October 2007 Maintence

Virginia's extension service recommends a fall program for lawn maintenance they call SOD. SOD stands for September, October, December. Basically the idea is to fertilize three times during the fall to promote root growth during the dormant winter months. They recommend a 5-10-10 fertilizer. Having tried all kinds of fertilizers through the years, I've concluded that there really is a difference. While Scott's is more expensive, it works. Maybe Scotts has brainwashed me with their advertising, emails etc. I think I'm almost a believer. I may also use Lesco products believing that they too are "professional" grade.

I used a Scotts for new lawn product when I planted Scotts grass seed in September. Boy, things are looking up. Lots of new grass. Now, If I can just keep things moving in the current direction, the lawn will recover from the killing drought we've had this year.

Today, I've taken the second step in SOD. After mowing, I applied Scotts turf builder. The irrigation system is still running but only once a day in the early morning.

The Beginning

At the risk of being philosophical, everything has to begin somewhere. The beginning of this blog is the fall of 2007.


Summer was hot and dry. The lawn is in terrible shape. Water restrictions have been in place for months and it shows. Things are so bad, I hardly know where to start. So........ what I decided was to see what kind of results I can get by applying conventional wisdom. Mow the lawn (weeds) short, do a heavy over seeding, fertilize and then add plenty of water. We have an irrigation system so I set it up to run twice a day, once about 4:30 am and again at 4:00 pm. The idea is to keep the seed moist and hopefully improve germination.

We'll see later what the results are.