligent mowing. Interested?

Where do you live?


"JonHirschman" wrote in message
news:KdUfe.9399$Ws6.1578@trndny07...
So far grass seed and mowing has given me weeks, fungus at least once a
year, and grubs. I'm interested in your suggestion, and how they will
yield a better lawn.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn,
you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and
intelligent mowing. Interested?

"Steveo" wrote in message
...
"Doug Kanter" wrote:
"Steveo" wrote in message
...
"Doug Kanter" wrote:
"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds,
you can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better
lawn, you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed
and intelligent mowing. Interested?

Nice advice, Doug. What do you do for a living?

Interesting question. Why do you ask?

Well you just broad painted an entire green industry (one that I'm in)
with one paint stroke.

Poison your children and birds?

Makes me wonder what -wonderful- thing you do all day. It obviously
doesn't involve growing grass.

For the moment, set aside the organic lawn care products I see advertised by
some companies and consider ONLY the Chem-Lawn variety. And, focus NOT on
fertilizers, but on bug and weed killers. With me so far? Now: Change my
mind about those things by pointing to ***independent and properly conducted
research*** which proves that those things are safe, both for contact (by
people & animals), ingestion (by animals), and runoff into groundwater.

I live in Northern NJ.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
Where do you live?


"JonHirschman" wrote in message
news:KdUfe.9399$Ws6.1578@trndny07...
So far grass seed and mowing has given me weeks, fungus at least once a
year, and grubs. I'm interested in your suggestion, and how they will
yield a better lawn.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better lawn,
you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed and
intelligent mowing. Interested?

OK. FYI, read this first. You'll enjoy it. Another participant in this
thread will not. Oh well. The person you pay to apply lawn poisons may
actually believe they're safe, but that's only because the manufacturers are
such effective liars. Bottom line: They are not safe, and cannot be tested
in a way that's considered valid by any well-informed adult. Further, the
"inert ingredients" are anything but inert, but they are exempt from testing
regulations due to effective lobbying by the chemical industry.
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn...ts&figures.htm

This google search will give you enough information to keep you awake
nights.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ts&btnG=Search


A healthy lawn will deal with almost anything except the worst of grub
attacks, and those can be dealt with without hiring a chemical thug.

1) Get a soil test. Do it yourself, in several different places. If you're
not confident about it, call your local cooperative extension. Some will do
it very cheaply. Here (Rochester), it was a dollar per sample last time I
checked. Your pH may be way out of whack, which not only contributes to
lousy growth in general, but can also relate to the fungus you mentioned.

2) The fungus: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it appeared in
spring, especially if there had been snow cover for any length of time. It's
supposedly caused by leaving the grass too long at the last mowing of the
season (late autumn). Those are the ONLY mowings for which you should set
your mower very low.

3) Mowing: Beginning with the first mowing in spring and continuing until
the last couple, the mower should be set at its maximum height, and you
should leave the clippings in place, unless you've let the lawn grow to the
point where the mower's dropping huge clumps that you know are going to
smother what's underneath. You'll recognize what's too much of a clump, and
it should be a rare occurrence, unless your mower's not good at mulching.

4) Feeding: There are plenty of granular foods which contain no insect or
weed killers. Watch the weather and try to apply when it's going to rain.
Or, water it in yourself. Frankly, you don't need to feed as often as the
experts say, especially if you're leaving lawn clippings in place.

5) Grubs: As you visit garden centers, take note of who sells biological
controls, so when you need it (and you're panicking), you wont' have to
drive all over town looking for it. I haven't needed it in years, but when I
did, the bacteria was bacillus thuringensis, which you'll see abbreviated to
BT. These bacteria are also used to control various food crop bugs. The
particular species may change from time to time if grubs develop resistance.
You will NOT see immediate results from the bacterial controls. You may have
to wait until next season, but it WILL work.

6) Soil quality: If you dig down maybe 6", after a heavy rain or watering,
take a handful of soil and compress it. It should crumble as easily as cake.
If it's a bitch to dig into, it needs to either be amended with peat moss
(blended in, not just thrown on top), or perhaps aerated, a service you can
pay for. In other words, the problem could be that the soil itself is lousy
(add organic matter), or it's been compressed for some reason. After a few
years of healthy lawn growth, it will loosen up, but in order to get grass
growing on bare ground, you'll have to help it.

7) Learn to love burlap and bricks when seeding new areas. I've never used
that fluffy stuff that highway crews use to seed large areas. Maybe it
works. But, I've always good luck covering new seed with burlap and holding
it down with bricks. Keeps birds of eating the seed, and equally important,
it helps maintain moisture during germination, and keeps rain or your hose
sprayer from scattering the seed. That's important because the goal (however
unachievable) is to keep the area constantly moist, but not muddy. The
burlap's reusable, and bricks always come in handy for something, like
throwing at the Chem Lawn truck.

8) Water deeply, but don't obsess about it. The whole idea of grass is
silly. We push it to live in places it would not grow naturally. Where it
does grow naturally, it turns brown in the summer and greens up again in the
fall. We hack it off with mowers before it can go through its natural cycle,
and then wonder why it behaves stupidly. We grow varieties that looked so
beautiful to the British that they decided to bring the tradition here
hundreds of years ago. Great, except that their climate is somewhat cooler.
Anyway...water deeply, but don't expect constant green.

Above all, be patient. These are plants, not machines. It took me three
years to get my lawn in shape, after which it needed almost no care at all
for 20 years.

By the way, here's a link to your cooperative extension:
Main page: http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/
Home resources: http://www.rcre.rutgers.edu/garden/ (soil test link at the
bottom!)


"Jon Hirschman" wrote in message
news:BTlge.1477$Zb3.957@trndny08...
I live in Northern NJ.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
Where do you live?


"JonHirschman" wrote in message
news:KdUfe.9399$Ws6.1578@trndny07...
So far grass seed and mowing has given me weeks, fungus at least once a
year, and grubs. I'm interested in your suggestion, and how they will
yield a better lawn.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better
lawn, you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed
and intelligent mowing. Interested?

" Bottom line: They are not safe, and cannot be tested in a way that's
considered valid by any well-informed adult."


I think that about says it all. It shows how unreasonable guys like
you are. No amount of testing, no data, nothing could ever convince
you that any pesticide is safe. You might be well informed, but
certainly you aren't rational.

And you conveniently focus on grubs and one type of spring fungus,
which you don't even identify, like they are the only insect or fungus
problems a lawn is likely to encounter. I guess we should just ignore
the dozens of other common ones and pretend they don't exist.

wrote in message
oups.com...
" Bottom line: They are not safe, and cannot be tested in a way that's
considered valid by any well-informed adult."


I think that about says it all. It shows how unreasonable guys like
you are. No amount of testing, no data, nothing could ever convince
you that any pesticide is safe. You might be well informed, but
certainly you aren't rational.

The only way to test whether a substance is safe to ingest is to (can you
guess?), INGEST IT. This is how new medicines are tested. You wouldn't want
your kids to take drugs that weren't properly tested. Why would you want
them rolling around on a lawn that was sprayed with stuff that cannot be
tested? In addition, if you stopped pretending to be unaware of the dangers
of the so-called "inert" ingredients, you'd admit that they're kept quiet
because many are already known to be dangerous.



And you conveniently focus on grubs and one type of spring fungus,
which you don't even identify, like they are the only insect or fungus
problems a lawn is likely to encounter. I guess we should just ignore
the dozens of other common ones and pretend they don't exist.


I'm not pretending they don't exist. I've never encountered them. Doesn't
matter. There's always a better way than poison to improve a lawn or a
garden. But, your industry thrives because people are too busy or lalzy to
research the dangers of what you sell, and they're too fixated on instant
gratification.

"The only way to test whether a substance is safe to ingest is to (can
you
guess?), INGEST IT. This is how new medicines are tested. "

Ever hear of lab tests using animals? You're probably against that
too. And if we follow your silly logic to it's logical conclusion,
then lots of things are suddenly on the banned list. Things like air
freshner, household cleaners, plastics, even the clothes your wear,
because no one has eaten them. LOL