Landscaping Tips For Dummies

[Boone]

All week end in yard. A once a year ritual at this point

This past winter was rough on my poor yard

Me too brother. Summer garden looking pretty good...bees buzzing along...hops sprouting...I love this time of year...

 

[SC_RedskinsFan]

Me too brother. Summer garden looking pretty good...bees buzzing along...hops sprouting...I love this time of year...

Is this the first time you have grown your own hops? If so that is going to be amazing when you brew the beer with them! Will it be ready for BGO tailgate '15???

 

[Boone]

Yes - first time. Pretty easy to grow from what I can tell. I will definitely try them in a BGO brew. May even get some this year to use. We'll see...

 

[Nobody]

Fair enough. And the thread title is 'Landscaping Tips for Dummies' I'm speaking from experience - the tonics Jerry Baker promotes work. And that's coming from a gardening purist who doesn't typically go for that kind of thing. If you want to discount my experience (when you just have an 'opinion', haven't tried it, and my statement doesn't fit into your paradigm), that's fine. I'll stop talking to you. SC - if you want to have a beautiful lawn - try some of the tonics. You will see results in 2-4 days. I wouldn't overdo them, the ammonia is straight nitrogen and while it will make your lawn beyond green, like most fertilizers if you over do it, you'll promote leaf growth at the expense of root growth. It's not cheeseburgers...there is some science behind Baker's methods.

I wasn't trying to discount anything, I was trying to use actual proven methods to prevent people from doing harm. A lot of things are good for a quick fix, but they aren't meant to be used long term for the simple fact they are damaging. Ammonia is tough to put on your lawn, because the dilution has to be perfect, and even then it's a harsh product to use. Different brands contain different levels too, so one could be ten times stronger than another.

Another major thing at play that is ignored by a lot of sites promoting their tonics, is the fact that probably 98% or more of people with irrigation systems for their lawns, or people who will water an entire lawn with a hose, are doing so with well water. Well water is very high in iron and minerals that will promote growth. If you're using well water, the iron is why your yard looks beautifully green, regardless of what else you put on it. It's well documented that it deepens and strengthens the roots, and improves water absorption. These all make the grass grow better and look better. It also brightens the color. Golf course and lawn Nazis have their turf professionally sprayed in the Summer and Winter with a water diluted mixture of a product called Iron Roots that homeowners have no access to, because it's only sold to licensed professionals in 55 gallon drums. Whenever the weather was very hot or very cold, and yards went to shit, homeowners would call us up to come out and spray the lawn with this stuff, and the yard was a beautiful green within a few days, and stayed that way for months.

I can go into more detail about why the tonics themselves do nothing that the water isn't doing on its own, but somebody already did a write up on it....

Denver, Fort Collins & Northern Colorado Sod Farms, Installation & Prices from Rocky Mountain Sod Growers - Lawn Tonic Debunk

It's not a matter of opinion, I did this as a career for the bulk of my life. I've logged over 50,000 hours dealing with this stuff, I promise I know a little bit about it. Do these tonics work? I don't believe they do, there's no reason for them to chemically or logically. The science just isn't there. If someone said they cure their headaches by taking a Tylenol and smearing peanut butter on their forehead, and they swore it worked, there would still be no reason to believe it was the peanut butter instead of the Tylenol. I'm not saying you didn't see results, I am saying with little doubt that you were seeing your results because of the water or something else, and not the tonic.

These recipes never seem to tell you how much to apply, at what strength, etc. If you have a 50,000 sq ft lawn, I can assure you a can of beer, a squirt of mouthwash and a few drops of dish soap are immeasurable by the time you throw in a few thousand gallons of water. I'm not trying to sound like I'm arguing with you, because I'm not. I'm just saying the guy is a well know snake oil salesman in this industry. It would be akin to taking financial advice from Bernie Madoff.

University Horticulturists have practically made a side career of letting everyone who will listen know that his ideas are harmful and do not work. One last thing - a funny tidbit about Jerry mentioned in an online publication about quacks......

It turns out that Jerry Baker, by his own admission on his website, has been in the business of marketing himself for well over 40 years

He's self-appointed, not certified in anything, and is nothing more than a self-promoter who will do anything to make a buck. Some of his ideas hit the mark like his hot bug juice or whatever the hell he calls it, but most are hogwash. He even attributes the recipes to Grandma Putnam. We all know how accurate old wives tales are.

 

[Boone]

I'm not discounting your experience Nathan. I'm just telling you that some of his tonics work. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've watered my lawn a gazillion times with my iron-rich magic well water and never seen any effect like what I saw when using his sprays. I'm not saying he is not, at heart, a snake oil salesman. What I'm saying is, some of his concoctions work - I've seen it with my own eyes. When you've tried that approach then you'll have a basis to comment.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I hear dancing naked on your lawn does wonders for the soil nutrients. At least that's what I told the cops.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[Goaldeje]

Ewwww.

 

[tshile]

sweet post! I'm not a gardening type...but it saves money so I'm learning now!

It's all your own work , but you get significantly cheaper produce and honestly - they flat out taste better. There's just no comparison in my opinion. It's not even close.

It takes a while to learn what grows well at what times of the year, and how you can encourage it to grow better/worse. You can look all that stuff up on the internet, or experiment yourself.

I wish we had gardens going at our house. Maybe in 2 years I'll bet to it. For now I'm just using the in-laws