Lawnsite

A place for members of lawnsite to chat with each other

Hello, for some background on me and what I am doing can be found here https://www.lawnsite.com/threads/13...s-things-i-have-learned-and-questions.504696/. TLDR, I am 14 (was 13) and started a lawn business late June this year (I am making this post to get my thoughts out and get advice from people who know what they doing more than I am ). I live in the DFW area, where grass growth is coming to a slow and the season is almost over. As I said, I got started late June, but during that time to now I had to take about 5 weeks off due to Covid and appendix surgery. In my time this season I managed to pull about $3000 in profit. Not sure how great that is, but I only had about a month of no school days to mow. Anyways, I am now at point were I have no clue what to-do next. Are there any similar jobs I can do during the winter and late fall? Being a kid, people ask me to pull weed and trim trees along with mowing. Would it be a good idea to try and get some business by raking an trimming/pull bushes, weeds, ect. during off the off season of mowing? Or would it be better to keep to the idea that I am a mowing business? Along with this I have some idea for next season, but have no way to tell if I am thinking in the right direction. I am limited on how far my business radius is and how big of yards I can do, this is because of the limits of bike and trailer. I have thought about getting a used just riding lawn mower (non zero turns go for 700 - 1000). My thinking is I could go further with my trailer (pulling it with riding lawn mower) and not be limited to yard size by my push mower. Although I am not sure if this a smart move for me at the time. Another problem is that I am struggling on how to deal with is balancing school and mowing. At the end of this summer I was making $85 - $125 each day. After school started I lost a lot of mowing time. My parents are divorced, so this limited it even further, on weekends I was am able to bike over to my Moms house (where I mow), but on week days I cannot. Because of this I am limited to weekends, Monday nights, and Thursday nights. With school I was making $150 - $200 per week (grass has stopped growing so money has slowed). Anyways, going into next season I have a some great ideas about getting a bigger client base at the beginning of season (as this year I can start at the beginning). If my plan goes well I think I will have to reject people because of school, but as I get out of school I will be able to handle a lot more work and would have lost those clients I couldn't handle during school but can in the summer. Do I try and increase mowing speed? Try and do the impossible and find some my age who could help me? Thank you for taking the time to read me rant. I hope I did not come off as uneducated or annoying as I am not a very good writer .

Reasons in order from most important to least:

1. They produce the scientifically most irritating noise because the loud randomly changing pitch and volume is very difficult to ignore. They literally cause mental health problems in the community from stress and hypertension.
2. The gasoline pollution is WAY worse than cars. An average leaf blower produces 300 TIMES as much pollution as a pickup truck. Running a leaf blower for an hour is equivalent to driving a car 100 miles.
3. Beyond gasoline pollution, the fine particulate matter leaf blowers in general blow into the air is incredibly hazardous to our health, being cited as a contributing factor in on the order of 1% of deaths. A leaf blower kicks up about 5 pounds of particulate matter into the air that takes hours or WEEKS to settle depending on the size of the particulates. 2.5 micron particles can stay in the air for weeks and travel hundreds of miles from the source.
4. Leaf blowers in general are bad for gardens because they blow away important top soil and they get rid of leaves that should decompose to feed your plants (including your grass). You don't want a thick layer of leaves on your grass, but at the same time you SHOULD keep some leaves on your grass to decompose - some of that is good for the grass. Move the rest of the leaves to non-grass areas of your yard where they can feed that part of your yard. Beyond that, while pests like cockroaches can live in piles of leaves, they're actually good for your plants and as long as you keep that kind of organic material a few feet away from your house, they're far less likely to get into your house. The only way to really get rid of all pests is by getting rid of all nature - which doesn't really sound like a good gardening goal to me. If you really don't want organic piles around your house, you can mulch your leaves with a mower and let the leaf mulch fight weeds for you.
5. If you have a yard smaller than an acre, it probably doesn't actually save you much work.
6. Electric leaf blowers are a thing. Get a long extension cord. If you really have a huge area of land, buy a gasoline generator (which is far far more efficient, quiet, and clean than a gasoline leaf blower).

Every time you're using leaf blowers in a populated area, you're probably immediately bothering dozens or hundreds of people with the noise and dust, and you're probably indirectly affecting hundreds of thousands or millions of people with fine particulate pollution. Do you really think that's reasonable to potentially save you a few minutes of work?
Convince me I'm wrong.

Reasons in order from most important to least:

1. They produce the scientifically most irritating noise because the loud randomly changing pitch and volume is very difficult to ignore. They literally cause mental health problems in the community from stress and hypertension.
   
2. The gasoline pollution is WAY worse than cars. An average leaf blower produces 300 TIMES as much pollution as a pickup truck. Running a leaf blower for an hour is equivalent to driving a car 100 miles.
   
3. Beyond gasoline pollution, the fine particulate matter leaf blowers blow into the air is incredibly hazardous to our health, being cited as a contributing factor in on the order of 1% of deaths. A leaf blower kicks up about 5 pounds of particulate matter into the air that takes hours or WEEKS to settle depending on the size of the particulates. 2.5 micron particles can stay in the air for weeks and travel hundreds of miles from the source.
   
4. Leaf blowers are bad for gardens because they blow away important top soil and they get rid of leaves that should decompose to feed your plants (including your grass). You don't want a thick layer of leaves on your grass, but at the same time you SHOULD keep some leaves on your grass to decompose - some of that is good for the grass. Move the rest of the leaves to non-grass areas of your yard where they can feed that part of your yard. Beyond that, while pests like cockroaches can live in piles of leaves, they're actually good for your plants and as long as you keep that kind of organic material a few feet away from your house, they're far less likely to get into your house. The only way to really get rid of all pests is by getting rid of all nature - which doesn't really sound like a good gardening goal to me. If you really don't want organic piles around your house, you can mulch your leaves with a mower and let the leaf mulch fight weeds for you.
   
5. If you have a yard smaller than an acre, it probably doesn't actually save you much work.
   
6. Electric leaf blowers are a thing. Get a long extension cord. If you really have a huge area of land, buy a gasoline generator (which is far far more efficient, quiet, and clean than a gasoline leaf blower).
   

Every time you're using leaf blowers in a populated area, you're probably immediately bothering dozens or hundreds of people with the noise and dust, and you're probably indirectly affecting hundreds of thousands or millions of people with fine particulate pollution. Do you really think that's reasonable to potentially save you a few minutes of work?
Convince me I'm wrong.

I want top of the line, reliable, ease of maintenance and with parts that will long be available. I know very little about irrigation systems but I had Rain Bird and Toro in my mind, and Irritrol was recommended. Opinions?
I want to have this too-small box and low budget valves replaced with an oversized box and built with ease of maintenance in mind.
Also with brand recommendations, any advice/photos on smart manifold configurations? Tip or tricks?
NOTE: one comment on a 'lawnsite.com' forum was;
"Our best selling valves are the Rain Bird 100DV and the Irritrol 2400T. Performance is subjective, but we have more warranty exchanges on the Irritrol than the Rain Bird...and the sales ratio is 2:1 RB to Irritrol. "

Hey guys,
I read a post from this thread. I live in zone 8b (San Antonio, TX) and had zeon zoysia sod installed in October 2019. It is just now starting to green and thicken up in some areas. I currently have an issue with bermuda growing in my lawn and read from several forum posts to use Ornamec 170 (aka fluazifop-p-butyl / Fusilade II) along with Turflon Ester and a surfactant, all of which I have purchased online but haven't yet applied because I'm nervous about the correct application rate for spot treatment with a pump sprayer.
If you look on page 6 of the Ornamec 170 instructions for spot treatment it says to add 1.3 oz (8 tsp) of product per 1000 sq ft of turf. The thread mentioned that spot treating with the label instructions may be over-applying 8x the needed amount. I want to see if I should be using the directions above or cutting it to 1/8 the amount (1 tsp) per 1000 sq feet when spot treating.
I took a look at the Turflon Ester instructions for treating bermuda grass. It says to apply at the rate of 3/4 fl. oz. per 1,000 sq. ft. in enough water to provide uniform coverage of the target area. Three to four additional applications at 4 week intervals are required for adequate suppression of bermudagrass and allow fescue or other desired turfgrass species to dominate.
The surfactant that I purchased recommends 1-2 teaspoons per gallon of water. Can someone recommend the correct mixture of Ornamec 170, Turflon Ester, and surfactant to mix with the Ornamec? I'm trying to make sure I don't over-concentrate the mixture. Is it ok to mow the bermuda 24-48 hours after application? I assume that I don't want to pull it so that the herbicide can have time to get to all of the roots. Thanks for your help everyone.

This might be a dumb question, but I've been having a lot of difficulty trying to find the right part numbers for my Lesco 48in walk behind mower that I inherited from the previous homeowner. The engine is running great and I have been changing the oil and sharpening the blades regularly. But now I'm looking to replace the wheel drive belts and the brakes.
Here's a picture of the product identification number, but that doesn't seem to help me very much with Google searches.
http://i.imgur.com/v1P7FIJ.jpg
After some research, I found someone with a similar problem and downloaded this manual / parts list. As far as I can tell, the illustration of this 48in mower looks identical to mine (belt driven, not hydro).
Link to parts list
Link to forum post where I found that parts list
The part I'm looking for is item 7 on page 34, but I ordered two of these belts on eBay and they're probably 2in too long. I would also like to order two of the brakes (item 19 on page 26) but I'm not confident that they're the right part numbers since the drive belts didn't fit.
Can any of you point me to a document that would list all of the part numbers? Or just describe how you'd get the right parts? I thought I had found it, but again the drive belt part number was not correct. Let me know if you need any additional pictures.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Edit: I took the wheel belt off again and it's 1 1/8" wide and 49 3/4" long. I tried calling around to auto parts stores and they didn't have the size. Also tried calling the lawn mower supply shop 30 min away and they only have Toro parts. There's another place, but they'll only do the repairs and don't sell parts. Ended up buying a pair of Stens 265-458 belts off eBay which should work. This has been much more of a pain than it should have been, but I'm hoping it works!
Edit 2: The new belts (Stens 265-458) arrived today and they seem to work! They're not cogged like the old ones, but it works just fine after some minor adjustments. Thanks again for your help.

Short Version:

• New to lawn care, new to DIY
  • Central Florida, St. Augustinegrass, gonna do a topo of the boundary tonight to get sqft.
  • Previous care: mowing as needed, water twice/wk, fertilize spring/fall
  • I will get pictures ASAP
• Nearly overrun (more like large patches) by tropical chickweed - IT HAS GOT TO GO
  • #1 priority in my life right now
  • Other weeds (clover, dandelion) aren't as important but also exist
• Because I really want this stuff to be gone for good, I dove in deep (slow day at work)
  • I've bought Atrazine, pre-emergent, some bug control, and a backpack sprayer
  • I plan to get some weed prevention fertilizer and a legit spreader (I have a shitty handheld one)

I was going to do a long version but you don't really need my life story and this just about covers my situation. What should be my immediate plan of attack? The lawn is at "it's time to mow" length. My tentative plan (based on very little actual knowledge or reasoning behind it) is:

• Pull as much of the chickweed up as I can, mow, spray herbicide, hold off on watering for a few days
• Wait 2-3 weeks and repeat.
• Wait 2-3 weeks (?) and spray pre-emergent (?)
• Wait 1 week (?) mow and spread fertilizer
• Continue to treat as normal until fall fertilizer
• Second pre-emergent application (?)

Does my order or steps make sense? Are the timelines appropriate? Watering intervals right?
​
I want to thank you for taking the time to read this and give input.

Apologies if this is not the right sub, but I've been lurking here for a few months and wanted to see if any of you have advice on this subject.
I have a Lesco 48in walk behind mower (similar to this one) that I inherited from the previous homeowner and I was wondering if it's possible to use it to pull a core aerator. It doesn't have sulky attachment, but the engine is still running very strong and I'm confident it could pull me.
Is it possible to add an extension rod of some sort that I could attach between the mower and an aerator similar to this one?
Alternatively, do any of you have an opinion on liquid aerators? This one on Amazon seems to have surprisingly good reviews. I'm just trying to think through my options before the spring. Thanks in advance for your time!

Exactly one week ago I used Tenacity Herbicide on my clover, nutsedge, nimblewill, wild strawberry, and crabgrass. I used the recommended rate with one swipe / pass on application. Mostly spot treatment except some areas where I walked it and did the whole area.
Here's the album: https://imgur.com/a/duZAAfp
I plan on hitting it again today in another week.

• Crabgrass - worked very good
• Nutsedge - worked very good
• Clover - worked less gooder than the crabgrass, but I will hit it with more tenacity this time
• Nimbleweed - needs to be hit harder than one swipe in my case... or it dies slower
• Wild strawberry - is this supposed to work on this stuff? It didn't seem to affect it.
• Good grass - didn't seem to affect my good grass

I don't have photos of the back... for some reason the back didn't work out as well as the front. Not sure if I didn't mix it well enough (I did the front first on the same tank). It took me ~4 gallons to spot treat 10,000sqft. I mixed with the recommended amount of surfactant and blue dye.
I will update in another week after another hit.
Here's a good thread with some more info: https://www.lawnsite.com/threads/tenacity-users.428857/
Edit: I'm giving it another week (2 weeks total before second application) based on DaveInPhilly's feedback and more research. Thanks!

I enjoy just reading tips, ideas and other peoples stories and found two sites besides this one that seem to have good info and are frequented regularly. https://aroundtheyard.com/forums2/index.php
https://www.lawnsite.com
Any other sites out there that yall visit?

I’ve also been very blessed in my life to never have had to do yard work growing up because my parents lived in a townhouse or I lived in an apartment. That changed this year with my wife & me buying a home, where I was in charge of landscaping. This is our first complete year in the home and I knew it was going to be the year where I take on the challenge of maintaining a yard. I did research on the best sequence to put fertilizer, seeds, and other weed & feed. I then put it all to the test and got the yard all lush and green, except for some weeds along the sidewalk.
There was not a chance in hell that sidewalk weeds were going to beat me. I had killed all of the other weeds with spraying weed & feed with a seed spreader.
These weeds had eluded me and I had my boot on their throat, I just needed to stomp. So I crafted my master plan of stomping them out by overpowering them with weed & feed. I poured weed & feed on them like drowning a terrible steak in A1 and was extremely satisfied with myself.
Until the next day. Here’s my fuck-up: http://imgur.com/a/Fb729
tl;dr Wanted to kill weeds, but got racing stripes instead.

Should I set my new pavers a little higher than the existing patio to account for settling from the final pass with the vibrating compactor? If so, how much settling is typical at this stage?
Edit: finally found some info here. Seems 3/8 of an inch (or 10mm) is what to expect.

I've learned a ton here on Reddit and via LCN. Are there any other websites/forums/YouTube feeds that you also frequent?
I've visited lawnsite a little, but it's mostly for pro's... Any other sites for homeowners?

I have a 48" Toro ProLine fixed deck (same as Ex-Mark Turf Tracer of that vintage) commercial walk behind. I'd like to install a mulching kit including blades and a chute blockoff as I'm getting tired of bagging in this heat and blowing it all out the discharge chute is getting clippings all over the place.
I'm looking for hints on where to buy this or if I can DIY it in some way. I've read on LawnSite and possibly some other places that a simple blockoff and some mulching blades may be all I need.
Suggestions?

Alaska, USA.
I used the search function I swear.
I've been trying to figure out how to better light the outside of my house. One of the things I've been considering is something like These1 where I could several of those back to relays and control it via a Raspberry Pi or Arduino.
If I keep things under 30v and 25a isn't the only limitation that I use conduit when going through a wall and the wire is at least 12 gauge?
In my attics (The long narrow kind) could I just run the wires on the walls fastened with Cable Clips2 like my ISP did when they ran Ethernet through the it?
How do I get the low voltage power? Is something like this3 acceptable as long as I install it with all the wires in a junction box, or is there some sort of listed component I should look for?
Thank you for your time!
EDIT: So 12 guage4 is only needed because they are assuming the breaker or fuses are going to be 15 amp, if I install a fuse that'll keep the current lower I can use whatever wire I need as long as it wont carry more current then I'm going to need? (Buried down deep in the posts but it seems there are rational reasons for not needing 12 gauge everywhere) Edit2: So 18 AWG[5] is going to be okay with 24v at 100v at 1a then?
Edit3: I am reposting this as the first time I posted this I was shadowbanned and did not know it, I don't know if getting unshadowbanned makes the older posts show up.
Fixed the links

So I had to make a decision on what to do about selling the site structure.
I've not only found exact clones, but I've also found ads for more to be built on scriptlance and a few other spots.
So be it, at the end of the day, it is what it is. No beef from me.
But I figure if these sites are going to be made anyhow, then my developer and I could at least have a chance at being compensated for our work.
He does freelance full-time and now that my lawn site is done (from giving him the design psd to completion it took 4 days) he could do with the work. (See lawn site below)
To get to the point: If anyone wants to have a site built with the MIB backend, hit me up and I'll forward your info to my developer. It will probably be around $800
If you doubt for a minute that I will get a cut of this, I don't know what to say, but he will be getting the majority of this, by far.
So this would be a full install type of thing. I held off on doing this forever (I really didn't want to), so I'm sure most folks have their sites done already or are too far along for this to be helpful. If there is anyone else still interested, hit me up and I'll forward my developer's contact info. For all the folks that were asking about franchising (I've had offers as low as 5K and as high as 10 K), this will probably be your best bet. I don't think I'm going to go that route for a couple reasons. Either way, I'm trying to lay things out as transparently as possible so that most folks would be able to pull this off on their own without needing my support. Maybe stick around for a few more weeks and see what happens with the lawn site to get an idea of how I market this bad boy out the gate and see if that information helps.
Cool beans.
Lawnsite status: http://www.lawntribe.com/
You guys might not like the domain name, but I had to make an executive decision and move ahead since the other domain name's twitter page was already taken. Everything on the homepage is a placeholder and all the pages (except for the checkout page) are just copies of maidsinblack until I get around to it. But hey, even when I clone my own site I brand it uniquely:-)
Reminiscing I thought it was fun to look back 23 days ago when you guys helped me choose lawncare as the next thing to tackle: http://www.reddit.com/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/scd2t/day_onefiguring_out_what_to_do_will_decide_today/
Thank you. I was so close to going with carpet cleaning...lol
Also, I've incorporated some of your ideas (the checkout page), the (book now button above the fold), and a few others, so the final look is different from the original image I showed. Thanks for all the great ideas.
Note: Everything on the homepage is still a placeholder, but this should be the final homepage look.
Thanks again for everything. I feel like this is a mini-milestone in its own right. In about 2 weeks I'll have an idea of how viable this is going to be. And you guys would have been along for the ride from day 1.
No matter what happens, it's been fun as hell. Thanks for being so awesome and helpful. I seriously think I've gotten more out of this than I've given. I've met with Redditors, (including one redditor with a multi-million dollar company that has gone out of his way to offer advice and to be super supportive) and you guys on here have been so super awesome with sharing things with me I wouldn't know where to start to thank you individually.
So Thank you all!
I'll start adding content this week, and by the end of next week, We Dance!