alright guys remember from last year
where I showed you guys in my weed
control video that my neighbor
accidentally killed her dandelions well
now that she's living next to me she's
finally taking measures to the next
level I'm teaching her a thing or two
and she's learning a thing or two and
check this out
she prepared this time doesn't harm the
lawn you can see the active ingredient
in there what's at two four D can correc
you're good that won't harm anything
good job Megan yep we all learned as we
go
[Music]
all right guys there's one thing I've
been waiting to do for quite some time
now and we're finally gonna do it
finally gonna get things moving and that
is that tree right there
it's time to say goodbye
[Music]
[Music]
what's up guys i'm jake the long kid
thanks for coming back for yet another
week I had this tree cut down yesterday
it was a nice chatter and a little bit
of a pop to the side of the house I
thought this side of the house does seem
a little bit empty without it now but
the reason I wanted to cut it down is
because I didn't want to take the risk
of the tree getting bigger and the roots
you know poking into my foundation
because it's literally that far from the
foundation so I had that cut down
yesterday the main plan is to get this
ground out this week and then I'm
contemplating about what I'm actually
gonna plant here I was thinking maybe
some arborvitaes and some forsythia
bushes along the side I really like
forsythias because they act as a weather
gauge you see we use forsythias here in
the spring as an indicator to put down
our first application in milorganite so
having those in your yard is a bonus and
they also have a nice beautiful color in
the spring they have those beautiful
yellow flowers in the spring and they
have like purple flowering in the fall
really it's just a beautiful plant and
in addition to that I also added some
soil here on the side of the house just
to level things out and get my grade
restored a little bit let me show you a
little bit of footage of how that went
[Music]
okay so this is what it looks like today
in fact you can see it's a lot more
established it's compacted now which is
pretty good and you could see it's there
man that's good because now what I've
done is I've fixed this slope so that
any water that comes from rain will now
run off instead of going into my
foundation like it was in the past so
the goal now is to do what I've done
here and do it all the way around my
house because for some reason the grade
all around is jacked up and the grade
actually goes toward the house instead
of away from it so all we're essentially
doing here is restoring the slope and as
far as seating goes over here I'm not
going to do it because as you can see
I've actually got some nice natural
growth happening already see that so I'm
just gonna see what this area can do on
its own I'm going to kind of let nature
take its course I'm going to keep
fertilizing I'm gonna keep mowing
properly things like that and I'll see
what this area does and if it doesn't
fill in of course I could do seating in
the fall but I just want to kind of see
what good mowing irrigation and
fertilizing can do for it this season so
with that I have quite a task list today
and I have very little time to get those
tasks tons but before we do anything
let's go in the garage real quick and
take a look at what we'll be doing
[Music]
all right so this is our task list for
today so the first thing we're going to
do is we're going to enjoy our mo is our
old buddy LCN says enjoy the mo and then
we're going to be putting down
milorganite today at 15 pounds per
thousand in addition to that we're going
to be putting down our GS at 3 ounces
per thousand that's right I'm going at
the lower rate because I already pushed
the limits last week no need to push
them again so and of course you can see
my show notes right here very
professional
there's my milorganite don't worry we're
still friends
and there's my RG s now from what I've
heard well we're gonna have a new
formulation this year 6% nitrogen I
don't have it yet I still have the 5-4
oh so I 5% nitrogen so if I put this
down at 15 pounds per thousand that's
gonna give me about three quarter pound
of nitrogen the new formulation will
give me well over that so I can't wait
to try that out and once I do I'll let
you guys know our new friend here our GS
which I as I've said in my last video
believe stands for root growth stimulate
and the reason I'm using this now is
because it does two things number one it
enhances the good things we put in like
milorganite and number two when you put
bad things in it acts as a healing
medicine like for example when you have
to put pre-emergence down in the lawn to
prevent any weeds from coming up you're
actually stressing out the soil so
having this in there kind of acts as a
little medicine to heal that and then
lastly I'm gonna give you my tip just
the tip that's what she said
today we're going to be talking all
about quackgrass in the lawn one
question I know you guys might ask is
Jake why are you putting down
milorganite I thought you didn't want to
overdo
in rates well yeah that's kind of true
but you see because of the fact that the
temperatures are now starting to warm up
a little bit microbial activity in the
soil is going to start going crazy now
they're saying temperatures up in the
70s today note that means for soil temps
that's indicative that soil temps are
going to raise perfect time to put down
the Lord Knight to encourage that
microbial activity even more so that we
can grow thicker turf and deeper roots
[Music]
[Music]
let's take a look at something so as a
so when it comes to mowing we're moving
at about three and a half inches right
now because we've just done our first
cut of three inches we bagged all the
stuff up now we want to start mowing a
little bit higher right because we want
to gradually allow this lawn to get
taller so one thing you want to make
sure is that after every mowing that
you've only taken off about 1/3 of the
grass blades length if you take off any
more you're gonna stunt the growth if
you're taking off exactly 1/3
you're gonna allow the lawn to stimulate
more growth because in case you don't
know mowing stimulates growth and when
you mow very frequently and you're
taking very little off the more growth
that is stimulated so let's take a look
at something here so this area here this
is an uncut area and it is about 5
inches tall right 5 inches we come over
here to the cut area we measure and we
got it down to 4 inches so that's pretty
good so for any of you guys that are
wondering twice a week just get out
there and mow at your recommended height
twice a week no big deal you should be
fine
[Music]
BAM slit or spread
[Music]
all right this is just your basic update
it's May 8th and we're just gonna take a
look and see how things look a week and
a half after that application of
milorganite at 3/4 pound in per thousand
square feet this area is actually
looking a lot better you guys will
remember in the last video that I did
tell you that I had a little bit of
thinness over here and I'll flash the
clip right here where that looks like
and here's what it looks like just a
couple weeks later notice how it's
filled in a little bit seriously I mean
we've still got we still got a little
bit more to deal with but I'm pretty
impressed with the progress just look at
that beautiful and even as we come in
here just look at this because we're
pushing it and we're giving it all the
nutrients it needs this lawn is
literally this lawn is literally out
competing any of the weeds that we have
in here I mean we're in the process of
doing that because we have some clover
that's you know made its way into the
girl but again that's gonna happen
we put down a pre-emergent there's
always going to be escapees you're not
going to get every single weed every
single time also another thing I'm
learning about pre-emergence is that
they're not really targeted toward these
broadleaf weeds they're more targeted at
the grassy weeds like the crabgrass the
foxtail now one thing that I have in
this lawn that is pretty prevalent
throughout is if you come over here and
look I actually have a little bit of
quack grass invasion about quack grass
it's a cool
perennial meaning it only grows up in
the cool season grasses and it comes
back year after year same root system
different leaves and because it has the
same root systems that's actually its
advantage it gives it time over the
winter to strengthen and when the proper
conditions hit it starts to grow rapidly
and spread everywhere and the best way
to ensure that this is your main problem
is to look for what are called
collapsing Oracle's when you look at the
stems and you'll notice these little
white arms hugging around the stem where
the stem meets the lease that come off
of it that's a telltale sign that you
have quackgrass you need to get rid of
it now as far as tolerance level for
quackgrass goes it does a lot better in
lawns that are mould taller that's why
when you drive on the side of the
highway you'll notice that those patches
are nothing but 99.9% quackgrass because
they do a lot better when they grow
taller because when they grow taller
they can grow more roots and rhizomes
and spread more prolifically and that's
essentially what's happening here now
it's not as bad this lawn here is mowed
at 4 inches which is the tallest sitting
on my lawnmower which is what I
recommend everybody mow at and you could
see it's having a party and now this
brings me to the next question how do I
get rid of quackgrass in my lawn now
there's two ways of approaching this
that a lot of homeowners would do the
first instinct the homeowner would have
would be to approach it with a chemical
now unfortunately there are no selective
herbicides on the market that target
quite grants directly without hurting
your home lawn that leaves us with the
option of using what is called a non
selective herbicide like glyphosate
which means it'll kill anything green
that it comes in contact with including
your good turf crop another way to kill
quackgrass would be to approach that
culturally with the use of cultural
practices cultural practices are how you
approach caring for your lawn and
landscapes these would be things like
mowing trimming edging fertilizing
herbicides and pesticides that we use to
support our lawn
those are all parts of cultural practice
and what we're going to do is use those
to our advantage what I'm going to do is
I'm just going to knock my mower down
and not slower I'm going to start mowing
at 3 inches and that's going to do two
things number one it's going to stunt
the growth of the quackgrass the shorter
I cut it the more it's going to run out
of juice to produce more roots and
rhizomes which means it will die off
naturally
as time goes on and number two that's
going to stimulate the growth of my
Kentucky bluegrass that I know I have
mixed in here with a little bit of
perennial rye now fun fact about
Kentucky bluegrass it has two growth
patterns it'll grow up and it'll go out
and around so essentially we're doing by
cutting it lower is we're stimulating
more lateral growth that's just Kentucky
bluegrass is a way of saying fine you
want to keep cutting my head off I'm
just going to send out more roots and
shoots and runners going out to the side
you want to mess with me I'm gonna mess
with you and as time goes on this graph
will grow more politically out to the
sides making it thicker to a point where
we'll be able to naturally out-compete
these weeds on its own as far as when
I'm going to start that process I'm
going to start that in about another
week here stay tuned for a follow-up
video next weekend on how that process
goes and with that I'm Jake the long Kid
thank you for watching stay tuned and
I'll see you guys next time
[Music]
check this out so I just cut this little
piece out from a section of the lawn
over there and I wanted to show you guys
something this is three weeks after the
RGS the liquid-air 8 and the dethatch
roots starting to push the deeper check
that out it's about as big a big as my
finger check that out John Perry