Lawn not looking good!

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Old 09-26-2016, 11:40 AM
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Default Lawn not looking good!

My property manager has informed me that my lawn was not looking good in August. I had lots of weeds and in many places no grass. When I left my home in May my lawn looked great. When I confronted the company who is servicing my lawn I was told the reason my lawn looks the way it does was because the lack of rain and the extreme heat this summer. He also said lawns throughout the Villages look like mine from lack of water and the heat. The extreme heat may be true but I used over 10,000gal of water on my lawn in August as I got a letter from the district that I was using to much. By the way my house is a patio villa so my lawn is very small both front and back. Can anyone who lives in the Villages year round tell me if people are having problems with their lawns as I was told? I am thinking my lawn is looking bad because my lawn company dropped the ball and my lawn ended up looking the way it does. Appreciate all feed back.
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Old 09-26-2016, 12:52 PM
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A lawn needs food (fertilizer) and water. If it is healthy it will fight weeds, BUT, it may need weed killer.

Almost all lawns look pretty good with enough water during the growing season and all lawns here look not good during the dormant season.
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Old 09-26-2016, 02:02 PM
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Your lawn will only be a green as however much money you want to spend
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Old 09-26-2016, 02:49 PM
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I question the response you got from your lawn service company. Yes, it's been a hot and somewhat dry summer, but the lawns in my neighborhood look fine. My neighbor is a snowbird and his lawn has no brown spots or dead grass. He does have some torpedo grass invasion, but that is at least green. His irrigation system runs normal times and only on the specified days.

I would definitely have the irrigation system checked to make sure it is running properly. I know some people rely on summer rains, so they turn their system off for the entire season. That would not have worked well this year.

If the irrigation system is working normally, I would have a discussion with the lawn company about what they were doing as far as fertilizer and weed control with regards to what you have in the contract.
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Old 09-26-2016, 03:29 PM
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Does the property mgr check the irrigation settings?
My lawn looks the best this year compared to past years.
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Old 09-26-2016, 03:31 PM
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Who is your lawn service company? We have some companies notorious for doing little when they know people are away.
It has been hot but not all that dry. My lawn is fine and no weeds but I'm around to monitor it. Perhaps one of your neighbors could help you get to the bottom of the issue.

Good luck!
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Old 09-26-2016, 03:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by daca55 View Post
My property manager has informed me that my lawn was not looking good in August. I had lots of weeds and in many places no grass. When I left my home in May my lawn looked great. When I confronted the company who is servicing my lawn I was told the reason my lawn looks the way it does was because the lack of rain and the extreme heat this summer. He also said lawns throughout the Villages look like mine from lack of water and the heat. The extreme heat may be true but I used over 10,000gal of water on my lawn in August as I got a letter from the district that I was using to much. By the way my house is a patio villa so my lawn is very small both front and back. Can anyone who lives in the Villages year round tell me if people are having problems with their lawns as I was told? I am thinking my lawn is looking bad because my lawn company dropped the ball and my lawn ended up looking the way it does. Appreciate all feed back.
Thank You,
It was hotter than last summer and we had less rain. That being said, if your irrigation system is set to run 2- 3 times per week, your grass should not be brown. I sure as hell hope you don't have Service Smart for your lawn care... all they are is trouble from the word go!

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Last edited by Fraugoofy; 09-26-2016 at 07:27 PM.
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Old 09-26-2016, 03:44 PM
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I think your assessment is correct. My irrigation system has been checked out and nothing was found wrong with the exception that a couple of heads needed to have risers put on them and another had to be capped because of too much water in a small area. My company is Service Smart and from the feed back I received here I believe they are the reason why my lawn is the way it is. I kind of figured that it was a case of "when the cat is away the mice will play". I am in the process of looking for a new company. Looking at Deans and hope whoever I get can restore my lawn back to what it was. I didn't think that it was because of a lack of water as I used 18000 gal in July, 14000 gal in Aug and 10,000in Sept. For a patio villa I consider that a lot of water. Thanks for all the info. If anyone knows of a company that is reliable at maintaining lawns please let me know. Thanks again!
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Old 09-26-2016, 04:18 PM
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Our lawn is newer and goes from green to brown to black depending on how much water it gets from us or rain. In newer areas the sod was put down with no topsoil, just sand and when walked on has dire effects if you don't keep after it especially in all the high temperatures. We wAter an extra day and our penalized heavily and still if no rain. It goes brown then black. Two days with minimum amounts are not enough as it almost went beyond recovery a few times. Lawncare people happily quoted $600 to $800 to replace the sod at times. We fertilized and watered more and it finally came back. Not perfect but a green brown instead of a black, brown with small patches of green. It has been an unwelcome challenge and to be penalized for adding a little more water really irritates us ESP when we see the sprinklers on common areas running during the day on golf courses when most of the water will evaporate. We are all stone at the back and most of one side but won't do more stone as we don't like the desert look. Come on management, give us a little more water time without high charges.
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Old 09-26-2016, 06:28 PM
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Originally Posted by karostay View Post
Your lawn will only be a green as however much money you want to spend
And the cost of continuing to grow a lush green lawn on a sand dune is extremly high!....
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Old 09-26-2016, 07:28 PM
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Originally Posted by daca55 View Post
I think your assessment is correct. My irrigation system has been checked out and nothing was found wrong with the exception that a couple of heads needed to have risers put on them and another had to be capped because of too much water in a small area. My company is Service Smart and from the feed back I received here I believe they are the reason why my lawn is the way it is. I kind of figured that it was a case of "when the cat is away the mice will play". I am in the process of looking for a new company. Looking at Deans and hope whoever I get can restore my lawn back to what it was. I didn't think that it was because of a lack of water as I used 18000 gal in July, 14000 gal in Aug and 10,000in Sept. For a patio villa I consider that a lot of water. Thanks for all the info. If anyone knows of a company that is reliable at maintaining lawns please let me know. Thanks again!
We have been very happy with Fertigator...

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Old 09-26-2016, 07:38 PM
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Almost every single lawn in the 3 or 4 streets around me have the same patchy spots that we have. We increased our watering for one month with no improvement, so we are back to normal watering times now. Just had Joe Tucker come and evaluate the irrigation system and that doesn't seem to be the issue. Dean's does our lawn care and they say it is because of the "hot and dry conditions". Sound familiar??!
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Old 09-26-2016, 07:38 PM
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Scott's wants to use our lawn in a commercial...just kidding. While interviewing the lawn companies I asked each one what they knew about the Scott's system. They all reacted the same...Scott's is like Kryptonite...it may work in the North East but here it's a total failure. Our lawn is beautiful. It work's and I water properly and I feel sorry these companies can't be more predictable and reliable. I don't want to do any of this anymore but I also don't want to be aggravated by having them not take care of business. Mrs Nucky just commented how good our lawn looked when I did it. I just mumbled and distracted her onto a different subject. I'm on my second lawn cutter since July and looking again. Mr Daca I would pick Massey...a few dollars more but those around me are happy with them. Good luck.
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Old 09-26-2016, 08:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fraugoofy View Post
We have been very happy with Fertigator...

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We we're happy with Fertigator until they decided to quit showing up but continued to keep billing us. My lawn has never looked better, but only since I've started taking care of it myself.
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Old 09-26-2016, 09:09 PM
Fraugoofy Fraugoofy is offline
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Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan View Post
We we're happy with Fertigator until they decided to quit showing up but continued to keep billing us. My lawn has never looked better, but only since I've started taking care of it myself.
Oh, wow. Good to know and sorry that happened to you!

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